During a recent team meeting, we were discussing out of office management. I was tasked to develop an out of office calendar for the team. I settled in on Google Calendar because of my success in other programs and organizations, and Microsoft Outlook was not reliable across different platforms. Google Calendars can be accessed from multiple platforms to include mobile devices.
By using Google Calendar, I am able to subscribe to many different calendars; each calendar will appear in a unique color. You can toggle the visibility of the calendar on and off using the menu on the left-hand side of the screen.
In the case of University of Wyoming Extension, calendars can be created for:
- Out of office management
- Area teams
- Initiative teams
- Project management
- Public events
By subscribing to individual calendars managed by different teams, it is easy to identify events of interest. Each team member or administrative assistant could add their own events to the calendar. Calendars can be public or private depending upon the needs. Subscribers could have view-only capabilities or be given moderator permissions to add and edit events.
You can also add additional calendars such as holidays, sports team schedules, and even weather.
Here are some links to useful instructions:
- Create and share a group calendar
- Create a team calendar (PDF)
- Make your calendar public
- Spread the word about public calendars
- Add interesting calendars from Google Calendar
Sit down with your team and build a calendar that fits your needs. You will need to decide upon naming conventions to make finding events easier.
If you have a calendar that you wish to share publicly, advertise it through your email distribution lists, Web sites, social media, etc.
How are you using group calendars?
