Attendance and presence (T)

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Team Polaris

Concepts and terms:

The Statutory meetings are the regular weekly meetings the club has to organize

A Registration is a confirmation of a prospective participation or denial of participation to a future event. It has nothing to do with attendance and presence and is described in the Event life cycle.

An Attendance is the confirmation of the physical appearance of the participant to an event.

The Presence (points and percentage) are on one hand the points accumulated on the personal presence point balance of the active member and on the other hand the calculated ratio in % to the number of statutory meetings of the club for the given period.

Presence points are issued for an event attendance or for voluntary work. Presence point balance is a decimal number, but normally only integer numbers are entered.

The individual presence is visible in Web mode in the menu  "MY PRESENCE".

Club administrators can collect or export statistical information about presence figures for events or for members in a certain time period.

District officers have access to club presence statistics. Periodic report to district is not required.

Attendance and presence

1. Attendance

Attendances can only be recorded on the day of the event or afterwards. How to capture attendance is described in the article Event life cycle.

The participants list for a club event contains all active members of that club. To keep track of all attendees, visitors from other clubs should be added to this list by their QR-code or by using the "+ Create" button. Thus all community members can be easily found and selected. Also any other person e.g. the speaker can be added.

To keep track of all attendees, visitors from other clubs should be added to this list by their QR code or by using the "+Create" button. This way all community members can be easily found and selected. Any other person can also be added, for example the speaker.

For events like a board meeting, the attendance is confirmed for participating members only.

For district events, the attendance list is empty. It is assumed that attendees register and are therefore automatically added to the list, or that they are manually added to the list by the organizer.

Maintaining a consistent and complete participant list  is essential for the correct counting of the presence points, as well as for the accounting of the financial transactions.

Various roles are available to manage the participant list.

2. Presence points allowance

When the event gets closed by the administrator the presence points are automatically booked to the personal presence point balance of the active members, and of the guests and visitors . Closing an event is described in Event life cycle.

Guests and visitors from other clubs will also receive their presence points with this action. Filling a presence card is not necessary anymore. For guests from other countries or from clubs not using Polaris you will still have to issue a printed presence card.

Each visitor is responsible for obtaining from the host club either an assurance that his presence is recorded in Polaris or a guest card.

Members attending events in other clubs will thus get their presence points by that club. This is also true for district events.

Compensations

When the visited club does not capturing attendance with Polaris, e.g. a club in another country,  the member will bring back a printed presence card. The presence points for such an attendance must be manually entered as a compensation in the Menu "Members > Active members > tab Presence". Here is also the place where presence points for voluntary work can be allocated. On this page the presence points of the member can also be checked by the administrator.

For the maintenance of member compensation the Role  "Presence administration" or "Member Admin." or "Unit Admin (all rights)" is required.

3. Attendance statistics

Attendance statistics are available in two forms:

Attendance rates at events for a time period

This statistic is visible in the menu "Club life > Calendar/Reports" at the bottom of the page. Attendance is also displayed for each event. You can select any time period for the calculation.

To see this statistic the Role "Unit life Admin." is required.

Attendance rate of the members for a time period

This statistic is visible in the menu "Members > Active members > tab Presence". The attendance rate is displayed individually for each member. You can select any time period for this calculation. You can access directly from this page to the management of a member's compensations.

To see this statistic one of the two roles "Member Admin." or "Unit Admin (all rights)" is required.

4. Attendance computation

A member's attendance for a given period is calculated by dividing his or her accumulated attendance points by the number of statutory meetings during that period.

According to the RI, attendance is capped at 100%, but Polaris also displays a calculated attendance rate above 100%.

Formula