NIRSA Event Servcies

Policies & Procedures

Please carefully read through the following policies and procedures, followed by your acknowledgement.

Required Paperwork

Regional Conferences, associated Student Lead Ons, and the Emerging Recreational Sports Leaders (ERSL) Conference are part of NIRSA, as they are not hosted by separately incorporated entities.  As such, the fiscal and liability risks accrue to NIRSA. To facilitate good risk management and brand management practices, as well as provide and efficient and transparent process, the following information and related paperwork is required to be submitted to NIRSA Headquarters:

  • Preliminary budget (as reviewed and approved by your Regional Representative)
  • Preferred Dates and location of event
  • All contracts (volunteer leaders are not authorized to sign on NIRSA’s behalf)
  • Proposed Program Outline

Event Dates

Regional conferences may not conflict with an Association-related educational event. Please review the calendar thoroughly and contact NIRSA HQ to review pending dates prior to finalizing your dates.

Contracts

NIRSA Headquarters must review and sign all contracts (meeting space, lodging, transportation, catering, entertainment, etc.). Please allow 15 business days for review. See timeline for additional details.

Insurance

NIRSA liability insurance covers regional events of fewer than 500 people. Additional insurance must be secured if your event includes any of the following:

  • Parades
  • Aircraft
  • Motorcycle runs and automobile rallies
  • Fireworks
  • Firearms
  • Animals (other than house pets)
  • Carnivals or fairs with mechanical rides
  • Rock, hip-hop or rap concerts with admission of over 500
  • Events including contact sports
  • Rodeos
  • Political rallies
  • Any event lasting more than five days
  • Any event with liquor provided by the insured
  • Any activities by third party telemarketing, direct mail, or internet advertising (including spam) firms.

NIRSA Email Address Request and Use Policy

NIRSA event program committee members can request and use member email addresses to communicate directly with the NIRSA membership about NIRSA-related business through the NIRSA Headquarters.

Email addresses from the NIRSA database will be provided for NIRSA volunteer leadership to use along the following conditions:

  • email addresses will be used only for official NIRSA business;
  • email address lists will not be sold or shared with other parties or members for any reason;
  • any form of commercial use is prohibited. A commercial email means any email that has as its exclusive or primary purpose the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service;
  • all email addresses from the provided list must be included only in the Bcc: or Blind Copy address box to ensure that email addresses are not included in the actual email message;
  • email address lists will be deleted and purged after NIRSA-related business is completed or when term of NIRSA elected officer expires.

All email messages to members must include the following text as a footer of the email message:

You are not receiving this message because you are subscribed to an electronic list. You are receiving this message as a service and benefit of your membership with NIRSA. Should this material not pertain to you, please forward it to the appropriate individual or excuse the update.”

If you no longer wish to receive any emails from NIRSA, click here.

All email messages to non-members must include the following text as a footer of the email message:

You are not subscribed to any electronically generated list that caused you to receive this message. You are receiving this message as a courtesy service of NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation. Should this material not pertain to you, please forward it to the appropriate individual or excuse the update.

If you no longer wish to receive any emails from NIRSA, click here.

Graphics/Marketing Support

The NIRSA logo is available for use in regional event materials and must be used in its entirety without alterations. Your event logo should be provided to NIRSA Event Services for use on online and PDF registration forms as well as the website.

Presentation Proposals

All presenters must be NIRSA members, current through the event, unless they ask for an exemption and are approved by the program lead.

Registration Cancellations

The cancellation policy must be represented prominently in registration materials. It can be on the registration PDF, on the registration webpage, etc. but must be easily accessible by registrants. NIRSA Headquarters can provide a cancellation policy template.

If a registrant wishes to cancel and cites extenuating circumstances, the registration lead will decide how much of a refund the registrant should receive. If a registrant pays the early bird price after the deadline, the registration lead will decide if the registrant owes the difference in price.

NIRSA cannot hold credits for cancelled attendees from a regional conference for use at a later date.

Registration Pricing Structure

Registration rates should be set in accordance with the following table, according to the Policy & Resource Manual:

Student/Professional Member with Institutional Member Affiliation Base Fee
Student/Professional Member from Non-Member Institution 20% increase over base fee
Student Non-Member from Member Institution 25% increase over base fee
Student Non-Member from Non-Member Institution 30% increase over base fee
Professional Non-Member from Member Institution 35% increase over base fee
Associate Member Contact (not exhibitor) 45% increase over base fee
Professional Non-Member from Non-Member Institution 50% increase over base fee

Accounts Receivable/ Balances Due

When someone registers for a regional event but does not pay the full amount, NIRSA HQ will send an invoice to the registrant and copy the regional registration lead. It is then up to the registration lead to follow up with the registrant. Registration leads can access a balance due list on the NIRSA website and it is included in the roster report. If the balance is not paid by the date of the event, the registrant’s badge should be held at on-site registration and they should be required to pay the balance on site in order to access the event. After the event, if a balance is still owed, the registration lead is responsible for following up with the registrant. If a balance is not received by 90 days after the event is over, NIRSA HQ will write off the balance and the revenue for the event will be short by that amount.

Attendee Lists for Exhibitors

If your event includes an exposition, each exhibitor should receive an attendee list. This can be pulled from the online roster that can be accessed by the event lead. The information must include:

  • Full Name
  • Title
  • Institution
  • Email Address (only if the attendee has indicated via their registration form that it can be shared)

Exhibitors should receive an attendee list about two weeks before the event, and again after the event has concluded.

Corporate Sponsorships

All corporate sponsorships must comply with The NIRSA Policy on Corporate Sponsorships.

Contingency Fund Policy

  • All income earned in excess of authorized expenses will be returned to the NIRSA Headquarters with 100% of the remittance devoted to a self-insurance fund for the respective region.
  • When a regional contingency fund reaches a total of $4,000, monies in excess of $4,000 (minimum base fund) may be allocated for purposes that include the professional/educational/social programs or student scholarships at NIRSA national, regional, or state/province conferences/workshops.
  • Criteria for student scholarship programs must be approved by the Board of Directors before implementation.
  • Any use of regional funds outside the region must be approved by a majority vote of the regional membership at their respective regional conference meeting, or at their regional meeting at the Annual Conference.
  • The regional funds will also be available for financial assistance if a subsequent state/province or regional workshop results in authorized expenditures exceeding actual revenues.

Reports Provided to Regional Event Lead

(if registration/expenses are handled by NIRSA Event Services)

As soon as all outstanding registration balances have been paid and all expenses have been accounted for, NIRSA Event Services will deliver a detailed profit & loss report to the regional event lead.

Post-Event Survey

If NIRSA Event Services is administering the post-event survey, the survey will go live no later than one business day after the event, and will be closed ten business days after opening. NIRSA Event Services will forward the final survey report within five business days after the survey is closed.

For more information, contact John Raskauskas, NIRSA Professional Development Coordinator