Event notices, reminders, and cancelling

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.

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.

If an event isn't going to happen, cancel it instead of deleting it. Open the event and click Cancel event in the Danger zone at the bottom of the page. You can add a message for families, such as why it's cancelled or when you'll reschedule.

When you cancel an event:

• It stays on the calendar with Cancelled: in front of its name, and its page says it's been cancelled, with your message. Families no longer see an Add to calendar button on it, and search results mark it Cancelled.
• Every household that signed up or is on the waitlist gets a notification and an email. Each adult in the household with a login is told, following their notification settings. Outside guests who left an email address get an email too.
• Nobody can sign up, and nobody moves off the waitlist. Reminders and announcements for the event stop.
• Signups are kept as they were. Refunds aren't automatic. The cancel window tells you how many families paid online.

To refund them, click Refund all above the signups list on the cancelled event's page. Only the owner and admins who manage payments see it. It shows the total and how many families will be refunded, and you type REFUND to confirm. Each family gets their whole payment back to the card or bank account they paid with, out of your co-op's Stripe balance. Stripe doesn't return its original processing fee.

Refund all leaves some payments for you to handle:

• A bank payment that hasn't cleared yet can't be refunded until it settles, usually within a few business days. Refund it from your Stripe dashboard then, or run Refund all again.
• A payment marked paid by hand (cash, check) didn't go through Stripe, so return that money yourself.

When it's done you see a line for every family. If a refund fails, for example because your Stripe balance is too low, that family is listed with the reason and the others still go through. Once you've dealt with the reason (topped up your balance, say), run Refund all again: it only refunds what's still owed, so nobody is refunded twice. Some refusals won't go away on a retry, such as a payment the family is disputing with their bank; handle those in your Stripe dashboard. Refunded families stay on the roster, so if you restore the event later they're signed up without having paid.

Changed your mind? Click Restore event on the event's page. It goes back to how it was, with the same signups, and any reminders that haven't come due yet are scheduled again. If anyone is signed up, the restore window has a Let families know it's back on box, ticked to start with. Leave it ticked and the same households and guests who got the cancellation notice get a short notification and email saying the event is back on. Untick it to restore quietly, for example when you'd rather explain the change yourself with Message attendees.