Hi Lisa Anne,
Unlike the other responses so far, we use Google Calendar for our two
meeting rooms (a separate calendar for each meeting room) and I think it
works great (given that--like you--we also have a Google Group just for
members). We do not have to add each member separately to the calendar, and
their ability to reserve the meeting room is enabled through the normal
process of setting up and canceling their membership.
Here's how we do it:
(1) Both meeting room calendars have *already* been shared with the email
address for our members'-only Google Group with "editing" access. (You
share the the calendar with a Google Group the same way you'd share the
calendar with a person, just using the Group's email address rather than a
an individual's.) For example, if I wanted to share a Google Calendar with
everyone in this Google Group, I'd just share the calendar with
coworking@googlegroups.com and choose the "Make changes to events" option.
When a calendar is shared with a Google Group email address (as opposed to
an individual's email address), EVERY PERSON in that group *has the
potential* to access that calendar at whatever level the calendar was
shared with the Google Group. As such, every person in our members'-only
Google Group has the potential to see and edit our meeting room calendars
using their own personal Google account calendar. [Note: the member does
need to manually add the calendar, too, though; I'll get to that below.]
(2) Everyone who joins our coworking space must give us a Google account
email address when they join (or whenever they want to start taking
advantage of some of our different Internet-based
services/information: being in our Google Group, being able to reserve the
meeting rooms, and being able to see members'-only pages on our website).
(3) When we set up their memberships, we add that member's Gmail (or other
Google account) email address to the members'-only Google Group, and they
automatically gain the ability to add our meeting room calendars to their
Google Calendar, and thus the ability to reserve the meeting rooms.
(4) When a member leaves Locus, we remove them from the Google Group and
they automatically lose the ability to reserve the meeting room.
(5) One technical issue: The calendars are NOT automatically added to the
members' Google Calendar. The member has to add the calendar address/I.D.
(You can find the calendar I.D. in the calendar settings, in the form of a
long email address.) In my opinion, this default is preferable, since it's
easy for members to add the meeting room calendars and most members don't
use both meeting room calendars and don't want them taking up space in
their Google Calendar.
(6) When we add members to the Google Group, we send them a template
"Welcome" message that--among other things--recommends they add the meeting
room calendars and provides a link to a page on our website with
instructions for how to do it. Here are the instructions we provide (which
have worked well):
- Log in to your Google Calendar: calendar.google.com.
- Expand the "Other Calendars" area in the left margin.
- In the "Add a coworker's calendar" field, enter the appropriate
calendar ID for each calendar you would like to add.
- The "KRAKOVSKÁ Meeting Room Reservations" calendar allows you to
see, edit, or add reservations for the meeting room on the 3rd floor at
Krakovská. The calendar ID is:
locusworkspace.com_hlc8b2c2b2e7eag4lhjr18j...@group.calendar.google.com
- The "SLEZSKÁ Meeting Room Reservations" calendar allows you to see,
edit, or add reservations for the meeting room at Slezská. The calendar
ID
is:
locusworkspace.com_clfhrqshb4ic8v9n27mjc2q...@group.calendar.google.com
(7) In the rare case a member has problems following these instructions, we
just sit down with them for a minute and show them how to add the calendar.
(8) Managers have the calendars set to send them an automatic email
whenever someone adds or changes a meeting room reservation (this is
another option in the Google calendar settings), which we can use to
reconstruct or check the calendar in the rare case it's needed. For
example, two members might create an "event" at the same time in the same
calendar. The email record provides a time stamp of who made the
reservation first, and in turn of who made the mistake of reserving it when
it wasn't available.
The one (minor) problem we've had with this system is that very
occasionally--a couple times over a couple years--a member not familiar
with Google Calendar deletes meeting room reservations made by other
members, thinking they're just deleting items irrelevant to them from their
own Calendar view. But since we have a record from the automatic emails,
this hasn't been a meaningful issue.
In my opinion, this system has worked GREAT (but only because we also have
a member-dedicated Google Group). Most members have an easy time figuring
it out (of course many use Google Calendar already). We're had amazingly
few problems with it. It's free. And we can easily embed the meeting room
calendars (view only) into our website (see it here
<http://en.locusworkspace.cz/meeting-room/calendar>) so non-members who may
want to reserve one of the meeting rooms can see when it is available.
Best,
Will
-----------
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http://www.locusworkspace.cz
wmben...@locusworkspace.com
On Sunday, July 20, 2014 8:40:03 PM UTC+2, Lisa Anne Logan wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> We've been using the ol' "write your name on the door" method for booking
> conference rooms, and I'd like to implement a Google Calendar system
> instead. And, of course, by tomorrow ;)
>
> Ideally, everyone on a specific Google Groups distro (e.g.
> mem...@hattery.com <javascript:>) would have access to all our conference
> room resource calendars for booking. I would add and remove people from
> that group as they join or leave Hattery, and that would update their
> calendar access. Access would always by synched between that group and the
> resource list.
>
> It seems like this should just work as described, but it doesn't. The
> kicker may be that our members use dozens of different domain names, so the
> typical "share with everyone in my domain" choices don't apply.
>
> Looking for a Google Calendar whiz who might be able to lend some ideas...
>
> Thanks!
>
> LA
>
>
> Lisa Anne Logan
>
> Director of Marketing and Operations
>
> Hattery
>
> l...@hattery.com <javascript:>
>
> 415.205.5325
>
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