MATC Matters

Bulletin 022607

How Wil Daylight Savings Time Changes Impact You?

The purpose of this bulletin is to help you prepare for the upcoming change in Daylight Savings Time (DST) rules.

In 2005, Congress passed the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 which affects all U.S. time zones that observe Daylight Saving Time. If you use electronic calendaring (such as GroupWise) or a PDA you will almost certainly be impacted by this change.

This memo will cover some of the ways you might be inconvenienced as well as coping strategies.

Starting in 2007, Daylight Saving Time will be extended by four weeks in most United States and Canadian time zones. Daylight Saving Time will begin the second Sunday in March (March 11), three weeks earlier than in past years. Daylight Saving Time will end the first Sunday in November (November 4), one week later than in past years.

The main effect of DST changes is with calendaring:

• The last time the DST calendar changed, few people used either electronic calendaring or PDAs.
• With this change, appointments scheduled for a time period between the old and new DST transition dates may or may not be off by an hour.
• This issue will touch all platforms - Microsoft, Novell, Apple, Palm, etc.

Technology Services has been patching systems for the past two months to ensure that MATC’s computing infrastructure is ready for this change.

During the first week of March, we expect to have a utility that will correct many of the GroupWise appointments that are off by one hour. Even after appointments are “corrected,” it is likely that some appointment times will still be off by one hour.

On or after March 11 it is imperative that you review all of your meetings during the intervals of 3/11/07-3/31/07 and 10/28/07-11/04/07 and make corrections if necessary. Additional instructions will be posted to the website referenced below by March 11. Please DO NOT attempt to correct your schedule before March 11, as further corrections may be necessary on that date despite your best intentions.

As a coping strategy, we recommend that all new appointments scheduled during the intervals 3/11-3/31 and 10/28-11/04 include the time of the meeting in the Subject line (such as: Project Brainstorming - 11:00 A.M. Central Time).

This will make it easier for you to correct calendar entries on or after March 11.

Prior to March 11, it is critical that your MATC workstation(s), home personal computers, and PDAs are appropriately updated to support the new DST rules.

Technology Services has been updating all LAN-connected Windows PCs and has deployed a desktop icon to all non-lab Windows PCs to indicate that DST updates have been made.

You should update your personal devices and begin using the subject line guidance for new appointments as soon as possible.

Technology Services has established a website for DST change information to help you with these updates. If you have a laptop (or other computer) not connected to the network, please follow the information provided on the webpage on how to update you computer.

Please visit the Technology Services DST web page soon to ensure that your devices are updated, and again on (or after) March 11 to clean-up your calendar.