Let members book a time

Each interviewer on the page needs two things:

• Appointment windows, in Settings → Just you → When I’m available (or Settings → Appointments → Interviewers’ availability for someone else). See set when you're available.
• Google Calendar connected, in Settings → Just you → Google Calendar. The page books straight onto that calendar and Google sends the member the invitation. See connect Google Calendar. When Google asks what 1stHour may do, tick every box. If one was left unticked, 1stHour says so: tap Disconnect, then connect again and tick them all.

Only the bishop and the executive secretary change the sign-up page. Everyone in the bishopric can open it and see how it is set.

Settings›Appointments›Sign-up page

Or, on Appointments, tap Sign-up page beside Schedule an appointment. On a phone they read Sign-up and Schedule.

1. Under Who people can book, switch on each interviewer to include. Anyone missing windows or a connected calendar says so and can’t be switched on yet.
2. Under What they can book, choose a type from + Offer another type. It opens on its own settings (see the next step).
3. Switch on Open for sign-ups.
4. Share the link with Copy or Share. It looks like 1sthour.app/p/your-ward/meet. Copy and Share appear once members can book on the page: it is open, a type is offered, and someone is there to take it.

Once the page is open, the arrow beside Sign-up page on Appointments has Share a link. It starts on the whole page's link. To link one type instead, tap Change beside Opens on and pick it; only types members can book now are listed. When more than one person takes that type, Change beside Whose times picks whose times it opens on. The sheet shows the link and says what it opens on. Copy the link or Share the link sends it. While the page is off, the dot beside it is amber and there is no arrow.

Switching Open for sign-ups off hides the page and keeps every setting. Times already booked stay booked.

Tap a type under What they can book to set:

Lengths they can pick

Pick one and members never see a choice; pick two and they choose. This is only what the page offers. You can still schedule other lengths yourself.

Who takes it

The interviewers on the page who see this type. With more than one, Who they meet with is They pick or Whoever’s free. Someone who can’t take it yet says why: Connect Google Calendar first, No windows yet, or Off on the sign-up page (switch them on under Who people can book).

Offered

Any time, or only on certain dates. Tap + Add dates, then set From and Until (for example, December 1 to December 24). Add as many runs of dates as you need, and tap × to remove one. Runs can't share a day: a new one starts the day after the last one ends, and a change that would overlap another run isn't saved. A type with dates appears on the page once Book up to (under Rules) reaches its first date, and leaves after its last. The note under the dates says from which day. Once its last date has passed, the type leaves the page until you add more. A type set up with months before dates were added shows those months until you add dates.

Link to this type

A link that opens the sign-up page straight on this type’s times, such as 1sthour.app/p/your-ward/meet?type=tithing. Put it in the announcement for tithing declaration so members land on the right type. A type with more than one length opens on the first step with it picked, so they choose how long. Members can still go back and pick another. Copy and Share appear once members can book this type: the page is open, the type’s dates have come within Book up to, and someone who takes it is on the page with their windows set and Google Calendar connected. Until then it says Share it once members can book this type. A link followed when the type isn’t on the page opens the page with nothing picked.

When more than one person takes the type, Whose times picks whose times the link opens on: Anyone who takes it, or one person, for a message like “pick a time with Bishop Reyes”.

A link to one person opens on their times alone and says who it’s with. Where members pick who they meet with, that person starts picked. If that person no longer takes the type, the link opens everyone’s times.

The same links are under Share a link on Appointments, without coming here.

Switch off Offer on the sign-up page to take a type off the page. Extend a call and Release conversation are never offered there: Callings starts those.

Under Rules:

Book up to

How far ahead a member can book. It limits how far out the page offers times.

No sooner than

Keeps last-minute bookings off, counted in hours from now.

Self sign-ups per window

How many of one window's appointments members can book themselves, each time the window comes around (for example, each Sunday morning). The rest stay yours to fill with times you send. It can't go above Most in one window, set with each interviewer's availability, because the page can't book more than a window holds.

When someone picks a time

It’s booked (the time is theirs straight away) or We confirm it (the time is held for them until someone in the bishopric confirms it; see Confirm a time someone asked for).

The Note at the top of the page is for where to go, or anything else members should know.

Times you send someone with Send the link are kept off the sign-up page while they choose, so nobody else can take them. A link with times from several of you holds each time only for the person it is with. Once they pick one, the others open up again. They also open up if the person taps None of these work or the link runs out.

Under Blackout dates, tap Open the calendar. It also opens from Settings → Appointments → Interviewers’ availability. A blocked day is closed everywhere: nobody can sign up on it, and scheduling offers no times on it either. On Appointments, that day’s card reads Blocked, and a link you already sent drops any time that falls on it. If you need to meet on a blocked day anyway, schedule it with Some other time.

The bishop and the executive secretary block days for everyone or for anyone. A counselor opens the same calendar from Settings → Just you → When I’m available and blocks his own days.

1. Choose whose days you are blocking: Everyone, or one person in the bishopric.
2. Tap a day to block it, and tap it again to open it back up. Days you tap next to each other join into one run, unless a run already has a Reason: a named run keeps its own row. On a computer you can also drag across the days.
3. A day blocked for everyone shows as blocked for each person too.

From the ward calendar suggests days to block: General Conference, a Sunday your Sacrament meeting plan marks as blocked (with its reason, such as stake conference), and events on the ward calendar that fall on a Sunday or are stake-wide. Block it blocks those days and shows the reason to members. Leave it open hides the suggestion for good.

Under Blocked, tap edit on a run to give it a Reason, switch on Show the reason to members (“no appointments during General Conference”), or Delete it. Otherwise the day is simply closed.

If someone already booked a time on the page on a day you block, 1stHour asks first. Block and email them cancels those appointments and Google emails everyone invited. Block the rest of the day only keeps them. A time still waiting on you (with We confirm it) is let go without an email, since they were never sent one. Times you booked yourself are never cancelled by a blackout; they stay on the day.

A member opening the link picks what it’s for, then a day and a time. A type’s own link opens straight on its times. Each time says who it is with and where. They give their name and up to five email addresses (a spouse or parent is welcome) and press Book this time. When the page is set to We confirm it, the button reads Ask for this time, and the member is told the bishopric will confirm by email.

Members see every time on their own phone’s clock. Someone in another time zone sees the times already changed to theirs, and the page says so. Once booked, Add to calendar opens a short list of calendars (Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook) and puts it on the one they pick at the right hour. The list shows only the calendars their device can use.

Google emails everyone they gave the calendar invitation. It carries a link where the member can Change the time or Cancel. Only a sign-up page booking has this link. If they use it, nobody is emailed; see when a member changes or cancels. There is no field for why they want to meet, and 1stHour doesn’t keep their email addresses.

On the interviewer’s Google calendar the appointment is named for both people, such as Ada Okafor <> Bishop Alden Marsh, and never for what kind of appointment it is. The bishop is always shown as Bishop with his name. Google’s invitation carries that same name. What a member adds with Add to calendar reads Appointment with Bishop Alden Marsh.

If none of the times work, they tap None of these work and leave a name and an email. The executive secretary gets an email with their name and address, and an assignment to reach out, due in a week. With no executive secretary signing in, it goes to the bishop, and with neither, to the first interviewer on the page. Nothing is booked.

If a member can’t see any times, check that the page is open, that the interviewers’ windows fall inside Book up to, and that their Google Calendar is still connected.

The booking shows on Appointments like any other, tagged Signed up. 1stHour matches the name they typed to People:

• One person by that exact name (or a name you confirmed for them before): it links to them on its own. Open it to see “matched to … by name”, and tap Not them? if it’s someone else.
• Not sure: the row reads Not matched. Open it and 1stHour offers up to three people it may be, closest first, allowing for nicknames (Bill for William), a typo, first and last name swapped, or the rest of the family. Tap It’s followed by the right person, or search People for someone else.

Linked the wrong person? Open the appointment: it says who it's linked to, and Not them? lets you pick someone else, however it was linked.

When you say who it is, 1stHour remembers the name they typed as theirs, so the next time they sign up that way it links on its own. It remembers only a full name with their first name in it (Bill Okafor for William, or a married name), never a surname alone or a parent's name for a child. Only names you confirm are remembered, five per person, and never an email. Changing who a booking is linked to forgets the name for the person it was linked to before.

With We confirm it, a time picked on the page is held on the interviewer’s Google calendar as tentative, and nobody else can take it. Its row on Appointments says Asked.

At the top of Appointments → This week, Waiting on you lists every time asked for, even ones past this week. An interviewer sees the ones asked of them. The bishop and the executive secretary can confirm anyone's: with Showing on Everyone, they see them all.

• Confirm books it. Google emails everyone invited that the time is confirmed.
• Offer other times opens the schedule sheet on They pick from a few, with the first open time on each of the next three days that have one, from two days out, already checked. Change any, then tap Send the link. The held time is released and Google emails its cancellation. A message with the new link opens to send; under Just the link, Email them the link sends it to the addresses that were on the invitation.

Opening the appointment and choosing a time yourself with Edit it also answers the request.

Any appointment on Google Calendar, whether booked on the page or scheduled by you, has a Guests row when you open it. Tap Invite there. It lists the guests on the Google event and whether each said Yes or No, read from Google each time; 1stHour doesn’t keep a copy.

• Type an email and tap Add to invite someone else, such as a spouse or parent. Google sends them the invitation.
• Tap × beside a guest to take them off. Google tells them it was cancelled.

An appointment takes five guests at most. The times you send someone to pick from also let the member give up to five emails.