Calendar usage guidelines

• Acceptable reasons for accessing another person's agenda
• Viewing access rights levels
• Proposing, accepting and declining meetings
• If you are unable to invite some people to meetings
• Inviting people who do not use Calendar/ resources not held on Calendar
• Annual leave
• Busy periods

Acceptable reasons for accessing another person's agenda

Accessing another person's agenda is only proper for determining their availability.  Browsing someone else's agenda for any other purpose is a misuse of the system.

Viewing access rights levels

1. The minimum level of viewing access rights for meetings during working hours should be 'View Entries'.  This blocks out time in your agenda for others to see, allowing others to arrange meetings during your free periods.
2. It is not normally acceptable for anyone to set access rights to 'No viewing rights' for time booked during working hours.
3. It is acceptable to use 'No viewing rights' for personal agenda entries outside of working hours.

In general, the advised viewing access rights should be retained.  However, your department may have a separately-defined policy setting out the level of access rights, though this should also adhere to the University minimum level.  Also, some individuals may need to alter viewing access rights for reasons of privacy due to the nature of their work.

Proposing, accepting and declining meetings

1. When scheduling a meeting you should be considerate of the people you invite. They may feel sensitive about particular appointments and want them kept private.
2. 'Title', 'Location' and other details supplied for entries should be comprehensible to all attendees. Use clear, formal meeting titles and locations, such as 'Team meeting to discuss courses for Autumn term (room 14.1)'.
3. When creating a meeting you should use the Calendar option to send and email to the proposed attendees.
4. Creating a meeting in someone else's agenda is only a proposal. Attendees are free to decline attendance of a meeting, or to request that another time is proposed.
5. If you decline a meeting, it is helpful to email the person who arranged the meeting to say that you cannot attend: they may not be in a position to track every single response to every single meeting and the first they may know that you have declined the meeting is when you don't turn up.
6. If you propose a meeting you should supply the location of the meeting and all other relevant details, ideally at the time the meeting is created.
7. You should delete meetings that are not going ahead as soon as you know they are cancelled.

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If you are unable to invite some people to meetings

If others have not granted you sufficient scheduling rights to invite them to meetings you should ask them if they are willing to extend scheduling rights to you.  They may not realise that their settings do not conform to the University's expected settings for access and scheduling rights.

Inviting people who do not use Calendar/ resources not held on Calendar

If a proposed invitee is not registered in Calendar, or if rooms or equipment need to be separately booked, it is best to avoid proposing a meeting in Calendar until you have confirmed their availability, otherwise you risk the possibility of annoying other invitees by constantly changing meeting details.

If you are unsure if an individual uses Calendar, it is polite to contact them in person first to let them know that you would like to use Calendar to invite them to meetings and, if necessary, ask them to set the necessary access rights for you to do so.

Annual leave

1. Annual leave should be booked as a meeting to block this time of in your agenda.
2. The access level for annual leave should be set to 'Normal' or as agreed by your department
3. Annual leave should be marked in your agenda using the title Annual Leave or AL for consistency.

Busy periods

To deter others from booking meetings in your diary during periods when you will be busy, it is advised that you block time off by creating a meeting marked Keep Free or with the name of the work task you are undertaking. It is also advisable to block off time when you might be travelling between sites, or returning from meetings external to the University.  See Blocking off time for further information.

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