Calendar sharing with all staff office 365

[Mark182]

We have numerous security groups set up as distribution groups EG [email protected] so when an E-mail is sent to all staff everyone gets it (Who is in the group) we can create a calendar and share it with allstaff@ and everyone in the list gets a nice E-mail saying such a person would like to share a calendar with you, they accept and happy days. Our issue is when a new member of staff joins a distribution list they are not automatically added to the calendar. I can re send the invite but then that mass E-mails everyone again. I cannot figure out a better way to do this. Anyone got any ideas?

[Michael]

Re-send the invite specifically to that new user only? [email protected]

[Mark182]

I know it sound petty but it won't happen and some of the list I am not in charge of.

[Michael]

Well there's no other way of doing it (as far as I know). It's either per security group or per individually specified users. The end result is the same.

[BKGarry]

What about a public folder instead?

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj200758(v=exchg.150).aspx

[witch]

I think as long as the calendar is shared with the appropriate group, everyone can actually find it if they right click on other calendars and put the calendar name in?

[Michael]

I think as long as the calendar is shared with the appropriate group, everyone can actually find it if they right click on other calendars and put the calendar name in?

 

You're right, but you have to be a member of that group at the point of invitation. If you then add an additional user, they won't automatically get the Calendar. Would be nice, but O365 won't do this.

[witch]

You're right, but you have to be a member of that group at the point of invitation. If you then add an additional user, they won't automatically get the Calendar. Would be nice, but O365 won't do this.

 

Well that's silly isn't it!

[Michael]

Well that's silly isn't it!

 

Well who knows, maybe Microsoft one day will introduce Calendar Groups, so users added/removed from such group automatically see or not see an associated Calendar without any invitation required. It would be a good feature to have.

[Mark182]

Yeah that'd be a good idea. I am having the same issue with One Drive and shared folders where I'd have to manually add users. It'd be ok for the folders I control but a mare for the ones a don't.

[MatthewL]

Correct me if I am wrong but I have noticed everyone sharing calendars recently by sending out a email, surely you would just right click the calendar in outlook and go to properties and permissions and add the group in there and set the relevant permissions and then they just add said calendar without all the emails flying about the place and anyone new as long as they are member of the group will be able to access it.

 

It's like mine at work I share with with ouroffice group and they can all see it and the relevant info they are allowed to see.

 

Sorry I thought calendar sharing was a basic thing, its been there for years.

[Michael]

Correct if I'm wrong, but simply adding permissions, the shared Calendar in question doesn't appear in their list of Calendars or does it?

 

Edit: As far as I can tell, the permissions part just allows you to tweak their access rights - Viewer or Editor. You still need to invite them to add the Calendar.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Michael

[MatthewL]

By just adding permission no it does't just appear in their list of calendars but you could probably script it one way or another.

 

You don't need to invite them to add the calendar, say I was in officegroup and permission had been set, the calendar is called My School Calendar, I would go into Outlook > calendars, open calendar from the top toolbar and select the appropriate option.

[RichCowell]

If you set the permissions for the group in the Outlook Calendar (you can probably do it via PowerShell but I won't even start to rant on about how much I hate PowerShell/Office 365) it should work, but they'll need to open it manually once...

 

We've got exactly the same - an account call SchoolCal - permissions are set on that so our "Staff" security group (as opposed to our allstaff distribution group) have permissions to read - we just told everyone to Open a Shared Calendar, enter SchoolCal and they get that calendar that follows them wherever they log in online or use Outlook...

 

Works well enough here... once new staff get their bearings they usually ask someone how to get it and everyone knows now...

[Mark182]

Thanks for all the feedback. Got a few ideas. I will post back in a few days