Events Guide

Creating Events

To create a new event (Administrators only):

1. Go to Events
2. Click "New Event"
3. Fill in the event details:
   • Name - e.g., "Sunday Morning Zazen"
   • Description - Details about the event
   • Date and time - Start and end times
   • Location - Select from your saved locations
   • Registration deadline - Optional cutoff for signups
4. Add positions needed for the event
5. Save as draft or publish immediately

Event Statuses

Events move through three statuses:

Tip: Create events as drafts while you're still finalizing details, then publish when ready.

Coordinator-Managed Events

For events like sesshins or retreats where positions are assigned by coordinators rather than self-selected, enable the "Coordinator managed" setting.

How It Works

When an event is coordinator-managed:

• Members cannot sign up directly using "I'll serve" or "I'll train" buttons
• Coordinators and administrators assign or invite members to positions
• Members who are assigned can still cancel their signup if needed
• Coordinators can still sign themselves up if they need to fill a position

Enabling Coordinator-Managed

When creating or editing an event, check "Coordinator managed" in the Signup Settings section. This applies to all positions on the event uniformly.

When to Use

• Sesshins - Multi-day retreats where positions are carefully planned
• Special events - Ceremonies or occasions requiring specific assignments
• Training events - Where coordinators want control over who serves where

Tip: For regular weekly practice where members freely sign up, leave this setting off.

Recurring Events

For events that repeat regularly, check "This event repeats" when creating the event. You can choose from three recurrence patterns:

Daily

Event repeats every day at the same time.

Weekly

Event repeats on specific days of the week. For example, every Monday and Wednesday.

Monthly

Event repeats monthly, with options for:

• Same day of month - e.g., the 15th of each month
• Nth weekday - e.g., the 2nd Tuesday of each month
• Last weekday - e.g., the last Saturday of each month

All recurring events require an end date. This helps keep your schedule organized and prevents infinite occurrences.

Adding Positions to Events

When creating or editing an event, you'll see a section for positions. For each position you add:

• Capacity - How many people you need for this position
• Training capacity - How many trainees can sign up (separate from regular capacity)

Common positions appear by default. Click "Show specialized positions" to add less frequently used ones, or "Add one-time position" for ad-hoc needs.

Essential Positions

Mark positions as essential to highlight critical roles that must be filled for the event to run smoothly.

When adding positions to an event, click the star icon (★) next to any position to mark it as essential. Essential positions are highlighted in orange.

Dashboard Alerts

Coordinators and administrators see a badge on the dashboard showing how many essential positions remain unfilled for each event. This helps prioritize outreach to fill critical roles.

Essential by Default

When creating positions, you can enable "Essential by default" to automatically pre-check the essential star when that position is added to new events. This saves time for positions that are always critical.

Tip: Use essential marking sparingly for truly critical roles. If every position is marked essential, the alerts become less useful.

Per-Occurrence Signups

For recurring events, members sign up for individual occurrences, not the entire series. This means:

• Signing up for June 1st doesn't sign you up for June 8th
• Each occurrence tracks its own signups separately
• Capacity is checked per-occurrence

The dashboard shows the next 4 weeks of occurrences for recurring events, each displayed as a separate item.

Cloning Events

The Clone feature copies an event's settings to create a new event. This copies:

• Name and description
• Location
• All positions and their capacities
• Recurring settings (if applicable)

Tip: Great for creating similar events that differ only in date/time, or for recreating an annual event.

Event Attachments

Attach files to events for schedules, reading materials, or other event-specific documents.

• Upload files - PDF, Word, images (up to 10MB)
• Link external files - Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.

Control visibility with these settings:

• All members - Everyone can see
• Signed up members - Only those signed up for the event
• Coordinators & Admins - Leadership only
• Admins only - Administrators only

Training Capacity

To allow trainees to sign up for training, enable "Allow training signups" when creating the event.

Training capacity is separate from regular capacity. For example, if you need 2 people for a position but want to allow 1 trainee, set:

• Capacity: 2
• Training capacity: 1

Training signups don't count against regular capacity, so the total people could be 3 (2 serving + 1 training).