Online Garden Registration – Additional Guidance for Group Coordinators
Introduction
This information has been prepared for those of you who are acting as a coordinator of a Group Opening and should be read in addition to the General Guidance note which are also on the NGS website.
1. Content Of Your ‘Garden List’ Screen
Your list will contain a Group Header, coloured dark blue. This record is used to capture the information required for the group opening entry in the Yellow Book and on GardenFinder.
The screens and information required in the registration process are in a similar format to an individual garden but you should complete them from a group perspective. For example, Garden Description will relate to the group as a whole, rather than a single garden.
If your group opening doesn’t name specific gardens, only the Group Header will appear in your Garden List and you may carry out registration immediately.
If your group opening consists of specific named gardens, they will be listed below the Group Header, coloured light blue. This enables you to see all the gardens in your group and to monitor their Status. Each garden that is opening should be ‘Registered’ by the Garden Owner or yourself and when details have been submitted the Status will change to ‘Awaiting Acceptance by County Team Member’.
2. Check ‘Garden List’ Prior To Group Header Registration
If the group opening consists of specific gardens it is important to check your list contains these BEFORE completing registration of the Group Header. All gardens that are opening must be present in your list or they will not appear in the ‘Edit Group Opening Dates’ screen (Section 3) or the Yellow Book entry.
If the group opened in the previous year, your list will have been compiled from those gardens, taking into account any changes you have already agreed with County Support. Therefore, any garden joining the group for the first time may not be included, but you may also have gardens that do not wish to open on this occasion.
New Group Gardens fall into two categories:
a) An Individual Garden that has previously opened for The National Gardens Scheme but now wishes to open as part of the group.
You should contact County Support who will add the garden to your group list.
This will not prevent the Garden Owner from continuing to open separately, if they still wish to.
b) A garden that has not previously opened for The National Gardens Scheme.
You will need to ‘Create’ the new group garden so that it appears in your list, in alphabetical order, below the Group Header. This is a very simple and short process. See Section 5.
Group Gardens Not Opening on this occasion.
You will have the opportunity when registering the group header to indicate that the garden is not opening as part of the group on this occasion. Section 3 explains how to do this. It will not appear in the Yellow Book entry and the Garden Owner should not ‘register’ the garden, unless opening independently of the group.
Having ensured that your Garden List contains all the gardens opening for the group and identified any that will not be opening this year, you may commence registration of the group header.
3. Registering The Group Header
Remember to complete all the fields from a group perspective. Help Information may assist if you are unsure about anything. Otherwise, contact your County Team Member for advice.
During the registration process you will specify the details of the dates the group will be opening. Following this, a screen entitled ‘Edit Group Opening Dates’ is displayed. The screen displays all the gardens listed as part of the group and the selected opening dates. It is designed to allow you to specify:
- the opening dates each garden will participate in, where not all gardens will open on all dates.
- that a particular garden will not be opening at all.
Read the Help to clarify how to use the ‘Select All’ and other boxes/fields on the screen.
Garden NOT Opening as part of the Group this year.
Ensure that the date boxes against this entry are blank, so that it does not appear in the Yellow Book. This garden will not appear in your Garden List next year but you may contact County Support to resurrect the record if the owner wishes to open as part of the group again.
Garden Missing from Garden List
Ensure the garden is now present, appears in this screen and that you tick the appropriate date boxes before submitting details at the end of registration or it will not be included in the opening.
If the group does not contain any named gardens, the ‘Edit Group Opening Dates’ screen will have none listed. Select NEXT to continue.
When you have completed registration successfully, return to your Garden List. The Status of your group header will have been updated. Ensure you LOGOUT if you have finished using the Online Garden Registration System.
4. Monitoring Your Group
You should login and check your Garden List on a regular basis to determine the progress of the group garden owners who are responsible for registering their gardens, and offer assistance if necessary. Group registration is not complete until all participating gardens are registered.
5. Create New Group Garden
You will need the Garden Owner’s Name, Address, Contact Details and Email Address.
• Select Create New Garden from the menu on the left of the screen.
• Select Garden Type (Refer to Help for definitions)
• Select NEXT
• Complete Garden Owner and Contact Details
• Select SUBMIT.
• A new garden confirmation message will be displayed.
The new garden will automatically be added to your group. If you have more than one group in your list you will be invited to select the appropriate group.
New gardens are set up by the system at hourly intervals. The garden will appear in your list once this has been completed. The garden owner will receive an email informing them that their garden is ready for registration.
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