Book the space
Reserve rooms and outdoor spaces through the room reservation system, as far ahead as you can — popular spaces and prime times go months out. You will specify the date, the time (including setup and teardown), the expected attendance, and the layout. Your org has to be registered and in good standing to reserve.
The review that follows
Booking the room is the easy part. For anything beyond a small meeting, an event review looks at setup and custodial needs, food safety (if you are serving food), any contract with an outside vendor or performer, security, recording or livestreaming, parking and signage, weather backup for outdoor events, and accessibility. The event-planning office tells you which approvals your specific event needs and by when.
Food, money, and contracts
Serving food usually means using an approved caterer or following food-safety rules for self-provided food. Any contract with a speaker, performer, or vendor must be signed by an authorized university staff member, not a student — start this early, because contracts take time. Confirm your org funding is approved before you commit to costs.
Accessibility from the start
An accessible venue and route, a plan for captioning or interpreting if requested, materials people can read, and a way for attendees to request what they need in the registration or promotion. Build this in from the beginning; it is much harder to add the week of.
Promote it
Once the space and approvals are set, promote through your org's channels, the campus events calendar, flyers in approved locations, and any relevant email lists. Give people the date, time, place, what it is, and how to request accommodations.
Run the day and close it out
Arrive early for setup, have a run-of-show and someone assigned to each part, and know who to call for a facilities or tech problem. Afterward: clean up and return the space as you found it, reconcile expenses and submit reimbursements within the window, note attendance or any incident, and write down what to change for next time.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.