Andwa Consulting's Online Event Calendar User Guide

New Events

Create A New Event
- Copying an Existing Event
- Setting up From Scratch
- Splitting Off a Second Group (Same Event)
- Promo Photo
- Multi-Day Events
Paid Events
Saving Your Event
Basic HTML

Create A New Event

• Copying an Existing Event
  The easiest way to create a new event is to copy an existing event (same event or similar event) and using it as a starting point.
  1. There are a few ways you can find an existing event in the database to copy:
     • Look for it under "Manage Events" and click the "Copy" link when you find it
     • Use the Event Search page to find it
     • If you're not sure what event you want to do, you can use the Event Suggestor to look for events that match your search parameters
  2. Once you've found the event, click "Copy" to copy its details to a new event.
  3. When the event details page appears, you may update the details. You will automatically be selected as the organizer.
  4. Click "Save this New Event".
  5. See Setting up from Scratch for how to finish setting up your event.
  
  
• Setting up From Scratch
  • Under "Volunteers' Area", "Manage Events", "Future", click Add New Event.
  • Enter all the event details:
    1. Dates:
       • Date Begins: This is the start date of your event. If the event runs on more than one day, you can select the additional dates AFTER saving the draft event. See - Multi-Day Events for more information.
       • Registration Cut-Off: This is the last date that people can add or remove themselves from the event via the web site. After this date, they can only add themselves to the waiting list (where you can manually add them if you wish), or remove themselves by contacting you directly. If it is a pre-paid event, this is the last date that they can submit a payment to hold their spot on the event.
       • Registration Opens: If you wish to post your event to the calendar but hold off on allowing people to register until a certain date, set that date here. If you do not set a date here, it will default to TODAY and registration will open immediately.
    2. Carpool Departure Time: What time will your carpool be departing? This should be calculated backwards from your event start time and accounting for any required travel time
    3. Start Time and Duration: Enter the actual start time of your event (not the carpool meeting time if your event will have a carpool) and the duration. You may want to indicate if the duration includes travel time or not.
    4. Title: Enter a title for the event - this is what will show on the calendar
    5. Organizer(s): You will automatically be selected as the organizer when you create a new event. If there are more people besides yourself coordinating the event, you may [CTRL]-[CLICK] their names in the list to select them. Be sure to hold down the [CTRL] button or your name will be removed.
    6. Type: Select the type of event from your organization's pre-defined list
    7. Difficulty Rating: Select the difficulty rating from your organization's pre-defined list
    8. Participants: Check the box if your event will require all participants to stay together for the duration of the event.
    9. Dogs: Check the box if you wish to allow dogs on your event.
    10. Attendee Parameters: Indicate who can attend the event:
        • Who's Invited: "Members and Guests" or "Members"
        • Age Restriction: Select the age restriction from your organization's pre-defined list
        • Maximum Group Size: The maximum number of attendees (including the coordinators)
        • Maximum Guests Size: The total number of guests accepted on this event
        • Minimum Group Size: The minimum number of registrants for the event to proceed
        • Maximum No Guests per Member: The number of guests you wish to allow any specific member to bring
    11. Itinerary: Enter any information relevant to your event. You may format this content using HTML.
    12. Required and Recommended Items to Bring. You may format this content using HTML.
    13. Location and Directions: The location of the actual event and how to get there.
    14. Travel (ie. Carpool). If your event is going to have a carpool, check the box and indicate:
        • Can attendees meet at event? If you want everyone to participate in the carpool, un-check the box
        • Carpool Location: Where is your carpool location
        • Total Km (round trip): Enter the total round trip kilometers. The web site calculates a recommended carpool amount based on this number times factors set for your organization for gas price and maintenance costs so please be sure your number is accurate
        • Carpool Directions: Directions to the carpool location (not the event). You may format this content using HTML.
    15. Cost:
        • If registrants need to make payment for the event through your organization, check the "Cost" box. Note that if you want to list cost information even though people DON'T pay through your organization, you may still enter it and it will show up on the itinerary with a notation that payment is to be made outside of your organization.
        • Member Cost: Enter the total amount that a member needs to pay
        • Non-Member Cost: Enter the total amount that a guest needs to pay
        • Cost Includes: Note what the cost includes, for example, fees, GST, etc. You may format this content using HTML.
    16. Voluntary Donation: IF your organization uses a Voluntary Donation model, you may enter the amount of the suggested donation for this event here
    17. Cancellation/Partial Attendance Statement: If you wish to include this type of note on your event details, enter it here. You may format this content using HTML.
    18. Additional Notes: If you wish to include additional notes, enter them here. You may format this content using HTML.
  • When you're done entering all event details, save your event (see below for various SAVE options)
  • Using your Add Member to Event link, add the event coordinator(s) to the event (assuming they will be attending the event themselves, which should be the case 99% of the time). You must do this step in order for the coordinator to show up as an attendee, including having the event appear in their history, and have the other attendees show up under their "Event Buddies".
  
  
• Splitting Off a Second Group (Same Event)
  There are a couple of features on the web site which facilitate splitting off a second group. This is mainly used when an event gathers a large waiting list.To use the web site to split off a new group:
  1. Copy the existing event, changing any required details.
  2. Before posting the event to the calendar, transfer the waiting list from the original event to the new event: Click Transfer Wait List in the Volunteers’ Area. Select the event to move the wait list from, and the event to move the wait list to. You may now post the new event to the calendar and add the coordinator, plus the desired number of people from the waiting list onto the new event.
  3. If there is still a large waiting list left over, use Split Wait List to split the waiting list between the two events, keeping everyone in priority sequence.
  
  
• Promo Photo
  Use this screen (under Manage Events) to upload a promotional photo for an upcoming event. This is the photo that will appear on the top-right of your event details. The recommended size for a promo photo is between 200 and 300 pixels wide - the web site won't automatically size the photo for you so you'll want to make it an appropriate size, and if you get it wrong the first time, you can fix it by uploading a new photo in a better size.
  
  
• Multi-Day Events
  If your event occurs on more than one day (ie. it runs from Friday 'til Sunday, or every Wednesday for four weeks), use the "Dates" screen to select all the dates that it occurs. This will ensure that the event is noted on your calendar for all of the dates. To do this:
  1. Create your event normally
  2. Click the "Dates" link on the Manage Events page
  3. Select all of the additional dates and save

Paid Events

When you have set up an event as 'pre-paid', the Treasurer will be able to record payments for anyone who has paid for the event. You can check who has paid under the "Coordinate", "Upcoming Events" page - click "Txns".

Saving Your Event

When you save your event, you can choose if you want to save the event as a DRAFT ONLY or if you want to post it DIRECTLY to the calendar. Saving it as a DRAFT allows you to review the details and making any required changes before actually posting it.

When you decide to post the event to the calendar, you may be given the option of sending notifications to subscribing members:
- If your organization has chosen to allow notifications for all events, you will always be given the option
- If your organization has chosen to allow notifications only for events posted with short notice, you will be able to send notifications only if your event starts in the next week (or requires pre-payment).
Note that it can take a while for all the notifications to go out. They are sent out in batches of 100 every fifteen minutes or so, starting with the newest people in your club/organization.

If you save your event (draft or otherwise) and you don't see it in your "Add/Edit Future" list, check the other two lists ("Edit Past" and "Edit Cancelled (Past)"). If you accidentally set an event date that is not in the future (a common mistake, especially when copying a past event), the system will automatically plunk it into one of those lists. Another possibility is that the web site "timed out" while you were editing the event. After you "saved", were you still logged in to the site? An easy way to tell is if the log-in entry boxes (username and password) appear in the top left of your nav. If they DO it means your event was NOT saved. The web site times out after a certain amount of time - this is not a factor that we have control over. But, if this happens, it does NOT mean that you've lost all your work. Simply perform the following steps to get back and save it:

1. Log back in to the site
2. Use your browser's "Back" button until you get back to the screen where you data entered your event
3. Save again

Basic HTML

Knowing some basic HTML can help you in formatting your event Itineraries, Directions and Write-Ups. HTML code generally requires:

1. An opening tag that looks something like <tag> (where 'tag' is whatever HTML code you're using)
2. A closing tag that looks something like </tag> (note the slash, which tells the browser that this is the end of your HTML tag
3. Whatever the tag applies to, in between the opening and closing tags

Useful tags to use:

1. Paragraph tag: <P></P>: Used to create a new paragraph with a blank line between paragraphs. Example: <P>My Paragraph</P>
2. Line Break tag: <BR>: Use at the end of the line to start a new line WITHIN a paragraph. This tag does NOT require a closing tag. Example: <BR>This goes on a new line
3. Text alignment: <CENTER></CENTER> - Center text. Example: <CENTER>This text will be centered</CENTER>
4. Text formatting (bold, italics, warning):
   1. Bold text: <B></B> Example: <B>My Important Text</B>
   2. Italic text: <I></I> Example: <I>My Supplemental Text</I>
   3. Underline text: <U></U> Example: <U>My Underlined Text</U> NOTE that this tag should be used sparingly, if at all. People expect underlined text to be a hyperlink. Underlining your text does NOT create a hyperlink. See below for how to create a hyperlink.
   4. COC's custom red/bold 'warning' text: <FONT CLASS=WARNING></FONT> - Create red, bold text for warnings or important instructions. <FONT CLASS=WARNING>This will be red and bold</FONT>
5. Hyperlinks: When you want to link your page to another site (opening on a blank/separate page), you can make an active hyperlink by using an anchor tag. Anchor tags look like:
   <A HREF="http://www.something.com" target="_blank">name of the page you're linking to</A>. Example: <A HREF="http://www.andwa.com" target="_blank">Andwa Consulting</A>

More resources:

1. HTML Reference Guide.
2. w3schools.com HTML Tutorial. The sections that will be most relevant to you are "Basics", "Elements", "Paragraphs", "Links", and "Lists".
3. Great online HTML Editor. Use it to create your itinerary, then use the directions provided to get your HTML code which you can copy and paste directly into your itinerary!

WARNING Beware of sloppy HTML! If you don't create and close your HTML tags properly, although the page may look ok in your browser, other browsers may not be as forgiving with correcting your mistakes for you and your page may end up looking awful or hard to read. For example, if you use the tag <font class="warning"> but you don't put the closing tag exactly as </font> (maybe you put <font> or <font/> instead), on IE, your red bold text will still end in the right place, but people viewing the site with Firefox, Safari, or other browsers will see everything from that point on also in red. If you're not sure if your HTML is set up right, try viewing your event page in a browser other than IE (or get a friend to do it). Remember, if you have an opening tag <tag> then you probably need a closing tag </tag> (the <br /> tag is one of the exceptions)