EOC Coordinator Manual

Paid Events

Paid events are different and more complicated than regular old events, but they don't have to be painful. Before setting up a paid event, please make sure you're familiar with our policies and procedures. Paid Event policy.

The EOC Treasurer is available to process payments for you for your paid events, however, it is not required that you go through the Treasurer. In fact, to make things easier for you and for the Treasurer, we encourage you to manage your own event payments.

Our Volunteer Coordinator, Mark is available to help you with paid events, and you are encouraged to ask for their assistance to ensure everything goes smoothly for you, our Treasurer, and the event registrants. Before setting up your first paid events, please contact Mark for assistance.

Self-Managed Paid Events

If you choose to manage your own payments for your event, you should indicate, very clearly, in your event itinerary that attendees are to pay you directly and not through the Treasurer. You may wish to contact the Treasurer for advice as to how best to do that as members frequently assume that they pay through the Treasurer without carefully reading the instructions. When this happens, rather than simplifying the whole process for everyone, it just adds unnecessary complexity.

The EOC Treasurer can accept these Payment Methods. You are not required to accept all those payment forms if you process your own payments. Just be sure to clearly indicate in your event itinerary what forms of payment you are able to accept.

If you use the "Participants Will Make Payment to EOC Prior to Event" box, the web site will assume that attendees are paying through the Treasurer and a number of bad things can happen. Your attendees will get "unpaid" reminders. The web site will tell people to pay the Treasurer (and give them the Treasurer's payment options). When you manage your own payments, you should NOT check the box, but rather, just make the payment process/terms very clear in your itinerary.

Paid Events With EOC Treasurer

If you choose to use the EOC Treasurer to process your payments, contact them ahead of time to determine an acceptable payment cut-off date which not only gives enough time to pay service providers after payments are collected, but also fits with the Treasurer's schedule. You don't want to choose a cut-off date at a time when our Treasurer is on vacation, for example.

If you choose to have your payments processed by the Treasurer, do NOT accept payments directly from event registrants - insist that they make payment to the Treasurer according to our approved Payment Methods.

Figure out BEFORE setting up your event how you're going to pay any service providers. If you are going to require that the Treasurer pay anyone on your behalf, CAREFULLY REVIEW the information for "Pay For Event" below under "At Event Cut-Off" and choose an appropriate cut-off date which will give you - and the Treasurer - the time you'll need to make sure payment is processed on time.

Process for Managing Paid Events

Note that the following information pertains mostly to Paid Events with the EOC Treasurer, although you may follow the guidelines in managing your other events as well.

Creating a new Paid Event:

• When you set up your event, make sure you include everything that is necessary in the "cost" amount: Member cost should include:
  - The cost of the event
  - Taxes
  - Gratuities
  - Coordination Fee: Note that for out-of-town paid events, you may collect a coordination fee to partially cover your own cost. See our Coordinator Subsidization Policy for complete information.
  - 3% (of the total so far) or $1.50, whichever is higher, to cover PayPal and/or PC Banking fees
  If the cost is variable depending on the number of people who sign up, choose the HIGHER price, it’s easier to refund than it is to ask for additional funds.
  - Note If you want people to be able to pay via internet banking, the banks impose a minimum transaction amount for these types of transactions. Internet Banking is a great tool for event payments - whether you manage them yourself or get the treasurer to do it. The minimum transaction amount for Internet Banking is $10, which makes it impossible for people to pay for events, or for us to reimburse people for events, if the price is less than $10.
• Your event registration cut-off date should be at least one day (although we recommend several days) before we need to pay the service provider. NOTE that you should NEVER pay a service provider until after the cut-off date, and only pay for the number of spots that we've received payment for. The club cannot cover spots that go empty if you overpay - YOU will be responsible for covering the difference!
• If you are managing your own payments, remember to NOT use the "Participants Will Make Payment to EOC Prior to Event" box, which will tell people to pay through the Treasurer. Instead, put very clear payment information into your itinerary.

Prior to Event Cut-Off:

• Registrants are responsible for getting their payment to the Treasurer by the cut-off date/time.
• An automated email is sent to the member when the payment has been processed by the Treasurer, so the member has proof of payment received by the club.
• Five days prior to cut-off, the web site will send out a reminder to anyone who hasn't yet paid. You can check to see who all has paid by going to the "Txns" link under "Coordinate" - "Upcoming Events".
• If you are monitoring your transactions and are concerned that you're not going to receive payment for all the spots, you may:
  1. Send an email out to all the non-payers. If you go to your "Upd List" at the top you’ll see an option to email all paid members and all non-paid members. You’ll want your email to say something like "I notice you haven’t paid yet, please remove yourself if your plans have changed, or contact me if there is an issue with getting your money to us in time. If you send in a cheque and we don’t receive it by the cutoff date, you will be marked as NOT PAID and you will receive an automatic No Show, so please make sure cheques are sent at least 5 days before the cut off date". They should know this, but it’s a good idea to remind them.
  2. Send an e-mail out to the waiting list advising them that you anticipate having some empty spots on the trip, and that the first ones of them to pay the DAY AFTER the cut-off will be the ones who get the empty spots. This will give them a head's up as to what day they should expect to jump on making payment. If you choose to do this, be sure to mention that payment after the cut-off date will be accepted in ELECTRONIC format only as we can't expect the Treasurer to run back and forth to the mailbox.
  3. Be realistic - if someone has been holding a place on your event for several weeks and contacts you with a few days left in a panic because they don’t know how to get money to you - ask yourself why they didn’t think of this before? Don’t feel pressured to collect the money if it’s going to make things inconvenient for you or the Treasurer. Let them know that if they don’t pay by the cutoff date, they’ll be assigned an automatic No Show per our Cancellation Policy.

• On the day AFTER the cut-off date, the Treasurer will ensure that all payments received have been recorded by 9:00am. The Treasurer will record all transactions on the web site. You can see all the transactions by logging on and going to "Coordinate", "Upcoming Events" and clicking "Txns" for the event. The items at the top of the list are all transactions, including payments received and refunds given, relating to this event. The items at the bottom of the list are all the people who are still marked as UNPAID for the event. Be sure to double check that their names don't appear on the top list - it is possible that the Treasurer received and recorded a payment BEFORE the person got on the event (ie. if they pre-paid from the waiting list). If you wish, you may confirm with the Treasurer that all payments received have been recorded before changing your attendee list, but generally speaking, you are safe to assume that it's been done by 9am. Check your "Txns" page for the event, and then remove any registrants who have not yet paid. Late-arriving payments (ie. mailed-in cheques arriving late) will be refunded/discarded.
• Confirm who is really UNPAID by checking the two lists on the Txns page. Use your "Upd List" page to remove everyone who has not paid - use the "Remove as No Show" button. Note that sometimes errors do happen - the Treasurer may neglect to record a payment received, so try to give the removed people enough time to respond in case an error was made and they really did pay for their spot.
• If you have enough time between your payment cut-off and when we have to pay the service provider, you may fill unpaid spots from the waiting list. If you choose to do this, you can send a note out to your waiting list that the spots will be filled on a FIRST PAID basis, and that payment MUST be made electronically to the Treasurer. The Treasurer should NOT be called on to visit the mailbox for cheques mailed in after the payment cut-off date. If you do not have sufficient time after your cut-off to fill the spots, you should NOT attempt to replace people on the list with wait-list folks. They can/will get on the list only if/when paid attendees drop out after the cut-off date.
• Pay for the event.
  1. Pay the service provider directly
  2. Submit your receipt to the Treasurer (if you can send electronically, obviously, you'll get reimbursed faster)
  3. If, for some reason, you're not able to pay the service provider yourself (for example, if the payment amount is more money than you personally have), you can contact the Treasurer to pay them. The Treasurer will need an invoice containing the total amount and contact information of who to pay. If you haven't got an invoice, you must provide this detail for the Treasurer to issue a payment. NOTE that it is best if the Treasurer can pay electronically. The club requires multiple signatories on cheques issued, so if payment is to be made by cheque, it will, obviously, hold up payment while additional signatories are reached.

• They will receive a refund ONLY if a replacement is found to take their spot.
• THEY, not YOU, are responsible for finding a replacement and for having the replacement pay them directly for their spot.
• They will be given an automatic No Show per our Cancellation Policy.

• If you are paying the service provider directly, collect any and all receipts associated with the event and submit them to the Treasurer. The Treasurer will reimburse you for amounts which you've paid out and which the club has collected for.
• If you have over-charged for your event and some monies are to be given back to the attendees, you may advise the Treasurer of how much of a refund each attendee should receive and they will reimburse, or they may send you the money to refund the attendees directly.

• Add yourself to the event, then move yourself to the waiting list. All subsequent registrants will then be forced to the waiting list until you move them manually.
• Set your maximum to 1 and add yourself to the event. All subsequent registrants will then be forced to the waiting list until you move them manually.
• Set your cut-off date to a past date. All registrants will then be forced to the waiting list until you move them manually.