Putting up an idea, and running it

Any member can put an idea up

You don’t need a date, a venue or a price, and you are not signing up to run it. “Ballet?” is a complete idea. Once you’ve joined, put it up from Got an idea? and see whether anyone else wants it.

Putting up ideas is a member thing, part of what joining opens up. The public can watch an idea gather interest on the board; they’re just not the ones who start one.

Each family can have 3 ideas live at once, deliberately: it keeps the board readable, and it makes people spend their slots on things they mean. A slot frees up when one of yours gets firmed up into something real, or you take it down yourself.

Start with one question: is it on?

Yes, it’s happening. You’ve got a date and it’s going ahead whoever comes. Say when (today or tomorrow, one day, or a run of dates) and how families pay (free, at the door, or through Hub Club), and it goes straight onto Events.

Not yet, see who’d come. An idea. No date, no venue and no price required: say roughly what it’s for, kids needed if you know it (leave it blank if any number works), and roughly what it’ll cost if you know that too.

What you fill in either way

Where it is, twice. The exact venue is member detail; the area (“Old East Village”) is shown to everyone, because that’s what tells a family whether it’s worth the drive.

Kid places, kids not families. A family bringing three counts as three. On something that’s on and paid through Hub Club, this is the minimum you’re asking for. On an idea, it’s the honest number below which you wouldn’t run it, not a hope, and you can leave it blank if you’re not sure yet.

No deadlines to manage

An idea sits on the board for as long as it takes: there’s nothing to chase and nothing counting down. When it has the numbers it asked for, whoever’s running it gets a message, once, and it’s their move from there.

Doesn’t reach its number? It just stays put. Nobody has spent anything, and it’s still there whenever the next family finds it.

Saying you’ll run it

Every unclaimed idea has a second tap: “I’ll run it”. That’s the person who firms it up once it has the numbers: setting the date, deciding how families pay, going ahead or giving it more time if pay-by day comes up short, calling it off if it needs calling off, and ticking off who came afterwards.

The tick-off matters more than it sounds: it’s how the board can honestly say “families who take a place actually turn up”. Nobody is ever named as a no-show; it only ever comes out as a number.

Questions and comments

Every event page has a Talk section, and any member can ask a question there: “is this okay for a six-year-old?” is half of what it’s for. Whether your name shows next to what you wrote depends on what you’ve chosen to show elsewhere; if you haven’t, it just says “A family”.

Whoever’s running the thing can tidy comments away if a thread stops being useful.

Taking something down

Your own ideas: any time, from the event page. Something that’s already on, or open for places: “Call it off”, from the same page. Everyone on the list is told, and anyone who’d paid gets it back automatically. Anything that doesn’t belong on the board at all, tell an organiser and it’s handled.