3.23 – Calendar Maintenance Policy and Procedure

All Iowa Educational Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired employees are required to use Exchange Calendars to track appointments on and off campus. Exchange Calendars are available in your Outlook client, and through the webmail interface at https://webmail.iabvi.org/owa and on Blackberries.

A.  Calendar Permission Setting

All employees will select the calendar permission option labeled “Free/busy time, subject, location.” This setting can be selected by clicking on the “Calendar Permissions” button at the top of the Outlook Calendar window. This permission setting will generally only need to be completed once. All subsequent calendar entries will allow other IESBVI employees to view the title and purpose of all meetings and appointments in your calendar.

B.  Identify Availability When Scheduling a Meeting

When scheduling a meeting or appointment, use one of the following settings to indicate your availability during that meeting:

1.  “Busy” is the default setting for any appointment unless you choose otherwise. All meetings and travel time should be marked as “busy”

2.  “Tentative” is used to block the calendar for intended events that are not confirmed. Prep time could be marked as “Tentative”

3.  “Out of Office” is used for Non-contract days and approved leave days

4.  “Free” is used for personal reminders such as family birthdays, anniversaries and non-appointments that should not block a calendar time slot. Please note, “Free” items do not display to other calendar users when viewing your calendar.

5.  “Private” is used for highly confidential meetings can be “padlocked.” Reserve this for personal matters and use sparingly.

Employees should be available to accept meeting requests during all times that are not marked “Busy” or “Out of Office”. You can either “accept or decline” a meeting or accept it as “tentative.”

C.  Requirements for the Weekly Schedule on Outlook

1.  Weekly schedules should reflect:

a)  What services are planned to be provided for the upcoming week

b)  What services were actually provided for the past week.

c)  Travel time

2.  Required Information for the Weekly Schedule on Outlook:

a)  Subject field

i.  Use student initials with building/district in subject field (e.g. G.W. Iowa Braille, Vinton)

ii.  Identify travel time in subject field

b)  Location field

i.  Use the word “cancelled” when the staff member cancels service (e.g. illness, personal leave). For make-up policy refer to Section 13 (13.1a) in the Handbook on the IESBVI Website.

D.  ESYS Requirement

Each TVI/OMS is to hold out two regular contract days for Extended School Year Services (one for June and one for July). If in the spring, it appears that you will not need this time, complete a Calendar Change Form to use the time while students are in school. For those that will need more than two days, please make arrangements with your Regional Director.

Approved 8/11/2011

Revised 08/2013