PNW 2008 planned events

I prefer to have the events posted by me to be D or E mailed to me rather than on this thread, as its getting hard to find everything posted here since we are such a chatty bunch. I am also open to having others post the events so that the workload is distributed and does not burn out the calendar person.

Yes, it is possible to have some one other than me post the events to the calendar. Katie should already have access to do it, as I gave her access immediately upon creating the new calendar.

As to 'Busy' dates, I don't know about that, but can look it up. After checking there are some bugs floating around that create busy days on the calendar for no good reason. I also checked the DG 2008 Calendar from the public side, and found I could not edit it. I will look into all of this.

And I noticed that, other than me, there are no people listed with access to the calendar for scheduling. All I need is your email address, you will get an email from Google telling you what you need to know.

Okay. Cool. Thanks for volunteering, AD. Be sure to let us know if it gets to be too much. Kate, can you check and make sure that you have access - maybe you can be the executive liaison about calendar development to the DG Administrators, since you made first contact with them. Somebody should probably be back-up for information entry. Any takers?

So I'm proposing that our process be to d-mail event listings to AnalogDog or the back-up person in addition to posting about them.

If anybody wants personal access to the calendar, then d-mail AnalogDog to request it.

Should we set a target date for getting the initial set-up done? AnalogDog, what do you think's a good time frame for us to set as a deadline. As far as set up, it seems like it would be a good idea to have people d-mail AnalogDog about only those events you brought up in the first place (check the threads) so we don't have any overlap and he's not inundated.

Agreement? Other proposals or suggestions?

Looks like we're on our way . . .

Do we need to have big discussions with the DG Executives about the calendar? I don't understand the politics of it at all. What is the scoop?

Seems to me that as long as we're already cleared by DG to do this (Which I believe we are), we shouldn't need to check with them on how we choose to organize it. From the lurking I've done, it appears that each region kind of does stuff their own way. Viewing the calendar is public, so anyone from another region is welcome to see what's going on around here this summer and join us if they are in the area.

One thing that I do think might be helpful would be to ask Rachel to edit her post so that the calendar link is front and center at the top of the thread so that it's easy to find? Does the public access work if the link is placed by anyone in the thread, just so long as it's from the thread?

I'd be willing to help out with updates and stuff if that would work for everyone. I also happen to have a 7-page list of plant sales/events from the garden show....

The original intent was to have a calendar, maintained by one individual, with a unique thread. The parameters that I presented to the administrators was one location for calendar & info, with access for all DG members.
There are no politics with the administrators - they essentially gave it their blessing.

The integrity of the calendar is essential, as it will be useful to ANY DG members: those who reside in this area, as well as others that are out this way visiting/traveling through. However, it is a useful tool only if it's correct.

It is not difficult for one person to maintain: it is data entry. I agree with AD that having to look things up on different threads is both time consuming & easily subject to errors. Commentary regarding events, other than event name/date/time, should be elsewhere, so the thread is strictly event stats.

As far as the info that was on there when I checked Saturday - there were events missing & incorrect information. See post #4611537 above.
If the calendar needs to be revised or fine-tuned, it can be pulled & reposted, so as to avoid confusing people.
This does not have to be complicated.

The term "executive liason" was used tongue-in-cheek. They've given us permission to create a calendar. This is about us helping them out. They may like our idea and choose to make that functionality part of Dave's. It only makes sense to have one person talking to them about what we are finding works and doesn't work, etc., rather than everybody. I proposed that, since Kate talked to them originally, we'd let her take on that role long term. I wasn't thinking there'd be lots of regular dialogue or anything like.

As for you, AnalogDog, Kate originally proposed the calendar idea, talked to Dave's to get permission, and set up the first version. You came along and volunteered to troubleshoot and add dates. So I was proposing that we keep those roles the same moving on. Here we are in April with no completed calendar to show for all our discussion, so I thought it would be best to set some goals and for us all to agree as to who had what role going forward.

That's great that you want to do that, Susy. I'm just unclear, then, as to what AnalogDog's role is. It seems like we just need to get commitment from one or more individuals to do one or more things and then do them. I'm with Kate; it doesn't have to be complicated.

AnalogDog, what do you need from people to give them access to the calendar? Can you just post instructions for accessing it on the thread? All discussions about communicating with the DG Administrators aside, what's your time frame for getting activites published and getting the "busy" glitch resolved?

I think, somewhere buried in all the information, it was requested that we d-mail or e-mail things we wanted put on the calendar to AnalogDog. Is that still the way to do it if you want to put something on? I bookmarked the calendar link on my computer, but it would be nice to have it in the first post of a calendar thread with instructions for how to make use of it. Thanks for all the efforts everyone has made on this organization project. it will be great once the kinks are worked out.

All I need is an email addy from everyone who wants access to add or edit calendar entries. I will set up the calendar to accept them, and they should get an email from Google on what they need to know.

As to the busy glitch, they aren't telling. Most software companies don't tell us when the product will be fixed. Personally I would like to check out this myself, but I will need to create a new email addy for me. Sigh. I always seem to need multiple personalities!

As to accessing the Google Calendar for DG try this: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=b4vbuhgpnvrk99umkvoc88hs1g%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles

I agree that it would be nice to have the calendar address up high at the top of this thread. But other than having the author of that post edit it, I know not how.



This message was edited Mar 3, 2008 10:42 PM

AD:

So does any e-mail address work or do you need to set up a gmail address to access the calendar? Does it then ask for the address when you try to edit it? Do you have to be logged into that site? For example, if I were to give you my AOL address and then tried to access the Google calendar from the office, how would that work?

I don't get it. How can we have a calendar that arbitrarily puts "busy" on some dates? So it does this to everybody who uses this feature? Maybe it's not the option we think it is . . . is everybody okay with ignoring "busy" events on the calendar?

So, as to getting the events in - do you really want d-mails for all of the events we've discussed so far (they may end up being a lot) or just a thread and commitment that there will be no discussion other than the request to add an event date?

everyone, I'm really getting confused about all of this!!! how about the others? Jim

Since I started this thread I am going to take the opportunity to make some changes. I have found a calendar that I believe is better suited for group use. The Google calendar is very nice but it seems to be better utilized as a day to day calendar for an individual. I spoke with Katye about the change since she is the one that instituted the original Google calendar for us. She is in full support of the change to the new calendar. I have had other DG members test the calendar and it works very well. Here is the link to the new PNW 2008 planned events calendar thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/820531/ Please post information about upcoming events on that thread. All listed events from this thread have already been input in the new calendar.

Katye will work with DG Admin to have the [sticky] put on the new thread. By doing this it will always be at the top of the thread list. She will also have the [sticky] taken off this thread so it will not remain at the top of the thread list as it has previously.

Thanks, Rachel



This message was edited Mar 5, 2008 7:31 AM

The other one is great Rach

Well if this is going to start jumping from calendar to calendar, I think I can find something else to do.

As I see it, this calendar has too many folks minding it. We don't need discussions on how to manage it, where to host it, or what color it should be.

We just need a calendar, more or less up to date, in one place for ALL to find and use. We don't need to continuously discuss whether this is better than that, or that this is weird, or that is the wrong color. We just need a calendar in one place that works for our needs.

At this point, a couple problems with entries were brought up, and a comment that some users at some time found some stuff 'busy'. I looked into a vague problem that I attempted to reproduce but could not and found a bug to report on.

Then there is a request for me to codify my ideas. Cool. I can deal with that.

But we don't need a new calendar. If that's the way it goes, Sayonara.

Rob

You mustn't take things so seriously or personally. Chill! Patricia

Re the NPA Whidbey Island Tour on 4/12 and 4/13, if we want to narrow it down to one date, I'd love to host a dinner afterward for anyone coming.

Gwen

That is so nice, Gwen. I won't be able to make the tour as I'm in Oregon that weekend for my niece's wedding. I hope to meet you another time. :-)

Thanks!!

Kathy

Since some previous posts may have caused confusion or upset people, I would appreciate the chance to weigh in on the calendar subject.

The original intent was to have a repository for posting events; the obvious being in Calendar-form. It was to be established in its own thread with a sticky attached. The only posts were to be event information, to avoid confusion and streamline the distilling of that information into the calendar itself.

This calendar would be available to the entire DG community. There are folks who travel out this way, wishing to visit our local events and Nurseries; the goal was to accomodate them as well as the PNW group. Hence, the calendar.

Since its inception, there have been a few glitches. An improved calendar-form was brought up & has now been established.
There will be 3 people maintaining it, one main person with two backing-up. Because the calendar is a tool, upkeep and accuracy is essential. If the information is absent or incorrect, the calendar becomes useless.
I cannot recall any discussion of changing the calendar due to colour, and not certain about what was "weird".
Again - a calendar is a useful tool as long as it's timely & accurate. Otherwise, its existence becomes a moot point.
The administrators have been contacted regarding a sticky for the new version.
Thank you all for your patience.
Sincerely, K