Event process

While each committee has a different product the process used by each committees shares some common elements which make up the ASURA Event process.

Overview of event process

While each event type has its own set of tasks there is a common flow to the process. The process can be divided into three time frames: the time before registration opens, the time between open registration and the event, and the time after the event. The following material addresses some of the more common activities that occurs during each of these three time frames.

If you would like to get information on how a particular committee is actually doing its tasks click on the committee button of choice.

  • Review Luncheons and Special Events duties
  • Review Pre-retirement Seminar duties
  • Review Seminar duties
  • Review Travel duties

Pre-registration

These activities are done leading up to the opening of registration for the event.

One of the first tasks for a committee chair is to populate their committee. There are several ways to go about doing this.

  1. Contact the members of the previous year's committee
  2. Contact ASURA members you know
  3. Check the ASURA membership database to see who has indicated an interest in your committee. See Find ASURA Volunteer for instructions for doing this search.

Note: If you have difficulty in getting committee members contact the Event Committee Chair for help.

The step is done by the committee and while each event has its own unique planning requirements, at a minimum planning includes the following tasks:

  1. Establishing a date, time, registration restrictions, and venue. If you need to schedule a room on campus including CSB, contact the Office Coordinator.
  2. Creating a brief description of the event and outlines for event registration form if the event is a for fee event (sample)..
  3. Setting an event fee; see Setting Event Fees, ASURA Policy for guidelines in setting event fees. Note as of the fall of 2013 there is a $50 fee for using rooms in CSB if food is involved.
  4. Establishing the registration opening and closing dates, .
  5. Establishing the timing for the event's announcements.

Once the parameters for an event have been defined, e.g, name, date, time, location, etc. a committee chair has the responsibility to see that the event is added to Wild Apricot. Wild Apricot's event creation module has six tabs where various tasks are done. The material on the right explains what has to be done in each tab.

The chronology of creating an event on WA is:

  1. Create an event webpage - See Event details tab
  2. Create an online registration form - Registration form tab
  3. Define registration restrictions, including the maximum number of registrants, who can register, cost (if any), and registration open and closing dates (if any) - Registration types & settings tab
  4. Make the event public and open registration
  5. Create a series of email announcements - Emails tab

What a chair does depends on the chair's confidence in working with Wild Apricot and can range from doing everything down to asking the Events Committee Chair or chair designee to do everything. The ASURA goal is to have the event chairs take on more  of the Wild Apricot tasks as they gain confidence.

See help on creating event 
 

Registration to event

The following activities take place from the time the event opens registration up to the start of the event.

The ASURA policy on advertising indicates that most event advertising is done via Wild Apricot generated emails, e.g., event announcements and E-News. Events are also advertised in Prime Times which is sent by US Postal mail to members who do not want email announcements or do not have email accounts. Each of these methods is a little different and the event chair has different responsibilities for each method as outlined below.

  • Wild Apricot event announcements

    This is the most used method for advertising events and involves creating a set of event announcement emails. See Create event on Wild Apricot page.
  • Prime Times

    Prime Times is published three times a year and it is the event chair's responsibility to get a short event write-up to the Prime Times editors in time for the next publication. See Prime Times Deadlines for submission deadlines.
  • E-News

    E-News is a once monthly electronic news letter sent out by the ASURA Board. In addition to Board news, the letter includes a calendar of events, both ASURA and Affiliated Events. The chair of the Events Committee or the Event Chair's designee has the responsibility of sending an updated calendar to the E-News editor. E-News generally comes out shortly after each Board Meeting.
  • Email blasts

    Occasionally the event announcements are not enough or appropriate and you need to send an email to the members. This can be done using an Email Blast. See  Email and Distribution Lists for step by step instruction in sending blasts.

It is important to not bombard members with emails; the desire would be to not have more than two event related emails in any one week. This is generally not a problem but when there are multiple events in the same month it takes a little planning to try and meet this goal. If you are planning a new event you should check with the Events committee chair to see how best to schedule your announcements.

Some events require purchases. How this is handled depends on the size of the purchase and whether the chair has an ASURA credit card.

  1. For small purchases, e.g., cookies, water, pencils, etc. the event chair purchases the items and submits a receipt to the Business Manager to receive a refund.
  2. Currently, for larger purchases, e.g., pizzas, venue rent, bus rental, etc., the chair contacts the vendor / merchant to get the name of the person the Business Manager can contact to pay with her/his ASURA credit card.
  3. If the chair is making a number of larger purchases with different vendors / merchants, it is possible to request an ASURA credit card from the Business Manager. (see ASURA credit card process)

There are several registration related tasks, some small, some not so small, that need to be accomplished as you get ready for the event. Committee Chairs often call upon the assistance from the ASURA Office for help in executing these tasks. Listed below are several of the more common tasks with links to material on how to accomplish the task.

  1. You may want to add an attendee or modify an attendee's registration; the best thing to do is to call the ASURA Office and ask them to make the changes. As part of the Office registration process they routinely add event attendees who chose to use the mail-in registration form or to call in rather than registering online. If you would like to see how this is done, go to the Event registration tasks page.
  2. You will want to monitor registration; this should be done at least weekly. If the event has a registration limit you may want to adjust this limit and or implement the waitlist. For information on doing this see Event registration tasks page.
  3. It is often necessary or desirable to generate a list of attendees or count on registration items, e.g., number who wanted chicken. See Event registration tasks for information on how to generate these reports.

  1. If you have not already done so you will want to make arrangements to have a photographer for the event.
  2. You will want to have a registration table at the event and the ASURA Office can help you with this task including making making name tags if that seems appropriate.
  3. If you are using the audio video equipment in CSB 330 you will want to make sure the equipment is functioning properly. See Using Equipment in CSB 330-332 for help.

Post event

After the event the event organizer should:

  1. Ask the event photographer to either upload the event pictures to the ASURA Photo Gallery or to send them to either ASURA Technology Manager, the Events Committee Chair, or their designee. 
  2. Prepare a short story about the event and send it to the the Prime Times editor (Prime Times Deadlines) as well as to the Events Chair or the Events Chair's designee.
  3. Add the report to the ASURA websites event reports. See Add-edit Events Reports for instructions for doing this.

Updated by Connie McNeill 26 July 2024

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