Most scheduling departments must obtain approvals from various departments and service providers before they can execute a particular event. It’s a necessary step but one that typically consumes lots of time and effort.
If only there were a way to streamline that process. Good news: There is a way to take the hassle out of getting approvals!
In a recent live webinar—Mazévo Connect - Using Approval Workflows—two busy organizations shared how they use Mazévo Approvals to acknowledge and sign off on event requests. In particular, the presenters answered three crucial questions:
- What are Mazévo Approvals, and why should we consider using them?
- Why and how do organizations use Mazévo Approvals?
- How do they set up their approval workflows, and what advice do they have for organizations that use tasks?
Kathie Smith, assistant to the executive pastor at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, and Dorian Hall, director, Millennium Student Center, University of Missouri—St. Louis, gave interesting and insightful presentations.
Simplifying Approvals for a Texas Megachurch
As Kathie explains, Park Cities Baptist is an 11,000-member church in the Dallas area that is open and hosts events seven days a week. The church uses Mazévo to schedule approximately 200 rooms across eight buildings and also outdoor spaces and off-site events like camps. This includes managing worship services, Sunday school, and other gatherings ranging from small to large meetings, banquets, graduations ceremonies, sports leagues, etc.
Before moving to Mazévo from EMS, Park Cities Baptist used several disparate systems to manage its space and services (catering, AV, etc.). This often left Kathie and her team in the dark about whether services had been requested and approved.
Frequently, the result was last-minute scrambling to ensure teams could execute events as planned. This was stressful and frustrating for everyone involved.
What people wanted was a system that could handle all aspects of events, from booking the space to scheduling necessary services. Just as importantly, they needed a solution that empowered all stakeholders to see how event preparation was proceeding.
As Kathie says, Mazévo Approval functionality has been a lifesaver for Park Cities Baptist Church. “We’re able to communicate better. Everyone is on the same page. Everyone is feeling enabled to speak into the process. So, it’s just been great!” she exclaims.
Based on the type and size of an event, the church’s event scheduling approval workflow includes:
- Production
- Childcare
- Creative arts (i.e., event promotion)
- Security
- Facilities
Currently, Park Cities isn’t offering catering due to staffing changes in that area. However, when they resume services, they will add that to the approval workflow.
Kathie goes on to share her screen and demonstrate both the church’s approval process (starting with the system’s Waiting for Review list) and how they set things up in Mazévo to accommodate it.
Maximizing Approval Efficiency on a Busy College Campus
The University of Missouri-St. Louis has an enrollment of approximately 16,000, with 12,000 students attending classes and events on campus.
Dorian starts his presentation by noting that his team oversees or assists in managing several areas, including the Millennium Student Center, a conference center, many outdoor spaces, and shared resources like parking lots and garages. This includes coordinating events for student organizations, campus departments, and external clients.
The university was previously an EMS customer. When decision-makers elected to make the move to Mazévo, Dorian worked as the primary system administrator during the transition.
In the presentation, he shares his screen to show some of the unique ways the University of Missouri-St. Louis utilizes Mazévo Approvals. For example, they use prefixes on approvals to show, at a glance, the team or facility that’s responsible for addressing it.
Dorian goes into helpful detail about how approvals trigger notifications to specific groups. He gives the example of events with a higher level of inherent risk producing a notification to the university’s Environmental Health and Safety team to assess the event—a “piano smash” event, for instance!
Another example involves FSL (fraternity and sorority life) events. Dorian’s team has set up an approval in Mazévo to notify the coordinator responsible for these events anytime an FSL organization makes a request.
“Grounds Approval” is also vital for the university. It helps in a couple of ways, including ensuring that an event doesn’t conflict with any special projects underway by the grounds team. It also helps the team determine if it must take any special actions to prepare for an event, such as having running water available to attendees so they could clean themselves up after a celebration that involved throwing chalk powder.
Dorian enthusiastically notes that his “favorite, favorite, favorite” notification is one associated with parking and transportation. “It’s been such a lifesaver for our team,” he says. Previously, his employees had to note information related to parking and transportation in two separate systems, doubling their work. Now, they only have to enter the information once, and Mazévo automatically notifies the Parking & Transportation team. That group can then block off needed spaces or simply know not to ticket cars parked in certain areas on the event date.
Plus, Dorian can quickly generate a service order report for the team to help reconcile fees owed and collected related to events. “So, the approvals combined with those reports have made that process so much easier for all of our different teams that use Mazévo on our campus.”
He goes on to talk about how approvals help him and his team address event staffing needs. This is particularly helpful in the wake of pandemic-driven staffing cuts.
Get More Details on Mazévo Approvals
A question-and-answer period follows the presentations by Kathie and Dorian. Check out the session recording for more details about how to set up and use Mazévo Approvals.
Thanks so much to Kathie and Dorian for sharing some fantastic information! You can find this Mazévo Connect session and others on our YouTube channel.
And if you have questions about approval workflows in Mazévo, or about the system in general, feel free to contact us anytime!
