Introduction

We need to ensure that no matter who creates them, events are consistently entered, to present a uniform, professional appearance to the public.   No matter whether you are entering details of a branch meeting, or a specialist course in DNA, all events come together on various graphical listing pages.   While they can and should differ in content, they must follow a consistent style.  If you follow the steps laid out in this guide, you will achieve that.

These instructions have been condensed into an Event Creation Checklist that you should print and use to check off items as you complete them every time you create an event. You can download the checklist from the Volunteers’ Corner > Events menu. 

Please use the checklist – almost every error that has to be corrected after an event has been created could have been avoided if the checklist had been used.

Please remember!

1. Use the Help system
2. Use the Checklist every time
3. Ask the webmasters for help if you’re still not sure

We’d rather spend time helping you get it right beforehand than sorting it out when bookings are taking place. The only stupid question is the one that isn’t asked!

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Preparation

Introduction

Adding a new event requires some prep work before you start to create the event.  Some of these steps may require input from others, so do make sure you allow adequate time for them to respond

Sourcing/editing an Event Image

Intro

Every event needs an image, exactly 300 x 300px including a 5px shadow on all sides. This section explains how to source and edit one to meet those requirements.

 

Copyright

Whatever the source, all images must be copyright free or have permission to use.  Do not assume that because an image is published on the internet that it may be freely copied.  That is rarely the case.

 

Of course if you created the image yourself then you’re free to use it wherever you want.  If you use it on our site you are deemed to have given your consent to for the Society to use it.

 

You may have access to specialist imagery relating to your event. That’s fine as long as it’s free to use.

 

You may want some help in sourcing an image.  The Society has access to a source of professional imagery at no cost.  If you preselect an image, the web team can source it for you.

Find

Re-use

Before you look for a new image check whether there is something in the media  library that could be re-used. To access it, login to the site and then follow these steps:

 

 

 

Find by search

1. Go to depositphotos
2. Use this option to search for an item by keyword.  Tip: Less is more – keep your search term simple e.g. “Church Berkshire England” not  “Parish churches near Reading Berkshire England”
3. Tip: Don’t be surprised to see results that are way off base.  Some people add the strangest keywords to their images, and the system also searches for every word in your search string independently.  You can force it to match the entire search term instead by enclosing it in double quotes e.g. “Berkshire Church.”  That will reduce but not eliminate the mismatches
   
4. When the results display you will see a set of controls in the left-hand panel.  Please make sure to set the following option… because we are not allowed to use any image that is marked “Editorial Use only,” for licensing reasons.
5. If you find an image that you like, you need to record the details (see below.)

 

Record the details

1. Selecting the image will bring up this screen. 
2. Look for the File Info link
3. Record that number and submit it to the web team using this contact form.
4. They will source the image and send it to you.  Please note: this takes a little time so please give them a few days to respond.

Crop v Resize

If you’re new to this, the difference between crop and resize needs some explanation.

 

Crop

You crop an image to remove unimportant parts, to make the image more relevant to your usage and to give it more impact.  If you have sourced a professional image, it is probably already suitably cropped, although it still might need some adjustment for your specific need.  If the image is yours and wasn’t taken for this specific purpose it may well need some cropping.  Events images must be cropped square

 

Resize

Resizing changes the physical size of your image.  So does cropping, but only by removing content.  Resizing retains all the content of the original* but shrinks the size.  We use our images online so the important measure of size is pixels – the tiny dots that make up your screen’s display.

 

*technically that’s not accurate.  Resizing does discard some detail but at the small sizes we will be using that doesn’t matter in any practical sense.

 

Think of it as the Goldilocks principle: neither too big nor too small but just right.  Too big and the server has to resize them on the fly which slows the site down; too small and the server has to upsize them and they will look grainy.

 

For Events, the image size must be exactly 300 x 300px

 

 

Add Shadow

Images with a hard border can look “flat” and uninteresting. To increase visual appeal we need to make them “pop” from the page.  On the previous site we achieved this by adding coloured outlines, but modern website tools allow us to produce much more subtle and effective effects.  Note: the overall size of 300 x 300 px includes the shadow

 

There’s a simple way to do all of this

The three processes (crop, resize and add shadow) can be carried out together in one continuous set of actions in the befunky editor

Crop

befunky is a simple online tool that will do all this with a few clicks.  Click the image to go to their free online image editor, and then follow the steps below. Do that,  and we’ll get the consistent images we need. 

 

 

Load the image into the befunky editor

 

Crop to the main subject

Here’s an example.  One of our volunteers examining a parish register with UV light

 

 

We’ll do the cropping first because that will remove pixels (px).  If we resize first and then crop, we could end up to with too few px.

 

 

 

The grid is divided into thirds because of one of imagery’s basic concepts, the “Rule of Thirds” which is a compositional guide that photographers use.

 

An image has more impact if the main subjects or significant features in the image are placed along one of more of these grid-lines in either or both planes.  There’s much more to it than that, but we don’t need any more for our purposes. Let’s apply it here.

 

NOTE:  IN THE REMAING INSTRUCTIONS SOME OF THE EXAMPLE IMAGES WILL BE LANDSCAPE.  SINCE THIS HELP WAS CREATED WE HAVE DECIDED TO USE SQUARE IMAGES

 

 

 

That’s better

 

 

Cropping is a subjective topic and there’s seldom a “correct” answer but if you follow these guidelines you should produce a reasonable effect.  Now we need to resize it for the web because it’s still too big.

Resize

Add shadow

Adding a shadow has several benefits:

1. It softens the hard border, making it more attractive
2. When there are areas of white around the perimeter, it frames the image
3. It has the effect of making the image “pop” from the page, which helps grab the viewer’s attention

 

Save the final version

Venues (Locations)

Our regular venues such as the Centre and the Branch Meeting locations are pre-populated in the system. 

 

New locations can be created on-the-fly whilst adding the event.  You will need:

• Venue name
• Full address and post code
• For hard-to-find locations you will need specifc instructions (one excellent way to provide satnav instructions is to use What3Words) which is far more accurate than a post code, and far easier to use than  a set of GPS coordinates (although the system will do its best to derive the best match it can from the address details)
• Accessibility information including blue-badge-parking details

Speaker Bios

Speaker bios increase the visual appeal of events listings and can cause an uptick in bookings.   They don’t have to be created from scratch each time – you can use predefined ones stored in the system.  If you are using a new speaker you need to ask them to provide you with their bio, preferably before you create the event, although you can add it later. 

 

A bio should comprise a headshot photo (preferably colour) plus a couple of short paragraphs that describe what the speaker brings to the subject.

 

GDPR

GDPR requires the speaker’s explicit permission to publish this information.  An email will suffice.  But it must give explicit consent for publication.  While there are fields provided for the purpose, you must never publish the speaker’s phone or email address

 

 

(A) Name

This is the name/title by which a speaker is known – see the example at (H)

 

(B) Slug

Ignore

 

(C) Description

A couple of paragraphs explaining the speaker’s background and expertise.  They will often supply this for you.  But we don’t want War & Peace – just a couple of short paragraphs, please.

 

(D) Job Title

This is especially useful when the speaker’s profession is relevant to family history, for example if they are a County Archivist.  Whether there’s any benefit in stating a speaker’s position within the society is debatable.

 

(E) Tel / Email

Do not use these fields. We must not publish personal contact information, regardless of whether the speaker has consented to it, because this information can be mined by spam bots.

 

(F) Social media links

These are not essential but they add credibility to the speaker’s bio, and help publicise our event too.

 

(G) Thumbnail

This is not essential but it enhances the event listing by adding an image to the speaker’s entry.  It only needs to be a thumbnail

 

(F) Speaker

Hover over the speaker name and a small menu will appear:

 

 

You can ignore Quick Edit. For these simple records, Edit is just as quick.

 

Edits will be immediately applied to all existing events associated with this speaker

Accessing the Events System

Log in to the web site using your usual username and password

 

A panel will open on the left

 

 

You will access:

1. Modern Events Calendar to:
   • Manage Events (A)
   • Add Events (B)
   • Manage Locations (C)
   • Manage Organisers (D)
   • Manage Speakers (E)
2. Bookings to manage all bookings

 

Each of these functions will be explained as they occur in the Create-to-Booked events lifecycle.

Add an event

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Advanced Event Topics

All Events View

This master listing of all events is where the majority of the day-to-day tasks are carried out, by acting on a individual item, or selecting one or more items for bulk action.

 

All Events List – Page Format

You can change the layout of the listing page to suit your working needs, and the following settings are recommended (see screenshot and notes):

 

 

(1) Screen options

Click here to reveal the options

 

(2) Columns

Select All

 

(3) Pagination

You will find a much higher number will result in fewer pages and make it easier to see events at a glance.  Choose what suits you best – 999 rows is the maximum. 

 

(4) View Mode

Use List View because we don’t apply excerpts to our events, so that view will be meaningless.

 

List View

When you are in list view you can take actions on individual items using the small menu that appears when you hover over an event name or you can select one or more items using the check boxes on the left and apply bulk actions to them.

Duplicate Event

Duplicating events is useful when you’re creating series of events such as Branch Meetings, Talks or 544 offers.

 

 

After you have duplicated the event you will need to edit the duplicate(s) to tweak the dates and details.  You can keep them all in draft or pending mode until you are ready to publish them

Pending Items

One the most important tasks is the publishing of pending events so they become visible to the public.  Event Managers can self-publish as part of the process of creating an event, but teh task can also be carried out independently.  You can do them one-by-one (which allows you to check each one prior to publication) or en bloc.  You can also review them individually and publish them en bloc. 

 

 

You can identify which line items are pending from the label that is applied to each one (A) but they may be interspersed with published items.

 

To quickly filter the view to select only Pending items, click on the link shown at (B)

Quick Edit

Edit

The Edit option allows you to perform an edit on any part of the event information before or safter publication.   The screens operate in exactly the same way as the initial event entry screens, as described above.

Bin

Bin does exactly what it says and moves Events  to the bin, which means they are no longer published.  They are not just invisible because they have expired, they have been moved to the trash can.  They can be restored from there if needed but, neverthless, extreme care should be taken when using the Bin option.

 

(Note:  items in the bin can be permanently deleted, but this task is best left to the webmaster)

View

Does exactly what it says and allows you to preview the current edited version through the front end without publishing or updating it (based on current publication status, pending or published)

Update an Event’s Featured Image

You’ve entered a new event.  You thoroughly checked it before you published it, but when you view the event you see an issue with the image. Maybe it’s the wrong size or you forgot to add shading?  Here’s how you subsitute a new for old image.

 

Right proportions, just too big?

If the image is the correct proportions i.e the height and width in px are the same, but,  it is too big (>300px) you can fix it directly in WordPress without having to use any external tools or replace the image at all:

 

 

Replacing a Featured Image

To replace a Featured Image that has an error:

1. Create the replacement image
   1. When you do this you MUST give the replacement file a different name to the original, even if it is only adding -1 or -2 to the end of the name.  If you don’t the replacement will be seen as a copy of the original and will be ignored
2. Edit the Event
3. Select the featured image
4. Delete the orginal
5. Upload the replacement

Deleting the original image is an important step, without which the media library will become cluttered with unused images.  They will use capacity on our hosting plan that could result in having to pay more.

Recurring Events

Recurring Events

Events that repeat can be set up as a recurring (or repeating) event, in which case only one event is created but a recurrence pattern is defined so that it appears multiple times in the What’s On listing.  It’s especially suited to events like the Advice Clinics which occur on set dates such as the 3rd Thursday of the month, although other patterns are available. For example, the YourTrees workshops occur at irregular intervals and at different times of the day but, because everything else is the same, a recurring event is used.   Specific occurrences in a fixed pattern can be skipped, for example, if the day coincides with a public holiday. 

There are some conditions that must be met to qualify for a recurring event.

 

Conditions to qualify

1. Core elements of the event must be the same.  To be clear, this means that the following items cannot vary from occurrence to occurrence, because a change to any of them will affect every occurrence in the calendar:
   1. Title
   2. Location
   3. Cost
   4. Description
   5. Speaker
   6. Organiser
   7. Image
2. That said, if a change applies to every future recurrence, you can edit it.  So for example, if you need to add details to the description or change the ticket or location, you can do so.

These conditions make the recurring event type unsuitable for example, for Branch Meetings and the Potpourri Sessions, where the topic and speaker vary between occurrences.

 

How it works

It is probably best to get assistance from the webmasters if you want to set up a recurring event, because everything has to be just so for it to work, and you won’t be creating them frequently because they tend to be fire and forget.

This is how to set up a recurring event – see explanatory notes beneath the image:

 

 

(1) Select Events Details then (2) Event Repeating and tick box (3)

(4) There are several options for the recurrence pattern but for fixed days of the month choose Advanced

(5) This will enable you to choose a fixed day of the month such as the first Monday or third Thursday

(6) Ends Repeat allows you to specify when the recurrence should stop.

• • Never, will cause the event to roll over perpetually
  • On, will cause it to cease after a certain date
  • After, will cause it to cease after n occurrences

You can change this setting at any time during the event’s life cycle.

(7) You can limit the event to show only one (the next) item in the What’s On List.  It’s not recommended that you do so because if the next occurrence of an event such as an Advice Clinic is fully booked, the customer won’t be able to book a later session until the previous one has passed.

 

Skipping dates in the cycle

Select Event Details (8) then Exceptional Days (9)

This will allow you to create and maintain a list of dates on which the event will not recur, for example if the venue is closed (10) and (11)

 

Custom (recurrence)

The custom option allows you to add dates and times that bear no relation to each other at all – they can be completely adhoc

 

Zoom considerations

Special arrangements apply:

1. Individual Zoom meetings must be booked for each session
2. The details must not be entered into the event
3. Instead they should be sent to the attendees manually a few days before the event
4. Zoom’s  own recurring meeting function should not be used.  This is because recurring Zoom meetings are not listed in the Zoom meetings schedule by date so it is therefore highly probable that a double booking will be made by someone else looking for a meeting slot.

 

How recurring events appear to the user

The various events list on teh website will show as many events as you have allowed in the setup, terminating after a date, number of occurences or continuimg to infinity if that’s what you want; and also goverened by the ‘show only one occurrence’ setting.  So that part of the display is completely under your control and can vary from event to event.

 

Customer can select what date they want

Even if the ‘show only one occurrence’ setting is enabled, customers can see all occurrences on the booking form and can book any future occurrence, using this drop down.  This screenshot is also a good illutration of how random future dates abd times can be when the ‘Custom’ recurrence type is selected.

 

Bookings

Review bookings

(1) Bookings

(A) Bookings

Here you can review all the bookings that have been made on the system. 

 

Bookings made by Stripe should present few challenges but you scrutinise all bookings that have been made using the Non-card payment option.  These bookings will have originated from:

1. The Centre, where RA’s have entered a booking on behalf of a phone, postal or face-to-face customer (a proxy booking.) The RA who dealt with the order should have secured payment by cash, cheque or by card using a card machine so no action should be required
2. Online, through misuse of the online booking system by customers who have ignored the clearly posted warnings that the only payment method supported for online orders is a card payment via Stripe.  The customers were warned online that such orders would be rejected.*
   1. Before doing so it is advisable to check with the RAs to see if the customer made contact with them. 
   2. If they didn’t then the booking should be rejected.  You may decide that the customer should be given the benefit of the doubt and contact them.
      1. Perhaps they are accustomed to booking on line and paying by chaeque.  However, we cannot confirm such a booking until the the cheque has been cleared and you should advise the customer that the tickets may be sold out by the time that happens.  Paying by card online is the only way to guarantee a seat

*You may wonder why the non-Card option is present?  Wouldn’t it be easier to suppress that option?  Unfortunately the non-card option is necessary so that RA’s can enter proxy bookings for face-to-face bookings, and if it’s available for RA’s it’s available for everyone.

 

(B) Add booking

Techncially it’s possible for the BA to enter a proxy booking in the backend. But there’s little justification for doing so when the RAs can do it in the front end

Reporting

Events

Intro

The reporting options for Events are limited.  The most important information about an event is probably the attendee report but you won’t get that here – for that, you must go to Bookings.

 

When we think of a report we tend to think of a printed version or an export to Excel.  The problem with that is that in a dynamic content area such as Events, a report is out of date as soon as it is generated.

 

For most practical purposes therefore the best place to start is the Events List in the backend dashboard.  This is always up to date and much of the information you need can be seen here without printing any reports.  You can sort, filter and search, and display a graph of page hits.

 

The Events List

 

 

Access

In the Dashboard use options (1) and (2) to access the events list

 

Screen Options

The screen options section (3) is collapsed by default.  You open and close it using the option indicated by the line.  You can change the columns displayed in the main list using these check boxes.  For example, we have no repeating events in our system so I have chosen to omit that column in row (4).

 

You can set the number of items to show per page.  The default is 20, but you may choose whatever you prefer (5).  The system will also default to List View (6).  We don’t use Excerpts on our Events, so there is no value in using Excerpt View.

 

Once you have chosen your preferred settings, collapse this section of the screen to give you more working area.

 

Quick Filters (7)

This group of quick filters will filter the list to just those items with one click – useful if you want, for example, to see all the events that you have created

 

Data Filters (8) and (9)

These two filters will display drop down boxes allowing you to choose a month (8) or location (9).  Then press the filter button to select the items.

 

Search (10)

This will search not only the data in teh list but also the underlying events

 

Column Titles (11 x 3)

These three columns can be sorted into ascending or descending order by clicking once or twice on the column heading

 

Hits (12)

This is a  bit funky.  Click this number and you will be shown a time line of the page views which you’ll be able to correlate to the bookings to see how many people viewed the page and how many people actually booked a seat.

 

 

Creating Excel Workbooks

As well as using the dashboard, it’s also possible to create Excel outputs.  For Events, the Excel output offers little that the dashboard doesn’t but if you need a static report of all or a selection of events this is the way to do it.

These are the available fields:

• ID
• Title
• Start Date
• Start Time
• End Date
• End Time
• Event URL Link
• Location
• Organiser
• Organiser Tel
• Organiser Email
• Event Cost

If you want to produce reports of a subset of events, first use the techniques described above to make your selection.  Then proceed as follows.

 

 

(1) Whether or not you have used a filter, you need to decide which records to include in the Excel Report.  To select All (filtered) records, check this box, or if you want to be more selective, check the individual rows instead.

 

(2) Click here to reveal the drop down and select MS Excel Export (3). (You could also select CSV Export because it produce exactly the same output*).  Then press the apply button (4).  Your browser will respond with a dialogue box similar to this:

 

 

(1) Ignore the fact that this says “bookings.”  It is the events list.  You’ll notice that the file is a csv file not an xlsx file*

 

(2) You can choose which app to open the file with.  If you have a spreasheet application select that, because the source information is in row and column format which is ideally suited to a spreadsheet

 

(3) Depending on your operating system, browser and computer applications you may need to download the file and then open it independently,

 

Now you can use your spreadsheet features to configure the report the way you want it.

 

Notes:

1. The data is in CSV format and your spreadshhet may have issues with the formatting of some columns. e.g. Dates.  You will need to apply format types to these columns if you need to  sort them
2. Special characters are not treated correctly in the imported file*:

 

 

*These issues have been reported to the developers.

Booking

Intro

The most important information about an event is probably the attendee report and Bookings is where you will find it

 

When we think of a report we tend to think of a printed version or an export to Excel.  The problem with that is that in a dynamic content area such as Bookings, a report is out of date as soon as it is generated.

 

For most practical purposes, therefore, the best place to start is the Bookings List in the backend dashboard.  This is always up to date and much of the information you need can be seen here without printing any reports.  But you will need a printed version of the attendee list to use as a checklist at the door and for health and safety purposes.  

An exported list has one advantage over the screen view – it will give you a list of email addresses for the attendees 

 

The Bookings List

 

 

Access

In the Dashboard use options (1) to access the events list

 

Screen Options

The screen options section (2) is collapsed by default. For details of how to set screen options, see the Events section.

 

Quick Filter (3)

The quickest way to see all the bookings for an event is to click an occurrence of the event name in this column.

 

Data Filters (4) (5) and (6)

You can also select an event using this filter (4).  You have the option to selct only those tickets that are confirmed (5).  If you do that, the excel report will exclude bookings that have been cancelled.

Creating Excel Workbooks

As well as using the dashboard, it’s also possible to create Excel outputs.  For bookings, the Excel output can be used as the attendee list.  The available fields are:

• ID
• Event
• Date
• Ticket
• Transaction ID
• Total Price
• Name
• Email
• Confirmation
• Verification
• Name (unused)
• Email (unused)
• Terms and Conditions acceptance status
• phone number: for urgent contact
• Customer address (for bookings made offline)
• Access requirements
• Specific food allergies
• Advance information
• Attachments

 

 

 

To generate an attendees report, select the event (1) and a confirmation filter if you want one (2)

 

Whether or not you have used a filter, you need to decide which records to include in the Excel Report.  To select All (filtered) records, check this box (3) 

 

(4) Click here to reveal the drop-down and select CSV Export (5). (This differs to the Events report where we used the MS Excel Export option – in this case the CSV export is better.) Then press the apply button.  Your browser will respond with a dialogue box similar to this:

 

 

 

 

(1) You can choose which app to open the file with.  If you have a spreadsheet application select that, because the source information is in row and column format which is ideally suited to a spreadsheet

 

(2) Depending on your operating system, browser and computer applications you may need to download the file and then open it independently,

 

Now you can use your spreadsheet features to configure the report the way you want it.  Here’s an attendees report with some simple formatting applied:

 

 

Notes:

1. The data is in CSV format and your spreadsheet may have issues with the formatting of some columns. e.g. Dates.  You will need to apply format types to these columns if you need to  sort them
2. In this example, rejected bookings are included.  This is your choice but it might be useful to list rejected bookings, in case the person attends for some extraordinary reason!

*These issues have been reported to the developers.

Cancelling an event, refunds etc

Cancelling an event

When an event has to be cancelled, the temptation is to move the event to the bin.  Please don’t.  The original event is indexed by Google etc and binning it creates a search engine optimisation problem which harms our search engine reputation.

Instead, edit the event and then do this:

 

Then save the changes.  This will mark the event cancelled on our calendar, and update the search engines.

Issuing a coupon instead of a refund

If bookings have to be cancelled and refunds are necessary, the first and preferred option is to issue a coupon to use against a future booking.  There are two reasons:

1. To save money – when we issue a credit card refund we still have to pay the original Stripe charges.  If they rebook, we will have to pay charges for the new booking too.
2. For customer retention – If we issue a refund they may never rebook.  A coupon obliges them to book another event, and avoids Stripe charges.

Because payment was made in WooCommerce, that is where the coupon must be created.  Creating coupons requires some knowledge of WooCommerce so is best done by the webmasters.  Please email us  the following information:

1. The £ amount of the coupon
2. The date the coupon should expire.  This need to not be a short date if you don’t want it to be but we mustn’t have open ended coupons.  6 – 12 months is probably best
3. A list of the email addresses of the people to whom the coupon is to be made available – you can get that from the bookings list for the event

We will reply with a coupon code that you can send to the customers.  They need to enter this code during checkout.  It’s best you do this because you’re best placed to reply to any further questions.

 

Providing a refund

Refunds should beconsidered on their merits based on our terms and conditions which are:

 

“Cancellation of a booking

You must notify your intention to cancel by email (booking@berksfhs.org.uk). For a cancellation received two weeks or more before an event, the society will refund any associated payment in full.  If advice of cancellation is received less than two weeks before an event date, refund of any payment will be at the society’s sole discretion, dependent on the financial commitment already entered into for that event.

 

Substitute attendees

A substitute may attend in your place if you are unable to take part in an event for which you have booked a place.  These terms and conditions also apply to that individual. If that attendee is not a current society member, they will need to meet any difference in cost of attendance.”

 

Our “discretion” may extend to issuing a coupon against a future booking but most companies running events will not provide refunds for last minute cancellations or no shows. If our preferred option of a coupon is not appropriate to the circumstances we might issue a refund.  You may be able to do this yourself – if not, ask the webmasters to do it for you.  In the WordPress dashboard look for the option for WooCommerce.  If it exists you can process the refund yourself.

 

(1) Hover on WooCommerce

(2) Select Orders

(3) Find an click on the order to be refunded

(4) Scroll down to the Product section

(5) Click Refund

(6) Enter the amount to be refunded

(7) Enter the reason for refund

(8) Click to refund

This will:

1. cause a refund to be created in Stripe to the original payment card
2. cancel any tickets that were booked and release them back into the pool