De Montfort University
Accessing the University Calendar
Through the Staff Exchange System
The University Calendar provides details of meetings and associated activities at University and faculty level. It compliments the DMU Events Calendar. It is accessible to any member of staff who has a University e-mail account, on and off campus through an Outlook Client or web mail. The system is administered as part of the campus wide staff e-mail service. The term group has been used throughout this document to describe a University, Board, Committee, Sub Committee, Working Party, Forum or Group.
1. Users and contributors
A user is a holder of a DMU Exchange e-mail account. All users may access the calendar, read information as they can any public calendar on the system. Users cannot add, amend or delete events.
Contributions are managed by the secretaries and convenors of groups and by Faculty Managers. If information on a group you participate in does not appear in the calendar and you think it should, contact the group secretary who will be able to obtain a contributors account.
2. Access.
The University Calendar resides on the staff e-mail system, Exchange.
To access the facility through your Outlook client;
· Open your e-mail account and the Folder List
· Select Public folders, All Public Folders, De Montfort Community, University calendar.
· Click on University calendar to open the view
To access the facility through web mail;
· Click on the link provided in the Staff Portal
· Log in to web mail
· The University Calendar will be displayed
· Log out when you have finished
The web address is;
https://webmail.dmu.ac.uk/public/De%20Montfort%20Community/University%20Calendar/
The examples provided in this Guide use Outlook 2003 Where instructions for Outlook 2007 vary these are shown in brackets [2007 - ].
A typical view using the monthly Outlook format
A typical view using the weekly Outlook calendar format
3. Opening a diary item
Click on an item to open it. The secretary may provide additional information and attach documents to give the reader more information about group activity and particularly meetings. All Exchange users can access this information.
In this case the diary item includes details on the contact for the group, how to submit items for the agenda, a link to previous papers with minutes stored in the Intranet and a Word document containing a draft agenda for the next meeting.
4. Searching
The calendar is searchable enabling users to locate information relating to group meetings, locations and other information when this is stored.
From the Tool bar, access Tools, Find. In the “Look for” [2007 – Instant Search] box type the key word you wish to find that may occur in the Subject or Location field. Contributors should provide a short name for their group in a consistent manner that can be seen in the diary monthly view along with the full name.
Example – finding dates of a committee in the session
In this case a search has been made on ISSC the recognised abbreviation for the Information Services and Systems Committee. The results provide the dates and locations of meetings for the session. Click on any of these to see the full diary record.
Example- ordering the results
In this case all diary entries have been located in a period and ordered by location by clicking on the table label. Details of the groups and dates of meetings are provided.
5. Advanced Find
Advanced find enables you to locate information by a search term in other areas of an entry. Access this through Tools Bar; Tools, Advanced Find [2007- Tools, Instant Search, Advanced Find] . Users can choose to search fields in various combinations. For more information on the capabilities of Advanced Search use the Outlook Help facility.
In this case the user is selecting which area in the diary entries to search.
6. Adding items to your own calendar
To copy an item from the University calendar to your own, open the item and click on the “Transfer to Personal calendar” [2007 – Copy to My Calendar] icon on the tool bar.
7. Notes for Contributors
A contributor account permits a user to add, amend and delete calendar entries. To become a contributor the Secretary of the committee or group should contact the ISAS Help Desk by e-mail with details of the title and function of the group and the name of the person(s) who will be responsible for adding and amending information for the group. Contributor rights for Faculty committees are managed through the Faculty Manager.
Contributors are provided with permissions to add, delete and amend entries across the whole diary. The facility is made available on a basis of “trust” that a contributor makes only amendments to those entries for which they have responsibility. If a contributor deletes an entry for which they have no responsibility it will in all probability not be possible to automatically reinstate that item.
This authority is matched to individual mail boxes. If a “contributor” leaves the organisation or is away for an extended period the ISAS Help Desk will need to be informed that a change of owner is required, nominating a new contact.
Adding, amending and deleting items from the calendar uses the same protocols as any Exchange calendar entry.
Contributors can copy items from their diary to the University Calendar. Locate the item you wish to copy from your diary, click on edit, copy to folder. Using - copy to box - locate the University Calendar within the All Public Folders and click on OK. Your entry will be copied to the same date in the University Calendar.
8. Conventions
The system is simple and provides contributors with flexibility in how they set up their calendar entries. This needs to be complimented by a few protocols to ensure that users can easily view, effectively search for instances of meetings and access information across a number of groups.
1. Create entries on the Subject line so that the name of a group can be interpreted, viewed from a short “month” view and include the full name in a standard format so that this is easily searched e.g. MMG – Module Management Group.
2. For faculty groups use the convention, Faculty, then function e.g AAD FAPC – Art and Design Faculty Academic Planning Committee
3. To ensure consistency copy basic information about a group, particularly the form of the name, from one meeting to the next.
4. You will enhance the usability of the service by;
a. Including in each entry the name of the “owner” of the information, for example the secretary of the group.
b. Including information on where papers and minutes of previous meetings can be found or who to contact to obtain these.
c. Including the agenda for the meeting as a Word attachment.
9. Inviting attendees
Calendars can be used to invite attendees and manage the distribution of ore meeting information. If you do wish to use this facility copy the item to your personal diary and carry out the invitation process from there.
10. Abbreviations
Standard abbreviations for use in University Calendar meetings headings.
Committee or Board / AbbreviationAcademic Board / Acad Board
Academic Planning Committee / APC
Academic Planning Inter-Faculty and Creative Industries Sub-Committee / APIFCI
Academic Planning Sub-Committee on Collaborative provision / APSCCP
Academic Quality and Standards Committee / AQSC
Board of Governors / Board Gov
Board of Governors – Audit Committee / BG Audit Com
Board of Governors – Human Resources Committee / BG Human Res Com
Board of Governors – Governance Committee / BG Governance Com
Board of Governors – Finance Committee / BG Finance Com
Board of Governors – Reputation Committee / BG Reputation Com
Faculty Academic Committee / FAC
Faculty Academic Planning Committee / FAPC
Faculty Collaborative Provision Committee / FCPC
Faculty Development and Review Committee / DARC
Faculty Executive / FAC EXEC
Faculty Human Research Ethics Committee / FHREC
Faculty International Committee / FIC
Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee / FLTC
Faculty Research Committee / FRC
Faculty Higher Degrees Committee / FHDC
Faculty Research Ethics Committee / FREC
Faculty Staff Development Committee / FSDC
Faculty Staff Loading Review / FSLR
Faculty Stress committee / Stress Com
Health and Safety Committee / H&S
Health and Safety Committee – Stress Sub Committee / Stress Com
Higher Degrees Committee / HDC
Human Research Ethics Committee / HREC
Module Management Group / MMG
Information Services and Systems Committee / ISSC
Operational Management Group / OMG
Post Graduate Taught Programmes Committee / PGTPC
Research Committee / Research Com
Senior Management Group / SMG
Student Data and Curriculum Group / SDCG
University Learning and Teaching Committee / ULTC
Vice Chancellors Group / VCG
Faculty / Abbreviation
Art and design / AAD
Business and Law / B&L
Computing Science and Engineering / CSE
Health and Life Sciences / HLS
Humanities / HUM