How to Plan Your Social Calendar
I use Evite to send and process invitations to the parties I host and to the other parties and events I will invite you to.
Evite is an Internet-based invitation processing Web site and is by far the most successful of such sites. You can use it to create and send invitations and to RSVP to invitations that others send to you. The Evite Web site is quite easy to use, even for computer novices. Over the last several years, I've been impressed that they have cleaned up almost all of the bugs that inevitably occur in developing a Web site.
When I send you an invitation through the Evite system, you will receive an e-mail with a subject line of "James Mitchell has sent you an Evite." In the e-mail itself, the day and date of the event and what kind of event it is will be listed. If I'm requesting that you RSVP even if you will not be attending, before the day and date will be listed "RSVP --", which indicates that a RSVP is expected. If I have not included the "RSVP --", then I'm not expecting a response if you're not attending. For a few events, I will begin them with "No RSVP expected --", which means that it is simply a broadcast announcement and I'm not expecting a response even if you are attending.
This should be obvious but it is not to some on my invitation list — To RSVP, you have to click on the link in the e-mail, which will take you to the Evite Web site. You then choose "Yes," "No" or "Maybe." You can include a message to me if you wish, and choose whether others can see your message. This is the only way to record your RSVP response in the Evite database. If you simply press the reply button on your e-mail package, your reply will be sent to me as an e-mail. But your response will not be recorded in the Evite database; rather, you simply sent me an e-mail. Evite does not read my e-mails.
To repeat — to RSVP through the Evite system, you need to click on the link in the e-mail. If you don't do this, as far as Evite is concerned, you have not responded. That means we assume you are not attending the event, no nametag will be printed for you, and if spots are limited they will be given to someone else. If for that event we send reminders to those who have not responded, you will continue to receive reminders until you RSVP through the Evite system.
Several people on the invitation list have Blackberries. As far as I can tell, these guests are not able to log onto the Evite Web site through their Blackberries. If that is the case, simply wait until you have access to a real computer and check your e-mail there. From there, you can click on the link to the Evite Web site and then RSVP. Until you do, you will be logged in the Evite database as not responded.
We now require our guests to create an Evite account, which is free. The process taken about 60 seconds. Once you have your own account, you can log onto the Evite Web site and see all of your current (i.e., events that have not already happened) Evite invitations, whether sent by me or someone else. If you accidentally delete an Evite invitation that was sent to you, you don't need to write to the person who invied to, you can simply log onto your Evite account and then RSVP there. Evite has become the standard for sending and receiving invitatins by e-mail; if you have an active social life, Evite has or will become part of your life.
We require this because the invitaiton list is now quite large, and a certain number of people will have problems receiving and processing Evite e-mails. If they have an Evite account, 95 percent of the time, they can just log into their Evite account and process RSVPs that way, eliminating e-mailing or calling us with their Evite problems. We simply don't have the bandwidth to handle inquiries from guests with Evite problems who have not created an Evite account.
I also encourage you to create an Evite profile, which will permit others who are coming to the party to know something about yourself. You can also post a picture. If you're single, someone coming to the party might say, "He (or she) is cute, I want to meet him (or her)." If you list your e-mail in your profile, they could write to you, or alternatively they could write to me and ask me to forward their e-mail to you. The same would be true for business networking or for purely social relationships.
If you use Microsoft Outlook for your calendar, with one click you can add an event to your calendar. While you are viewing the invitation, on the left (you may have to scroll down) will be Guest Options. The last option will be Add to my Outlook Calendar. Click on that and the event will be added to your Outlook calendar. Evite will pick the correct date and starting time (assuming the organizer listed it correctly when he set up the Evite). If the organizer also listed an ending time in the correct Evite field, that will also be entered in your Outlook calendar; otherwise, you have to choose the ending time yourself.
Note that rather than pasting the details of the event into the body of the appointment, Evites simply adds a link. If you don't like this (I don't) and you prefer to have all of the details contained in the body:
If you're on my invitation list and you have chosen to be invited to all of the events I publicize (this is the default), you will receive a lot of invitations from me, let alone Evites you receive from other people. Assuming you remember to log into your Evite account on a regular basis, here is a possible method to plan your social calendar that perhaps you should consider:
This process works if you remember to log into your Evite account on a regular basis. (Since you'll be receiving Evites from me on a regular basis, presumably you think of logging into your Evite account as you receive Evites.) It also doesn't work for last-minute Evites you receive; for those, you'll want to process them soon after you receive them; otherwise, you will miss the event.
Further information about Evite is contined in the Evite section of our "Frequently Asked Questions" ("FAQ"). Evite has its own FAQ, which I encourage you to read. Please note that your Web browser must accept cookies and permit Javascript to run. These are explained in our Evite section and in Evite's FAQ.