January 6, 2020 — Calendars, Event Management, Organization Management
Hosting a community calendar is a great service to your community, but also comes with it some added responsibility. You are responsible for the content that shows up on your calendar and the gatekeeper for the organizations that wish to share their events on your website. When creating a standard contract or agreement for new organizations signing up for your community calendar, create policies that align with your organization’s values.
Here are a few items you may want to clarify in your guidelines to potential posters.
GUIDELINES FOR JOINING
These are the minimum requirements that an organization must meet to be added to your calendar.
TYPES OF EVENTS YOU WANT POSTED AND THOSE YOU DON’T
You know what kind of events you want to see on your calendar. Make it very clear to the groups that join what events you will allow and will not allow them to post on your calendar.
HOW OFTEN THEY SHOULD POST
Some organizations host daily or weekly events, but others may only have one or two each year. Some organizations may also be very sporadic in posting after a while. Hold them to a standard from the beginning. Getting a spot of your calendar and dropdown of community organizations may want to be reserved for those organizations that have events on a regular basis, are detailed in their event descriptions, and are responsible enough to post them. You may also wish to give them a limit of events they can post, you don’t want another organization’s events bumping everyone else’s down on your calendar.
REMIND THEM THAT YOU’RE IN CHARGE
LANGUAGE
Don’t let your calendar be their afterthought. Express the need for proper spelling and grammar.
RESPONSIBILITY
Make sure to cover the items that the posting groups will be responsible for on their end.
OUTLINE OF POLICY AGREEMENT
Create a community calendar policy that can be signed, dated, and returned to you before granting groups access to post on your calendar. While groups may be part of your community, they may not have events that serve the best interest of your calendar. Be selective with the organizations you work with and clear in what you expect from them and you can guarantee that your calendar will attract the attention of the community for all the right reasons.