Events, activities and sessions¶

The site's calendar rests on a few notions that are worth knowing before you create your first event. This page introduces them and shows what each one changes on the site.

In one minute¶

flowchart LR
    A["Activity<br>e.g. Meditation class"] --> E["Event<br>e.g. Tuesday evening meditation"]
    T[Teacher] --> E
    L[Venue] --> E
    E --> S1["Session<br>Tue 6 Oct, 7 pm"]
    E --> S2["Session<br>Tue 13 Oct, 7 pm"]
    E --> S3["Session<br>Tue 20 Oct, 7 pm"]

An event describes what is on offer: a class, a retreat, an open day.
Each event belongs to an activity, which gives it its colour, its category name and its activity icon. These markers make it easy to tell the activities apart, on their events page, in the presentation of upcoming events, in the calendar and in the weekly timetable of classes.
It is led by one or more teachers, or by none (a self-guided retreat, a puja…), and takes place in one or more venues, for example at the centre and online.
It takes place over one or more sessions: each date on which it happens.

The event¶

The event is the record you create in the Events menu. It brings together everything that does not change from one session to the next: the title, the description, the image, the activity, the teacher, the venue, the requested contribution, and the rhythm of the sessions (for example "every Tuesday at 7 pm, until June").

It is the event that makes something appear in the calendar: each event has its own box there, in the colour of its activity. It also has its own page on the site, which presents all this information.

For the details of the record, see Edit an event; for a step-by-step guide, Create a one-off event.

Sessions¶

A session is a date on which the event takes place. A weekend course may, for example, have two sessions on Saturday afternoon and three or four on Sunday; a weekly class has one a week.

Tip: split a weekend into two events

A course lasting a whole weekend can feel daunting. You can split it into two events, one on Saturday and one on Sunday: it is a lighter commitment, which reassures people who are hesitating.

To make each one point to the other, open the Saturday event's record, Other options section, choose the Sunday event in the Linked event field, then save. The link is created automatically in the other direction: the Sunday record immediately points back to Saturday, without your having to enter anything there.

Each event's page then automatically offers a link to the other, in the form "+ on Sunday 12 October: activity name on the same theme".

To find out more, with screenshots of the event record, see Link two events.

You do not create sessions one by one: you describe the rhythm of the event in its Sessions calendar, and the site works out all the sessions from it.

The main session sets the first day and the time. If it repeats (every day, every week, every 2 weeks, every month, every year), it produces a series of sessions, up to the recurrence end date.
An additional time adds a second series to the same event. Example: an evening meditation takes place on Tuesday at 7 pm and on Thursday at 7.30 pm. It is one and the same activity, with the same presentation and the same teacher or teachers, but with two different times.
A session in the series can be cancelled (its box appears faded), moved (to another date or time; its box appears with a dotted outline) or added separately (box written in italics). It is then called a modified session: it keeps its own time, even if you later change the time of the series.

Cancelling a session does not cancel the event

For a session that will not take place (bank holiday, holidays…), you cancel that session in the sessions calendar. The event and its other sessions stay in place, and the cancelled session can be restored at any time.

A recurring event with no end date

If no recurrence end date is given, the site plans the sessions for about two years. A message in the sessions calendar reminds you of this; simply save the event again from time to time to extend the series.

A session can also last all day: the site then shows no time.

For the details, see The sessions calendar; for step-by-step guides, Create a recurring event and Cancel or move a session.

Activities¶

An activity groups events of the same kind: "Meditation classes", "Retreats", "Workshops"… Each event belongs to an activity, chosen in its record.

The activity decides what all its events have in common:

their colour, in the calendar and on the pages, chosen from the site colours (Settings > Colours);
the name and the icon (the logo) shown with them;
for a weekly activity, how the date is announced: the day of the week ("on Tuesdays") rather than a specific date.

Changing an activity's colour therefore changes the colour of all its events at once. An event can, exceptionally, be given a replacement colour of its own.

For the details, see Activities.

Teachers and venues¶

Teachers and Venues are two lists, in the Events menu, that you fill in once and then choose from in each event:

a teacher has a photo and a description, shown on the page of the events they lead and in the site's lists of teachers;
a venue has an address, a map, directions and accessibility information for people with reduced mobility. A venue can also be the online venue, for remote activities.

Correcting a venue's address corrects it on the pages of all the events held there.

For the details, see Teachers and Venues.

Where sessions appear on the site¶

Once the event has been saved, its sessions appear by themselves:

in the site's public calendar, in the colour of their activity;
in the "Upcoming" blocks on the pages, which list the next sessions ("today", "tomorrow"…);
on the event page, which lists their dates.

A cancelled session disappears from these displays; a moved session appears on its new date.

To choose what is shown, see Upcoming blocks and Show upcoming events.

The weekly timetable does not follow the calendar

The table of the typical week (Settings > Weekly timetable) is filled in separately. A cancelled session or a new class in the calendar does not change it: if needed, it must be updated on its own.

See Weekly timetable.