If you manage any events for your church through EventU, chances are good that at some point you’ll need to know how to edit those events. Many times, ServiceU clients will call ServiceU Support and ask Brian Robison just how this is done. In this article, we’ll attempt to unmask event editing to reveal just how simple it really is.

Why do I need to edit?

You might be asking yourself why you need to edit events, but most likely you’ll be thinking, “Finally, I’ll be able to understand how to make changes to events!” Whether you’re a pastor, ministry coordinator, small group facilitator, Sunday school director, events coordinator—whatever your position—event editing is a very necessary tool to add to your bag of tricks. Say you create a recurring event such as the Sunday morning service (or services). Occasionally, you have a special pastor on a particular morning. You might want to edit the title of that particular Sunday service to include the special speaker’s name in the title of the event. Then, when your event listings for a given week are emailed to your congregation, the special speaker is announced.

Another example might be the change of time or location of an event. This happens all too frequently. Wouldn’t it be great to know how to easily and quickly change the location, time and other aspects of the event? Then read on.

How do I edit?

It’s really a very simple process. There are basically two ways to edit events in EventU. Using the edit buttons for each event section is the easiest way to edit when you only have one or two items to edit. First, click on the hyperlinked title of your event, either from the master event list or from the calendar page. Then click on the button to the right of each section in the section header. For instance, if you need to change a resource associated with the event, click the “edit resources” tab to the right of the resources section. There is a similar “Edit” button for each of the event sections. Once you click the edit button, you can adjust the room, equipment or vehicles needed for this event.

Often, churches ask if there is a way to change the date or location of an event that is a recurring event. Absolutely! It’s possible by going into that event and simply editing a particular occurrence. It doesn’t change the information for the other events associated with the recurrence, it merely edits one occurrence at a time. Isn’t this good to know? By simply opening up your event and clicking on any of the edit tabs—support services, resources, dates, etc.—you can control every aspect of information associated with your event simply and with ease.

The second way to edit an event is to select the “resubmit event” feature after opening the event listing. This option will walk you through the set up of the event as if you were starting from scratch, except each of the areas of the form will be populated as you originally filled out the form. This is a much better way if you have to edit many aspects of the event. Say the event has changed dates, times, resources, and people involved in the event. It is probably easier to resubmit the event in order to make all the necessary changes instead of going in and out of multiple edit screens as in the first way to edit events.
One nice feature present in both methods of event editing is the ability to check for conflicts. This feature searches the system to make sure you aren’t overbooking the room where your event is to take place.

“Churches want and need the ability to easily edit events,” says Brian Robison, a six year expert on EventU. “It’s really a simple process—anyone can do it if you just know what button to click.”

Who can edit?

Of course, anyone that has permission to create an event also has permission to edit the event they create. But sometimes, there’s a need to give someone else the ability to edit an event that you created. For instance, say the youth minister creates an event for the annual ski trip, but needs to give his ministry coordinator the ability to edit the event in his absence. There are three ways to assign editing rights: 1) When you are editing the actual event, you can select the “event editor” tab to give someone else the ability to edit this event only. Then select from the available list of approved EventU users to designate the person you want to give the ability to edit your event. 2) As in the case of the youth minister, you can also allow the same person to always have editing rights to events that you created. This option can be selected in the “Tools” section. 3) You can select and designate a calendar editor to give administrative-like rights to someone that operates as the calendar coordinator or facilities manager. This person will not have access to the administrative set up type rights, but will be able to edit all events in the system as needed.

Lastly, how you edit an event will determine what types of approvals the event will go through. If you edit an event through the resubmit feature, then the event will have to go through all levels of approval. If you edit individual sections of the event, then the event will only go to people necessary to approve that aspect of the event listing. You can also change the approval settings through the administrative section to determine whether or not you want the edited event streamlined to the calendar coordinator for faster approval.

Still have questions? Brian welcomes your feedback. Email him here.