Recurring event series

A recurring series consists of a recurrence rule and a template event. The rule defines the schedule; the template defines the event details. The system generates individual event instances automatically, 8 weeks ahead at a time.

Creating a recurring series

Go to Dashboard > Recurring series > New series. You'll fill out two things: the schedule, and the event details.

Schedule options

There are 4 frequency types:

• Weekly — Repeats on selected days every week. For example, every Monday and Wednesday.
• Biweekly — Repeats on selected days every other week. The alternating week is calculated from the series start date, so it stays consistent regardless of how far ahead you're looking.
• Monthly by weekday — Repeats on a specific weekday in a specific week of the month. For example, the 2nd Tuesday, or the last Friday. "Last" is always the final occurrence of that weekday in the month, regardless of how many weeks the month has.
• Monthly by date — Repeats on a specific calendar date each month. For example, the 15th. If the date doesn't exist in a given month (like the 31st in February), that month is skipped.

All frequency types require a start date. An end date is optional — leave it blank for an ongoing series.

Event details (the template)

The template event works like a regular event form: title, description, event type, city, start time, end time, accessibility features, and so on. The template's time fields set the time of day for every generated instance. The date comes from the schedule.

The template event itself is always kept in draft status and is never shown publicly. Only the generated instances are published.

How instances are generated

When a series is active, the system generates concrete event instances for each upcoming occurrence. Generation runs automatically and is idempotent — running it multiple times won't create duplicates. Instances are matched to their occurrence date, so editing a template and regenerating updates existing instances rather than creating new ones.

Generated instances look and behave like any other published event. They appear on city hubs, in the iCal feed, and can receive reports.

Editing a series

Open a series from Dashboard > Recurring series. You can edit the schedule (dates, frequency) or the template (event details, accessibility, times).

Propagating changes

When you save changes to the template, you'll see a "Apply to future instances" checkbox. If you check it, the system overwrites all future generated instances with the updated template data. If you leave it unchecked, the template changes apply only to future new instances — existing ones stay as they are.

Use propagation when you're fixing something that should be consistent across all instances — a location change, corrected accessibility info, updated contact details. Skip it when you've manually edited individual instances and don't want those edits overwritten.

Exceptions

Exceptions let you handle occurrences that differ from the regular schedule. Add them from the series detail page under the Exceptions section. Each exception targets a specific date.

Skip

No event is generated for that date. Use this when a meeting doesn't happen — a holiday, a venue conflict, a break. The date simply doesn't appear.

Cancel

An event is generated but set to cancelled status. Use this when an occurrence was previously published and people may have seen it. Add a cancellation note — it shows publicly on the event detail. This is the right choice when a meeting was announced and then called off; skipping would leave subscribers with a stale entry on their calendars.

Modify

An event is generated with specific overrides for that date. You can change the start time and/or location for a single occurrence without affecting the rest of the series. Useful for the occasional meeting that moves rooms or starts an hour earlier because of a holiday schedule.

Activating and deactivating a series

New series start inactive. After reviewing the schedule and template, activate the series to begin generating instances. You can deactivate a series at any time — no new instances will be generated, but existing ones remain published unless you cancel or delete them separately.

Series end dates

If a series has a defined end date, no instances are generated past that date. The series stays in the system and you can review or reactivate it later. If the series is truly over, you can also cancel remaining future instances individually, or deactivate the series and let the end date handle it.