Calendar planning…didn’t we just do that?
It’s amazing how time flies and we are back at the point when we need to plan. However, as you are probably realizing on your leadership journey, the organized chapters are the most engaged chapters.
As you begin to look ahead to the Fall term, it is important for you to set your calendar so that your Members know what to expect when they return to school. Keeping your calendar updated ensures better participation and allows for Members to be held accountable.
Use the month of April to plan for the fall term and DRAFT your events in MCR to ensure over programming does not happen. This will also allow you to vote on and pass the calendar at the last chapter to ensure Members are aware there is a plan.
Best Practices:
Have a calendar planning session now for next term
Bring up your schools academic calendar and put all relevant events on the MCR calendar
Bring up the DEI calendar of your choice and put in all relevant holidays. Here is an example
Put in all major mandatory chapter events such as Recruitment, Initiation, and signature Philanthropy events
Set a date in which all leaders should DRAFT their own events in MCR for the next term.
Invite all groups of members that should be attending including the New Member group, even if there are no new members yet.
Review and edit the calendar to make sure you are not over programmed
Send out an email to your Members letting them know the drafted calendar is available for them to see in MCR.
At the last chapter meeting, vote on the proposed calendar, highlighting key mandatory events to gather buy-in from Members.
Once passed, publish ALL drafted events. No notifications will be sent.
It is important to make sure the correct event type is being chosen for your chapter as that will dictate how the system views the event, and this is the one element that cannot be edited once an event is created.
Event Considerations for MCR Calendar:
Is this a mandatory event and all members who are invited are expected to attend or a bonus event that is optional?
Will this be a scan-in or self check-in event? (tip: scan in for an all member event)
If this is a recurring event (like chapter meetings) that happens on a regular interval, using the recurring feature will make it much easier to accept excuses for Members who have to miss the event because of a recurring commitment (such as class), while still giving Members who only have to miss one (or a few) the option to only submit for those individual dates.
Is this an event where you only have space for a certain number of Members or need Members to commit to attending in advance of the date? Utilize the RSVP feature on the event.
Once an event is created, who will need to be invited? An invite list must be selected when creating an event, and should be invited by group rather than individual. If this step is skipped, the event will show up grayed out on the member’s calendar and members will not be able to check into the event.
Reminders:
Set a date when all DRAFT events should be entered on the MCR calendar
Alert your membership when this has been done
Only the position assigned to the event, an Event Admin or an Admin can edit the event
If you have mandatory events that New Members need to attend, don’t forget to invite them even if there are no members in the group.
It is always best to add groups of Members (Committees, Lifetime Members, New Members etc.) to the invite list rather than trying to manually add individual Members because MCR will automatically include events on Members calendar if/when they become a part of a group that is invited to the event. (For example when New Members move to Lifetime Members)
If an event needs to be canceled, an Administrator is the only position who can cancel the event
Remind your members that they can sync to your chapters calendar by following these simple steps.