Paperless Space Requests/UUFs

The purpose of the paperless Space Request system is increase efficiency by providing the space requestors, room scheduler, and support departments with:

a higher percentage of space request forms filled out completely and correctly the first time
faster notifications that a space has been requested
improved access to the current status of a space request, and
fewer stacks of paper to deal with.

IT has interviewed involved parties analyzed the business process, set up a server, and developed the first iteration of the Paperless Space Request form.

Concepts/Questions

The UUF form has been combined with the Space Request form so that any Space Request that would require UUF approval is will now contain all the approvals and “signatures” that were previously acquired in a separate UUF form.

Roles

There are several roles involved in the use of this system. Each role will have different responsibilities and options when it comes to processing a Space Request

Requestor: The person who submits the Space Request form
Scheduler: The person who schedules the space requests, is involved in all Space Requests
Support Department: The people in Facilities, Media, Campus Safety, Computer Services who must acknowledge Space Requests if certain criteria are met (e.g. if a Space Request involves a computer classroom, Computer Services is required to acknowledge it.)
Director or Chair: The people who approve or deny a Space Request based on certain criteria
Administrators: The people who have full control of the space request system. They can approve any space request on behalf of any department. The idea is that, in an emergency, there is someone who can “push a Space Request through”.

Checking In and Checking Out

The entire purpose of requiring editors to “Check Out” and “Check In” Space Requests is to prevent one user from overwriting the edits of another user.

“When you check out a file … you ensure that others cannot make changes to the file while you edit it. While the file is checked out, you can edit and save the file, close it, and reopen it. Other users cannot change the file or see your changes until you check in the file.” –Microsoft Help

See Step 3 on page 5 for instructions on checking in/checking out

University Approvals/Acknowledgements

Space Requests that involve certain elements (e.g. certain locations, attendees, or purpose) require one or more people to approve or acknowledge the event. If an Approving Entity is required, you must select “[Dept Name] is Required” from the appropriate dropdown list. The department will receive an email requesting that they review and approve/acknowledge the Space Request. They may contact the requestor for clarification. To check the status of your approval process, see View the status of your Space Request below.

Additional details are in the table below.

Approving Entity	Approval required if the Space Request involves:
Director or Chair	Non-UW attendees, alcohol, political activities, solicitation of charitable donations, fundraising, admission or a fee is charged, food or beverages, off campus organizations, custom room configurations, Facilities Services, Media Services, certain locations, or commercial activities.
Student Life	A student organization, a Student Priority Usage Space (SPUS).
Acknowledging Entity	Acknowledgement required if the Space Request involves:
Facilities Services	Specific request for Facilities Services or Custom room configuration.
Media Services	Specific request for Media Services, media equipment of any sort in the LSH, or the event is located in a: Presentation Classroom, Smart Classroom, or Distance Learning Classroom.
Campus Safety	Off-campus organizations, promotion of external organizations, cash exchanging hands, alcohol, Student Priority Usage Space (SPUS), outdoor venue, assembly location, or non-UW attendees.

Delegating approval authority to another individual

Several directors have delegated approval authority to their staff. The process goes like this:

1) The director sends a tachelp informing us that they wish to delegate UUF approval authority to someone else.

2) Computer Services makes the change effective 7:30am the following business morning

The change that I make will be to replace the director’s email address with the delegate’s email address in the UUF system. This will have the effect of UUF approval emails being sent to the delegate, not the director. The director’s name will still appear on the form, because the requestor is requesting approval from the director, not the delegate.

Why does my director have to approve these?

The document http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/policies_procedures/UUF_Policy.pdf explains why director approval is required. I’m not a policy authority, so I can’t really say much more than that. Jim Coolsen is our resident “Space Czar” and a policy authority. Being the nice guy he is I bet if you asked him I’m sure he’d be able to put it in plain English.

Creating a Space Request/UUF

1) Open a new Space Request

You may have to initially log in. Enter UWT\netid and your UW Tacoma network password. This is the password you use to log in to your workstation every day.

Open Internet Explorer and go to	http://uwtsp1/Space_Requests/
Click “New”
Make sure that you don’t see a big red warning sign that says “You can’t edit this document because you haven’t checked it out”. If you do see this error after clicking on “New”, please send a tachelp right away.

2) Fill out the Space Request form

Please note that certain choices will require further clarification. For example if you select “Yes” for “Will this event involve fundraising” you will be required to provide the name and mission of the benefitting organization.

Section	Instructions
Requesting Organization Information	Use your organizations information here.
Requestor Information	Use your information here.
Class/Activity/Event Information	Several items in this section will open new areas that require additional information.
Room / Space Reservation Request	If your event has multiple locations, or for some reason cannot be easily described in terms of recurrence, you may generate a whole new row for you to fill out simply clicking. An advanced menu will allow you to add an additional space request above the current one, below the current one, or completely remove the space request is available by clicking on. The menu looks like this: .
University Approvals	Choose from the required approvers. See the section on University Approvals above for details.
Submit	Click the Submit button. At this time you will be notified if any portion of the form requires revision before submission is allowed.
After Submit	You will see a dialog box pop up reminding you to CHECK IN the Space Request. Click “OK”.

3) Check in the Space Request

Follow the directions below to check in the Space Request.

You will now be back at the Space Request list. Your Space Requests will have a name of netidX, where X is an id number for the Space Request
Position the mouse to the right of the name of the Space Request you just submitted and you will see a dropdown arrow appear. Click this arrow.
You will see the Edit menu open up
Click on “Check In”
Leave No selected when you are asked if you want to keep it checked out. Put something like “Original Request” in the Comments field. (image 5)

Emails will now be sent to the Space Coordinator to schedule. After the space is scheduled, an email will be sent to each support department that is required. You will receive a final email when all required support departments have acknowledged this request.

4) Edit your Space Request (optional)

To edit your Space Request you simply:

1) Check it out

2) Open it by clicking on the name link

3) Make your edits (new date/time, additional locations, etc…)

4) Submit it

5) Check it back in

View the status of your Space Request
At any time you can check the status of your Space Request by Opening the Edit menu on your Space Request and selecting “Workflows” then Clicking on “Support Department Notifications and Approvals” like shown in the series of images below:

On the main Space Requests screen, move the mouse to the right of the link for the Space Request in question and click the dropdown arrow.
When the edit menu opens up, click “Workflows”
In the “Workflows:” screen, click “Support Department Notifications and Approvals”. There may be several workflows in progress. Choose the most recent.
In the “Workflow Status:” screen, look under the “Workflow History” heading, in the “Description” column to see what has happened regarding your Space Request

Canceling a Space Request / UUF

If you wish to cancel a space request / UUF, simply edit your space request in the following manner:
1) Change the Location to “This event has been cancelled”

2) Indicate in the “Requestor’s Notes” box that this event has been canceled. All required support departments will be notified to review the space request and they will see that it has been canceled.

What if I find errors?

As this is the first round of testing I expect there to be many things that need to be fixed. When you come across an error, please send an email to tachelp so I can keep track of them.