Organising events

Organising events

TKO-äly wants to encourage its members to organise events. The purpose of these instructions is to lower the threshold of organising an event you’d like to have! This is how it works!

Come up with an event

It can be anything from going to Megazone to going to the theatre, playing board games in Gurula or going Karting. Please follow TKO-äly’s safer space principles and equality plan when organising an event. The most important takeaways when it comes to organising events are summarised below.

Decide on a date

When deciding on the date, check TKO-äly’s calendar. It’s recommended to avoid overlap with other events. Around orientation week, it is good to check the freshers' schedule. If you’d like the event to take place in Klusteri, check Klusteri’s calendar, too.

Determine the expenses

If you want financial support for snacks or other costs, such as entrance fees, TKO-äly can sponsor the event. The procedure depends on the amount of expenses:

• Up to 3 x jallu index (explanation below): you can ask a board member to accept the budget proposal directly, as long as the event follows this page’s instructions. You can find the board members in Telegram in the actives’ chat or at TKO-äly's page.
• More than 3 x jallu index (explanation below): prepare a budget proposal and present it to the board at a board meeting or send your budget proposal to the board at hallitus@tko-aly.fi. You might find the budget template useful! For budgeted events, you also need to present a report on the money spent and received at a board meeting or via email no later than a month after the event.

The jallu index is determined by the price of jaloviina and is checked at every board meeting. 3 x jallu index is currently approx. 55 euros.

The costs are reimbursed via tkoaly.kululaskut.fi. Receipts must be added to the reimbursement request, so please keep them safe!

Inform people about the event

The goal is to inform people about the event two weeks before a big event and a week before a smaller event.

TKO-äly’s events are added in the TKO-äly calendar. If you don’t have the rights to add an event to the calendar, ask for help from a board member or a TKO-äly officer, who are listed on TKO-äly's page. If the event takes place in Klusteri, ask the Klusteri correspondent to add the event in the Klusteri calendar, too. For events taking place at Klusteri, you’ll need at least one keyholder. You can ask for keyholders’ help from the actives’ chat.

You can also add events organised by other parties to the TKO-äly calendar. However, if you are making TKO-äly members' participation in an event possible by for example handing out tickets (in e.g. pub crawls) even if the event itself is organised by somebody else, leave the "järjestävä taho" section empty.

An event added to our calendar is automatically linked to tkt-announcement on Telegram. Recently, the communications officers have sent an email about all new calendar events on Sundays. (If you would like to inform our members separately via email, send the email to jasenet@tko-aly.fi, where a communications officer can approve it and send it to our members).

All TKO-äly communications are written at least both in Finnish and English.

What info should be announced about the event?

Enough info in advertising the event lowers the threshold to participate, because the participants know in advance what to expect. There's usually a free form text advertisement about the event where the event is described in a way to create interest. It is good to have all the essential information about the event in this text, but it is also good to include a TL;DR section where the information is summarized in a short form. Below is a template of info categories that should always be shared about the event.

What: A short description on the event
When: Date and time. It might be useful to have multiple times, for example for sitsis the time when people can get in and when the dinner starts
Where: Name and address for the venue
Price: How much does the participation to the event cost
Accessibility: Describe in brief accessibility info for both the venue and the event. For example even if the venue normally doesn't have strong stimuli, remember to mention flashing lights and loud noise for a party. The accessibility checklist has questions to ask about the accessibility for a venue and an event, and some venues already have their accessibility info listed there. If the venue is not on the list already you can help us by adding it to the wiki, or by asking an officer to do it. Remember to mention a person to contact in case there are further questions on the accessibility of the event.

Additional info you might want to advertise for the event

'Dress code: The dress code for events is usually "come as you are", but remember to let people know if that's not the case. For example let people know if you should wear overalls, if there's a theme, or if people should be a bit dressier. Remember to use gender neutral language and so that people know that the most important thing is that people show up, not that they follow the dress code to a T <3
Alcohol consumption: more info below. Copy paste the number and description for your event.
For whom: If there's a need to specify who the event is for, for example if the event is only for a specific subgroup of members or open to others than members.

In Finnish
Mitä:
Milloin:
Missä:
Hinta:
Esteettömyys:
Pukukoodi:
Alkoholiasteikko:
Kenelle:

Alcohol consumption

You can take part in all events totally alcohol free, and it's never ok to pressure people to drink. The purpose of this scale is to give an estimate on if the alcohol use in the event might cause social pressure to drink, even if no one directly pressures anyone.

0/4 The event is completely alcohol free
1/4 Some drinks may be had, but getting noticeably drunk is not for this event
2/4 Alcohol may be consumed, but it makes no difference for the event if people drink or don't
3/4 Alcohol consumption is associated with the event, but you can just as well participate alcohol free and you will not be pressured to drink
4/4 Alcohol plays a central role in this event, for example through gamified drinking. You can still participate alcohol free and you will not be pressured to drink

0/4 Tapahtumassa ei käytetä lainkaan alkoholia
1/4 Tapahtumassa voidaan käyttää vähän alkoholia, huomattava humaltuminen ei ole suotavaa
2/4 Tapahtumassa alkoholia voidaan käyttää, mutta tapahtuman kannalta on yhdentekevää käyttääkö alkoholia vai ei
3/4 Tapahtumassa alkoholin käyttö on näkyvässä asemassa, mutta tapahtumaan voi osallistua alkoholittomana, eikä juomaan painosteta
4/4 Tapahtumassa alkoholin käyttö on keskeisessä asemassa, esimerkiksi pelillistetyn juomisen kautta. Voit kuitenkin osallistua alkoholittomana, eikä juomaan painosteta

Practicalities

1. If you need volunteers, recruit them early.
2. Have a plan for bringing the stuff you need to and from the event.
3. Have a plan for storing the stuff and how the stuff gets to storage.
4. In big events, like sitsit and sauna nights, you should name harassment contact people. Their contacts should be visible in communications about the event and they should stand out from the crowd by wearing eg. a pink vest. There should also be a responsible person in smaller events who you can contact in case of any problems. This person can be TKO-älys harassment contact person or the organiser of the event. Make sure that no-one is left alone if they are not feeling well.
5. Meetings and events should be organised in accessible spaces. The event description should include the accessibility info for the space. We’ll list accessibility infos of the commonly used venues in the fresher wiki. Sensory defensiveness should also be taken into consideration.
6. TKO-äly tries to have unisex bathrooms in its events.
7. Consider international students and make sure participating in an event is fun in English, too!

Events with food or drinks

Organisers of sitsit and other big events have to consider people’s special diets and allergies. Food for special diets and non-alcoholic options have to be similar to other food and drinks in quantity and quality. All events with food should have a good vegan option.

Food and drinks at small events and meetings should as much as possible be suited to special diets and most common and serious allergies (in practice, buying vegan, gluten-free and non-alcoholic options will get you far). People who use little to no alcohol are taken into consideration and will never be discriminated against or forced to drink alcohol.

Sauna events

Sauna events should take into account gender diversity and people’s different preferences. Examples for sauna shifts:

• no women, no men, mixed
• mixed sauna with swimsuits, mixed sauna without swimsuits

In all questions, you can contact TKO-äly’s officers and the actives’ chat!

Events that require sign up

If the capasity of the event is limited or you need to know how many people are attending, it's good to have a sign up for the event. Remember to ask at least:

1. what people's diets are, both multiple choice "omnivore, vegetarian, vegan"
   
2. Let people add info on their allergies etc.
3. If there's drinks let people choose between alcoholic and non-alcoholic
   
4. Add a "more info" field for people so they could for example tell more info on their needs for accessibility. If there's something on this field that the event can't fulfill, contact people as soon as possible
   

If it's likely that a lot of people sign up fast for the event and the spots might run out, it might be a good idea to remind people on things about our sign up form that give you an advantage in the sign up. For example about the fact that the sign up goes through even with some fields left without a choice and you can edit it later and keep your spot on the queue.