Running Club Events

Running Club Events

ServeLeague's event system helps you organise everything your club does beyond regular league play, social nights, tournaments, coaching clinics, open days, fundraisers, and committee meetings. This guide walks you through the full lifecycle: creating events, managing registrations and capacity, handling guest visitors, and tracking attendance on the night.

Plan requirement: Club events are available on the Club plan and above. If you don't see the Events tab in your club dashboard, check your subscription tier under Settings → Billing.

Creating an Event

From your club dashboard, go to Events → Create Event. You'll see a form with the following sections.

Basic Details

Visibility & Access

• Public: visible on your club's public calendar and shareable via link. Non-members can view the event details and register if you allow guest registration.
• Private: only visible to logged-in club members. Use this for committee meetings, members-only sessions, or internal events.
• Requires Active Membership: restrict registration to members with a current, active membership. Useful for members-only socials or subsidised events.
• Requires Approval: registrations go into a "pending" state until an admin manually approves them. Ideal for limited-capacity clinics or tryout sessions.

Capacity & Waitlists

Set a capacity limit to cap the number of registrants. Once capacity is reached:

• The event displays as Full on the public calendar and event detail page.
• If waitlist is enabled, additional registrants are added to a waitlist automatically. When a spot opens (someone cancels), the next person on the waitlist is promoted and notified.
• Similar Events: waitlisted users are shown upcoming similar events at your club that still have availability, helping them find an alternative.

[!TIP] Leave capacity blank for unlimited attendance. Great for casual social nights where everyone is welcome.

Paid Events

If your club has Stripe connected, you can set a price for the event. Registrants will complete payment through Stripe Checkout during registration. The paidAmountCents is tracked per registration, making it straightforward to reconcile payments.

Recurring Events

For events that happen on a regular schedule, a weekly social night, a fortnightly coaching clinic, use the Recurrence option:

Set a recurrence end date to define when the series stops. ServeLeague creates individual event instances linked to a parent event, so you can edit or cancel a single occurrence without affecting the rest of the series.

Event Templates

If you run the same type of event frequently, save time by creating Event Templates under Events → Templates. A template captures:

• Title, description, event type
• Default capacity and waitlist settings
• Visibility and membership requirements
• Pricing

To use a template, go to Events → Create from Template, select your template, adjust the date and any one-off details, and publish. This is especially useful for clubs that run a standard "Open Day" or "Friday Social" format repeatedly.

Publishing & Sharing

New events start in draft status. When you're ready, hit Publish to make the event live. Published public events appear on your club's Public Calendar, which anyone can view, no login required.

Calendar subscription: Your public calendar is also available as an iCal feed. Members and interested players can subscribe from their phone or desktop calendar app using the Subscribe button on the calendar page, so they never miss an event.

Event Registration

Member Registration

Logged-in club members can register for events directly from the event detail page. Their registration is confirmed immediately (unless approval is required), and they'll see their registration status on the page.

Admins can also bulk-register members, useful when an entire team or group needs to be signed up at once. Go to the event detail page in your admin view and use Bulk Register to select multiple members.

Guest Registration

For public events, non-members can register as guests by providing their name, email, and optionally a phone number. Guest registrations are tracked separately, and the Guest Dashboard gives admins a bird's-eye view of all guest visits across events.

The Guest Conversion analytics page shows how many guests eventually became club members, a powerful metric for measuring the impact of your open days and taster sessions.

Managing RSVPs

Each registration has an RSVP status that members can update (e.g. "Going", "Maybe", "Not Going"). Admins can see RSVP counts at a glance on the event detail page, helping with logistics, how many tables to set up, how much food to order, whether to open additional courts.

Admins can also manually update or cancel individual registrations from the Registrations tab on the event detail page. Use the inline actions to:

• Approve pending registrations (when approval is required)
• Cancel a registration (freeing up a waitlist spot)
• Edit registration details
• Delete a registration entirely

Event Check-In & Attendance

On the day of the event, use the Attendance feature to track who actually showed up. From the event detail page, admins can mark each registrant as attended with a single tap. This records an attendedAt timestamp for each registration.

Tracking attendance helps you:

• Understand no-show rates and adjust capacity accordingly
• Identify your most engaged members
• Provide accurate participation data for grants or funding applications

Exporting Event Data

Need to share a registration list with your coaching team or print a sign-in sheet? Use Export from the events list page to download event and registration data. This is handy for:

• Printing check-in sheets for the door
• Sharing attendee lists with coaches or volunteers
• Reporting on event participation to your committee

The Club Calendar

The club calendar gives your members a single, visual overview of everything happening at your club, events, league sessions, and facility bookings all in one place.

Finding the Calendar

Members can access the calendar from your club's public page (visible to anyone if your club is public) or from the Events section in the admin sidebar. You can share the calendar page link directly with members.

Calendar View vs List View

The calendar page offers two display modes, toggled with the view switcher in the top-right corner:

• Calendar view: a traditional month grid showing events as coloured blocks on their scheduled dates. Each event type has a distinct colour (e.g., blue for socials, green for tournaments, orange for clinics), making it quick to scan at a glance.
• List view: a chronological list of upcoming events with more detail visible per event, including title, date, time, location, and registration count. This is often preferred on mobile devices.

What Appears on the Calendar

The calendar aggregates multiple types of activity:

• Club events: socials, tournaments, clinics, meetings, and fundraisers created through the Events system
• League sessions: scheduled playing nights from your active leagues appear automatically
• Facility bookings: if your club uses facility booking, booked slots show on the calendar too

This unified view prevents double-booking and helps members plan their week without checking multiple pages.

Filtering and Navigation

• Filter by event type: use the filter menu or chip filters to show only specific event types (e.g., only tournaments, or only socials). This is helpful for clubs with a busy schedule.
• Month and week navigation: arrow buttons at the top of the calendar let you step forward and back by month. Some views also support a week-by-week mode for a more granular look.

Public vs Member View

What visitors see on the calendar depends on their access level:

• Public visitors (not logged in): see all public events with basic details (title, date, time, location). They can register for events that allow guest registration.
• Logged-in members: see public events plus any private events they have access to. They also see richer detail, including registration counts, their own RSVP status, and waitlist position.

For a deeper dive into calendar features, scheduling, and advanced configuration, see the dedicated Club Calendar and Scheduling tutorial.

Best Practices

1. Use templates for recurring formats. If your club runs the same social night every week, create a template once and generate events from it, saves time and keeps details consistent.

2. Enable waitlists for popular events. Even if you think you have enough capacity, waitlists capture demand and give you data to justify opening more sessions.

3. Make open days public with guest registration. This is your best funnel for new members. Track conversions in the Guest Dashboard to see which events drive the most sign-ups.

4. Set up calendar subscriptions early. Encourage members to subscribe to your iCal feed during onboarding, it keeps them in the loop without you having to chase them. You can also promote upcoming events through Email Communications.

5. Track attendance consistently. Even a quick check-in at the door gives you valuable data over time. It takes seconds and pays dividends when you're planning future events or applying for funding.

What's Next?

Now that your events are running, explore these related features to get even more out of ServeLeague:

• Email Communications: send targeted emails to event registrants, promote upcoming events, and follow up with guests after open days.
• Managing Memberships & Payments: set up membership tiers that gate event access, and track payments for paid events alongside membership dues.
• Facility Booking: coordinate event scheduling with your facility bookings to avoid double-booking courts and ensure the right spaces are reserved.