CARL Program Planning Manual


Part I. OVERVIEW


Communication with other CARL program planners and officers is essential to the organization's effective coordination and continuity. This overview will help you to communicate and plan effectively.

BEFORE

Advance planning is a prerequisite of a successful event. Allow a minimum of three months, although four to six is strongly recommended, to plan for reservations, publicity, etc.. CARL elections are conducted in late summer to provide time for incoming officers to plan their early spring programs.

Refer to CARL Program Planning Checklist (Appendix A) for a quick list of program essentials. With your committee, fill out the CARL Program Planning Preliminary Worksheet (Appendix B) as a discussion document. Contact the CARL President, who keeps the CARL Master Calendars for approval of the date selected for your program. The President will be coordinating all programs and resolving any conflicts. The President will forward all information for the Master Calendars to the CARL Web Manager for posting to the CARL Events Calendar. Two or three months in advance of the event, you should send a News Release to appropriate organizations and post announcements to appropriate email reflectors and listservs.

For seed money, informally clear the amount needed with the Regional Vice President before filling out the Financial Request Form (Appendix D). The maximum amount that may be requested in advance is $300. Send a copy of the completed form to the Secretrary/Treasurer.

Send news releases and/or program announcements to the Regional Campus Liaison Coordinator. This person will distribute the announcements to individual campus liaisons who in turn will distribute them to the CARL members within their institutions.

Send your program announcement to the CARL Newsletter editor for distribution to all CARL members. If the next issue of the Newsletter will not be timely enough for your program, request mailing labels in zip code order (use Mailing Labels Request Form). Allow two to three weeks for delivery. At a minimum, announcement of CARL programs should be sent to all CARL members in the region where the event will occur. Be aware of postage costs. Use your institution's services, if at all possible. If room reservations and/or food services are involved, be sure to leave adequate time for program attendees to receive and return mailings. Make up a list of program attendees with their institutional affiliations as registrations are received, and send the list to the CARL Membership Chair, for the CARL Board is interested in the attendees and affiliations for membership purposes. These lists are also valuable for your own information, for instance, to identify people who will be paying at the door. If preregistration is not required, the list of attendees should be prepared and mailed to the Membership Chair after the event. Be sure to provide name tags or badges for all program attendees and cover this expense in your financial report.

Be sure to evaluate your program. You may want to distribute your evaluation form at the registration table or at the conclusion of your program. Be sure to share the summary of this evaluation with your Regional Vice President and Regional Interest Group Coordinator.

AFTER

Fill out the CARL Financial Report/Request Form and the Program Summary Form , and send them to the Secretary/Treasurer.

Send a copies of the program summary to the CARL Newsletter Editor, the Web Manager, the Regional Vice-Presidents and IG Coordinators, and to the ACRL Chapters Council delegate, for submission to Chapter Topics. (see "Publicity").

You should write thank you letters to your speakers and to members involved in local arrangements.

If your program is taped, send tapes of the program to the CARL Archivist. (Be sure to have asked your speaker(s)' permission before you tape.)

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