INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING & EDITING A NEW EVENT ON THE AMC POTOMAC MEETUP.COM SITE

Transcription

1 INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING & EDITING A NEW EVENT ON THE AMC POTOMAC MEETUP.COM SITE Prerequisites: Start at the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Potomac Chapter Meetup.com Home Page Be logged in (see your Meetup Picture in upper right corner) Be assigned the Event Organizer designation (i.e., being listed as one under the heading Organizers in the left side column) Steps: Click on SCHEDULE A NEW MEETUP tab under the page s center banner of Welcome AMC-Potomac ers. A new screen should appear with the fill-in-the-blanks new event form. Filling in the Sections of the AMC Potomac Meetup New Event Form: What should we do? (required): Enter the title for the event, e.g., 8 Mile Moderate Hike in Mason Neck State Park. More Details: Enter the narrative description of the Hike and all other pertinent information that is needed by attendees, e.g., description of the area where the event occurs, features of the event, any required fees, dog participation, car pool information, driving/public transportation directions to the trailhead/meeting place, and post-event activities (meals) as applicable. It is best to create this section first as a separate MS Word-type document, and then cut and paste it into the section. In this way 1

2 you can easily use different types, size, and colored fonts; and add pictures where you want them. See the attachment for detailed guidance on what to put in this section. When: Set the date later If you are ready to schedule the event, click on the tab OK, select a date now and a new screen will appear. Fill in the date and start time for the event under the When tab. If you want to cite an end time for the event, click on the set end time and fill in the end time date and time for the event. Where: Set the location later If you are ready to provide the location of the event, click on the tab OK, select a place now and a new screen will appear. If you find the place listed under the RECENT PLACES tab where you want to hold the event, click on the Select tab next to the place and it will be added. Clicking on the name of the place will take you to a new screen with a Google map of the location. If the location of your event is not listed, click on the tab FIND A PLACE and a new screen will appear. Type in the trailhead/meeting place name, address, city, state, and country where the event will occur. If you want to provide detailed driving or public transportation directions to the trailhead/meeting place, enter that information in the More Details section. If the location of the event is a private address, click on the following box. If you want only members of the AMC POTOMAC Meetup (i.e., not other unaffiliated Meetup.com member perusing) to see where this Meetup event is happening, click on that box at the bottom. 2

3 Title: ATTACHMENT AMC Potomac Event/Hike Announcement Guidelines and General Template for Meetup.com & AMC Activity DB/OLTL Keep it short and descriptive. Usually, include the name of the venue and/or hike/event. You may want to include difficulty level at the end of each title if possible, e.g., (Moderate). Style: Use paragraphs to organize information. Meetup: Use bold heading at front of paragraph when appropriate; it leads the reader s eye and helps him find the desired info. [Note - OLTL does not provide any formatting, including no bold, italics, or underlines; Meetup allows only bold and italics for formatting.] Use full sentences. Avoid abbreviations or undefined acronyms. Try to keep the OLTL & Meetup announcements as similar as possible to avoid confusion and errors. Venue: Say something about the venue (park, trail, area) that is interesting. Tell why the hike/event is a good one; give highlights of the route if any (waterfalls, overlooks, flora & fauna, river views, history, etc.). Give link to website(s) that provide more info about the venue. 3

4 Hike/event description: Mention the distance or distances if there are more than one options. Describe elevation change (such as gentle hills or occasional climbs); ignore if it is minor (such as on a towpath). Give the number of feet for elevation gain or change if it is significant. (Make sure to specify gain or change in elevation.) Describe the difficulty level (easy, moderate, strenuous, difficult), with more detail if warranted (e.g., moderate with an extended strenuous climb ). Mention the pace (slow, moderate, and fast). [Note - Pace as mph varies depending on elevation variation and terrain. E.g., 3 mph is slow on flat, paved surface, but fast on a mountain trail.] Mention the terrain if important (rocky, paved, natural surface, and sand, etc.). Give an estimate of the duration of the hike/event, or when you expect to be back to the meeting place. This is useful for many participants. [Note - OLTL restricts the write-up to 450 words; Meetup has no restrictions. However, 450 should be adequate in terms of what needs to be said and how much people want to read.] Teaser (OLTL): When viewing an activity list in OLTL, it uses the first 100 characters of the web description as a teaser when the cursor hovers over the title. Make sure that the lead complements (does not repeat) the title, and provides some information that makes the reader want more. What to bring: Mention to bring water & how much. Mention to bring bag lunch (for shorter hikes this is not necessary) and snacks. If food can be purchased on hike route, mention that people can bring $$ to buy. Mention clothes or equipment requirements depending on weather or terrain (rain gear, warm jacket, boots, etc.). 4

5 Meeting location and time: For events that are not limited and do not need screening, give the time and location of carpool meeting place or the trailhead or both, depending on the event. Do so in the body as well as the metadata, which allows people to cut & paste the body with this information. If getting to a location is tricky, give directions in a separate paragraph at the end. You may want to give carpool location only if trailhead parking is inadequate, or if there is a chance of late event cancellation so that participants don t go all the way to the trailhead. If possible, use the mapping features of OLTL and Meetup to indicate the location. [Note In OLTL, the mapped location, if any, is what will be used in the aggregate events map. So you need to decide if you want the carpool, trailhead, or the center of a park to be used as the location for that.] If possible, give an address and or coordinates that people can plug into their GPS. If possible, give a link (shortened) to a GIS map that shows the exact location of the meeting place. Photographs: Photos always help to make the announcement more interesting, so if you can add them, you should. OLTL accepts one photo and you have no control over the location within the announcement. Meetup accepts multiple photos; two or three is a good number and they should be interspersed in the text. Note that too many photos can make it difficult for people to read through the announcement when checking Meetup on cell phones. If you don t have photos, you can find public domain ones on the web. 5

6 Leaders info: At least one of the leaders should list a cell phone number in case people need to call about being late or lost. In Meetup, the address is not important since the idea is for people to post questions (Also, they can send direct s using Meetup messages.) If you are screening, you may want to add your address and/or phone number. In Meetup, it is good for one of the leaders to check for last minute comments or questions via cell phone; you can post answers using your cell phone. Post-hike (Meetup): After the hike, rate it and edit attendance to reflect actual attendance (not RSVPs). Enter general comment for the hike (e.g., thank participants, co-leader, or special guest), mention anything notable or memorable about the hike, include links to other photos, etc. Upload a few photos (reduce resolution to less than about 400 KB to make it easier), and add comments to photos if you like. Track for comments (they are ed to you as host) by hike s participants and reply if needed or desired. Track for uploaded photos by participants and comment if needed or desired. [You can delete comments and photos that are inappropriate.] Under list of attendees on right panel of event, you can click Good to see you buttons of participants who attended. It sends an to each person with a Good to see you message. This is good to do for new or reluctant people that you want to encourage to return in that you are acknowledging them and it makes them feel a little more welcome. If you get a Good to see you button, it is courteous (and very easy) to respond. 6