Do you know your schedule for the following month off the top of your head, without consulting your husband/wife/partner/kids/friends/cats/work?
This way they can send me an answer when they’ve checked and hopefully it minimises the longer term changes that’ll happen - so there potentially doesn’t have to be as much back and forth when a preliminary schedule is sent out.
Course I’ve not been around as long as you, so I’m not as cynical yet.
Fortunately they are fairly good at keeping to their word, but I don’t think any of us can 'stop those last minute changes that you describe. But thats not really what this thread is about.
We using Sling and everyone just adds when they will be there. Only question with such an app is what do you do if someone has scheduled and doesn’t turn up?
Do you just assume they have changed their mind or something has come up and they are no longer available or does it add any sort of duty of care m among it will increase admin as you have to waste time to follow up in case something had happened to them🤷
Parade times and weekends I pretty much know what’s happening for the next 3 months, because my wife and I speak to each other, she’ll tell me what’s on the cards and I’ll say yay or nay. What I don’t know are the last minute things. So in your example absolutely fine at this point in time, but could be not so at any point after.
Our TO emails the programme on a 2 month rolling basis, which is more than enough time for people to say if they can or not. I know it’s not particularly high tech but it works and as the sayings go ‘if it isn’t broken …’ and ‘no need to reinvent the wheel’.
There is a calendar app called TimeTree. It is free and all people have to do is create an account and join it.
Then it is just down to if people bother to fill it in. But it’s a great idea in principle. Can add activities on to it too so you don’t end up double booking etc.
Oh good I thought it was just me! As training officer, I end up teaching! I have no idea about some subjects but I just muddle through! We used to have one man who would be good and tell me the dates he could do. But we had problems with not enough cadets reaching the level he was doing, then the pandemic hit and he has stopped coming.
I had long used Google calendar to manage the training schedule.
The frustration was having to then plug those data into a table format to be printed for display on the notice board.
I enquired for a time whether the SMS/CP interface could be tweaked to allow embedding an internet calendar via iframe link; so that instead of downloading a pdf/word doc training programme which I have to create and upload, cadets could instead just see the G cal right there in CP. It would immediately reflect any changes made to the calendar…
It obviously wasn’t considered a priority though because nothing ever came of it.
Pity really, because it would be far more productive than simply uploading a pretty pdf every month.
I chose google because I was already running a G Suite account and it interfaced nicely with my personal calendar… But with the improved access we now have, an outlook calendar or sharepoint ‘calendar’ could also be used.
whenever I’ve been training officer (at numerous units), it’s rare for more then 1 night a month to deviate from the Training Programme that’s been written at some point in the previous 1-3 months