Events & RSVPs

Events are separate from classes — they're one-off or occasional gatherings (a field trip, a park day, an open house) rather than a recurring weekly class. Families RSVP from the Community Calendar, and each event has its own signup roster you can review from Admin › Events.

This guide focuses on the admin side. For how families RSVP, see the “How do I RSVP to an event?” entry in the Help & Support FAQ hub.

Admin › Events opens on Upcoming, soonest first, with a subheading for each month. That is the planning view: what is coming, in the order it arrives.

Everything that has already happened sits behind the Past tab. It is a deliberately tighter list, one line per event showing the date, category, title, fee, and location, grouped by year with the most recent first. This year and last year are open when you get there. Older years are folded down to a single row saying how many events are in them, and you click Show to open one.

If your co-op has nothing coming up, which is normal between terms, the page opens on Past instead of showing you an empty screen.

The form also has a Coordinator field. Leave it on Event creator (default) and signup notifications go to whoever created the event, or pick a different owner/admin so notifications go to whoever actually runs the event day-to-day instead. See Who gets notified about signups below.

You can also create and manage events straight from Calendar in the sidebar, which opens to month view by default. Click the + New button in the calendar toolbar to create an event or volunteer shift with the date pre-filled, or click any existing event to open a quick panel where you can view details, edit, duplicate, or delete without leaving the calendar. Month and year dropdowns next to the prev/next arrows let you jump straight to a distant month instead of clicking through one at a time — they work in month, week, and list view alike.

A weekly park day is one event with a repeat schedule. Set it up once and the calendar shows every date. Change the time or the location once and every date changes with it.

Set your co-op's time zone first. Every later date is worked out from it, so without one the dates after the first can land on the wrong day. If your co-op doesn't have one saved, the event form says so and won't let you set a repeat until you fix it. It's on Admin › Settings, and it's a one-time job. One-off events aren't affected.

Until the time zone is set, the Repeats box on the event form is locked, with a link to the setting. An event that already repeats shows its schedule read-only. You can still edit its other details, and saving keeps the series as it is.

Skipping one date. When the co-op doesn't meet one week (a holiday, a snow day), open that date on the calendar and click Skip this date. Only that date disappears; every other date in the series is untouched. Skipped dates are listed on the event's edit form under Skipped dates, each with a Restore button if plans change back.

Changing or removing the series. Edit changes every date at once. Delete series removes all of them. To cancel just one meeting, use Skip this date, not Delete.

There are three places to add photos or files to an event. On the create form, the Photos & files section near the bottom has a drop area. Drag files onto it, or click it to browse your device, and they upload the moment the event is saved. On an event that already exists, open it from Admin › Events and use the Attachments card. And if you are working from the calendar, click the event and open its edit view: the same attachment control is right there, so you don’t have to go back through the Events list.

Add one file or several at once. On the Attachments card, click Upload once your files are listed. If some of them don’t go through, only those stay in the list, so you can try again without uploading the rest twice. Images (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP) show up as previews on the event page; PDFs, Word documents, and other files show as download links. Each file can be up to 50 MB.

Typical uses: a photo of where to park for a field trip, an example of the project for an art class, a permission slip to print, or a packing list. Families see the same attachments when they open the event from the calendar. Hover an attachment and click the trash icon to remove it.

An event with no attachments looks exactly as it did before, so nothing changes until you add one.

Two small setup tools on the Events list page save you typing on every event:

Event categories

The Event categories card lets you + Add category with a name and color. Categories show up as a filter on the calendar and help families spot the kind of event at a glance (field trip vs. social vs. meeting, for example). Each category also has a delete (✕) button — deleting one doesn’t delete the events tagged with it, it just leaves them uncategorized.

Saved locations

The Saved locations card lets you + Add location for venues you use often. Once saved, picking that location when creating an event auto-fills the venue name and address fields instead of retyping them.

For a one-off venue you haven't saved, the venue field on the event form is also a live address search — start typing a place or business name and pick a match to fill in the address automatically, no need to look up the exact street address yourself.

If the venue changes after you've created an event, open the event and click Edit event. You can change the venue name and the street address, city, and state, or pick Load saved location to fill them in, then click Save changes. Owners and admins can edit any event. You don't need to delete the event and start over, and existing signups stay as they are.

Max attendees

Leave Max attendees blank for no cap. If you set a number, a second option appears: What counts toward the cap? Choose Everyone — adults and children if every person counts, or Children only for a kid-focused trip where accompanying parents shouldn't count against the limit.

Spots are counted per person under that rule, so a family bringing three people needs three open spots. A family whose group won't fit in the spots that are left is placed on the waitlist automatically instead of being turned away. That holds even when two families sign up for the last spots at the same moment: one gets them and the other is waitlisted. Once every spot is taken, the event shows Event Signup Full in place of the signup form.

When a family with a confirmed spot cancels, or removes people from their signup, the longest-waiting signup is promoted if their group fits in the room that opened, and that family gets an email letting them know a spot opened up.

Raising the event limit, or removing it, works the same way. Waitlisted families move onto the roster on their own, in the order they joined, for as long as the next family in line fits in the open spots. Each one gets the same email. Lowering the limit, or changing anything else about the event, doesn't move anyone.

If a party is too big for the room left, the families behind it wait too, so nobody jumps the line. You can always move a family yourself from the Waitlist list on the event's page (see Tracking who showed up below).

An event that requires payment through Stripe has no waitlist. A family who tries to register once it's full is told the event is full, and no payment is started.

Event cost

Every event form includes an Event cost field (leave it blank or $0 for a free event). Co-ops that collect money outside HomeschoolGo can enter the amount so families know what to expect. If your co-op has the Plus plan and a connected Stripe account, you can also choose how the cost is collected under How should the cost be collected?

• Require payment via Stripe to register — families must pay to confirm their spot.
• Offer Stripe, but allow RSVP and pay later — families can reserve a spot and pay afterward.
• Cost only — payment handled outside HomeschoolGo — you're just noting there's a cost; collect it however you normally do. This is the option available to every plan.

Registration window

Two optional fields on the event form control when families can sign up: Registration opens, which holds off signups until a date and time you set (leave it blank to open registration right away), and Signup deadline, which cuts off new signups ahead of the event itself (leave it blank to allow signups right up until the event starts). Both are enforced everywhere a family could sign up, including a paid event's checkout, not just the RSVP button.

A family that's already signed up doesn't have to cancel and start over just to add or drop one person — they can click Change who's attending on the event to reopen the same picker and adjust their roster. Their confirmed spot and, if they're on the waitlist, their place in line both stay exactly where they were; only who's coming changes.

Dropping someone from a signup works right up until the event itself, the same as cancelling does. Adding someone follows the stricter rule — it's treated as new participation, so it's blocked once the signup deadline passes or capacity runs out, the same as a brand-new signup would be.

The picker offers every adult on the family's Household Members card, whether or not that person has ever made an account. A grandparent who helps out, or a co-parent who never set up a login, can be brought along like anyone else as long as the family has added them to their household.

Sometimes a family asks you to sign them up. A parent calls, an imported family hasn't created an account yet, or someone missed the deadline. On the event's page, above the signup roster, Add registration lets you register any household in your co-op. It's available to the owner, to admins who manage events, and to the event's coordinator. Members can only ever register their own household.

Search by family or parent name. The search includes households that haven't claimed an account and staff-only households, which members never see. Households that have withdrawn can't be registered. Pick who is attending, add a note for the coordinator if you like, and review before saving.

What is checked

The same rules apply as when a family signs up itself: no outstanding balance and no term review waiting. The difference is that you see the exact reason if a household can't be added, so you can sort it out with them. If registration is closed or hasn't opened yet, you can still add a household after confirming that you know it's closed. If signups are off for the event entirely, nobody can be added.

Events that take payment through Stripe are the exception. The person paying has to submit that registration, so the button is greyed out there. Events with an optional fee or a fee collected outside HomeschoolGo record the fee as owed by the household, the same as a normal signup.

Refunds for event fees are issued from your Stripe dashboard, and Stripe returns the money to whoever paid. When that happens, the roster's payment badge changes to refunded on its own.

Registered or waitlist

When there is room, you choose whether the household goes on the roster or the waitlist. When there isn't room, you can put them on the waitlist, or the owner and admins who manage events can override the limit. Overriding asks you to confirm the new headcount and is recorded in the audit log. A coordinator without that permission can't register past the limit.

After you add them

Every adult in the household with an account is notified, and they can confirm, change who's attending, or cancel. Until they do, you are in charge of the registration. If nobody in the household has an account yet, no one is notified and you stay in charge. On the roster the row is labeled Added by admin with who added it and who manages it now. Two more actions appear on those rows: Resend notice sends the household its notification again, and Transfer control hands the registration to an adult in that household who has an account, without waiting for them to confirm.

A cancelled registration now has a Restore button in the cancelled list. It puts the household back with the same people, on the roster if there is room and on the waitlist if there isn't, and the household is notified.

Guests from outside the co-op

Visiting families, grandparents, a friend's kids: people who aren't members can be on the roster too. In the same Add registration window, under the household search, choose Add guests from outside the co-op. You type a contact name, an optional contact email, and the name of each person attending, marked adult or child. That is the whole party.

Nobody in the party gets an account, a login, or a place in your directory. They take spots on the roster and count toward the event limit like anyone else, with the same registered or waitlist choice, the same closed-window confirmation, and the same limit override. If the event counts children only, only the guests you marked as children count. The balance and term-review checks don't apply, since there is no household to check.

With a contact email, the contact gets a confirmation, the event reminders, and a copy of anything you send with Message attendees. They can't reply in the app, and their email is shown only to you, other admins who manage events, and the coordinator. Without an email, you are the one who passes updates along. On the roster the row is labeled Guests with who added it, and it has a Cancel guests action, because a guest party has no one who can cancel for itself. Members can add guest parties as well when you turn that on for the event.

Events that take payment through Stripe work the same way for guests as for households: a member adding guests pays for the party at that moment, and the button is greyed out for you.

When you turn guests on, a second box appears: Release unpaid guest spots after a day. Leave it off and a member who starts paying for guests and doesn't finish holds those spots until you or they cancel them — which is how every event has always worked. Turn it on and, on a paid event, a party nobody finished paying for is cancelled about a day later, the spots go back to the event, the next party on the waitlist moves up, and the member is told so they can add their guests again. While the party is waiting, the member sees a line under it on the event page saying to pay within a day or lose the spots. Nothing is sent to the guests themselves: they were never told they had a spot, because a paid party is only confirmed once it is paid for.

This part is for the families. If an administrator or the event coordinator registers your household, you get a notification and an email, subject to your own notification settings. Open the event to see who registered you and who is attending.

If someone registers your household

The signup card says Registered for your household and names who did it. You can choose Confirm, Change who's attending, or Cancel registration. Any of them puts your household in charge of the registration. Until you do one of those, the person who registered you can still change or cancel it from the roster.

This part is for families. When an event allows it, the signup card asks Who are you registering? and offers Guests outside the co-op next to your own household. Use it for people who aren't members: cousins in town, a neighbor's kids, grandparents. Type a contact name, an email if you have one, and the name of each person coming, marked adult or child. Review, then register.

Your guests take spots on the roster and count toward the event limit like anyone else. If the event is full they go on the waitlist and move up the same way a family would. Nobody in the party is added to the co-op, gets an account, or shows up in the directory. You can add more than one party.

If you give a contact email, the guests get a confirmation, the event reminders, and any message the coordinator sends to attendees. If you leave it blank, you are the one who passes updates along. Either way you get a confirmation of your own. Your guests appear under Guests you added on the event, and that is where you cancel them if plans change.

For an event that takes payment through the app, you pay for your guests when you register them, and any refund goes back to your payment method. If you leave the payment page before finishing, the party stays listed as payment pending, and you can come back and pay or cancel it. On most events it waits for you. Some events are set to release unpaid guest spots after about a day. On those, the party under Guests you added says so while it is waiting: pay within a day of adding them, or the spots go back to the event. If they do, you'll get a notice, and you can add your guests again if there is still room.

Posting an event tells families about it. Everyone in the co-op has a Calendar events notification on their profile, set to reach them in the app and as a push on their phone, with email off. They get one notice per event, shortly after you save it, and editing the event afterwards never sends another.

Build a whole season in one sitting and those notices arrive as a single entry covering the batch, rather than one message per event. HomeschoolGo waits a few minutes after your last save, so the events you add in one go travel together.

Anyone who would rather not hear about new events turns that row off on their own profile. It belongs to the member, not to an admin, so there is nothing for you to switch on before posting.

Announcing an event more loudly

A calendar notice is enough for most events. For the ones it is not enough for, there is a stronger announcement that also goes out by email and can chase families who have not signed up.

It starts switched off. Turn on Event announcements in the Programs area of Settings and both event forms grow a Notify families box reading “Announce this event to all active families by notification and email.” Tick it and every family gets the louder version: in the app, as a push, and by email.

The same box arranges a second, quieter reminder about two days before signups close: your signup deadline if you set one, otherwise when the event starts. It goes only to families who have not signed up. Anyone who already has is left alone. It only goes out between 8am and 9pm in your co-op’s own time zone, so set yours in the Co-op area of Settings if you have not. If that two-day mark falls overnight, the reminder goes out shortly after 8am; if it falls during the day, it goes out within the hour.

Some events skip that reminder on purpose. A full event does not send one, since there is nothing left to sign up for. A repeating event does not either, because a reminder before every occurrence would be a standing weekly email rather than a last call. An event with signups turned off has nothing to remind anyone about. All of them still send the first announcement normally.

To check on an event you announced, open it from the admin Events list. Its overview says whether the reminder is still to come, has gone out (and when), or won't be sent, along with the reason.

An event can be announced once. The box is on the form when you create an event and stays on the edit form until the announcement has gone out, then disappears. Saving an edit never notifies anybody, whether or not the event was announced earlier.

Three layers decide who hears about a signup or cancellation, and each one narrows the last:

• Per event. On the event form, under Signup notifications, choose an In-app checkbox and an email frequency: Every signup, Daily summary, or Off. These go to the event's coordinator (or its creator, if no coordinator is set). Both default on with instant email, so turning down one noisy event doesn't affect any other.
• Per person. A coordinator can further tune this for themselves under My Profile › Notification Preferences, in the “Signups for your events” row — separate Email and In-app switches that apply across every event they organize.
• The blanket email setting on the same profile page, which still governs whether HomeschoolGo emails that person at all.

The notification bell doesn't stack one entry per family either. Signups and cancellations for the same event fold into a single unread line (“Sarah Jones, Billy Smith and 8 others signed up for Day at the Zoo”) that moves back to the top as more activity comes in. Reading it clears the count; the next signup starts a fresh line.

Reminders aren't automatic by default — nothing goes out unless you schedule it. Open the event and find the Reminders panel.

Reminders go by email and in-app notification to everyone whose signup is currently registered — waitlisted, cancelled, and no-show signups aren't reminded.

Every event's detail page shows a signup breakdown with four counts: Registered, Waitlist, Cancelled, and No-show. The header above the roster also shows Signups (X / Y) — how many are registered against your capacity, if you set one.

The roster itself lists individual names for registered and no-show signups. Waitlisted families get their own Waitlist list under the roster, oldest first, with how many people each group has. Click Move to registered to move one family, or Fill open spots from waitlist to move as many as fit. A family that doesn't fit is refused with the numbers, so raise the event limit first. When anyone has cancelled, a Show cancelled link under the roster lists who it was and the date they cancelled. On an event with a fee, each cancelled name also shows whether they had paid, so you can spot a paid cancellation that may need a refund. Cancellations from before this list was added show the date they signed up instead. Once you've got at least one registered signup, a Print List button appears for a printable copy to bring along.

Who's going, and messaging attendees

Members of your co-op who open an event on the calendar see a Who's going card listing the names of the people registered, so families can plan carpools or see which friends are coming. It shows names only.

The event's coordinator (or whoever created it, if no coordinator is set) and your owners and admins also see a Message attendees button on that card. It opens a message box in the corner of the screen, or a panel on a phone. Write your note (what to bring, a change of plans) and click Send. That starts one group conversation with every registered household, named after the event (for example, “Spring Picnic attendees”), and it stays in your messages so you can follow the replies. It reaches every adult in a registered household who has an active login.

A household where nobody has an active login in your co-op can't receive a message here. This can happen when you add a household that hasn't set up an account yet, or when the person who registered has since left the co-op or been suspended and nobody else in the household has a login. Those households still count toward the event, and the card tells you how many of them the message won't reach, so you know to contact them another way. Everyone else still gets the message.

Notes families leave you

When a family signs up they can add an optional Note for the coordinator, up to 500 characters. Free and paid events both offer it. Whatever they write appears under their name on the roster, so an allergy, a late arrival, or an offer to bring a folding table reaches whoever is running the day instead of sitting in somebody else's inbox. The printed attendee list does not carry the notes, so read the roster on screen before you print it.

A family can change their note later by editing their own signup, and editing a signup for any other reason keeps what they already wrote.

Marking a no-show

No-show is different from cancelled. Cancelled means a family withdrew their own RSVP ahead of time. No-show is something you mark afterward, for someone who was registered but didn't actually come. On or after the event, find their name on the roster and click Mark no-show. If you marked someone by mistake, click Undo to restore them to registered.