CDS and AA Calendars

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Cindy Ecksol
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Re: CDS and AA Calendars

Post by Cindy Ecksol »

Gwyneth Llewelyn wrote:

I would personally prefer to have a centralised way of announcing events instead of allowing pretty much everybody to do it, but that's just my personal choice :) The point is that sometimes it's not just "posting something on the calendar"; a PIO might have other tools and methods to get the announcement across (sometimes even by just IMing friends!).

But I definitely understand that there is a lot of work involved in that and I'm quite happy to comply and post my own announcements instead! I'm not complaining at all, just commenting on my personal views (what can I say, I love centralisation for the sake of efficiency :) )

Anna, thanks for the clarifications!

Well, there are times when centralization is efficient and effective...and times when it's just efficient. My feeling is that while the PIO should be willing and able to deal with publicity for events overall, if a particular individual is responsible for a particular event, that individual ought to be willing and able to post that event on the community Google calendar. Not only does this keep the community updated to the "point of origin," it also provides for the PIO a centralized point of reference that he/she can use to make sure that nothing has been overlooked. Think of it as an event "master list" created and maintained by "event originators" that the PIO can use for planning purposes.

For instance, when commission heads each post their planned meetings and the LRA posts a schedule of RA meetings, it's easy for the PIO to work with someone who wants to schedule another event -- they just look at the calendar and know when not to hold the event. That's both efficient and effective.

On the other hand, if our four commission heads and the LRA and Guild are all sending IM's to the PIO about their dates, the PIO has to visit the calendar multiple times to post events AND has to be responsible for telling SOMEONE when there's a conflict and working it out. That might look efficient because only one person is posting items to the calendar, but it does not seem very effective since the PIO ends up acting as go-between chasing after event-originators to inform them of conflicts and negotiate alternatives.

Adding an event to an empty slot on a Google calendar is not difficult. All of us who originate events should be willing and able to do this no matter how it's been done in the past. Dreaming up ways to present all of the events we have going on to the rest of the world is another thing altogether. That's the job of the PIO. He/she may go back to the event originator for more detail on their event if needed, but for the most part the PIO is the one responsible for "image." Let's try it this way for a while and see if it frees Anna up to do some great creative work in that direction rather than forcing her to be the "super event-planner-and-manager" for the entire community.

I'll also note that I use this same method to manage house concerts in the Pittsburgh area. There are 8 different hosts who each hold three or more house concerts per year in our area plus a few more who host an occasional house concert and we all share a single PR vehicle (a Yahoo! Group that people can sign up for if they're interested in attending house concerts). When someone wants to schedule an event they are responsible for checking the calendar for conflicts and adding their event to a (hopefully) open slot. But I act as "Chief Publicity Officer" and take responsibility for maintaining the overall look and feel of the notices that go out plus the "footer" that attaches to every note from the list and shows upcoming events. We have an occasional breakdown, but for the most part the work gets split up so no one has to do more than they want to, all of the work gets done, and all of us (including those who attend house concerts) are happy.

Cindy

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