ARTICLE: Reach Events

ARTICLE: Reach Events




Reach Events is an efficient management tool for organising, sharing and managing recreation activities, excursions or events being held by your school.  





Integrate with your Reach database
Reach Events provides a seamless integration with your Reach database so that when events are created and run in Reach it will automatically create a Group within your Reach system containing the registered attendees. This Group can then be used to create a bulk leave request for parent approval, to do enable a bulk signout to the event when departing and for taking rollcalls whilst at the event.

                                                 

Suitable for any organised activity
Reach Events is suitable for use for any organised activity and it provides the following features;
  1.  Create unlimited Events
  2.  Manage your invitations for all or some of your student population
  3.  Schedule automated tasks for notifications and reminders
  4.  Create Event templates for multiple or recurring use
  5.  Link Leave requests to your Event
  6.  Link Rollcalls or Registers to your Event
  7.  Track attendees and event feed for chargeout to parents
  8.  Event Budget Tracker
  9.  Event Notes
  10.  Event Checklists
  11.  Event Reports
  12.  Post Event Surveys

Events Setup & Configuration

Before you begin to use Reach Events in your portal you need to enable and configure some basic settings for access and visibility.

Set staff accessibility to the Events Dashboard

For each staff member you need to enable visibility and access to the Events Menu item and dashboard.  This is done in either the Accessibility settings for each user in People Management or in System Configurations > Infinity based on Base Role Type infinity settings.  In the Events section, enable Access the Events Dashboard Main Menu Item (19-133, MM_VIS_DASHBOARDS_EVENTS) and Access, View and Sign Up for Events (19-132, EVENTS_CAN_VIEW).  You will also need to set bulk registration permissions, and creation and editing of Events permission.  Again, this can be done by specific user or by infinity settings to Base Role Types.


Setting accessibility controls for user roles: You can adjust the accessibility control for an individual (in their personal profile) or for an entire group of users (by Role) in your System Configuration - Infinity settings.  Each User Role (eg: Staff) has a Base Security setting and the accessibility settings for each user's role will be applied as their default setting.  See ARTICLE: User Security and Accessibility Levels for details about Base Security settings for user roles.

Student and Parent visibility control

In your System Configuration settings you have the ability to control whether events that you create in Reach are visible to student and/or parents.

Students and Parents will receive email notifications by default if they are invited to register for an event.  These visibility controls will determine if a student or parent can see the Events module when they log into Reach on web or mobile app, if a Student Pin is required on Kiosk for sign up and if students/parents are able to unregister from an event they have registered to attend.


Viewing & Creating Events

There are four methods to view existing events in your system and to access the Event Management screen.  Table, Grid, Calendar and Print views make finding and managing your existing events easy.


Table View
The list view provides a table view of your existing events. You can rank the view by any of the column headers and clicking on any event will open the Event Management screen.


Grid View
The Grid View is a similar interpretation of your events as you table view except each event is presented as a tile in a grid display.  Some user prefer to work with larger grid formats and this format is well suited to large touchscreen displays when Events are being shared with your student population.


Calendar View
The Calendar View will display a full month's calendar of events.  Clicking on a date will allow a new event to be created.  Clicking on an existing event will expand those event details for editing and interacting with the Event features.  Some users prefer the Calendar View as it provides a quick at a glance of a full month of past and upcoming activities.


Print View
Print View will allow you to export your current view (Table, Grid, Calendar) to be printed or saved as a PDF for easy sharing outside of Reach.

Creating Events

New events can be created by clicking on the New Event button in any of the event viewing screens.  This will open the event creation form where you can enter the event details. When an event is created it will be visible for staff/faculty to access and manage. 



Only Open events are visible for students and parents to register.  
Events will only become visible and available for Students and Parents when the event status is set to Open.  If you are creating an event that you are not yet ready to be visible and available for sign-ups, you will need to unmark "Open for registration."  You can open the event up for sign-ups at a later date, either manually or through scheduling automation.

The following fields are required to be set when creating a new event.



Use Templates for events that occur regularly.
You can save events that you have created as Event Templates so they can be reused for future events that you need to create.

Setting Maximum Attendees

When creating events you can determine if the event has a maximum number of attendees possible.  If there is a limited number of places available for an event then you can set this number and determine of any overflow of registrations will be placed on a waiting list. 


Setting Event Visibility

By default, events are available to your entire student population however you can use the Visibility Filters to limit the set of students that will receive invitations to the event. This will also limit whether students can see the event for registration via their kiosk screen or personal login to Reach.


Open for Registration

When creating an event you can open it immediately for registration. This will make the event visible immediately to the audience selected by your visibility settings. 


Event Templates

Events that you have created can be saved as Event Templates. All of your saved templates will be available to re-use in in the Create New Event screen.


How to save an Event Template

To save a new event that you have created as a template, tick the Make Available As Template option when saving the event.  The details of the event that you are then editing or creating will be saved as a template for future use.

How to use an Event Template

Using templates is easy. Simply select the Load Template option when creating an event and the template selection modal will appear for you to access all of the templates that you have saved in your Events system.  Selecting the event template will then install all of the basic information for the saved template including the description, checklist and any notes that are marked as belonging to the template.  When using a template to create an event you need to set the start/finish times, reset any visibility filters and edit or adjust the description.




Managing Events

Clicking on an event will open the Event Details screen where you can view and manage all aspects of your events.  Items identified in the below image are visible on all screens of the Event Details template.  Below the red line the page will alter with the Operation Tab (3) selected.



1. Settings - Settings allows you to Edit or Delete your event.

2. Event Status - Displays what the status of your event is at this time (Pending, Sign-Ups Opened, Sign-Ups Closed, In Progress and Finished)

3. Operations Tab - There are 6 operation tabs available that assist you to manage your events. These items are identified in more detail below this table. Selecting a Tab will open the operation screen for that function. Each operation tab has a separate set of screen functions and these are covered below this table.

4. Status Metrics - The Status Metrics provides a quick reference profiling the status of your responses from invitees to the event. The number of Invitees, confirmed as attending, pending response and confirmed as not attending are identified in the status metrics. Clicking on any of the status panels will open the list of those contacts in the Sign-up Operation Tab of your Event Details view.


Signups

The Signups Tab will display the list of invitees for your event and allow you to manage their participation.



Filter Your List: Clicking on any of the Status Metrics panels in the right hand margin of the Event Details Screen will filter the list of invitees being displayed for your event.




Notes



All staff with access to the Events Extension can add rich text notes to your events. This is an option for providing important messages or notifications to the event Supervisor who will also receive the notes as a notification to their email address.

The Notes feature in your Events Manger is a useful tool for staff to communicate about relevant event issues and for these details to be retained in the event records for easy access and reference.

Notes is also a useful feature Supervisors to write notes for themselves that are easy to store, locate and recall. This can be for notes that are relevant before, during or after the event has taken place and these notes can include images, or hyperlinks to relevant information.


Record important information
If something important happens on an event you can record this as a note and attach an image. The note will then form part of the Event Record. The information will be stored with the event record in Reach.


Scheduler

The Scheduler feature allows you to set activities to automatically run in your Events at scheduled times.


The Scheduler allows you to preset the Events Manager to perform like an assistant for the event supervisor by sending notifications, changing the status of an event or even following up with reminders to your various categories of invitees on the list.  

Receive a notification when your scheduled task is done
Like any good assistant, the Scheduler will inform the Event Supervisor when a scheduled task is completed. A record of the completed task is send to the email of the Supervisor and added to the Notes section of the event manager.

How to set a scheduled task

Scheduled tasks are set using the Add Scheduled Task button. This will open the Task creator where the details of a task can be set.  Tasks that you can set the Scheduler to complete are


  1. Change Status .... you can Open or Close an event for Registration, set it as In Progress or Set it as Finished automatically.
  2. Send Invites .... you can schedule invites to be sent to contacts on your visibility list.
  3. Send Message .... you can send notifications to contacts of various status' as reminders or news items.
  4. Send Attendee Summary ... you can send the Event Supervisor a list of the students registered to attend the event.




Event Budget

The Event Budget is a simple ledger that lets you record the revenue and expenses for your events and determine a net status for any events that you create and manage.



To enter new financial entries simply click on the Add Entry button. This will open the budget entry form where you can add the relevant details for your items.  Invoices that have been received for good purchased or booked can be stored in the Documents section of the Events Manager.



Event Checklist

The Event Checklist is particularly useful for setting and tracking a list of tasks that need completing for a successful event. 

For some events this may be a list of critical planning milestones that must be completed in preparation for the event to occur whilst for others it may be as simple as a set of reminders for some simple requirements. 



Documents

Documents is a place where you can upload and store any documents that are related to the event or which might be useful to reference when looking at the event or event template.


To upload a document, simply click on the Add Document button to open the uploaded form.  In the upload form you can provide a common description name for your document that allows for easy reference when looking for your documents in the document manager.



Running Events

When students register for an event that you have organised, Reach will automatically create a Group in your portal for the event which contains the registered students' names.  


Groups can then be used to identify your event participants when running your event to:
  1. Create and Approve leave requests for the event excursion
  2. Sign students out in bulk to the event, and sign then back in to school
  3. Take Rollcalls for your event


Creating and Approving leave for your events

Creating leave items for students attending your event can be easily managed by creating a Group Leave item.  These items can be process for approval by parents or approved on creating by staff, if no parent approval is required. 

Why processing a group leave event is a good strategy.
When using Reach Events, we recommend that you process leave requests for your students going on the event rather than just signing them out to a location for the event. This will ensure that you have a good trail of approvals for the event and it makes managing and monitoring permissions from parents for students to attend an event easier to manage.

How to create a group leave request for your event.

When sign up is closed for your event and you want to create a leave request for all of your students who registered for the event it is time to create a group leave request.

Step 1:  Go to Create Leave and select the Group Leave creation icon in the boarder name selection field.


Step 2:  Select the Event Group that has been created for your event to obtain a list of registered attendees from the bulk selection option. Select all students in the group and use the selected contacts for your leave request.


Step 3:  Submit a leave request for your student group. Reach will create a number of individual leave requests that will then be sent to each parent for approval.


TIPS for managing Leave Types for Reach Events
  1. Create a generic leave type that can be used for all of your Events.  *This will allow you to report all of the leave taken for your recreation events by reporting the Leave Type for whatever date range you require.
  2. Use the Event number and Title as the Destination. This will make it easy for you to cross reference your Event records when reconciling various records relating to the event.
  3. Use the Notes field for additional information relating to the event or any special details relating to the event.
  4. You can by-pass processing the leave request approval by parents if you save the leave request as "Approved" in the Status field when creating the Leave Request.
Important Note about using Group Leave
When using Group Leave be aware that you cannot create Group Leave for Leave Types that require a Host. In order to use Group Leave for your Events Leave Requests, you need to ensure that you have a leave type that does not have Hosts in the Approvals workflow.

When you use Leave Requests to process leave for your events you can use the Manage Leave screen to monitor and manage the approvals for students going to your events. Filtering your Manage Leave view by Leave Type allows you to view only your Events Leave Type in the view. 



Filtering Tip
If you have multiple events displaying when using the filter and it is still hard to separate each event the  you can use the "Search" field to isolate the event that you are looking for. This is where is becomes valuable to have all of the requests for any individual event using the same "Destination" description.  Typing the Destination description (Eg: EV56 Afternoon Community Service) into the Search field will show only the requests relevant to that event. 

Signing students out to events

Signing students out to events can be done in bulk in the Kiosk Screen using your Group filter that Reach has created for the event using the bulk selection option.  You can find the Bulk selector in the set of icons at the top right corner of your Kiosk screen.

Step 1:  Filtering your Kiosk view to display your Event Group. This will display only the students that are registered to attend your Event in your Kiosk view.

Step 2:  Using the bulk select option select all of your students in the list

Step 3:  From the Bulk Leave Actions field move your students to their next leave event or to the event location if you have not created a leave event for the recreation event that you are taking the students to.



If a student is a no-show for the event, you can tap the student's picture to deselect them from the bulk selection, making sure not to sign the student out onto the leave since they will no be leaving campus for the event.


Taking Rollcalls at your Events

Event Managers and Chaperones can take Rollcall for events, keeping a record of those students who did attend the event and who were no-shows for the event.  Be sure to select the filters for Event Group, REACH Event for the Rollcall Category and then select the Event from the Event Filter.  Once all attendance has been marked for each student, select "Submit Rollcall" to process the rollcall submission.



You can view the completed attendance for an event in the Event Details screen in Reach Events.  Hovering your cursor over top an attendance icon will display the date and time of the Rollcall attendance that was taken, as well as any notes that were included with the attendance for a particular student.



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