Good morning,

Recently our organization received the "Event Essentials" module in RE. I am looking to get some feedback about how other users are tracking their RSVP's to each event. Previously, before the Event module portion was brought to us, our database person would run an export of all of those invited to a particular event. That export would be in excel. From that, we would create labels for our envelopes as well as use that same spreadsheet to keep track of our RSVP's. Instead of doing an import back into RE from the RSVP sheet, I think it makes more sense to keep track of the RSVP's right in RE initially. I am not sure how this would be done, but am hoping someone has experience. So, what I would like to do is take the query that is run for all those invited, dump that right into the event that has been created in the event module, then change the status of those invited to "registered" once we receive their "yes" RSVP. And when we needed a spreadsheet of all those attending a particular event, we could export right from RE. Anyone have any experience with this? Sorry for the lengthy message.

 Thanks!

 Hi Statia,

 Your steps are correct. You need to create the event in the events module filling in all the info you wish. I think Name & ID are the only system required fields. The query that normally creates the export for you would then be used to add these people as invitees to the event. You do this through Administration, Global Add and there is an option to Add Registrants to an Event. You fill out the various fields in that screen and let it run. As the RSVPs come in, open the event and record the RSVP. You can even set up name tags to print, seating charts and some other things. I don't do any of this so I don't remember all the options. I believe other than basic event info and recording the RSVPs we don't do much else with the module.

 HTH,

laura

Thank you Laura! I am excited to try this and will let you know how it works, and if I have any additional questions. You have been very helpful.

 Take care,

Statia

Hi again Laura,

We were working to add the query as you just explained, however there were only 7 queries pulling up. Under the "global add", we clicked the "include" box and chose "selected individuals". I believe the problem is that the query "type" field only allows me to select "individual" and not "constituent", which is what our query type is. Any suggestions?

 Thanks again!

 Statia

When working with Events, I usually use a Participant query.

 You can also change the query type. Open the query in Query, then choose Tools --> Query Options and change from constituent to individual. You may need to save it with a new name. We don't usually add organizations as guests to an event so it isn't an issue for us. We use the specific contacts (not IBM but Sue Jones who is the main contact from IBM).

 HTH,

laura

You will need to change these queries to individual queries types, which you can do easily through tool options.  The reason for this is when adding participant records to an event you have to specify whether it is an individual or organisation participant.

Good luck!

Thank you!

It is working wonderfully. Now I am working to export the list of participants to an excel spreadsheet showing everyone invited and their registration status. I am working on this for the afternoon, so if you have any tips I would welcome the help.

Take care,

Statia

 Hi Statia,

 There is a canned report called Event List. It should get you what you need. I would preview it first and tweak as needed before handing around the office. The nice thing about this is it's up to date as soon as you run it and people should be able to run it themselves. Save it with the proper parameters, tell others what it is called and (if they have access and are so inclined ) they can run it themselves.

 laura

Thanks Laura. I have been playing around with this report and have a question. Do you know if it is possible to add the "response" field? I want to run a report that shows all of those invited, and all of those registered, but also add a field showing who have declined as their response. This way we can filter the spreadsheet by "yes", "no", and "invited", but with no response.

 I'm sure I will be the one running this report, but love the thought of other people being able to do so

 Happy Wednesday,

Statia

 I don't see where it can be added to the report. We use the Participation field to record the responses (RSVP Yes, RSVP No RSVP Yes No Show and a few other choices). It might be that we started doing that because we couldn't get the Response on the report. I don't remember any more. :-) Does seem pretty dumb to have a Response field and no way to report on it. You just might have to stick with doing an export into Excel. You can also try searching the Knowledgebase. There might be something there about reporting on the Response.

laura

You could do a Participant Query to show this or a simple way to do what your asking is to open the event, go to the participantstab

Right Click on Name (row) Select Columns - put in the fields you want to see.(Registration)

Right click on name again & choose Export participants grid to excel

You could do a Participant Query to show this or a simple way to do what your asking is to open the event, go to the participants tab

Right Click on Name (row) Select Columns - put in the fields you want to see.(Registration)

Right click on name again & choose Export participants grid to excel

 Great question.. I am not too happy with the event module either. To many exports and re-formatting steps. PLUS, You have to add the spouse as guest, manually. 95% of our constituents are couples.. Way too many steps

Tracy Otto:

PLUS, You have to add the spouse as guest, manually. 95% of our constituents are couples.. Way too many steps

 Tracy, I import spouses/guests.  It works as long as one the of spouse is already attached to the event (global add) and the remaining spouse has its own constituent record.  You basically export the event and spouse info through query, switch the headings in Excel, and import. It works wonder. E-mail me at genevieve.zevort@muhc.mcgill.ca if you want the fields to export and the headings.