Events Module with an Independent Contractor

Sarah Ellison

Has anyone who uses the Event module worked with an event coordinator/contractor, volunteer, or a temporary staff member who was entering and editing event participant information?  What worked? What didn’t work? What did you think would work that really, really didn’t, and vice-versa?
 
We work with an event planning company for our annual event, and a member of their staff is responsible for following up with table sponsors to make sure that we have all of their guest names and meal preferences, etc. We don’t have staff capacity to take this over, and won’t be hiring additional staff, so the independent contractor part is non-negotiable at this point.  


In the past, we have used an external event registration system (and Excel…) – and since the only information in that system was what the event planner needed to do their job, they had full access. This year we are considering transitioning to NXT, which would mean we would be able to use the Event module instead of an external system (I'm posting this here rather than in the NXT community, because my understanding is that event data entry with NXT is still done through the Database View, which is identical to RE 7.95).  I know how the Event module works with a full-time Event person with full user rights – although it has been several years since I have actively used it – but I’m not so sure how well it would work with an independent contractor who would (ideally) only have access to the Event/participant records and event-related reports.
 
Any feedback anyone can give me would be appreciated. And if you would be willing to chat in more detail, please send me a message.  Thanks!

Daniel Bayer

Sarah Bryan:
Has anyone who uses the Event module worked with an event coordinator/contractor, volunteer, or a temporary staff member who was entering and editing event participant information?  What worked? What didn’t work? What did you think would work that really, really didn’t, and vice-versa?
 
We work with an event planning company for our annual event, and a member of their staff is responsible for following up with table sponsors to make sure that we have all of their guest names and meal preferences, etc. We don’t have staff capacity to take this over, and won’t be hiring additional staff, so the independent contractor part is non-negotiable at this point.  


In the past, we have used an external event registration system (and Excel…) – and since the only information in that system was what the event planner needed to do their job, they had full access. This year we are considering transitioning to NXT, which would mean we would be able to use the Event module instead of an external system (I'm posting this here rather than in the NXT community, because my understanding is that event data entry with NXT is still done through the Database View, which is identical to RE 7.95).  I know how the Event module works with a full-time Event person with full user rights – although it has been several years since I have actively used it – but I’m not so sure how well it would work with an independent contractor who would (ideally) only have access to the Event/participant records and event-related reports.
 
Any feedback anyone can give me would be appreciated. And if you would be willing to chat in more detail, please send me a message.  Thanks!

The one time I was at an organization that did utilize an outside Event Planner, we still did all data entry in-house, but this might have been because we were locally hosted, which made it impossible for anyone offsite to access RE. It certainly would have made my life easier had they also done data entry for seating and things.


The main issue with anyone not on full-time staff accessing RE (you're correct that the event module is not really functional at all in NXT at this time) is making sure they know what they're doing. You will need to take the time to train them and answer their (sure to be numerous) questions. It's easy enough to give them only view/edit rights only to the Event module, BUT it's best to have a codified set of standards and procedures that you can give to them to make the process as easy and hassle-free as possible, for both them and you. Just make sure they don't have edit rights to constituent records and there should be no irreparable damage they can possibly do.


I would also set up any Event Reports/Queries they may need in advance. These can be tricky and sometimes involve deep knowledge of how your org has historically entered data. These are the big things that always trip up RE newbies, and it's probably worth the little extra time to set them up so all the outside person has to do is press "GO".