Schedule Generator

The Schedule Generator is the heart of TMClubSchedule, transforming your club’s settings and member data into a complete meeting plan. By automating role assignments, it ensures a fair rotation while respecting member availability, preference and experience levels.

This is a powerful, automated tool that creates a fair and balanced draft of your club’s meeting schedule based on your predefined settings. It intelligently assigns roles to members, taking into account their membership level, past assignments, and planned absences. You can then review, adjust, and publish this draft to finalize your schedule.

---

Using the Schedule Generator

To begin, click the Schedule Generator icon on your dashboard or select it from the Schedule Manager menu.

Step 1: Setting Schedule Parameters

In most cases, the system automatically determines the next meeting date based on your Schedule Options. However, you will be prompted to manually select a Start Date in the following scenarios:

• First-Time Use: When you are setting up your club’s very first schedule.
• No Future Records: If the club has been inactive and there are no upcoming meeting dates currently on record.
• Custom Frequency: If your club uses the Custom meeting frequency, you must manually pick each meeting date for every generation cycle.

For subsequent generations the system will typically suggest the next available meeting date after your last scheduled meeting.

Step 2: Reviewing the Generated Pre-Draft

After clicking "NEXT," the system generates a draft schedule and displays it for your review.

• Reasons: "Reason" box appears under each assignment, explaining why a member was chosen (e.g., "First time as a Speaker", "This is President only role", "Longest gap since last being Evaluator"). This provides transparency into the generator's logic.

Click the SAVE & MODIFY button to save the current draft and move to the final editing screen. This will save generator result as a draft and allows you to make further adjustments before publishing.

Step 3: Reviewing the Generated Draft

• Unpublished Draft Banner: A prominent red banner at the top reads "- UNPUBLISHED DRAFT -". This reminds you that the schedule is not yet final and is subject to change.
• Interactive Grid: The main area is a large table showing all roles against all meeting dates.
• Status: All assignments are initially marked as UNCONFIRMED.
• Visibility: Drafts are private to Administrators. Members cannot see or interact with these meetings yet, allowing you to make adjustments in secret.
• Manual Edits: You can always update or swap roles within the draft if you feel a different member would be better suited for a specific slot.
• Draft Expiry: Note that changing core Meeting Roles or Meeting Frequency Settings while a draft exists will cause that draft to be discarded.
• Discard: Click DISCARD button if you want to abandon the entire draft and start over.
• Publish: Click PUBLISH button to finalize the schedule.

Step 4: Finalizing and Publishing the Schedule

When you are satisfied with the assignments, click the Publish button.

What Happens When You Publish

• Finalization: The draft becomes the official, published schedule. Any future edits can be done through the "Current Schedule" page.
• Member Notifications: The moment you publish, an automated email is sent to every member. This email informs them of the new schedule and highlights any roles they have been assigned.
• Member Confirmation: Upon receiving the email, members can log into their own dashboard to Accept or Decline their roles.

Post-Publication Updates

A schedule is never "locked." You can continue to update a published schedule if a member declines a role or a last-minute change occurs. Unlike a draft, these changes are immediately visible to members on their dashboard.

---

Best Practices

• Review Before Publishing: Always take time to review the generated draft. While the algorithm is intelligent, human oversight ensures fairness and addresses any unique club dynamics.
• Use Regenerate Wisely: If the first draft doesn't feel right, don't hesitate to click "Regenerate." The system will create a different, equally valid arrangement.
• Communicate Changes: If you make significant manual adjustments, consider sending a quick announcement to let members know about any unexpected assignments.
• Leverage Member Self-Service: Once published, encourage members to confirm their roles promptly by accessing Member Dashboard. This helps you quickly identify any unconfirmed or declined roles that need to be filled.

---

By using the Schedule Generator, you save countless hours of manual scheduling while ensuring that roles are distributed fairly and thoughtfully across your membership. It transforms a complex administrative task into a simple, efficient, and collaborative process.

Last updated: December 21st at 10:32am