Event Coordinator: Organizating/Running An Event

Thank you for offering to organize an event for our group. While each event is different, there are large amounts of communality across most events, particularly events like dinners. This page will hopefully help you in getting your event together and having it run as smoothly as possible

Step 1: Thinking about new events

While we have done many different events over the years, some popular and some that turned out to be not-so-popular, new events and/or different venues are always welcome. Feel free to suggest events such as horseback riding, boating, archery, etc. (all of which we have done in the past), and anything new that you find which merits interest. However, please do not suggest any event which consists primarily of gambling.

Step 2: Researching The Event And Venue

Before presenting your proposed event for inclusion into the Newsletter, it's best to find out some preliminary info about the event and it's associated venue. This info may include, but will not be limited to:
Venue location (includes Directions, Available Parking, Safeness of Neighborhood, Size and Ambiance of Venue, etc.). If you plan to have a combo event (e.g. Japanese Dinner w/ Italian Dessert to follow, you should familiarize yourself with all venues involved).
Event Type: Usually Self-Evident, such as a dinner, a dance, an outing/hike (like a botanical garden visit), an outdoor concert, and so on. Obviously this is pretty important info, and will be incorporated in the listing's category title on the Newsletter.
Event Cost and Maximum Number of People: This info can be very important as some people have strict budgets, and may not be able to attend due to that. An obvious rule is the more expensive the event, the less people will attend, so keep that in mind when considering events. Also note that some venues simply cannot seat more than a certain number of people, especially on popular nights or during holidays, so you may have to affirm the maximum number of attendees first with the venue before presenting the event (in order that a warning along the lines of 'Limited Seating' or 'Reservations Restricted to First 20' can be appended to the Newsletter listing). At this point, consider that you may have to call months in advance to reserve any seats at a given venue, particularly for a special event. This leads into the two diametric opposites of event reservations:
The first being an any event with no ceiling on attendance (such as a hike or a museum outing), so that you, the coordinator, need not concern yourself with the number of attendees.
The second is 'pre-paid' block reservation, where you as coordinator have to pre-purchase seats or reservations, and hold them for group members to request and purchase the seats from you - this can be problematic, as if not enough people are interested you are stuck with unsold seats which you probably won't be able to return (although the Annual Holloween Party does work this way, usually the number of seats is underestimated and people are turned away). Please note that OLBS will NOT be able to repurchase your unsold tickets, so this type of type of event is NOT recommended, especially for a 'novice' event coordinator.

Step 3: Present the event to the Newsletter Committee.

At a minimum, for a Newsletter listing the event type, date & time, venue name & location, and your preferred method of contact (usually by phone) must be presented - additional information such as cost, duration, special items (like 'open bar') are useful but are not critical and will not prevent publication if lacking.
If the event requires a reservation, then you need to set a date by which the attendee must call and reserve by (RSVP date), and consequently the listing will include the phrase 'Info & RSVP', the contact info, and the RSVP date. If the event does not require a reservation, then only the phrase 'Info' and the contact info will appear in the listing. When setting a event start time, consider that people are sometimes delayed or tend to be late - if you are reserving an event with a particular start time, you may wish to account for this arrival time 'uncertainly' by setting the listed start time a little earlier, say 15 or 30 minutes earlier (e.g. for dinner reservations for 8:30PM, then request the newsletter list the start time as 8:00PM or 8:15PM depending on the location, ease of parking, etc.)
Potential events should be presented at the Monthly planning meetings, but if this impossible then the Newsletter Committee will accept either a written notice containing the critical info mentioned above (again, Event Type, Date & Time, Venue Name/Location, and Contact/RSVP date) presented prior to the next planning meeting (in reality, this means somebody else attending the meeting will bring in your written event information); or an e-mailed notice with the same critical information, again sent prior to the next planning (the e-mail should be sent to [email protected]). No phone messages/presentations can be accepted.
For people attending the planning meeting, while its preferred that you again have all the critical information as mentioned above, if you are lacking the venue name/location, the event will be added tentatively if you can get the required info to the designated member of the Newsletter Committee by the next weekend following the planning meeting - Unfortunately, at this time, this courtesy cannot be extended to those who e-mailed or tendered a written event notice.
Note that the Newsletter Committee reserves the right to reject events, but the event presenter does has the right to be informed of the reason for rejection.

Step 4: Prepare For The Event

This step consists of:
Making the Reservations for the Event (if applicable) and then (if thought necessary) follow up by seeing if the venue still exists and the event can still occur (there have been several instances in the past when, between the time the event was planned and the time of the event, the venue closed down and alternative ideas had to be thought of on the fly).
Getting the Word Out with regards to the Event: OLBS Event advertising is somewhat ad-hoc, and there is no guarantee that anyone on the Newsletter Committee will submit notice of your event. You are generally tasked with advertising the event yourself, and so you may need to consult the "Getting The Word Out" for information on what may or may-not work.
Fielding Calls and e-mails of Interested Potential Attendees: In addition to basic information about the event and it's venue, you may be asked by interested persons for more information about the group itself, in which case (if you are somewhat unfamiliar with said info yourself), you can get the information from the Who We Are page if you are uncomfortable 'winging' the response from your own knowledge.

Step 5: Run The Event

Finally, the event itself arrives. Hopefully this event is something you have been looking forward to yourself. Arrive on time (or somewhat earlier) to greet the attendees as they arrive. If its a venue that required reservations, check in with the venue manager to make sure everything is in order (and if not, get an estimate of the delay).
Ideally you should have several extra copies of the current month's newsletter to pass out to NEW attendees - give them one (and only one) complimentary newsletter - don't give people who show up at multiple events, as they should become members of OLBS anyway).
Be aware that, in general, of a group of 20 'confirmed' attendees, at least 1 or 2 will simply not show up (even at events in which people pre-purchased tickets, sometimes one or two may not make it, and end up wasting their payment).
Check/Bill payments can sometimes be difficult, and some suggestions in dealing with them can be found Here

Canceling An Event

As an Event Coordinator, you are entitled to cancel an event for several reasons; inclement weather (meaning heavy snowstorms, or gale-like conditions); the venue closed down unexpectedly (as mentioned in Step 4 above - this happens more than you'd think, due to health law violations, tax problems, or just plain lack of profit); and if less than a minimum number of people have RSVP/indicated they will attend (this number varies at the discretion of the Coordinator, but may run as low as 5 or 6 attendees). In all cases, the Coordinator should make every attempt to contact the people who said they would attend to inform them of the decision to cancel.

Afterthoughts...

Remember, complex as it may seem, running an event really isn't difficult, and the above will become second nature after you've coordinated a few events. If this is your first event, it's always best to at least know what's expected of you before going in.

So, how on earth did the group ever get along all these years without these 'guidelines' - well, people who had experience in running events eventually learned (by trial and error) what worked and what didn't; later, new people who offered to run events were usually advised by the experienced people (which is in effect what this Event Coordinator Info page tries to do); and throughout the years some events didn't work out all that smoothly, and so became the topic of legends and humorous anecdotes...

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