EOC Coordinator Manual

General Policy Reference for Coordinators

Our Commandments page outlines our most important policies for Event Coordinators. This page provides a general reference to other policies.

• Volunteer Governance: All volunteers are required to be familiar with, and follow, our club rules, policies and procedures. A volunteer who does not agree with a rule or policy should approach the club executive with their concerns rather than subverting any rule or policy.
   
• Volunteer Info: All volunteers must have a photo and a bio on the web site. We are a "virtual" club - the web site is our club house. Therefore, the volunteer information on the web site is how members can start to get to know us.
   
• Volunteer Currency: Volunteers are expected to stay current. It is important to club for many reasons for our coordinators to stay current and up-to-date, including being knowledgeable about our policies and procedures (especially as they change), and coordinating events on a regular basis:
  1. Event Coordinators are required to coordinate events regularly, as a general rule, no less than one event every three months. Exceptions are made for coordinators who are "seasonal" (ie. who only coordinate summer or winter activities). Event Coordinators who have been inactive for 6+ months may be removed from the list and will have to be re-instated before they can post their own events again.
  2. Event Coordinators are encouraged to attend volunteer meetings, which we hold about six times per year. This helps volunteers to stay knowledgeable about the club and also makes for a stronger club (with input from more volunteers). This will help you stay knowledgeable about the club. Plus, we want your input into decisions made.
  3. Event Coordinators are expected to make a reasonable effort to keep up with club changes, and to follow policies and procedures as they are updated.
  
   
• Events Must Have a Volunteer Running Them: All club events are required to have a club volunteer coordinating and attending the event. This ensures the quality and consistency of our events. Occasionally, an event may be allowed to run with a trusted long-term member running the event in cases where the volunteer who was set to coordinate suddenly can't make it (this ensures that our events aren't cancelled needlessly if they could potentially go ahead).
   
• Paid Event Policy:
  • PayPal and PC Banking transactions are sent to treasurer@edmontonoutdoorclub.com. Cheques should be made out to the Edmonton Outdoor Club and sent to the Treasurer's address, which can be provided to anyone inquiring about event payment. Address:
    Donna M
    7708 181 St NW
    Edmonton, AB
    T5T 1Z7
  • Registration cut-off date is set for at least one day (we recommend several days) before the club must pay for the event.
  • The morning after the cut-off date, anyone whose payment has not been received should be removed from the event. Late-arriving payments (ie. mailed-in cheques arriving late) will be refunded/discarded.
  • Drop-outs prior to the cut-off date will be refunded any monies paid.
  • After the cut-off date, no refunds will be given unless a replacement attendee is found.
  • After the cut-off date, if there is a drop-out, the wait list management will be done slightly differently than for regular events. A note will be sent out to the people on the wait list - first come/first serve (ie. the first one to step forward and make payment gets the spot).
  
   
• Coordinator Subsidization Policy: Coordinators coordinating out-of-town paid events may, at their choice, collect some extra money from attendees to partially cover their own costs. This is a recognition of the hidden costs and extra effort required for setting up out-of-town events. The coordinator may collect an amount of to 50% of their cost or $25.00 per night, whichever of the 2 is lower. If an Event Coordinator chooses to do this, it is suggested that "transparency" be used in the event posting. It was suggested that it could be called a "coordination fee". Coordinators may not collect funds from attendees to subsidize their own costs for in-town paid events.
   
• Coordinator Training Policy: The club will partially reimburse coordinators for some training courses, as follows:
  1. Reimbursement will only be available if the club has funds available for this purpose. The total funds available will be decided on a yearly basis by the executive team. The Reimbursement Schedule is set as follows:
     1. 80% if course cost is under $100.00 and
     2. 50% if course cost is over $100.00
     3. Maximum reimbursement is $150.00
  2. Reimbursement will be granted on a case-by-case basis. To be eligible for reimbursement, the volunteer:
     1. Must have an established reputation and be an EOC member in good standing. The decision will be related to the longevity of the coordinator.
     2. Must make a commitment to coordinate a certain number of relevant events for the club after completion of the training. Reimbursement is contingent upon completion of the coordinator's commitment to the club.
  3. Applications:
     1. Must be submitted to the executive team for approval, prior to attending the training.
     2. Applications for reimbursement may not be submitted for training already taken.
     3. Applicant must sign a statement that they are not applying to be reimbursed for the training by their employer or any other organization.
     4. Applicants must commit to coordinating a certain number of events for the club for which the training will be a benefit. The commitment to coordinate events must have a timeline and must describe the amount and type of events the volunteer will commit to coordinating for the club after completion of the training. Note that the club executive recognizes that not all events are equal in relevance to training and a coordinator committing to 10 mountain events in 12 months may still take precedence over a coordinator committing to 200 in-town events, depending on the nature of the training.
     5. Applications must be made to executives@edmontonoutdoorclub.com for consideration. Applications will be considered and approved only if there are still club funds available for reimbursement. The application should include the training requested, as well as a description of the volunteer commitment of the coordinator upon training completion. The commitment should include the number and type of events to be coordinated, as well as the time-frame in which those events will be completed. The timeframe should not exceed 24 months.
  4. The coordinator and the executive team will keep a record of the written commitment from the coordinator, and the amount promised to reimburse from the club. The treasurer will track the funds allocated for reimbursement and will consider those funds to be unavailable for other club uses. In the event that a coordinator completes their commitment after a change in the executive team, the reimbursement and commitment records will stand as evidence of the agreement, which can be honored after team changes.
  5. The coordinator is responsible for requesting their reimbursement at the completion of their commitment to the club. Funds allocated to reimbursement to a coordinator who fails to meet their commitment will be re-allocated for reimbursement to another coordinator. Coordinators wishing to apply for partial reimbursement must do so before their commitment completion date.
  
   
• Event Data Policy: When an event is posted to the EOC database, the data becomes club property and is there for the benefit of all club volunteers and members. Volunteers are expected to freely share event data and specifications. HOWEVER, a volunteer should never copy and post an event for the same day IF the event is in draft mode without checking with the owner of the original event to see if they're planning on posting for that day.
   
• Multiple Events Policy: No more than two of the same event is allowed on the same day. When two of the same event are posted for the same day, the events should be offset by at least one hour so the two groups are not colliding with one another.
   
• Pre-Loading Events Policy: The club encourages you to feel comfortable adding a few friends to your events - this adds to your own enjoyment of the event, and encourages you to post events (rather than taking your activities offline). That said, though, please be respectful that the EOC is a club and that we offer events for the enjoyment of as many of our members as possible, so please avoid pre-loading more than 30% of available spots on your events.
   
• Voluntary Donation Solicitation: Club volunteers are expected to ask event attendees for a voluntary donation to the club, and to submit donations collected to the club Treasurer. All donations are voluntary - no attendee should feel pressured to give a donation - simply ask and accept and then move on.
   
• Cancellation Policy Interpretation Guidelines: Guidelines (as per the Cancellation Policy version of May 19, 2011):
  1. Choose a cut-off date and time which accurately reflects the time after which the group can be negatively impacted by a late cancellation. Recommended cut-off limits:
     1. Paid Events: at least two days before service providers have to be paid
     2. Multi-Day (not pre-paid): 7-10 days
     3. Carpooled Day Trip: 0.5-1 day
     4. Urban: 2 hours
     The Volunteer Coordinator may follow up with you for explanation if your cut-off is dramatically outside of these guidelines (for example, an urban hike with a cut-off of a day or more prior to the event).
  2. Indicate in your event itinerary if a no-show will be given for late cancellations which affect the EOC’s relationship with an external party since that may not always be obvious.
  3. Consistently give no-shows if the circumstance matches one of the three scenarios in the policy
  4. Do NOT give no-shows if the circumstances do NOT match any of the three described scenarios
  5. Consistently give no-shows if the person simply does not show up, regardless of weather. You may choose to reverse the no-show yourself if the person contacts you later to indicate that they were unable (ie. Due to severe illness, vehicle accident, family emergency) to notify you.
  6. You may, at your discretion, decide not to give a no-show for a late cancellation which would normally constitute a no-show in cases of severe weather.
  7. In a case where a coordinator feels that a no-show should NOT be given, even though the circumstance matches one of the three described scenarios, they may refrain from giving the no-show, but they should e-mail the club executive with the details so that the exception may be considered for additional policy changes. If the club exec feel that the no-show should have been given, the coordinator will be advised to give no-shows in similar circumstances in future.
  8. In a case where a coordinator refrains from giving no-shows when the circumstances warrant them, the club executive may take disciplinary action on the coordinator, including putting their volunteer status on probation with a defined duration for the coordinator to properly follow the Cancellation Policy. If, in that time, the coordinator does not properly follow the Policy, they may lose their volunteer status.
  9. Remember that event coordinators are responsible for phoning anyone added from the waiting list within 24 hours of carpool/meeting time; if no contact is made, a No-Show will not be logged against that person.
  
   
• Event Cancellation Policy: Posting an event for EOC is a commitment. Volunteers are expected to take reasonable measures to ensure that, whenever possible, an event with registered attendees is not cancelled unnecessarily. Volunteers should follow the prescribed procedure if they need to cancel an event.
   
• Banning a Member: All Event Coordinators have the right to ban any member from attending events which they are coordinating. Volunteers should follow the prescribed procedure if they decide to take this action.
   
• Sponsorship-Related Policies:
  1. Generally speaking, we avoid giving banner ads for gifts-in-kind. They are a revenue-generating opportunity to us and we do need the cash. Plus it is hard to assess the value of gifts-in-kind.
  2. Occasionally we are approached by another organization asking if they can re-post our events. The answer to that is no... our events are already full/over-full as it is and we don't need the extra promotion. We will invite these organizations to add a link to us from their web site, though.