ClubExpress (CE) Events Calendar User Guide
Click this pdf icon to view/download a pdf version of these instructions 
Use the following link, which will open in a new window, to go to the Event Calendar in the Village Common ClubExpress:
Our Calendar
This guide is intended to help the average user understand various features of the Event Calendar.
- Introduction
- Calendar Views
- Logged In vs. Not Logged In (Public)
- List View vs. Grid View
- Today
- Legend
- Search
- Event View
- Main View Sections
- Right Panel Sections
- Register Now
- Registrants
- Add to my Calendar
- Emails From Calendar
- Main View Sections, Links, Contacts, System View
- Requesting An Event
1. Introduction
We are all familiar with calendars, and the Club Express (CE) Event Calendar for the Village Common is similar to our personal calendars, but it contains many features that may not be so familiar. The calendar shows the date and time of Village Common events, of course, but behind each entry there is a wealth of information along with tools to register for the event, view the names of others who have registered, links to other information that may be pertinent, and the means to download ICS files in order to put entries into your personal calendar. The Village Common calendar can be viewed as a grid, like a typical wall calendar, or as a list. The content that is visible may differ depending on whether you are logged in to ClubExpress (CE), and your status as a member, a volunteer, or a casual visitor.
Each calendar event may have emails sent as notifications and reminders. These emails also may contain a wealth of information, tools, and links.
Any member of The Village Common may request that an entry be placed in the calendar by contacting a Village Coordinator and providing some basic information.
Understanding the CE event calendar can give you, and all of us, access to all of activities in our Villages. Please review this guide, and make a visit to the calendar part of your daily routine.
2. Calendar Views
2.1 Logged In vs. Not Logged In (Public)
The visibility of each calendar event can be one of three classifications:
Visible to everyone
Visible to everyone, details for members only
Visible to members only
This basic classification is distinguished by whether you are logged into ClubExpress (CE), or not. Those who are not logged in are considered “everyone”, and if you are logged in then you are considered a "member".
If you are not logged in, you will be able to see all events classified as "Visible to everyone", but you will not see an event, not even that it exists, if it is classified as "Visible to members only".
If you are not logged in, and an event is classified as "Visible to everyone, details for members only", you will be able to see the title of an event with the time and a short description, but you will not see the location. If you click on the View icon, you will not be able to see the details, and you will probably be prompted to log in.
The details of an event usually include detailed description, visual information, location, contact information, and pertinent links. If registration is required (or recommended) for an event, you will also see the registration tools in the event details.
2.2 List View vs. Grid View
The list view of the calendar is, as you might imagine, a list of events in order of date/time.
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In the List view, select date bucket (Month, Week, Day, Future)...
and navigate through Previous and Next (future) buckets.
Your loggin status can be ascertained on this screen. If a small calendar icon appears next to the View button, then you can access event details. But, if there is no calendar icon, then you will need to log in to see event details.
If you are already logged in, you will see the calendar icon for every event.
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Switch to the Grid view by clicking on the "Switch to Grid View" button in the upper left section of the List view.
In both the Grid view and the List view, a tooltip can provide more information about an individual event.
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When you put your cursor over a calendar entry, a tooltip will display the short description.
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At the bottom of each entry in the List view is a small arrow with a "More Info" caption. If you click on this arrow, the short description will also appear.
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The grid view of the calendar looks similar to a typical page in a monthly wall calendar.
It is always a monthly view. Move to different months by clicking on the abbreviated month name (e.g. Jun or Aug) at either corner of the calendar.
You can print this view of the calendar by clicking "Print Calendar" at the bottom right corner.
Click on a calendar entry to view the details of that entry. (See section
2.1, above, to see visibility access.)
Switch to the List view by click on the "Switch to List View" button in the upper left section above the calendar grid.
In both the Grid view and the List view, a tooltip can provide more information about an individual event.
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When you put your cursor over a calendar entry, a tooltip will display the short description.
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2.3 Today
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Both the list view and the grid view of the calendar have a "Today" button in the upper-right corner. Clicking the Today button will always return the calendar in your current view to show today's date regardles of the view that you're in.
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2.4 Legend
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Both the list view and the grid view of the calendar have a "Legend" button in the upper-right corner. Clicking the Legend button will show a pop-up window with a color coded list of event categories.
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Each event has a category which can be quickly identified by its background color and text color.
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These categories are defined as:
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External Ogranization – An event that is offered by an external organization, i.e. not Village Common, but is of interest to members of Village Common. An example might be an event offered by Age-Friendly Rhode Island which is open to the general public. Such an event in the CE Calendar would provide a means for Village Common members to join the event of the external organization.
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Hybrid Business – An event organized by the Village Common (VC) for VC business where participants may choose to be physically present or attend via an online medium such as Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Facebook, Google Meet, etc. This could be a committee meeting, or board meeting, that is being held in a room at TVC headquarters.
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Hybrid Social – A social event organized by the Village Common (VC) where participants may choose to be physically present or attend via an online medium such as Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Facebook, Google Meet, etc. This could be a class held at TVC headquarters, a presentation, a tour at a museum, and so on.
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In-Person Business – An event organized by the Village Common (VC) for VC business where participants are expected to be physically present. This could be a committee meeting, or board meeting, that is being held in a room at TVC headquarters.
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In-Person Social – A social event organized by the Village Common (VC) where participants are expected to be physically present. This could be a class held at TVC headquarters, a dinner at a restaurant or someone's home, a tour at a museum, and so on.
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Virtual Business – An event organized by the Village Common (VC) for VC business where participants meet via an online medium such as Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Facebook, Google Meet, etc. Participants are not physically together. This could be a committee meeting, or board meeting, or any administrative group within VC.
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Virtual Social – A social event organized by the Village Common (VC) where participants meet via an online medium such as Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Facebook, Google Meet, etc. Participants are not physically together. This could be a virtual cocktail party, a poetry reading, a discussion group, and so on. It can be limited to members, open to volunteers, or open to the public.
2.5 Search
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Both the List and the Grid views of the calendar have a "Show Search" button above the calendar view. Clicking this button will open a panel for searching the calendar by filtering on calendar fields, and the "Show Search" button will change to a "Hide Search" button.
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The panel has the following searchable fields: categories, metro areas, title, description, date. Categories, metro areas, and dates have pre-defined available entries, so they can be selected with dropdowns (both include and exclude dropdowns), and date selection tools. The "Title" and "Description" fields require that you enter text.
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Once entries have been made in the fields, you can click the Search button, lower right of the panel, to filter the view and show those events which match your entries. The basic rules of searches is that if there are entries in multiple fields, then they all must be true in order to appear in the results. The most useful fields are the Title and the Description.
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As you might imagine, the Title field searches through the event titles, which are visible in all views. So, if an entry in the search field Title is "circ", then all titles containing "circ" will appear in the results. This is not case sensitive, and you do not have to enter a full word.
The Description field searches through the formatted description in the "Banner, Body, Links" section of the detailed event view (see section
3.1, below). This is a very powerful tool and will allow you to search for anything that you see on the most prominent section of the event detail. It does NOT search the Short Description, which is the description that you see with the tooltip on the main calendar views (see section
2.2, above). Nor does it search any of the standard fields that you see on the event detail such as location, contacts, or registration information.
The filter of the last search that you performed will remain in effect for your entire session unless it is cleared. To clear the search, and return to showing all events, click the Reset button, next to the Search button in the lower right of the panel. This will clear all fields in the search panel. Then click the Search button. The result will show all events.
3. Event View
3.1 Main View Sections
The CE Calendar event view for each event has the same basic elements which are:
A. Title
B. Banner, Body, Links
C. Where, When, Contacts, Category
D. Registration
E. Fees
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A. Title - This is the same title that appears on all views of the event.
B. Banner, Body, Links - This is the largest section with most of the visual aspects of the event.
At the top of this section is usually a banner which indicates (but is not identical to) the category of the event.
The body of this section often has an image that reflects the purpose and tone of the event. It also contains detailed text often describing more information than just the short description.
The links section shows links to valuable web pages, such as an onnline meeting, tutorials, and additional background.
C. Where, When, Contacts, Category - This is standard, basic information about the event, some of which may be repeated in the "Banner, Body, Links" section.
D. Registration - This is the section that displays the registration parameters, such as whether it is required, recommended, or not required. It might include the capacity, who can register, and whether fees are involved.
E. Fees - If fees are involved, there may be a differrence depending on the type of registrant. For example, a member might have no fee, which a guest may have a fee.
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3. Event View
3.2 Right Panel Sections
On the upper-right side of the main event view there is a panel which contains up to three buttons.
- Register Now
- Registrants
- Add to my Calendar
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The "Register Now" and "Registrants" buttons are often missing because many events don't require registration.
The "Add to my Calendar" button is always available.
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3.2.1 Register Now
If you want to register for an event, click on the "Register Now" button. This will bring you to the first of 2 screens in the registration process.
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This screen shows most of the same information as Section C of the Main View (above), i.e. Title, When, Where, and Contacts.
It recognizes your status, in this case as a Member, based on your profile in Club Express.
Click "Next" to continue to the second screen in the registration process.
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The second screen of the registration process again shows the basic event location and contact information.
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The "Complete Registration" button appears on both the top and bottom of this screen, as do all action buttons.
BEFORE clicking on the "Complete Registration" button, you can go back, or cancel, or print a summary of this registration.
If you are certain that you want to register, click one of the "Complete Registration" buttons (top or bottom).
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You will return to the Main View of the event, and a pop-up window will confirm that you have been registered.
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Click the "Ok" button on the pop-up window, or wait a few seconds for the pop-up window to simply fade away.
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In addition to the pop-up confirmation, an email will automatically be sent to confirm the registration.
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This is a brief email showing the basic information that you need to attend; the Title, Date/Time, your membership type, and the location information.
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3.2.2 Registrants
The "Registrants" button in the Right Panel Section will show a list of people who have already registered for this event.
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This will be a simple list with the registrants' names and their membership type.
Click "Return to Previous Page" to return to the Main View.
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3.2.3 Add to my Calendar
The purpose of the "Add to my Calendar" button is to download a file which can be put into your personal electronic calendar. When your cursor hovers over the "Add to my Calendar" button, a help option saying "What is this?" will appear.
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If you click on this option, a pop-up window will appear that explains some details about how calendar downloads function.
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The basic idea is that, depending on your operating system and your calendar, you can instantly load the event into your calendar, or you can download an ICS file onto your local device which can then be uploaded into your calendar.
An ICS file is a calendar file saved in a universal calendar format used by several email and calendar programs, including Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple Calendar.
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Close this pop-up window by clicking on the X (
) in the upper right corner. (It will not simply fade away by itself.)
NOTE: The ICS file that comes with the event-related emails (section 4, below) will have more information than the ICS file that comes from the "Add to my Calendar" button in the event view.
When you click on the "Add to my Calendar" button, you will get a pop-up window asking what you want to do with the file. This type of window depends on your computer and the download settings in your browser. The window shown here is typical of a PC with a Windows system.
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Beside the "Open with" radio button will be a dropdown showing the types of calendar on your device that can be automatically updated. If your calendar is not among them, then select the "Save File" radio button.
Click OK
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If you selected "Save File", then you will be given an option of where to download this file, just as you would with any other external file that you wish to download.
Every calendar has a different way of managing these files. You would have to select the Help on your own calendar to see how to import the ICS file.
4. Emails From Calendar
4.1 Main View Sections, Links, Contacts, System View
The main view of emails that come from the CE event calendar are similar to the main view of the corresponding event in the calendar Main View. (See section
3.1, above).
The email view has similar basic elements as the calendar Main View.
A. Subject
B. Sender information, and "View in your browser" link
C. Banner, Body, Links
D. Registration, Zoom, CE calendar event, contact email, calendar download, YouTube tutorial, and other important links.
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A. Subject - This is the subject line of the email, which is usually, but not always, the same as the Title of the event in the calendar.
B. Sender information, and "View in your browser" link - This shows that the email came from the Village Common. Also, there is a valuable link called "View in your browser". Clicking on this link will show you the email as it appears in ClubExpress. This can be very useful if your email system has distorted the original text, fonts, images, or other features of the email.
C. Banner, Body, Links - This is often the largest section with most of the visual aspects of the email. It is often complementary to the Banner, Body, Links section of the Main View of the event in the CE calendar.
At the top of this section is usually a banner which indicates (but is not identical to) the category of the event.
The body of this section often has an image that reflects the purpose and tone of the event. It also contains detailed text often describing more information that the short description. There are sometimes links to supplemental information, including hidden links behind images and logos. Hidden links are never essential.
D. Registration, Zoom, CE calendar event, contact email, calendar download, YouTube tutorial, and other important links. - This section duplicates much of the Where, When, Contact, Category section of the Main View in the calendar. It also contains a number of helpful links including a link directly to the Main View in the calendar. The REGISTER NOW link will bring you directly to the registration screen of the calendar event.
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In addition to the types of links shown in Section D. in the email image, there are 2 important types of links that frequently appear in emails.
The ZOOM meeting link is has a standard format.
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This contains the Zoom meeting id and password. There is a dropdown list of phone numbers if you are not using your device for audio. And the blue button saying "START NOW" links directly to the Zoom meeting of the event.
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The ICS calendar link also has a standard format.
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This ICS link works the same way as the "Add to my Calendar" button on the Main View of the calendar, BUT it contains more information.
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5. Requesting An Event
Anyone can request an event by contacting the Village Coordinator, or the Executive Director, by email (see below). They will review the request and, if valid, will fill out a formal event request for the Event Manager.
Requests should contain most of the information that appears in the Main View of the event. Images and visual design will be determined by the Event Manager unless specific image and visual information is included in the request.