Organising any event in school can be very stressful – you have to decide what tasks need to be done, who will do them all with due dates in mind. In this blog, I will use Open Day/Night as an example. It is a hugely important event in the school calendar and it often requires a lot of collaboration and communication between staff in school and with external organisations.
This is where Teams really shines and can ‘lessen the stress’in’. The app was essentially designed for these kinds of complex processes, liaisons and tasks, where you have multiple people involved and deadlines to meet. The Planner app (included for free in Teams and as a stand alone app) is a great tool that can help you keep track of what needs to be done, and who has agreed to do it, all within a specific agreed time frame.
Level 2 IPI – a wee bit of prep work, but worth the effort.
Start a Team
To start a Team for Open Day, you need to follow these steps:
- Go to the Microsoft 365 (or use the Teams desktop app if you have it downloaded) find the Teams app and click on the Join or create a team button at the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Click on the Create a team button.
- Choose Staff as the team type and give your team a name (and a nice icon), such as School Promotion Team. Click Next when you are done.
- Add the members of your team by typing their email addresses or c2k username in the search box.
- You can also add guests from outside your organisation if you need to by adding their full email. Click Add to add them to your team and click Done when you are finished.
Team Members
- Add members to your Team that will support the completion of the tasks that need completed (Relevant SMT, Admin Staff, Building Supervisor, Primary/Secondary Links Coordinator, Video and Photographer, Prospectus publisher).
- Make sure you let those added to the Team know that they are required to help and that you will be using Teams as the main communication/collaboration tool. If possible organise a quick meeting with them and explain clearly why you are using Teams and the benefit it will have for organising the event.
- If possible Team members should download the app on their phone and on their desktop/Surface Pro. This will help with notifications. When someone is @mentioned in a chat, they will receive a notification by email, in their Activity feed and a red badge on the chat icon. They will also see the @mention highlighted in the chat message.
- You can also create channels for different topics or subgroups within your team, such as Video, Prospectus, Volunteers, etc. To do this, go to your team and click on the More options button (three dots) next to the team name. Then click on Add channel and fill in the details.
- You should make some of these channels private from other members or outside groups.
- Create one private channel for school staff only – you can discuss things more freely in this one. I would also recommend that you have a private channel for each outside agency and have only one staff member liaising in each (too many cooks…!).
Team Tasks
Some of the tasks that people could be involved in for the Open Day are: Link memeber expertise with these tasks.
- Creating and distributing flyers, posters, billboards, and social media posts to promote the event.
- Setting up the venues, equipment, and catering for the event.
- Recruiting and training volunteers to help with the event (e.g. sixth year pupils for tours).
- Preparing and delivering presentations, demonstrations, for the visitors.
- Collecting and analysing feedback from the visitors.
Materials can be uploaded to Teams for the group to share and consider e.g proofing drafts of the school prospectus can work really well in Teams. Suggestions and ideas can be communicated via chat, and it is much easier to keep track of conversations threads than when working by email. When your group has decided what needs to be completed and by whom, then the next step is Microsoft Planner – this is integrated into Teams, so you can continue to work through Teams as before.
Planner
You can use the Planner app to assign and manage these tasks within your team. To do this, go to your team and click on the Apps button at the bottom left corner of the screen. Then click on Planner and choose Add to a team. Select your team and channel and click Save. You can then create plans, buckets, tasks, and assignees for your team. You can also track the progress and status of your tasks using charts and boards. Watch the quick video below, it shows how you can start using Planner.
Teams and Planner are powerful tools for event planning, but they can’t and don’t eliminate all of the stress. I have found that they do ‘lessen the stress’in’ though. You will still need to use your team building skills and manage your staff effectively to complete all the tasks. The main advantage of using Teams and Planner is that you have a clear overview of what needs to be done, who is responsible for it, and how much progress has been made. You can also communicate with your team members in one place, address any issues that come up, and are aware of the tasks that have been done or need support to complete.
“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”