Event Secretary Training

Introduction to setting up your event

Welcome to setting up your event 101!

At first it may seem daunting to set up an online entry but hopefully after doing a couple you will realise that it is actually lots of fun! Well, maybe not fun but at least achievable.

Most of the difficult work has already been done for you in the intial event set up and all you need to do is update the specifics of your latest rally, clinic, camp, protocol day or freshman sj.

We are here to help! If you have any questions about your event set up send us an email or call Brendan.

There is no fee for asking questions or getting support in helping you to set up your own online entries!

Copy Event

Rather than creating a new event from scratch it is much easier to find a previous event and copy it!

To copy an event you first need to access the manage page. Here is a guide on accessing the manage page.

Access the Manage Page

Once on the manage page you need to find the event you want to copy. You can use the filter to search for events in the Past 3 Months or search the archive for even older events.

When you have found the event you want to copy click the overlapping squares to copy the event

This will then take you to the event details page. The event details page has many fields to allow you to control many different aspects of your event. For rallies and clinics you will not need to use most of these fields and many others will have already been set up from the original event.

As you are copying from a previous event you mostly need to check areas that may have changed.

The event details page has 3 columns of fields. The first is information about the event. The second is information about a competition. The third is information about a class.

To keep consistent vocabulary Rallies, Clinics, Camps, Protocol Days and Freshman SJ days are considered Events.

A competition is a set of classes that are grouped together. For example you might have Saturday Lessons and Sunday Lessons.

A class is a single thing that a rider enters and pays for. This may be an individual lesson or could be the whole camp depending on the pricing structure of the event.

Event Details

Event Name

Make sure to update the event name. You want the event name to be unique and include the club, association, type of event and date.

Bulla ARC June Rally 2024 is good.

Equestrian Rally is ambiguous and not good

Channel

The Channel determines where the online entry will be located. Most events are located on the Equestrian channel which is the main list of events you see when you visit eventsecretary.com.au/equestrian. These events are open to all members of the association running the event.

For Rallies and some clinics and camps entries may be restricted to only members of the club running the event. In this case the event can be set to the Club channel and riders will need to go to eventsecretary.com.au/clubs to enter.

Some events may start off with entries open to only club members but may then change to opening to the public later on. If you then copy the event remember to change the channel back to Club if you only want Club members to enter the new event

Visibility

Visibility can be set to Public or Private. If visibility is set to private then the event will not appear on the list of events on the main page. However, riders can still enter the event if they are sent a direct link to the event.

While setting up the event it can be good to set the event as private. However, don't forget to change the visibility to public when you are ready for entries!

Event Dates

Event Dates are set in dd/mm/yyyy format. By default dates occur at 12:01am just after midnight. Specific times can also be set. The dates are set based on the Time Zone you are currently in. So if I am in Western Australia and I set the event to open at 8am it will open at 8am Western Australia Time.

• Event Date - The date of the event. Events can be run over multiple days. The default is 1 day.
• Opening Date - The date from which riders can start entering the event. If this field is blank then Entries are considered Open. If you don't know when you want entries to open then leave this field blank and set Not ready to open to YES.
• Closing Date - The date from which entries are closed. Riders will still be able to complete the online entry and make their payment to be placed on a waitlist. After the closing date different refund rules apply as well. We do not recommend changing the closing date as a means of accepting late entries. Instead you can set an Extended Date.
• Late Fee Date - The date from which riders are now charged a late fee. This is usually set to one day after the closing date. So if entries close on the 4th then the late fee date is the 5th.
• Extended Date - This allows riders to still enter after the closing date without being placed on a waitlist. It does not affect refunds.
• Closed Date - The date from which entries are fully closed. No one can enter or make any further payments.
• Postponed Date - The date on which an event was postponed. NOT the date it is postponed to. Once a new date is known this field must be cleared to allow riders to enter again
• Commitment Date - When an event is Postponed riders have a grace period to decide whether they want to attend the new date or scratch and be fully refunded. This marks the end of the grace period.
• Must Close at Closing - This effectively makes the Closing Date a Closed Date. After the Closing Date riders cannot enter or make payments. They cannot go on a waitlist.
• Not Ready to Open - This prevents the event from opening entries regardless of the opening date field. Riders can only view the Event Name, Event Date, Contact, Venue and any notices.
• Suppress Event Date - This allows an event to have no Event Date. It can be useful for entries that are not really an event. For example if a XC Course is available for hire over the summer.

Venue

If the venue for the new event is different to the event you copied it from you can change it here.

To enter a new venue type several letters of the venue name and select the venue from the drop down box

If your venue is not in the system please email us with the address and we will add it in for you.

Horse Facilities and Ground Facilities

If your facilities were fully booked during the previous event or have changed you may need to edit this section.

Here is the guide on how to do this

Yards

Camping

Attachments

See below guide on how to attach the flyer for the new event if you have one.

Attaching Files

Notices & Terms & Conditions

Notices are free form text that appear at the top of the online entry. They might include something like "Instructor for July rally is Amethyst Shadowsqueak." In this case you want to make sure you update this information for the new event.

Terms & Conditions are free form text that appear at the bottom of the online entry. They might include something like "Dogs are not allowed at the venue." They often won't change when copying a new event but may be worth checking.

Competition Details

Generally when setting up a rally, clinic, camp, protocol day or freshman SJ day you will only need 1 competition. However, sometimes it can be reasonable to set up multiple competitions. For example

• There are a lot of different lessons and it is helpful to organise them into separate groups like Saturday lessons and Sunday lessons.
• Pricing structures apply differently to some lessons than other lessons. For example On Saturday there may be a $10 discount for riding in 2 lessons but no discount for Sunday lessons.

  You can find more information about setting up competitions here

  Create Competitions

  If you want to add or remove competitions and are not sure about what you are doing it is probably best to contact us first and we can suggest the right approach for your event.

Different types of events

Rallies, Clinics, Camps, Protocol Days and Freshman SJ Days can be set up in different approaches depending on your needs.

Single class - In this approach you only have one class for the whole event. This is often used in Camps where the class may be just "3 Day Camp" or "Eventing Clinic". This makes it very easy for riders to enter the event but doesn't give you any information about what lessons they are interested in attending. It will work well if all lessons are mandatory or there is only one type of lesson at the event. You may use extensions to get information like rider grading and ability.

Multiple classes with set days - If your event is run over multiple days you may make each day a separate class. E.g Saturday and Sunday.

Multiple classes with set disciplines - In this approach you have multiple classes with each class representing a different discipline. E.g Dressage, SJ, XC. This is useful if there are different costs for each discipline and if riders are free to choose different lessons. However, you will need to allocate riders into groups. You may use extensions to get information like rider grading and ability.

Multiple classes with set times - In this approach you have a series of set lessons that each have a set time. E.g 8am, 9am, 10am, 11am. This means you don't need to allocate riders into groups as they choose their own lesson. However, riders may be frustrated by the lack of flexibility. If for example they want to ride in the morning but their level's class is scheduled for the afternoon. You will likely need to give each lesson a set level, disicpline and instructor as well.

Number of Rounds - For a Freshman SJ, XC or Dressage Protocol day you can set each class as a number of rounds. e.g 1 Round, 2 Rounds, 3 Rounds. However, this means riders can't list the exact heights they will be jumping at. Instead you can have each height as a class and then add an extension for number of rounds at that height.

Once you have determined which approach you are using you can then name each class appropriately. Note:It is important that the Code for each class is unique!

You can find more information on how to add classes here

Creating Classes

Pricing Structure

The cost for a class is added in Class Prices - Class Entry Price.

In the below example this lesson costs $90 to enter.

Pricing Structures can become more complicated with the use of discounts.

To apply discounts to events we use Conditional Pricing which means when a certain condition is met a discount is applied to the order.

For example if a rider is a member of the host club then a $10 discount may be applied.

See below guide for more information on Conditional Pricing

Conditional Pricing

If you are making any change to class prices from the previous event it is important to preview the event and confirm that the changes are working as you intended!

Event Secretary will not be liable for lost funds due to incorrect pricing being listed on the event. If you are unsure send us an email before opening entries!

Extensions

Rallies, Clinics, Camps, Protocol Days and Freshman SJ often have extra questions that organisers want to ask riders. For example 'What is your Dressage Grading?', 'How long have you ridden this horse for?', 'Are you staying for lunch?'

To get this information event organisers can add Extensions to their event. Extensions allow you to add free form questions to your online entry. They can be added as part of the rider section, horse section, competition section or on an individual class.

Extensions can also be used to add free form costs to the online entry as well. So if the rider answers that they are staying for lunch it can apply a cost of $10 for example.

Here is a guide on how to add extensions to your event

extensions

After adding an extension to your event make sure to preview the event to ensure it is working as intended.