Hosting workshops
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How to host a Bloominglabs workshop
Members: we would LOVE to see you run a workshop on a topic you feel comfortable talking about (even if you are not a member). If you are unsure where to start, simply contact us at a meeting or send us an email and we can discuss your workshop (members should use the members mailing list, non-members can reach us at contact at bloominglabs dot org). Workshops can be members-only or open to the public. We will work with you to identify what needs to happen from Bloominglabs side for safety and liability concerns, and any other needs you may have. If you need assistance during the workshop it's on you to enlist helpers. Often other Bloominglabs members can be enlisted, but we make no promise of availability. We're a friendly bunch though and we want your workshop to succeed, so it's usually not too hard to get assistance. We try to avoid our public meeting hours for workshops, or Wednesday evenings at the very least. Saturdays public hours are more forgiving though.
RSVP Management
For workshops and classes which have limited seating, we STRONGLY recommend only holding seats for attendees who have paid ahead of time. Numerous times in the past we've ended up holding seats for no-shows while at the same time we had already turned away overflow attendees. This ends up with us having a partly empty class which is discouraging and costs us valuable time and funds. Non-refundable pre-payment of workshops ensures our time is not wasted in these scenarios.
Advertising
For advertising of events we have a number of outlets available, please see this page: Publicity_Outlets. Generally the workshop holder is responsible for advertising their event. Our social media resources can be used for this, generally someone at contact at bloominglabs dot org can assist you in reaching those resources.
Survey Data
Post-workshop surveys allow us to collect important metrics, not only for the instructors, but for Bloominglabs as a whole. Survey results give us feedback we can use in applying for grants which is becoming more and more important. The Officers can provide access to our online survey forms and their results, contact at bloominglabs dot org.
Setting up PayPal links for Workshop Payments
When we run workshops we usually generate a PayPal button for each one on our front page which lets people pay for a workshop immediately. This is hugely beneficial and highly recommended for getting people enrolled in workshops. There are two steps for this. Firstly, someone with access to the Bloominglabs PayPal account needs to create unique "buttons" for each workshop (usually this will have to be the treasurer or president). Next, PayPal will give that person html code to embed in our website. The code will look similar to this:
<html> <form target="paypal" action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="PLHKBNSXD46K6"> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_cart_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!"> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"> </form> </html>
This can be embedded directly into our MediaWiki site and works just fine. You will need to add some text above the button to describe the workshop and such. All signups will be seen by the officers who get mail sent to treasurer at bloominglabs dot org. They will need to communicate signups with workshop holders to make sure workshops are not overfilled - ie: the buttons will need to be removed from the website if a seat limit is hit.
Other questions
We try to help each other out, if you have other questions about holding workshops, just ask! Come talk to people during our weekly public night, or ask questions on our various mailing lists.
