02005: Calendar Man


There's that time in the month when the number of casual inquiries about gaming schedules reaches critical mass and I concede that I need to post public schedule availability. So I make the formal post over in the Facebook group that Tobie created for everyone who has ever gamed with him and then the deluge of private messages begins. As much as Tobie runs majority of the games in question, I've taken it upon myself to manage the schedule and figure out how things will go from there.

I like scheduling stuff. Ever since Google Calendar launched back in 2006, I eagerly started using it despite the general lack of appointments in my life. It's primary function during that period was keeping track of birthdays - this was before Facebook opened up to the public after all. And I find that my Google Calendar records of birthdays remains accurate while people tend to play around with their Facebook dates from time to time.

Now it's my primary method for keeping track of our ever busy weekends that are filled up predominantly with game schedules. I also plot out theater dates and other special events so that Tobie and I know what's going on at all times. Plus since we're finally both on smartphones, we both get to take advantage of Google Calendar's mobile apps and its related notifications. But that's all just technology. It doesn't help me when it gets to negotiating with people.

The one truth when it comes to scheduling our games is that we don't have room for everyone. There are far more interested play groups than there are schedule slots and so it's always tricky trying to figure out who can get scheduled where and when. I generally try to follow a rule of first come, first served,  but at times it becomes important to prioritize folks based on who gets to game overall and making sure there's more fun for everyone. Or sometimes Tobie and I may be more in the mood for a particular game over another and we schedule accordingly.

In the span of an hour, the calendar is pretty much filled up with appointments and I know some friends are feeling bad about missing out. At least this only counts Saturdays and Sundays - Fridays are sort of special free-for-all days that end up getting scheduled with Tobie directly since I tend to have work most week nights. And this is the schedule for April - the March schedule generally got locked in early February.

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