Event Planning During COVID-19

TJ McDowell Author

01/29/2021 Added

8 Plays

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For departments and organizations thinking about hosting in-person events this semester, it’s important that you keep up with Directed Health Measures to help promote a safe environment and keep within university compliance. Join Assistant Vice Chancellor TJ McDowell each Wednesday at 3 p.m. for a quick update on the latest policies and to get answers to your event planning questions in the age of COVID-19. (Zoom: go.unl.edu/eventplanning)

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[00:00:08.639]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Well, good afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us for our weekly event update where we provide you the latest information about the local directed health measures,
[00:00:21.000]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): any updates on event guidance and expectations, and any other information to help you plan successful and safe events.
[00:00:29.910]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): On our agenda for today we're going to introduce a few key people we're going to do a quick review of the of the current directed health measures and event expectations,
[00:00:38.010]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): which haven't changed from last week... so it'll be a quick review and then Veronice and Leigh have so graciously agreed to do some
[00:00:45.870]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): --what we're going to call "pro tips." For those of you who are working on submitting event request approvals some things to know to help that process goes smoothly and efficiently.
[00:00:58.020]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, first I want to introduce some key staff. Veronica and Leigh are both going to
[00:01:04.350]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): present later, but I want to introduce both because they both played key roles with groups who are working on events
[00:01:10.050]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): approvals. So Veronica who's the director of a new unit, you may have seen that email today, the Student Leadership, Involvement, Community Engagement unit.
[00:01:18.930]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): She works really hard with groups and it's always going that extra mile to find innovative ways that groups can make their events happen and
[00:01:28.380]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): facilitate them in successful and safe ways. Leigh, who's the director of fraternity and sorority life, also does the same thing for Greek organizations Ii've worked with both of them
[00:01:37.140]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): through some situations, and so I know that they both do whatever they can to make sure that you can get through that process.
[00:01:43.230]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And then I want to also be sure we introduced Debbie because this semester Debbie Hendricks is doing approving event requests, on behalf of the Vice Chancellor.
[00:01:53.220]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): And I can tell you that she is a rule follower and detail-oriented, so she's going to review those requests and she's going to ask questions, and so the more that we can have dot your i's dotted and t's crossed the better.
[00:02:05.910]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, and then almost every lot of the people on the screen that I'm looking at provide some real I'm thinking about Melissa who's a great resource for ourselves in terms of planning events.
[00:02:17.250]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Carrie Jackson, who works with facilities and registration. Jacob Sherry who does stuff with residence halls and the residence halls.
[00:02:26.670]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Brent and Ryan, and the unions, I mean everybody on this group is really many, many folks here are here to support you, so if you have questions about the event
[00:02:34.890]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): approval process, you can reach out to a number of folks. So now I'm going to try to... I always get nervous about sharing my screen... I'm going to try and let's see can this work?
[00:02:45.600]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Yes, can everybody see the screen. Can you see the screen? Ok, so I'm going to run through these are the current directed health measures that were approved that went into effect January 22.
[00:02:56.070]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So the first one is that any event with 500 or more anticipated participants has to go through like in Lancaster health department to get approval.
[00:03:07.260]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): No events can exceed 10,000 attendees. So I don't think we have to worry about that hitting that limit, but any event where we're anticipating more than 500 participants, we have to work with Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department to get approval.
[00:03:18.870]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): The occupancy for gatherings for events indoors is 50% of the rate of occupancy and 75% for outdoor spaces.
[00:03:30.090]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Then the max is eight per table or group.
[00:03:33.930]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Still, at any event, with 50 or more
[00:03:38.010]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): attendees needs to go to the university approval process, which we're going to hear more about soon. Travel outside of Lincoln is not permitted at this time. Are there any questions about the directed health measures?
[00:03:54.210]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Ok.
[00:03:57.120]share my screen.
[00:03:59.760]Real fancy.
[00:04:06.630]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So you know the rest of the guidance again. We're going to require face coverings for all events, no matter the size, indoors or outdoors.
[00:04:16.680]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): We just felt like that clears up some confusion. Also an advisor or university employee is required to attend all events with 50 plus participants. We find it's just a lot easier to make sure that students are following the
[00:04:30.510]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): protocols and mask wearing and social distancing. And then events must be approved seven days prior to the event. So, as you're doing your planning, make sure you're allowing plenty of time so that you can get that approval seven days before the event.
[00:04:45.930]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): We're requiring that the Safer Community app be used as part of the required check-in process for all events; and we have a group that's a committee that's looking at if we can extend more privileges in terms of events if students
[00:05:01.440]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): are using the app and getting tested. So that, hopefully, in the next couple of weeks we'll have that group, maybe, be able to present some ways, or some additional privileges we're able to extend to students in organizations that are planning events.
[00:05:19.350]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): So, any questions about that before we go into Leigh and Veronica sharing some pro tips.
[00:05:28.290]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Questions, comments, anything to add from the team?
[00:05:33.840]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Ok, I'm gonna share the screen and turn it over to Veronica and Leigh.
[00:05:40.680]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Veronica, Leigh, pro tips.
[00:05:43.800]Leigh Thiedeman: Thanks, TJ. You know Veronica and I have had the opportunity to be first level approvers for events for --what-- five or six months now?
[00:05:51.780]Leigh Thiedeman: So, there are some things that we put together. Things we thought would be helpful for those of you who might be filling out events, for the first time, or as things have adapted and changed.
[00:05:59.910]Leigh Thiedeman: That we want to make sure you have this information in front of you. So, first tip is to submit your request in plenty of time. TJ already showed on a previous slide that they need to be approved seven days in advance.
[00:06:11.430]Leigh Thiedeman: My suggestion would be at least 10 to 14 days in advance. This allows us a little bit of a window to go back and forth with the event forms in case there's questions or we need a little bit more information before we can approve the event.
[00:06:25.680]Veronica Riepe: The next thing will be to make sure that you provide as much detail and information, as you can in the risk assessment. The risk assessment is the thing that we are really
[00:06:37.230]Veronica Riepe: teading with a lot of intensity to make sure that you really understand how things need to,
[00:06:45.030]Veronica Riepe: how your event is going to run. We want to make sure that you understand that there's a lot of safety protocols and so, what are you putting into place.
[00:06:53.820]Veronica Riepe: If your risk assessment isn't detailed enough or doesn't answer the questions, that's the number one reason I send things back. It's because I can't figure this out.
[00:07:05.940]Veronica Riepe: From a Student Involvement perspective that's where we get hung up for any of the in-person events, whether they're 50 and over or not. And so, if you have questions or
[00:07:19.440]Veronica Riepe:I today I had somebody reach out to me in one of the academic colleges and asked me if I had
[00:07:25.920]Veronica Riepe: an example that they could look at because they had to fill one out for the first time. And so we're happy to provide those samples of other ones that have been approved if that will help you get your event approved on the first try.
[00:07:41.610]Leigh Thiedeman: And along those lines, for a link with Veronica's example reach out to staff for assistance.
[00:07:46.320]Leigh Thiedeman: We want you to be able to put on in-person safe events right for your organization or your community and we're here to help. So if there's an event that you think might be a little tricky
[00:07:56.760]Leigh Thiedeman: or you just aren't sure how to fill out that risk assessment matrix, reach out to any of the staff, whether it's in Student Involvement, or Fraternity Sorority Life or whatever office you might be working with.
[00:08:05.880]Leigh Thiedeman: For your first level approval, we're here to help; and we want to be able to answer any questions that you have that come up.
[00:08:12.390]Veronica Riepe: Some of you, your events might involve agreements that have to be signed or contracts, because you're hosting your event at an off-campus facility or
[00:08:25.170]Veronica Riepe: you're working with a special caterer or or or something. Along those lines, you need to make sure that your event is approved and can go forward before you enter into those agreements.
[00:08:36.930]Veronica Riepe: Just a little side note, you shouldn't be signing those. I have to sign those, but if your event is approved to happen, then we don't want to have to
[00:08:47.850]Veronica Riepe: sort of go back and and deal with those agreements, which relates to the to the next bullet point.
[00:08:55.950]Veronica Riepe: We want to make sure that those agreements have clauses in them that if your event needs to be canceled due to COVID or DHMs changing that those clauses are in there; and it gets you out of those agreements or those contracts with as little
[00:09:12.510]Veronica Riepe: harm as possible. I say that because sometimes it doesn't mean that you get the money refunded, but the money that's been paid is credited for you to host your event in the future. We've worked with vendors
[00:09:27.120]Veronica Riepe: to do that. Thankfully, because we've been doing this for so long, many places, understand that things will change.
[00:09:36.390]Veronica Riepe: And they are allowing those contracts or those agreements to be
[00:09:41.370]Veronica Riepe: avoided. I think the other thing, though, as much as we're talking about planning ahead, we are also hesitating to have people entering those agreements too far in advance.
[00:09:53.250]Veronica Riepe: Typically, from a like a University Program Council perspective, we would sign contracts for the spring in December. We are holding those and are signing them sort of on a month-by-month basis.
[00:10:06.690]Veronica Riepe: For all the same reasons, we want to make sure that we think that the event can occur, so be mindful of that
[00:10:16.950]Veronica Riepe: as as you're planning or going forward with these events.
[00:10:21.750]Leigh Thiedeman: So this pro tip may seem very simple. List the correct Dean/Director and Vice Chancellor.
[00:10:27.090]Leigh Thiedeman: But we really ask that you double check those pieces because it can hold up the entire process if your form gets sent to the wrong person.
[00:10:33.750]Leigh Thiedeman: it's something we are able to fix along the way, but again if we don't catch it right away, we might have to go back and make some changes before it gets to the right person for the right approval.
[00:10:42.600]Leigh Thiedeman: So, for fraternities and sororities you should always be listing me Leigh Thiedeman as the Dean/Director.
[00:10:48.780]Leigh Thiedeman: And Debbie Hendricks as the Vice Chancellor or designee. When you're picking those spots for Veronica, she'll be approving all RSOs.
[00:10:56.250]Leigh Thiedeman: So you'll pick Veronica Riepe as the Dean/Director and again Debbie Hendricks for the Vice Chancellor or designee.
[00:11:03.600]Leigh Thiedeman: And then, depending upon if you're working with a different office of department, you might have someone else to put as that first level approval, but again, it seems really simple but make sure you double-check that you've got the right people listed in those two spots.
[00:11:20.250]Veronica Riepe: And lastly, we'd say asked questions um we would prefer that you don't guess or make assumptions.
[00:11:28.020]Veronica Riepe: That just gets us into trouble, and so it goes back to asking staff for assistance, you can reach.
[00:11:35.880]Veronica Riepe: Any of us, I mean maybe you're talking to duty or arron or carry about a room reservation don't be surprised that they can answer your question, if you have one so just ask somebody if you're unsure.
[00:11:49.980]Veronica Riepe: Because we're happy to help answer those questions before you hit the submit button or before you move forward with your event planning.
[00:12:05.100]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): That's great! Thank you Veronica and Leigh. Are there any questions about any of those pro tips that they shared?
[00:12:17.730]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Okay, any questions about the event the approval process or any of that?
[00:12:30.630](Listening)
[00:12:38.490]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): No questions. Any comments? Anything from anybody else about events
[00:12:44.280]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): for the spring?
[00:12:52.110]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): All right, well, no questions, no comments.
[00:12:55.830]Veronica Riepe: TJ will you put up, will you screenshare again and put up the next slide.
[00:13:02.190]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): That?
[00:13:02.910]Veronica Riepe: Melissa just put in the chat.
[00:13:09.900]Veronica Riepe: So you know, we're trying really hard to put the information in as few places as possible so that you're not looking in 12 places for 12 different answers and so Melissa shared where we put RSO information, but Student Affairs has information about where you can get,
[00:13:30.480]Veronica Riepe: how to get to the event approval form and that kind of stuff is found on the first COVID-19 site.
[00:13:41.010]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Good.
[00:13:45.600]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Any other questions or comments?
[00:13:50.880]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Alright.
[00:13:52.740]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Thank you everyone and Hollie this this is being recorded and it will be posted Is that correct?
[00:14:01.560]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Where will we post?
[00:14:06.720]Hollie Swanson: I'm gonna have to check with Lauren on that one. She will probably post it somewhere, either within a website, or possibly social media as well, but I'll follow up with that.
[00:14:17.820]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): Okay, great Thank you.
[00:14:21.030]T.J. McDowell (he/him/his): All right, well, thank you everyone. We'll see you next week with any new updates.

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Event Planning During COVID-19

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