Departmental Sub-Calendars in Google Workspace

All Google Workspace NC State accounts are able to create and share sub-calendars with users both inside and outside the Google Workspace NC State service. If you have a room or space that should be visible in the "Rooms" list to everyone with a Google Workspace NC State account, you should create a Google Resource Calendar. However, if you have a room or space that should only be visible or scheduled by a smaller group of users (e.g., your team or department), then you should create a sub-calendar inside a departmental generic account.

Example

Here's a scenario to illustrate how a departmental sub-calendar could be set up:

A finance team has 3 rooms that can only be scheduled by its five employees. Bob is their team leader.

1. Bob creates a Google Generic Account called "Finance-Team@ncsu.edu."
2. Inside the Finance-Team account, Bob creates 3 sub-calendars called "Room 101," "Room 102" and "Room 103."
3. Bob goes into the sharing settings for each of the 3 room calendars and shares them with the other 4 employees' Google Workspace accounts.
4. Now all five employees on the finance team can share and see the calendars, and schedule time in them. 
5. No one else except those 5 users can see or schedule that calendar without being granted permission by Bob.

 

Questions

• But can't I just create a sub-calendar within my own Google Workspace account?
  Yes, but it is recommended that you use the above best practice to ensure good business continuity.
• What is meant by "good business continuity?"
  As opposed to the scenario above, if Bob created the room sub-calendars inside his own account, and then he changed jobs or left the university, the finance team would have to migrate all the calendars to another account, and then set up the sharing all over again.
• So how would it work if Bob left, but it was set up like in the example above?
  In that scenario, the finance team just removes Bob from the permissions to the Finance-Team generic account and gives permission to his replacement. The room calendars remain intact, and no further set-up needs to be done or redone.
• What if I create a departmental sub-calendar, but realize later it should be a resource calendar?
  Not to worry, OIT can help you change a departmental sub-calendar into a resource calendar. Contact the NC State Help Desk for assistance.

Learn More & Get Help

• To request or learn more about Google Generic Accounts, go here: http://go.ncsu.edu/google-generic-accounts.
• If you need help deciding what the best option is for your team, send an email to help@ncsu.edu.