SchoolDude

Tackling after hours Community Use at any educational institutions is a beast. Just think about all of the components of pulling off a single event successfully:

Coordinate approval process
Contact Business office for billing
Risk Management (collect insurance)
Coordinate required services
Check for availability and conflicts
Post event to multiple calendars

We hear stories from clients every day about how FSDirect helps them tackle the Community Use beast for their institution, and one of the huge recurring themes that we hear is the importance of getting buy-in from key users.

We have over 1200 FSDirect clients around the world, most of which have already found that FSD enhanced and streamlined their facility rental processes and greatly improved cost recovery for their events. However, we also know many clients that face very real challenges or objections, and end up getting stalled because of some simple misconceptions by key users.

 

Don’t let any of these myths prevent you from getting buy in from your key users:

Using my email calendar to manage events is easier for me.

FSDirect alleviates many issues that arise from using an email calendar to manage events by:

• Alerting you to conflicts
• Notifying appropriate users of schedules that need their approval
• Notifying maintenance or IT staff when setup is needed
• Providing one real time master calendar for your entire organization

Invoicing is too complex and time consuming.

Not at all! In fact, you can create an invoice in just a couple of minutes. Contact us for a 1 on 1 training, or review our Invoicing webinar archive by clicking here.

I have to put all the schedules into the system myself.

Your faculty, staff and even community members are able to enter their own schedule requests from our easy-to-use request page.

I have to put in all of the organizations before I can enter any schedules.

You can add organizations “on the fly” when you are entering a schedule for their event.

Some other key points to keep in mind when promoting FSDirect are:

1. On average, our clients recover about $14 per student per year by invoicing with FSDirect.
2. You can automate heating and air conditioning needs for events by using FSDirect and ConnectBAS.
3. You can view other school districts billing rates and best practices by going to http://www.schooldude.com/resources and searching for “facility use”
4. You are entitled to SchoolDude.com’s legendary support – which includes unlimited trainings, phone, chat and email support.

Taming the Community Use beast is a real challenge, but not one that is insurmountable. If you haven’t already, join the ranks of our CommunityUse champions by getting buy-in from your key users and implementing FSDirect today.