Seminar Committee

The Seminar Committee chair is responsible for forming the committee that is charged with defining the seminar agenda.  The chair schedules all necessary meetings with the committee to discuss potential seminar topics and presenter(s).  The committee sets the agenda for the year.  The chair typically coordinates with the presenter(s) the topic, date and time of the seminar and then makes sure this information is included in the seminar scheduling and registration.  In addition, the chair hosts the seminars on the day/time they take place and follows up with evaluations/feedback after the seminar is over.

The chair can delegate any of these responsibilities to others as appropriate or necessary.

Note:  To find members who are interested in serving on the Seminar Committee search the ASURA membership for members who have indicated an interest to serve on this committee.  See the Find ASURA volunteer document for information on how to perform the search.

Coordination with the presenter(s) is a key component to insuring a successful seminar!  The following are suggestions for communicating with the seminar presenter(s) once the agenda has been set.

• Initial contact with the presenter(s) should be made at least 3-4 months prior to the seminar (if possible).
• Confirm with the presenter(s) that he/she is available on the day/time scheduled and the topic is within the presenter(s) expertise.
• Request a short bio and seminar blurb that will be used in the announcements for the seminar and the introduction the day of the seminar.
• At least 1 ½ months prior to the seminar, follow-up with the presenter(s) to confirm he/she is still available and able to present.  Discuss logistics of the seminar (in-person/virtual) and/or special needs.
• The week before the seminar, follow-up with the presenter to once again confirm he/she will be there the day of the seminar, pass on the Zoom link (if the seminar is virtual), directions to the Community Services Building (if the seminar is in-person) and confirm any other special needs.
• The day before the seminar, follow-up one last time to confirm everything is set.
• The day of the seminar, after the seminar has completed, send the presenter(s) a “thank you” note thanking the presenter(s) for his/her time.

The chair is free to delegate any or all of the responsibilities outlined above.  It would, however, be nice if the chair sent the "thank you" note to the presenter(s).

Seminar scheduling requires several different things to be taken into consideration.  A great resource for determining what is needed for scheduling a seminar can be found on the Event Process page of this site.  This page contains the information needed to prepare for the seminar as well as advertising and managing the seminar.  The event creation, advertising and managing the event procedures on Wild Apricot can be found at Create an Event under Tools-Resources.  These tasks can be delegated as the chair sees fit. 

You will need to have the following information available before starting the event creation process:

• Seminar description.
• Date, time and location of the seminar.
• A graphic for the event (See “Getting started” of the event process instructions for more information on the graphic.).
• Virtual seminar – Zoom meeting link for the reminder emails

Virtual seminars will need to have a Zoom meeting defined so a link can be generated.  ASURA has their own Zoom account that is used for virtual seminars.  Login into Zoom using the ASURA Zoom credentials. An email should be sent to the ASURA email account to obtain the current password for the Zoom account (if you don't already have it).

The chair, or the chair’s delegate, is the host for the seminar.  The day of the seminar the chair/host is responsible for the following:

• Virtual seminars – Start the Zoom session at least 15 minutes prior to the seminar starting time.  Start recording the Zoom session just prior to beginning the welcome/introductions for the seminar.  Instruct attendees to mute themselves during the seminar and post any questions in the chat area of the Zoom meeting. Stop the recording at the end of the seminar.
• In-Person seminars – Make sure any equipment that will be used is ready and available. NOTE:  Currently in-person seminars are being held in CSB 203A utilizing the equipment that is used to connect to Zoom for the Board meetings.
• Welcome the attendees and introduce the presenter(s).
• Virtual seminar – Monitor the chat for questions (This is a good task to delegate so the host can focus on the seminar.).
• Thank the presenter(s) when the seminar is over, as well as thank the attendees for participating.

Seminar evaluation forms are generated by using Google Forms.  Login to Google.com using the ASURA Google account.  You will need to send an email to the ASURA email account to obtain access to the ASURA Google account (if you don't already have it).

1. Select “Forms” from the Google apps icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen (the dotted grid next to the ASURA logo). 
2. Select the “Seminar Evaluation Form – Template” found in the “Seminar Evaluation Forms” folder under “Drive”.
3. Click on he three vertical dots located next to the ASURA logo and select “Make a copy”
4. Enter the name of the seminar the evaluation is for using the following format – yyyy-mm-dd Seminar Evaluation Form Leave the default folder as Seminar Evaluation Forms.
5. Update the seminar date and name of the seminar on the form where indicated.
6. Click on the “Send” button to get the link that will be used in the email.
   1. Click on the “Link” icon
   2. Check the “Shorten URL” box.
   3. Click on “Copy” to copy the link
   4. Click Cancel

The next step is to email the link to the evaluation form to all who registered for the seminar.

1. Logon to Wild Apricot and select “Events”.
2. Set the filter to filter by “Past” events.
3. Select the event that you wish to send the evaluation form.
4. At the top of the page, click on “Email registrants”
5. Select the “ASURA Seminar Evaluation” email template.
6. Update the template with the seminar name and date where indicated.
7. Highlight “Seminar Evaluation Form” text and add the link for the Google form copied in the Step 6 above.
8. Click on “Preview” and send a test email (which will go to your default email account) to verify the correct seminar name and date are entered and that the link to the evaluation form is working properly.
9. Click on the “Recipients” tab.  Be sure “Current even registrants” is in the recipients box.
10. Next click on the “Review and send” tab to send the email.

Review responses by logging into Google using the ASURA Google account and selecting the “Responses” tab.

NOTE:  You can create a new evaluation template by following the instructions in "Using Google forms"

• Send a “thank you” email to the presenter(s)
• Virtual seminar *
  1. Send an email to the people who registered with the link to submit an online seminar. evaluation. This is done using the “Email registrants” option within the Wild Apricot. events module. See “Seminar Evaluation” for instructions on how to create the online seminar evaluation.
  2. Download the recording from Zoom to your local hard drive.
  3. Create the YouTube video from the Zoom recording.  You will need to get the YouTube account/password by sending an email to the ASURA email account (if you don't already have it).
  4. Delete the recording from Zoom once the YouTube video has been made and saved.
• Create a past events  page on the ASURA website to document the event. See "Add-edit event report" for information on how to create this page. *
• Wite-up an article on the seminar for PrimeTimes.

* These tasks can be delegated depending on your comfort level working with the technology tools.