Getting Started as a Leader with Bilby

This page provides help for CBC Leaders / Activity Owners on using the Bilby system to lodge an activity plus other important information regarding CBC procedures. (Leaders are known as Activity Owners on Bilby.) For general advice on leading, see Guidelines for Leaders. Note if you don’t currently have Leader rights in Bilby please email the Walks Secretary and outline your plan to conduct your first walk. You will need to conduct a basic on-track walk as your first activity.

This page was last updated 23 April 2024

Please read the following important information first:-

a) It is probably best if you don’t print these instructions as they will be updated regularly without notice unless it is because of a significant change to Bilby. This page will be updated as new Bilby enhancements come online and as feedback is provided. If you do print them, check here for the latest version before using your printout on the next occasion.

b) In lieu of printing and for ease of reference, you may wish to open another tab in your browser and have that one logged on to Bilby. Then you can just switch between this tab and the browser tab which has the Bilby system running.

c) Please provide feedback on the usability and clarity of these instructions. Send comments to walksec”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org (replace “at” with @ ). Bear in mind editing this website’s pages is done via a CMS app (WordPress) and formatting options are limited. If you have comments on the Bilby system itself please send them to bilby”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org (replace “at” with @ ).

d) Leaders/Activity Owners are entirely responsible for the content and accuracy of their activity advertisements on the Activity Program. Whilst the Walks Secretary will check over new activities initially, any subsequent edits are published automatically. For this reason the Walks Secretary cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the content of a leader’s activity.

e) As a security measure email addresses on this page are not properly formatted.

The Bilby and CBC activity life cycle

The main stages of the CBC activity life cycle are summarised below – to give you an idea of how Bilby and CBC procedures work. However, it’s important that you scroll down to follow the detailed instructions below for each stage starting at
“1. Creating an Activity”.

• Leader/Activity Owner drafts an activity. When finished the Leader changes the activity status to Review
• The activity is checked over by the Walks Secretary/Activity Officer and published in the Activity Program
• If bookings are required for an activity, the Leader deals with bookings as they come in
• When the booking deadline/participant limit is reached Leader adds Trip Full, Wait List started to Description field OR changes the Activity status to Closed which means the trip is still visible in the Activity Program and still going ahead but no further bookings are being taken
• The leader may send an email to all approved participants or use the Bilby Message Board to advise updated information and transport arrangements where relevant
• Just before the activity commences the Leader changes the Activity status to Closed. The Leader also prints out the Trip List (where bookings were required) and an Acknowledgement of Risks and Obligations form (aka Risks form) and takes these documents to the activity
• At the meeting place the Leader gets all participants to sign the Risks form where bookings were not required. If bookings were required, only those participants who did not book on Bilby need to sign the form
• After the activity is finished: If anybody did not book on Bilby (e.g. where no booking was required) the Leader uses the Risks form to add CBC members/guests to the Participant list on Bilby (this is for centralised, accurate record keeping)
• The Leader then changes the status of the whole activity to Completed by clicking on the Finish Activity link and marks those who attended the activity to Yes and marks those who didn’t as No
• If anybody was required to sign the Risks form who is not a CBC member/guest then the Leader scans the completed form and sends it to:  check.in”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org (replace “at” with @ ).

1. Creating an Activity

• At the CBC website click the Login link (top-right) and log in. You will be taken to the Bilby booking system. If you are already in Bilby, log in by clicking on the blue Sign In button – extreme top-right of the screen
• Click on your name at the top-right of the screen. Select My Account from the menu that appears
• In the left frame that appears, click the My Activities link. (If the left frame does not appear, click on the “hamburger” menu. This is a box in the top-left area with 3 small vertical lines in it. When the left frame appears these lines should turn horizontal)
• Click the blue Create Activity button in the top-right area of the right-hand frame (if this button doesn’t appear it means you don’t have leader access. Contact the Walks Secretary)
• You are now in the Overview tab. Complete at least the mandatory fields marked with a red *.
  Note 1: For Activity Type – there is no Partial day activity so choose Single day activity if that is relevant. Choose Activity Type carefully. This cannot be changed after the activity is created
  Note 2: Starting and Finish Time – the time format is hh:mm and type am or pm
  Note 3: Complete the Finish Date field. If you are very confident of a Finish Time for your activity you can enter one. You need to be mindful of what time daylight diminishes particularly in cooler months
  Note 4: Select as many Tags as are appropriate for your activity
  Note 5: If bookings ARE required for your activity it is recommended to leave the “New Booking Status” field at the default Pending. If bookings are NOT required for your Activity it is suggested you change the default to “Valid” meaning “approved” immediately and you will not have to deal with bookings as they come in. Enter your participant limit (max 16) in the “Max Participants” field.
• Click the blue Create New Activity button at the bottom-right of the screen
• VERY IMPORTANT: You must now select the Details tab adjacent to the Overview tab. If you wish you can enter a Booking Deadline at the top. Then complete the Grading (i.e. Length & Terrain fields) taking note of the fine print underneath both fields. Complete the Distance and Ascent which are also mandatory fields. This is important for safety reasons – so prospective walkers can self-assess whether they are capable of completing your walk. Complete the Terrain description and Transport fields
• Click the blue Save Details button at the bottom-right of the screen
• Select the Media/Maps tab. If you have an image, ensure it is within the file size limit of 4 MB. If you have to resize, try to maintain the aspect ratio. Portrait-oriented photos do not resize well on upload to 1392×783 pixels (16:9). Click Upload Image. Click Map Start Location. Drag the red pin marker to the location where your activity is starting. Note that you can Toggle full-screen view to make the adjustment easier: click on the box top-right of the map. Drag the map to centre the pin.
  Click Save Start Marker
• IMPORTANT: If your activity is a “no need to book” activity you need to finalise your edits on the same day it is first published if at possible – particularly the start time of your activity. As you won’t be sending any emails or notifications to the participants with updated information (because you don’t know who they are) you don’t want to keep changing the details as otherwise some users may see an earlier and some may see a later version of your activity advertisement
• You have now created a Draft Activity in Bilby
• VERY IMPORTANT: To have the activity published in the Activity Program you must now change the activity status to Review: Click the Change Status link and a pop-up window will appear. Change the Status from Draft to “Review” and click the blue Change Status button. The Walks Secretary will then be able to view your activity and publish it. Note: you can restrict your activity to Members Only if you wish. Please email the Walks Secretary and ask for this option. Otherwise, it will be published as Open to Public by default. (Note: Members Only activities are visible in the program to all users but only members can book on)
  If you wish to expedite the publishing of your activity you may wish to email the Walks Secretary :
  walksec”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org (replace “at” with @ )
• If bookings are required for this activity you need to add yourself to the Participant list. It doesn’t happen automatically. Click the Manage Users tab and the Participants sub-tab. Then select Add Me to Activity from the Actions menu on the right. Then click the Details link below that and click on the down arrow next to the orange Pending and change it to “Valid”.

2. Managing Bookings (where bookings were required)

• Bilby will notify you via email when a member/guest has lodged a booking request. To action a booking request go to the Manage Users tab or click the link in the Bilby email
• First, you should check if the applicant has updated their Privacy Settings by clicking on the Details button for that person and clicking on the Booking Info tab if necessary. If this information is not visible it means they have yet to update their Privacy settings so leaders such as yourself can see their contact information. (They should have done this by now, many reminders have been sent to members). You can ask the Walks Secretary or another Bilby Administrator for the participant’s email address. Then please email any applicant who has not updated their privacy settings and ask them to do so. Here are the instructions which you can copy & paste into your email to them …
  Procedure to update Privacy settings in Bilby so leaders can see your contact information (this is a one-off task) …
  1. Logon to Bilby
  2. Select My Account from the “Your Name” menu – extreme top-right of the screen
  3. In the left frame click on Preferences
  4. In the Privacy tab in the right frame change the following items to “Visible to any activity owner” : Email, Full Name, Contact, Address, Emergency Contact. The colour shading should change to yellow instead of the default pink
  5. Click the blue Update button at the bottom right.
• When the applicant has updated their Privacy Settings, click the down arrow within the Details link on the right-hand side where it says Pending and select “Valid”. Wait a moment and the status will be updated. (If you need guidance on whether to accept a booking see Managing booking requests in the Guidelines for Leaders page.) If the trip is full you may wish to select “Interested” which is a bit like Wait Listed. The applicant will be advised by email as to the outcome of their booking request. Note: if bookings were NOT required for this activity and you had set the “New Booking Status” field on the Overview tab to “Valid” then this approval step will not be required.
• If a member/guest wants to cancel their booking they need to perform this action themselves. If you get a request from somebody to cancel their booking please send them these instructions…
  Log on to Bilby and select My Bookings in the left frame. Then click View Details on the right for the activity you wish to withdraw from. Then click on the Cancel Booking button at the top-right. Click blue Confirm button

Leaders: In an emergency where a member/guest wants to withdraw their booking but they don’t have time then you can email the Walks Secretary and ask him/her to do it

3. When the booking deadline is reached

When the booking deadline or the activity limit has been reached but you still want to take bookings and place them on the Wait List (Interested) then it is recommended to put an entry at the top of the Description field saying “Trip full, now wait listing” and click the blue Save Overview button at the bottom-right of the screen. Your changes will be published/visible immediately in the Activity Program. Note that any bookings in excess of the participant limit you have set will automatically have a status of Interested (formerly Waitlisted).

Alternatively, you can change the Activity Status to Closed which means the trip is still visible in the Activity Program and still going ahead but Bilby will not accept any further bookings. Click the Change Status link and a pop-up window will appear. Select “Closed” from the drop-down arrow and click the blue Change Status button.

4. Emailing / Messaging Participants (where bookings were required)

After the booking deadline has passed, it is recommended to send an email to participants or use the Message Board (MB) feature in Bilby to advise participants about important and updated information regarding your activity. These would include meeting place and time, what they should bring, weather forecast, transport arrangements and transport costs (if applicable) and anything else important. (You can’t do this for “No Booking Required” activities as you don’t know who will turn up so you don’t know who to send email to)

If using email, it is recommended that you ask participants to reply to verify receipt of your email. You can find each participant’s email address by clicking on the Details button for that person in the Manage Users tab and clicking on the Details link on the right-hand side and then clicking the Booking Info tab. If the email address and other contact information are not visible it means that the participant has yet to update their Privacy Settings – follow the procedure outlined above in Section 2.  Managing Bookings.

If you would like to use the Bilby Message Board (MB) feature, click on the Manage Users tab then click the Message Board tab below that. To send a message to every Valid (approved) participant click on the @Mention button on the right and select @Everyone from the drop-down that appears. (Better to select all Valid participants in this way rather than just start typing as using @Mention ensures the recipients get a Bilby email telling them a message awaits their attention.)
Alternatively, you can select only the (Valid) participant(s) you want to send a message to in which case put each recipient below each other like this …
@harry-bloggs
@Fred-brown

You have a 2000-character limit. When you have finished click the blue Add Note button on the right. Your Valid participants can reply and send messages themselves. It’s a good idea for you and your participants to get used to using MB rather than email as it locates everything to do with your activity in one place.

5. The night before the activity is due to commence

• Now you should change the activity status to Closed by clicking on the Change Status link, selecting “Closed” and clicking the blue Change Status button. In conjunction with setting a Finish Time for your activity (if that is possible), this step can invoke an important safety feature whereby Bilby notifies Leaders and Check-In officers if the Leader’s check-in is overdue. This may be because they have not yet returned from an activity so it’s important that Check-In officers are reminded about it if possible
• If anybody booked on your activity (whether bookings were required or not), print a Trip List – which is a list of all your booked-on participants – and take it with you. (Alternatively, just jot down their names and take that.)  To print a Trip List: whilst in the Participants tab and showing a list of all Participants, click on the down arrow next to Actions on the right-hand side and select Print List. You can use this list to check off your booked-on participants as they arrive at the meeting place.  Get anybody who didn’t book on Bilby (i.e. Ring-ins) to sign the Risks form. Later you should transfer the the CBC members/guests from the paper Risks form to the Participant list in Bilby
• Print out and take a copy of the Risks form with you regardless of whether bookings were required or not. If bookings were NOT required for your activity, get EVERYONE to sign the form (including Joint Club Wednesday Walks) – regardless of whether they are CBC members or not. If bookings ARE required, only those participants who did not book on Bilby i.e. “ring-ins” need to sign the form. (“Ring-ins” are people who are not on your Trip List because they did not book online but turned up anyway.) One way or another everybody must sign the Risks form – either by booking on Bilby or by signing the paper form. It is not optional. This is important for insurance reasons and so the Club can keep accurate records. Merely being a Club member on Bilby is not sufficient as it does not record attendance
• Unless your walk is very local, it’s recommended you print out and take with you some other important documents such as the Incident Report Form, Emergency Contacts sheet, Emergency Information sheet and Ground and Air Rescue Advice. These can also be found on the Forms for Leaders page.

6. Checking in afterwards (do these steps in the order below)

NOTE: For Joint Club Wednesday Walks, follow the instructions in the last dot point below.

• PLEASE DO THIS FIRST:
  – Where bookings were required, if the Booking Status of each participant who attended is not already marked as “Valid” then
  do so now.
  Use your Risks form to add to Bilby any CBC member or guest who attended the activity but did not book on. Use the same procedure as follows …
  – Where bookings were NOT required, you should add all CBC members/guests on your Risks form to the Participant list on Bilby (that are not already on there) so that our records are accurate. (This is not required for Joint Club Wednesday Walks.) Click the Actions menu on the right and select “Add User”. Enter the Email address (the one listed on Bilby) or the Username of the member/guest you wish to add and click the blue Send Invite button. If the current booking status is Pending then change it to “Valid” – click on the Details menu on the right for the new Participant and then click on the down arrow next to Pending and select “Valid”. If you add the wrong member click on the Details link on the right for that booking and click on the Actions link on the right and select Trash Record. Contact the Walks Sec (or another Bilby administrator) if you have difficulty.
• Now, and only now, click on the blue Finish Activity link. (Do not click on the Change Status link.) This step is required for ALL activities (except JC Wed Walks) – whether bookings were required or not. Go down the list of Participants and select Yes if they did attend and No if they did not. Then click the blue Next button and add a Note if you want to and then click the Finish Activity button. Your Activity should now have an Activity Status of Completed and there should be ticks next to the Valid participants who attended your activity in your list
• If anybody signed the Risks form who is not a CBC member or guest (& hence was not able to be transferred to the Participant list) then scan the form (PDF preferred) and email to:  check.in”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org (replace “at” with @ ).
• For Joint Club Wednesday Walks (ONLY) …
  You should get everyone to sign the form at the meeting place whether they are CBC members or not. Do not enter CBC Members/Guests into the Participant list in Bilby afterwards. Just change the activity status to “Completed” by clicking on the Change Status link, selecting “Completed” from the drop-down arrow and clicking the blue Change Status button. Then scan and send your Risks form to check.in”at”canberrabushwalkingclub.org  (replace “at” with @ ).
• You’re Done!