Calendar & Scheduling

Keep track of all your Parish Council meetings, events, and deadlines with your iPad's Calendar app. Never miss an important council meeting again!

Setting Up Your Calendar

1 Open the Calendar app on your iPad (it has a white icon with a colourful calendar page showing the current date).

2 Create different calendars for different types of council activities by tapping "Calendars" at the bottom of the screen, then "Add Calendar".

3 Choose colours for each calendar to easily distinguish between different types of events (e.g., blue for council meetings, green for community events).

4 Sync your calendars across all your devices by ensuring your iCloud Calendar is turned on in Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud.

Organisation Tip: Create separate calendars for different council responsibilities. For example: "Council Meetings", "Budget Reviews", "Community Events", and "Personal Appointments".

Adding Council Events

1 Tap the + button in the top right corner, or touch and hold on the date where you want to add an event.

2 Enter the event details including title, location, time, and which calendar it belongs to.

3 Add travel time reminders by tapping "Travel Time" and selecting how long it takes to get to the venue.

4 Set repeat options for regular council meetings by tapping "Repeat" and choosing the pattern (e.g., "Monthly on the second Tuesday").

5 Add notes or attachments like agenda documents by tapping "Notes" or "Add Attachment".

Council Meeting Tip: Add the agenda as an attachment to the calendar event so you can quickly access it when the meeting begins.

Useful Calendar Features

Inviting Others

Invite other councillors to events by adding their email addresses to the "Invitees" section.

Multiple Alerts

Set several reminders for important meetings, such as one day before, one hour before, and 15 minutes before.

Custom Alerts

Choose different alert sounds for different types of events to know what's coming up just by the sound.

Calendar Sharing

Share council calendars with other members so everyone stays in sync with council activities.

Time Zone Support

For events in different locations, specify the time zone to avoid confusion about start times.

Availability Check

See everyone's availability when scheduling a new meeting if calendars are shared.

Managing Council Schedules

1 Switch between views (Day, Week, Month, or Year) by tapping the options at the top of the screen to see different levels of detail.

2 Show/hide calendars by tapping "Calendars" at the bottom and selecting which ones to display. This helps focus on specific types of events.

3 Search for events by swiping down from the top of the calendar and typing keywords, locations, or people involved.

4 Check for conflicts by making sure the calendars for all relevant members are visible before scheduling a new meeting.

Productivity Tip: Use the "List" view (tap the list icon near the search bar) to see upcoming events in chronological order. This is useful for quickly checking your schedule for the day or week.

Integrating with Other Apps

1 Connect with Mail to automatically detect and add events from email invitations.

2 Link with Reminders for tasks related to events, like preparing meeting materials.

3 Use with Maps to get directions to meeting locations directly from your calendar event.

4 Add video conferencing links like Zoom or Teams for virtual council meetings by pasting the link in the notes or URL field.

Integration Tip: For events that need preparation, create reminder tasks that link back to your calendar events, so you have all the information in one place.