Event Planning
(from section 3 of the Student Group Guide)

Check-list for event planning

1. First things first: Determine goals, format and intended audience for your event. Choose an event name that all group members will use when making arrangement with support staff.
2. Designate members in the group to be responsible for various aspects of the event. Typical roles include a main contact person, a financial planner who covers purchasing & reimbursements, an advertising chair, and a coordinator who handles scheduling and logistics.
3. A month in advance: Complete an event approval form.
4. At the same time, schedule a Special Events Team (SET) meeting. Pick up M&S forms and a special event instruction sheet from either Tomeka Chance or Steve Bazzetta in the Student Affairs office. Take these completed forms with you to the SET meeting. 
5. Don't forget: for off-campus resources, obtain cost estimates and bring contracts to Dean Ward to sign ASAP.
6. Meanwhile, finalize an itemized budget (please remember advertising costs, decorations, and extra speaker costs such as cab fare).
7. As early as possible, apply for funding (Student Assembly, campus program or department, Alumni Association, other off-campus organizations, etc.)
8. Complete Budget Action Forms (BAFs) to request checks be sent to on-campus and/or off-campus resources needed for the event. Mail BAFs to the SA Treasurer. [N.B.: For reimbursement, BAFs may be completed after the event (see #13 below).]
9. Advertise on:
        Activities-l (guidelines)
        Signs on bulletin boards and/or elevators
        Student Events Calendar
        Public Affairs Calendar & e-Poster (if appropriate) 
   
10. Never pay taxes! Purchase off-campus supplies using the tax-ID card and please keep all receipts.
11. Assign event-day duties to group members and make sure everyone has the main contact person's number for emergency questions. 
12. Enjoy hosting your event.
13. After the event: fill out Budget Action Forms for any remaining invoices or reimbursement requests and e-mail or drop off all paperwork to SA treasurer ASAP
14. Complete a follow-up form & attach copies of your advertisements if the Student Assembly provided funding (submit to VP Student Groups). Follow a similar format for Alumni Association-sponsored events. 
15. A thank you letter describing details about the event (including any available pictures) is good etiquette for other funding sources.

Planning a responsible event

All events should be related to the mission of the school (meaning related to Public Health), and should benefit students at the School of Public Health by providing an educational, social, community-related or cultural experience not otherwise provided at the school or in the curriculum.   Specifically;

• Social events should provide a forum for networking, either among groups of students who otherwise would not normally have such an opportunity or between students, faculty, staff and/or off-campus persons;
• Cultural events should provide an opportunity for both celebration of and education about a culture or cultural holiday, and should therefore strive to include participants who are not members of the culture or who would otherwise not have such an exposure;
• Educational events should focus on topics not otherwise found in the curriculum, or strive to include an audience who would not otherwise have exposure to the topics.  They should represent a balanced perspective, focus on health-related issues, avoid political divisiveness, and attempt to present multifaceted viewpoints.

While your group is of course welcome to plan events that include only group members or that do not meet the above goals, you will not be able to receive funding support for such activities. 

In cases where you would like to host an event that presents only one particular viewpoint or opinion, is political or controversial in nature, is not directly focused on health or that has the potential to deeply offend or agitate portions of the audience, you should try to involve a faculty sponsor for the event.  The faculty sponsor should have some knowledge of the topic, and should review the plans for the event and give approval that the event is being planned responsibly, is appropriate for the Bloomberg School of Public Health, will be of benefit, and will not likely meet its goals if planned in a less controversial manner.  Having a faculty sponsor is usually advantageous to a group regardless of the content of the event, so you should try to get a faculty sponsor involved in your activities whenever you can.

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Co-sponsoring events

It is possible, and in fact encouraged, for more than one student group to sponsor a single event.  This sort of collaboration is beneficial on several levels; it reduces competition for space and time, it increases the number of people available to work on event planning, it broadens the audience base and the perspectives that go into planning the event, and it reduces the burden of funding the event as the costs can be split between groups.

If your group will be collaborating with another group(s) for an event, you will need to list all involved groups on all forms, including the event approval form and any funding forms.  All involved groups are held accountable for the event.  This means that if there is problem with the event that results in a penalty from Student Assembly funding or a suspension of student group status, all involved groups will receive the penalty.  It is therefore extremely important that you coordinate well with the other involved groups, make sure it is clear who will be handling which aspects of the events (so you can track the person(s) down if there is a problem or question), and act as a responsible partner in the planning and implementation of the event. 

If you co-sponsor an event that is funded even partially by Student Assembly, the Assembly considers the funds it gives to be distributed equally between all groups involved.  This is important, as the Assembly places a cap on the amount of funds a group should receive in any given year (we feel that no single group should get more than 10% of the total student group budget).  If you are planning an expensive event, or if your group has many activities planned, co-sponsoring those events will reduce the amount of funds attributed to your group from the Assembly and greatly expand your group’s opportunities for receiving SA funding.  Similarly, the Alumni Association offers funding and looks more favorably on funding requests for events that involve more than one student group or division within the University.

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Event Approval

Regardless of whether or not you have a faculty sponsor, all student events planned at the School of Public Health must have approval from the Student Affairs office prior to any further planning for the event.

What constitutes an “event”?

Group meetings do not constitute an “event” and do not require approval providing the purpose of the event is to organize, plan or discuss group activities.  As a recognized group, you may still reserve classroom space for group meetings and may advertise meetings on the activities listserv and events calendar.  Any meeting that will involve non-JHSPH ID holders, that will be open to the public, or that will invite participants for reasons other than discussing group planning or organization is considered an “event”, and will require approval. 

Examples of a group meeting would be:

• You want to get interested people together to decide what activities to do for the year, to elect officers or committees, or to review the actions of the committees so far
• Members of your group would like to get together for some refreshments or other activity that will involve only group members and will be advertised only on your own group list-serv or mailing list (and not on any bulletin boards or activities-l).

Examples of a group event would be:

• You are inviting a speaker (whether from on-campus or off-campus or even from within your own group) and will be advertising the presentation on bulletin boards or activities-l so that any interested student can participate
• Members of your group would like to get together for some refreshments or other activity and you will be opening the activity for any students to attend
• You will be inviting non-JHSPH ID holders for any reason

If you are in doubt it is much better to simply ask for approval than to assume you won’t need approval.  Event approval is exceptionally easy, takes very little time, and will ensure that you don’t have any problems getting space or resources for your activity.

Things to think about before you apply for event approval

Date & time

You will have better attendance if you choose a date and time that does not overlap with other major events on campus or falls during very busy periods (ie midterms and finals).  Use the Student Activities calendar, the Public Affairs calendar, and the academic calendars to get an idea of when larger events are happening. 

Events that are outside of normal hours (8am-5pm Monday-Friday) present more logistical difficulties, including:

• Security must be hired for events with a good number of people or off-campus persons (the rate is around $35/hour for 1 guard);
• Audio-visual and housekeeping support staff are not available, and must either be  done without or scheduled to be there on off-hours;
• The main loading dock is closed, so any catering or deliveries must be made to the Washington Street garage dock and security must be notified in advance;
• Shuttle busses stop running at 6pm on Saturdays and do not begin again until 12pm on Sundays, limiting transportation options for events outside of those times.
  
  After-hour or weekend events thus take a bit more thought and early planning. 

Location

Space goes fast on campus, and the competition for event space gets worse each year as the student body grows.  Multi-purpose rooms such as Feinstone and Anna-Baetjer are often scheduled months in advance by academic departments and other offices on campus.

When you submit your event approval request (explained a bit later), you will need to specify your preferred location.  It is a good idea to actually list first, second, and even third choices if you have them.  If you absolutely must have a certain room, you should be prepared to alter the date of the event if that room is already taken.

A list of available rooms can be downloaded here.  Information on rooms with pictures is also available online here.

Some tips about reserving rooms:

• Rearranging the furniture in a room requires Housekeeping.  You may not rearrange a room on your own (this includes even moving a table against the wall for food, etc). 
• Some rooms do not allow food, including Sheldon Hall, Becton-Dickinson, and Sommer Hall.  If you reserve one of these rooms and serve food, you will be forced to serve the food outside of the room and will risk non-participants taking advantage of seemingly free food.  It also means your participants will have to eat before or after the event, but not during.  Make sure you’ve taken this into account.
• If you are serving food or beverages at your event, you must contact housekeeping.
• It is not the job of housekeeping to clean up after your participants.  Please leave any room as you found it.  Also note that you are responsible for the room until Housekeeping shows up, so plan on one group member remaining around to prevent outside people from wandering in and messing with AV equipment or leftover food until someone from housekeeping arrives.
• If you are serving alcohol, you may only reserve spaces with tiled floors (Gallery, Courtyard, Wolfe Street Café, Hampton House Café, Hampton House Deck)
• There is a partial kitchen available in the Anna Baetjer room, and a fully equipped catering kitchen in Feinstone Hall.  Use of the kitchen in Feinstone Hall is only allowed with certified caterers, and there is a $175 fee payable to housekeeping.
• Don’t reserve rooms that are too big for the audience you are expecting.  This is especially important for the larger rooms such as Feinstone Hall or Anna Baetjer.  If for no other reason, having too few people in the room will mean the room will be colder than you would like (the room temperatures are set with the contribution of body heat in mind – and it is very difficult to quickly change the temperature in a larger room).
• Reception areas (Anna Baetjer, Feinstone Hall) are reserved per day.  This means that if you reserve these areas no other reservations can be made by anyone else on that day.  You will be able to set up the room and get it ready at any point, without worrying about waiting for other groups to finish.
• There are no round tables available at the school (such as would be used for a dinner event).  If you want round tables, you have to rent them.
• Some rooms come equipped with cameras and microphones are better choices if you want to video tape or record the event.  These rooms include Sommer Hall, Feinstone Hall, Becton-Dickinson auditorium, Sheldon Hall, and the Anna Baetjer Room. 

Visitor information

If your event will involve visitors from off-campus, you will need to estimate about how many are expected and give some thought to their needs. 

• Will any visitors (or JHU-affiliated guests) likely need physical, visual or hearing aids or special accommodations?
• Will the visitors be driving to campus (and thus will require parking)?
• How many visitors coming will not be JHU-affiliated (eg do not have JHU badges and will require security to issue visitors passes)?
  
  Know this information when you ask for event approval, so that support services can meet the needs of your guests.  Especially if you are expecting quite a few off-campus visitors, support services can help your guests avoid parking nightmares and can speed up the issuing of visitors passes to help your guests get to your event on time.

How to get approval

When you are ready to schedule your event, go to the event approval on-line form. 

Follow the instructions to submit the form.  You will receive an e-mail back from Tomeka Chance telling you whether your event content was approved by Dean Ward.  Approval from Dean Ward does not mean that you will get the date or location you requested, it just means that the idea of the event itself is OK.  The response e-mail from Tomeka will also mention that your request has been forwarded on to others to get the logistics straightened out, so you don’t have to do anything else at this point if you were approved.

Shortly after the e-mail from Tomeka, you will receive an e-mail from Scott McVicker, Director of Support Services, telling you whether your event has support services clearance.  Once again, this approval does not mean you have the location you want, it just means that there are not too many other events going on that day and that support services can handle your event.  If you receive approval, you don’t need to do anything.  If you did not get approval, you will need to respond to Scott and work out another date that can be approved by Support Services.

Shortly after Scott McVicker’s e-mail, you will receive an e-mail from Melissa Horn or Support Services (eventrms@jhsph.edu) telling you whether the location you requested was available.  If your location was available, then you don’t need to do anything.  If it was not available, you will need to respond to Melissa or Support Services to work out a different location.  If you end up changing the date to get your preferred location, make sure Scott McVicker is cc’d on the e-mails so that he can make sure Support Services is available on the new date.  (Support Services (eventrms@jhsph.edu) schedules Feinstone hall, Anna-Baetjer room, the student lounge, the gallery, courtyards I & II, 9^th floor café, Hampton house deck and Hampton house café.  Melissa schedules all other rooms).

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Special Events Team (SET) information

Once you have successfully received approvals from Mike Ward and Scott McVicker and have your location approved, you will be contacted by Joe Maykrantz with the date and time of the Special Events Team (SET) meeting that you will need to attend.  These meetings are on Tuesdays at 10am, usually in room W2029, and they will try to schedule you for a meeting 2 weeks prior to your event. 

Pick up at least 4 M&S (materials and services) forms from either Tomeka Chance or Steve Bazzetta in the Student Affairs Office (E1002) to take with you to the SET meeting.  Be prepared to answer the following at the meeting:

• Date, time and location of the event
• The name of the event (please use only one name for the event, and make sure all your group  members are using the same name to avoid confusion)
• The # of expected participants
• Any special needs of participants (wheelchairs, assisted-listening devices, etc)
• Whether any Non-JHSPH ID holders will be attending
• Whether the event is open to the public
• Whether there will be food or alcohol
• Who the caterers will be (if you will be having catering)
• Any multimedia needs (LCD projector, tape recorder, video recorder, laptop, etc)
• Requests for any furniture rearrangements and a sketch of your desired floor plan (if applicable)
  
  Fill out the M&S forms at the SET meeting, with the price for each service that you are requesting.  The members of the SET will be able to tell you the cost of housekeeping, audio-visual, security, and catering (if you are using Jay’s catering) services at the meeting.

After you are finished filling out the M&S forms, you will need to return them to the Student Assembly drop-box in E1002.  Download and fill out a separate Budget Action Form (BAF) for each M&S, and e-mail the BAFs to satreas@jhsph.edu to complete the event planning process. 

Although you will be able to arrange for all of your event needs at the SET meeting, information on each support office is also listed below in case you should ever need to contact one individually.

Custodial Services       
Room WB031             410-955-3404
Latrenya Hines is the contact person for custodial services.  If you will be serving food, drinks or alcohol, rearranging any furniture, decorating or having any other activities that may require set-up before or cleaning up after, then you will need Housekeeping services.  If you are getting funding from Student Assembly, make sure to tell Latrenya this, as sometimes she is able to offer discounted rates.  Don’t forget to request recycling bins for your event if you will be serving drinks in cans or bottles.

A/V Support Services  
Room B035                410-955-3066                         
Joe Maykrantz is the primary contact for audiovisual materials.  If you will need an LCD or overhead projector, if you would like to videotape or audiotape the event, will be showing a movie or in any way using audiovisual equipment, you will need Support Services.  The charges vary based on what you need and how many technicians it will take. All requests for support services made outside of the SET meeting should be placed through the portal help desk. 

Catering Services    
9th Floor – Jay’s Café            410-955-3342              
Steve Williams handles on-site catering.  You can obtain menus and prices from Jay's restaurant group website.  You are in no way required to use the school catering if you will be serving food.  It is perfectly acceptable to hire an outside catering company or simply bring in your own food from wherever.  Don’t forget that if you purchase food or services from off campus you must use a tax-free ID card (contact anyone in the Assembly or visit Steve Bazzetta in Student Affairs to get one).  Otherwise, the amount you pay for tax will come from your own pockets, as the school will not reimburse you for tax. 

Parking & Security Services
Room W3041                         410-614-2862 
William Couch is the contact for security services.  Security is $35/hour per guard (billed per ½ hour).  You will have to attend a SET meeting or talk to Scott or William to see if you will need security for your event.  You will definitely need security if you have alcohol at your event, and if the event is on the 9^th floor and has alcohol you will need 2 guards (for each entrance to the café).  Otherwise, if your event is very large, controversial, or involves off-campus people during non-business hours you will very likely need security.  Again, the only way to know for sure is to attend a SET meeting and ask.

Video Services
Room W3517                         2-0409
Mark Grutkowski is the contact person for the campus video production services.  Video services are capable of filming any event, merging power-point slides with the video, creating webcasts, training videos, etc.  They can even go out on the street and video interviews with people.  They have background music, special effects, and just about any other resource you could possibly need for any sort of video production activities.  Some rooms, such as Sommer Hall, Feinstone Hall, Becton-Dickinson and Anna Baetjer are already equipped with cameras and are thus better options for events you will want to video tape.  The cost for non-course related video services is $200 for the first hour and $100/hr for every hour after that, including time spent on post-production editing.

Other important information

Wheelchairs and assisted-listening devices 

Wheelchairs and ADA compliant entrances are available for guests at the Monument Street entrance to the Wolfe Street Building and the Broadway entrance to Hampton House.  Make sure to inform the SET if you think any of your guests will need wheelchairs or assisted-listening devices, as this may affect which room you must hold your event in. 

ALL deliveries – including catering – must come through the loading/receiving dock.  The dock is in the JHSPH garage, the entrance to which is along the Washington Street side of the building.  PLEASE tell caterers or delivery people to use that entrance – as having deliveries come through the other main doors often harms the glass doors (which are too small to be used for that purpose).  Plan on having a group representative present at the loading dock to meet the delivery person and escort them up the freight elevator to your event location.  Your JHSPH ID badge will grant you access to the freight elevator. 

Parking, visitor drop-offs and shuttle info

Parking is in the Washington Street garage, which is open from 6am-12am.  Visitor passes for the garage can be purchased in W3041 in the form of parking coupons.  These are sold in books of 10 for $50, and are only to be used for visitors.  There is very limited parking, so if you expect many guests to need parking you will need to mention this at the SET meeting to make sure they can be accommodated.  If Assembly is funding your event, you do not need to purchase your own book of parking coupons but may simply request one from Assembly.

The JHSPH garage (under the building with an entrance on Washington street) has limited parking available for VIP guests.  If you think your speaker or guest warrants a special parking spot in the VIP section, contact Scott McVicker to get approval.

Guests may only be picked up or dropped off at the Monument Street entrance.  There is no space on Wolfe Street to get out of traffic. 

Shuttle schedules are available here.

Most of the above services cost your group money.  If you find that you will be running up exorbitant bills for support services, discuss the matter with Scott and the Student Assembly.  More often than not you will find that all sides are eager to make it work for your group and will help you find a solution. 

As an alternative, hosting the event at another location on the East Baltimore campus may be an option.  If, for example, you are planning a weekend-long seminar series that would cost several hundred in security costs, you may want to contact the Nursing School Student Assembly and see if they would be willing to co-sponsor the event by hosting it in the nursing building (where there are no security or housekeeping charges as long as you open the event to nursing students).  The same goes for the Medical School.  As long as you make sure you are still involving Bloomberg School of Public Health students to a considerable degree, occasionally hosting an event at the other buildings on this campus can save some money.  The only word of caution with this approach is that you must make sure that you don’t make a constant habit of hosting events at the other buildings, as JHSPH group events are supposed to primarily benefit JHSPH students and it can be difficult to attract enough public health students when your events are always elsewhere. 

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Purchasing items for your event

Quite often you will need to purchase items from off-campus for your event.  Before you do so, you must pick up a tax-free ID card.  You can get one from the Student Assembly treasurer, or Steve Bazzetta in the Student Affairs office.  Present this card whenever you make any purchase so that you will not be charged tax.  This is important, because you cannot be reimbursed for tax – ever!  If you forget to pick up or use the card, you will be paying out of your own pocket.

It’s fine to pay for items out of your own pocket and then request reimbursement as long as the total is less than $50.  Anytime the amount is going to exceed $50, you should obtain an invoice and get a check from Hopkins, or have the amount billed.  Details can be found in the reimbursement guidelines included in this handbook.

You must make sure that you have enough funds in your account before you spend any money.  If you overdraw your account, the Student Assembly account is debited to make up the difference.  This will make the Student Assembly members quite upset (as well as the administration), and will reduce the amount of funding your group may receive if you apply to the Student Assembly for funds in the future.  Don’t let this happen!

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Promoting your event

If you are going to put the School’s name or other identifiers on your advertisements, these must conform to the School’s official style manual.  You must also make sure that you have submitted any advertising that will be using official JHSPH identifiers to Dean Ward’s office for approval. 

The full style manual can be found here.  It may seem incredibly picky to you if you read over it, but really it’s very simple and it will help your advertisements look more professional and enticing. 

Some basic items that will likely affect you are:

• The name of the school is the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  You must use the full name the first time you reference the school.  If you refer to it a second time, you may simply state the Bloomberg School (“the” is not capitalized).
• The official acronym for the school is JHSPH.  NOT JHBSPH!
• The school logos are structured using a particular font and a particular size and spacing for the letters.  If you are going to use the logo, you must make sure that you have obtained a proper logo and you must keep the font size ratios the same.  You can download image files from http://www.jhsph.edu/identity. 
• The building at 615 N. Wolfe Street is called the Wolfe St. Bldg, not the Hygiene Building. 
• The address of the school is 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205 (‘North’ is abbreviated and ‘Street’ is spelled out).
• Use the terms “Developing World” and “Developed World”, not “Third World” or “First World”. 

Also, all of your promotional items should include the following sentence: “For disability access information or assisted listening devices please contact the School of Public Health Office of Support Services at 410-955-1197.”

Fliers

• The Student Group Resource room has a variety of colored paper and a computer/printer for printing fliers for your events.  You may also ask a Student Assembly member to let you into the main Assembly office (E3009) to print some fliers in color.
• For print jobs that are too large for the Assembly printers, or that require special types or sizes of paper,there is the Hopkins Copy Center in the basement of the Wolfe Street Building. You can get larger signs or posters made for a reasonable price (11x17” glossy color posters are only $.95). A copy of their price lists and order request forms can be found on-line here. 
• If your event will be controversial or political in any way (or you even suspect that it might be), submit a copy of your fliers to Dean Ward’s office and get approval for them before having them printed. 
• If you have obtained Student Assembly funding for your event, you will also have to list Student Assembly as a sponsor on all of your fliers and attach a copy of each flier to the Follow-Up form you submit to the VP for Student Groups. 

Fliers may be placed, without prior permission needed, in the plastic holders in the Wolfe Street building’s 8 elevators and Hampton House’s 2 elevators up to six days before your event. 

If Student Assembly is sponsoring part of your event, you may post a flier on the appropriate section of the Student Assembly bulletin board on the first floor outside of the Student Lounge. 

If your event is an educational seminar or another event that will likely have broad appeal to both faculty and students at the School, you may ask the Public Affairs Office for permission to post your flier in the plastic holders outside of the elevators (marked “Public Affairs Events”) and on the bulletin board directly inside the Wolfe St. entrance.  To request permission to post a flier in these locations, take your flier at least one week in advance to the Office of Communications, Room W1600 Wolfe Street Building (410-955-6878) or e-mail it.  If Public Affairs approves your flier, then you may also make use of their clear glass sign holders to display your flier inside of each of the 2 main entrances beginning at 4pm on the afternoon prior to your event. 

You may not post fliers on any other bulletin boards in either building or on any walls, doors or other spaces.

E-Mail

Activities listserv (see our guidelines)

• Any group meetings or events held by recognized groups may be advertised over this listserv, and all registered students receive mail from the listserv unless they have opted to be removed from the list. 
• To send a message over the listserv, simply e-mail it exactly as you want it to go out (including the subject line).  All messages are reviewed and approved by the VP for Communications, and it may take up to 24 hours (or longer on a weekend) for the message to get approved. 
• The size limit for list-serv messages is 200K, so attachments will probably not be possible. 
• If you have received Student Assembly funding for your event, you will be required to advertise the event on the activities listserv at least twice – once a week before the event and once the week of the event – and to name Student Assembly as a sponsor of the event somewhere in the advertisement.

  sph-chat listserv 

• Anyone can post a message to this listserv, but only those students who have requested to be put on the list receive those messages.   

Group mailing list or list-serv

• This can be done through the Exchange system on my.jhsph.edu (the easiest way), or you can put in a request for a new group list-serv by going to the portal and clicking on ‘Offices’ on the left tool-bar, then ‘Information Technology’, then ‘Listserv’.  Select ‘Listserv request form’ and fill out the form.  If your group has a faculty or staff advisor, list that person as your advisor.  If not, you may list Tomeka Chance as your advisor.

On-Line

Every official student group is given its own webpage, which is the perfect way to advertise upcoming events for your group.  Keeping your webpage updated and user-friendly is the key to having more people visit it.  Tips for building your group’s webpage can be found in Appendix 7 of the handbook, and for additional help you can contact the VP for Communications.  You must be sure to follow the University’s protocol when building your website, meaning you may not sell anything over your website, may not post anything obscene, etc.

Office of Public Affairs calendar 

• If your event will likely be of broad interest to both students and faculty at the JHSPH and is not a routine event (meaning no routine meetings are allowed) you may be able to have it included in the weekly Calendar of Academic Events.  The calendar is sent out every Friday, and to have your event included you must submit your event by Thursday the week before.  More information and instructions for posting on this calendar can be found here. 

Electronic Posters and computer desktops

Events that are going to be fairly large or feature prominent speakers may also have an electronic poster generated.  Electronic posters are located on the 1^st floor of the Wolfe Street building beside the ATM.  Create a poster (in powerpoint or some other graphics program) and have it approved by Dean Mike Ward.  Once you have approval, go tohttp://commprojects.jhsph.edu/PosterRequest.cfm to request an e-poster.  Note – requests are sometimes denied after submitting online due to lack of time or resources to create the poster.

Large events may also request to have an advertisement placed on the screen desktops of computers around the School.  To have an ad placed on the computers, submit the ad in bitmap format to the VP for Communications.  It often takes quite a bit of time (~2 weeks or even longer) as the tech people who have to program the computers are exceptionally busy.  Requests may be denied if there are too many ads already in line to go up or if there is a lack of time or resources to fulfill the request. See more details about the format and computer desktop process. 

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What did or didn’t work for those who came before you

For every Student Assembly funded event, groups are required to turn in a follow-up form.  You may find yourself filling one of these out in the coming year, and find yourself wishing you didn’t have yet another piece of paperwork to complete regarding your event.  These forms are very useful, however, both to the Student Assembly as we change and grow to meet the needs of the Student Groups, but also to future group leaders, who will read this handbook and see what you had to say.

The following are some potential tips gleaned from the follow-up forms and from the experiences of some who came before. 

• Have at least 2 group people keeping track of all forms, receipts, invoices, BAFs, etc – failure to submit things on time or forgetting/losing paperwork can cost your group big time!
• Appealing visual displays & posters draw attention and participation
• Controversial topics require advanced planning and a close working relationship with a faculty sponsor and with Dean Ward’s office
• Involving faculty and staff is a great way to foster a more interesting environment
• Don’t underestimate your budget.  Make sure you’ve thought about travel costs for speakers, housekeeping, security, audiovisual costs, etc. 
• Choose topics that are currently in the news or in the social spotlight to attract larger audiences and get more interactive participation.
• Consider alternative approaches to health issues that can make a topic more interesting (one group commented their “holistic” approach that “demonstrated the links among poverty, conflict, social justice and health” was well received).
• Make sure to schedule the event during times of the day when most students are free.  Check out the course schedules for the larger courses (biostats, epi I, etc) as well as the MPH calendar before scheduling the event.
• Choose speakers that are dynamic, knowledgeable and willing to answer questions.  Make sure to schedule enough time at the end of the talk for questions from the audience, or even schedule part of the time as a discussion period.  Making a seminar more interactive makes it more interesting.
• Make sure you are not serving food or having other activities taking place during a talk or presentation that you want people to be paying attention to. 
• Having guests be only School of Public Health students can make the atmosphere more easy and familiar. 
• Take care of getting checks written out for services well ahead of time, and check with speakers or other invitees what travel costs or fees they will be charging you.  Doing this last minute could result in your speaker not getting paid on time.
• Advertise, advertise, advertise.  Nobody will come to your event if they don’t know about it.  Use catchy titles or designs to draw attention.
• Make sure there are no other big events scheduled on or near the day of your event to maximize the amount of people who come.  Also avoid midterms and finals weeks, and know that the time between terms will have drastically fewer students around on campus.

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Ask questions when in doubt! 

SA VP Student Groups  (any questions)

SA Treasurer  (funding, reimbursements)

SA VP Communications  (advertising, websites)

SA President / President-Elect  (any questions)