Chapteradminhelp2

Event Types

There are three types of Events. This help page will focus on the "Donor/Driver" type. Click the hyperlink to get information on the other two types.

Donor/Driver Event; Donors are Drivers are mixed into a large pool, a route-optimization program groups donors into "least mile routes" for drivers.
Neighborhood Event; A Neighborhood Coordinator organizes a group of the same donors to donate. The "NC" picks up their donors bags.
Community Circle; (note; CC is not ready yet, check back Sept 1st) A group that shares a common meeting place brings their food donations to that central location (school, church, business, club house, HOA, Apt Building)

For a detailed explanation of each Event Type click here.

Event Workflow, Overview

Review this section to get an overview of how it works from start to finish. Then, follow the hyperlinks to the sections that provide more details.

STEP 1: Create the "Primary Event"; this defines the Zones and Zip Codes, the frequency, start/end time, and other parameters.

STEP 2: Add an Event from the Primary Event; this sets up a specific event on a Date/Time you choose. (or edit an existing event)

STEP 3: Prepare for the Event; make sure you have bags and information cards

STEP 4: Monitor 'Driver Selection' up until the Event Date

STEP 5: Create the Route

STEP 6: Meet Drivers; pass out bags, information cards to the drivers.

STEP 7: Monitor the route, handle problems.

STEP 8: Complete after-route Tasks, such as Driver Notes, Incomplete Routes, and other tasks.

Create Events

Note; This guide will explain how Events currently. A change is coming by end of August, which will use a "Primary Event". The 'Primary Event' has all the parameters (frequency, zones, start/end times), and that will be used to add additional events and to link Neighborhood Events. This is all under construction. The rest of this section will cover the way it works now.

BEFORE ADDING AN EVENT:

Create the Zone(s) in your Chapter Profile that will be used (these are groups of zip codes)
Create the Locations for Driver Start and Drop Off (the Food Bank or Pantry) (and a Self-Deliver location if needed.)
Have at least one "Event Manager" set. This is set in their profile.

ADD EVENT:

Create your first event;

Go to the Events List (Click 'Admin' menu in green bar, they select "Events" in the dropdown).
Click "Add Event"
Enter the Start Date first, this will create a suggested "Event Name". You can edit the name if you wish.
Event Type; Either 'Donor/driver' (default) or 'Community Circle'. See "Event Types" for more information.
Enter the start and end time
Add the Zone(s) that will participate
Select the "Event Contact" (Event Manager) from the drop down
Select a 'self deliver' location if you've enabled that feature in the Chapter Profile

notes;

'Event Active' is a switch to set an event to inactive, you can still find it if you click "show inactive" from the Events Window.
'Event Locked' keeps donors from changing their status to "yes", and occurs when routes are created and emails are sent to the drivers.
'Create DD Route' is used the day before the route to create the driver routes
'Create NH Route' is used to create 'Neighborhood Event' routes the day before the event (if applicable)

EDITING AN EVENT:

In the "Events List" (Admin/Events), click the pencil icon next to the event you wish to edit.
Edit any field. HOWEVER!! if you change zones and the event is within 7 days you should contact us for assistance. (info@SimpleGesture.org)

ADD ADDITIONAL EVENTS:

Click the "+" symbol next to any event you wish to copy, the new event will include the zone, event contact, start/end times, and self-deliver info.
Set the Start Date, which suggests an Event Name, modify if needed

Preparing For Donor/Driver Event & Printing Cards

CHECK YOUR INVENTORY:

Determine how many donors you can expect for your next event. (Look at your donor history on the dashboard, and perhaps Reports/User Report to look at new registrations (Sort the data on that column)
Do you have enough reusable bags? If not, a typical reorder timeline is 4 weeks from Holden Bags.
Do you have enough information cards? ("Thank you" and "Sorry we missed you")

Thank You Cards; these are stapled to the bags. They have a “needs list’, next event date, and a QR code pointing to https://JoinSG.org with a message to tell their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. (see next section for our templates)

Sorry We Missed You; these are left instead of a bag. They have a QR code pointing to SimpleGesture.org’s donation page, the next event date, and a reminder to say “no” to the email/text so a driver doesn’t come to their door next time. (see next section for our templates)

Printing Cards:

Note; there may be policies regarding what must be on the cards, especially if your chapter is under an umbrella group that has a 'Brand Sponsor'. Often, a Brand Sponsor will have certain requirement of how their brand is displayed, and what else is permitted.

You can design your own cards or use our templates. If you use the template be sure to modify to fit your specific chapter. Edit the pickup dates and the email for 'more information'. You can add your brand, such as Rotary or a Retail business. But please do not use the cards to solicit business or provide any political, religious, other message regarding your organization.

PAPER: We recommend using 5x7 cards. These can be purchased at a very good price on Amazon, use THIS LINK. Or you can buy 8.5" x 11" card stock (100lb or 120GSM is recommended) at Staples and have them cut the entire ream in 1/2 with their special equipment. NOTE: the templates we provide are for 5x7 paper, if you print on 8.5" x 5.5" you may need to change things around a bit.

INK: We prefer to use printers that can be refilled (vs. a cartridge) for expense reasons. This is a great link for ink.

PRINTER: We've tested a lot of printers, and the EPSON ET 2980 is our favorite. It's a top loading machine without a lot of bells and whistles, but is far less to jamming than the more expensive printers. Here is a link.

Driver Selection

Driver Selection is one of the main duties of the Chapter Administrator. The system is taking care of communicating with the donors to determine who will or won't be participating. You, as Chapter Admin, will determine who drives. This is done in the 'Driver Selection' window.

Access the "Driver Selection" window by selecting "EVENTS" from the ADMIN menu (the green bar at the top). Click the pencil icon on the event you are working on. Then click the green "Actions/Reports" button to get a drop down. Click on "Driver Selection".

The Sequence: Before getting into details, it's a good idea to understand the overall 'driver selection process'.

The system will send all eligible drivers (Drivers that have said "yes, I can drive" in their profile) a text and email 10 days before the Event Start Date, asking "Will you drive for this specific event?". Their status is changed to 'notify'.
Drivers will respond 'yes' or 'no', or they may not respond at all. This changes their status to 'yes', 'no' or it remains in 'notify' status.
As drivers say 'yes', you will get an email/text alerting you that you have an 'urgent action needed'. It's important to decide what you wish to do with this driver since they want to plan their weekends too!
If you need this particular driver, you click "Confirm" in the box to the left of their name. If you don't need them, click "Back Up" to set them as a backup driver. (more on this later). Click "Send Notifications" to send an email to those drivers alerting them to their change of status.
If you haven't heard back from some drivers, you can notify them again; click the "notify" box left of their name, then "Send Notifications"

EXPLAINING THE ENTIRE FORM: Top Section, Mid Section and Bottom Section

TOP SECTION:

There is a row of data, the left side shows "Driver Totals" and the right side "Donor Totals", and in the middle is "Route Ratio".

The Driver Totals show the # of Eligible Drivers and what their status is. (see below for status types). The Donor Totals are similar, # eligible and status. NOTE: Donor data is not accurate until donor notifications have gone out, which is 7 days before the event.

MID SECTION:

3 Tabs;

Driver Notifications (main page),
Driver Start Locations, and
Driver Drop Offs.

This section explains the main page, scroll down to see how "Start" and "Drop off" tabs work,

"Send Notifications" button is used to change the status of a driver, review the sequence above to get a better idea. More on this further down.

"Override" Status is used to bypass the normal procedure, this is explained in more detail below.

"Add a Driver"; this is used to add a driver that exists in your chapter that is not in the zones used for this event. (they must have "Driver set to yes" in their profile.). This may come in handy if you have a driver that lives in a different town (outside of your supported zip codes), but works in your community. You can manually add them to this event. NOTE; when adding a driver, they are automatically set to "confirm".

BOTTOM SECTION:

This has important detail about each driver. To the left are the notification types. For example, you can "notify" a driver (ask if they want to drive), "confirm" a driver that has said 'yes' to the 'can you drive?' notification. and you can set any driver that has said 'yes' to be a backup driver.

You can click on any driver name to get more information about that driver, open their profile or send them a message.

Level: this is set by the Chapter as a free-entry field. You might want to set your favorite drivers to a 1, and if a driver has been a problem you may set them as a 10. Or vice-versa. How you use this field is up to you.

Status; this is their current status. 10 days before an event all drivers are notified, so it will show "notify". Once they say "yes" or "no" that will appear. If they say "yes" you may want to "confirm" them and then the word "confirm" will appear once you've sent those notifications. Read below for more information.

To the right side are history for each driver. This is so you can see their experience. We recommend using a mixture of veteran drivers and new drivers. Don't just use the same veteran drivers. If a driver is always set to backup, they will stop saying they are available. Spread it around!

”Edit Event” form is explained, field by field, in the section above.

Driver Status Types and Workflow

A driver will always start with no status, this is the case 10 days before the event.

10 days before an event the system automatically sends a "will you drive" email and text, and sets their status to "notify".

When drivers receive that email/text, they may respond yes, no, or they may not respond.

Those that say "yes" will have their status change to 'Yes'.
Those that say "no" will have their status change to 'No'
If they don't respond they remain in 'notify' status.

NOTIFY DRIVERS AGAIN: It is common to not hear back from all drivers. Click the "ALL" button at the top of the Driver Section to put a check mark into all drivers "notify" checkbox that have not responded. Or do it one by one. Then click the "Send Notifications". This will re-notify them, and update the "Status Updated" field.

CONFIRM DRIVERS: Its important to confirm drivers quickly, soon after they say yes. The reason is simply because people want to know if they need to block the time on their calendar. Even if they aren't needed, the sooner they know the better. (read; "how many drivers are needed" further down).

Do this by clicking the "Confirm" checkbox to all drivers you wish to confirm (they must be in 'yes' status), then click "Send Notifications". Email/text will go to these drivers letting them know they are confirmed.

SET TO BACKUP: Hopefully you will have extra drivers. It is recommended to have at least one backup driver that you know is going to be truly a back up (waiting for you to call if needed). We recommend one backup for every 10 drivers!

If you don't have enough backups take a look here to get some suggestions to solve it.

Any extra drivers need to be set to "Backup". We recommend to send them a separate email after you set them to backup if they are not familiar with our system. The reason, they are going to wonder "why? did I do something wrong?" Your drivers are golden, treat them with great care!!

The method is to click the checkboxes next to the drivers you wish to change, then click "Send Notifications".

OVERRIDE STATUS: If you wish to skip the workflow you can click "Override". this allows you to put a check in any checkbox, and send notifications. They will get a "Chapter Admin" has set your status to.... email/text.

”Edit Event” form is explained, field by field, in the section above.

How Many Drivers Are Needed?

Estimate # of Donors in the Event; If you’ve run several events you can just look at the Route Summary (Reports/Route Summary) to see how many donors you had last time. The top of the Driver Selector Screen gives you good data to consider. As the date comes closer the data will get more useful.

Hard Yes; these are the donors that have said yes, so the number reflects that these donors will be on routes.

Soft Yes; Historically about 50% of these donors will be routed. As the event draws nearer, the # will go down as some answer “yes” and become a “Hard Yes, and some say “no“.

Total Yes: This is “Hard Yes” plus “Soft Yes”, and on the day before the routes this is how many get routed.

Require Yes; these are donors that have missed at least their last two pick ups, where they were routed and did not leave a bag. About 10-20% of these will become a “Hard Yes” and about the same amount will become a “hard No”, the rest won’t respond historically.

DRIVER RATIO: This is the total number of confirmed drivers in ratio to “Total Yes”. Right before you “Create Routes” you’ll want this ratio between 12 and 22. 12 if your area is rural and drivers have a long way to between stops. 22 if urban and donors are very close together. A good average for most events is a ratio of about 1 to 16 or 18.

TOO MANY DRIVERS? This is a good problem to have, just set some from ‘confirm’ to ‘backup’.

NOT ENOUGH DRIVERS? Click here for more information.

”Edit Event” form is explained, field by field, in the section above.

Event Screen Examples

The Events Screen accessed by clicking the Admin drop down displays all active Events, sorted by most recent. Click the pencil icon to edit an event. Click the + icon to create a copy of an event (a quick way to create a future event with the same info), and click “Add Event“ to create a new event.

The “Edit Event” form is the same as "Add Event" with the exception of adding the "Create Route" field and including the "Actions/Reports drop down box (green button).

The Actions/Reports drop down provides other tools related to an event. Driver Selection sets up drivers. Bag Pick up handles bag delivery to drivers. Route Map provides the routing details. Route Update allows Admin to update route data for each driver. And Event History shows data related to drivers and donors.

Start and End Points For Each Driver

The "Start" point is where the driver begins their route. This is done in the "Start Tab" of the Event form. (see image).

START LOCATION: Start Locations for each driver will be set to the default from the Chapter Profile. Click here for more information.

The most common situation for smaller chapters is to have one Start Location for all drivers. This makes it convenient to hand out bags, information cards, and to organize everything. As your chapter grows or if you have a big territory you may need multiple starting points. A good practice is to find a reliable driver that's in one of this locations and give them plenty of bags and information cards to handle that starting point for the other drivers.

Go to the "Start Loc" tab on the Driver Selection Window. You will see a list of all "confirmed" drivers. Next to them is a dropdown to select the start location.

Leave it as is if they are going to start at the default location
Select "Home" if they are going to start at their address
Select any other Location that has been set up for "Driver Start"

DROP OFF LOCATION: The end location will be the Food Banks and Pantries where you deliver food. You add these in the Locations screen. You can have as many as you wish.

All drivers start off with the default drop off location defined in the Chapter Profile. You can click the 'Driver Drop Off' tab to see all the drop off locations and make a change to any of them.

Note, on this page you will see data to show many drivers are going to each location, this can help you balance the drop off's.

CREATE A ROUTE and ROUTE MAP PAGE

The day before the event you can create the route. This is done in the "Event Window". Click "Admin" from the green menu bar, then click "Events" and click the pencil next to the event you wish to route.

Click "Create Route" from the Event Page. If this is the first time you've done it, contact us first; Info@SimpleGesture.org. We need to verify your parameters are correct. These are behind the scenes, they are variables that are sent to the route optimization engine.

NOTE: you must confirm the Start and End Locations first. Open the "Start Loc" tab, click "confirm". Open the "End Loc" tab and click "confirm" before you can run a route.

After you have clicked "Create Routes" it will take about a minute to create the route. You'll see a "True" show up. In the "Actions/Reports" green button, select "DD Route Map" to view the routes.

View Routes:

In the Route Map you will see a list of drivers with a box to the left of their name, when you put a checkmark in that box you'll see their route. You can click the checkmark above all the drivers to put a check in all drivers checkbox. Three is also an "x" to uncheck all the boxes.

Look for the "Route Summary" button below the map, that gives you details for each driver. Hopefully the "Duration" spread is close together.

Common Problems with Routes:

A driver does not show up, you need to give their route to someone else. Click here to learn how
A driver is unable to complete the route they started, or they are falling behind. Click here to learn how to solve this

Why Do Some Drivers Have More Stops and Others Less Stops?

This gets into choices that can be made in your parameters. By default, we set routes to balance the time spent by each driver to be similar. In nearly every route someone has to drive down a long road to get to one house, so they are going to have fewer stops.

Editing Routes:

It is possible to edit a route, although it is not recommended. If you see something odd, like a driver picking up from a house and someone else picking up at the house next to it, just let it go.

The reason for some of these odd situations is we are optimizing on "smoothing out time" among all the drivers at the expense of having the least total time. If we route using "least total time" some drivers will have 30 stops and others 5. Some will be done in 3 hours, some in 10 minutes. Instead, we try to make it so all drivers take similar 'duration'.

If you must edit a route, we explain how to do it, but be forewarned it is tricky and only suggested if you are comfortable with complex software.

NEIGHBORHOOD COORDINATORS: If you have NC's, you can also create the Neighborhood Route, and send emails to NC's that their route is ready at the same time. Click here to read all about Neighborhoods.

CHAPTER ADMIN GUIDE: PAGE 2: EVENTS

Event Types

Event Workflow, Overview

Create Events

Preparing For Donor/Driver Event & Printing Cards

Information Card Templates

Driver Selection

Driver Status Types and Workflow

How Many Drivers Are Needed?

Event Screen Examples

Start and End Points For Each Driver

CREATE A ROUTE and ROUTE MAP PAGE

Route Map Images (under development)

EDIT ROUTE (Advanced Users) (under development)

Day of Event Activities

After Event Activities

CHAPTER ADMIN GUIDE: PAGE 2: EVENTS

Event Types

Event Workflow, Overview

Create Events

Preparing For Donor/Driver Event & Printing Cards

Information Card Templates

Driver Selection

Driver Status Types and Workflow

How Many Drivers Are Needed?

Event Screen Examples

Start and End Points For Each Driver

CREATE A ROUTE and ROUTE MAP PAGE

Route Map Images (under development)

EDIT ROUTE (Advanced Users) (under development)

Day of Event Activities

After Event Activities

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