UPDATED: Suffolk Masonic Events & Tickets Powered by lipma
Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA
The internet is a wonderful thing sometimes. Growing up in the 70s through 90s if we needed information, we went to the library or looked it up in our home encyclopedia, etc. Nowadays, we hold the sum of human knowledge in the palm of our hands.
I remember getting tickets to see Van Halen 1984 at Madison Square Garden, and I still remember getting the paper ticket in my hands. Luckily, my cousin was an executive assistant to one of the owners of the Garden at that time, so the tickets were relatively easy to get. Convincing my parents I was old enough to join my cousins and older brother at the concert, not so much.
Over the past year or so, the executive board has been discussing how to give back to the district and not just host a once-a-year summer soirée. (Hint: we may make the Holiday Gala a yearly event as well).
So, we introduced Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA.
As the plans for the Holiday Gala were being finalized, we decided that the tickets would be sold online and we’d give the ability to pay for them with Credit/Debit Card, Venmo or PayPal, including Google Pay and Apple Pay. The point was we wanted the members of the LIPMA who run the event to be able to enjoy themselves at the event and not spend half the event collecting tickets, checking in guests, and counting money or checks. We opted for a 100% prepaid ticket model. So far, it’s exceeded expectations.
With the results of that effort working exceptionally well for the event and LIPMA, we saw an opportunity to offer this same tech and convenience to the Lodges, members, and appendant bodies in and around the Suffolk Masonic District.
Introducing Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA!
We expanded the use of the Events calendar and tickets you saw in action with the LIPMA Holiday Gala to the Suffolkmasons.com website and set it so any registered member can add events and create tickets for their event, whether it be a Lodge fundraiser or a District-wide event.
What do you need to do this? Simply you must register with the website and be approved. Once you create a login on the suffolkmasons.com website you will be able to create events with Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA with all the details you will need, who, what, where and when. To create a paid ticket you or your Lodge or organization will need a PayPal registered email address. If you have a PayPal email you would know. The Community events & Tickets will employ some interesting technology. It will include split payments and PayPal payouts. This is why you will need a PayPal related email to collect fund via PayPal, Venmo or Credit/Debit Card. So if you have an PayPal account already your all set. If not it’s a 2 minute setup with PayPal. No merchant (Credit Card Processor) account needed. LIPMA will complete the payments on the ‘day of’ your event, all the funds collected, minus the ticket fee, are then paid to the supplied PayPal email/account. Unfortunately, at this point only PayPal is support by the software.
So what are a few of the pros and cons to this method of selling tickets with Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA?
Pros
- Get Paid in advance for events
- Get better RSVPs/headcounts
- no need to distribute paper tickets
- generate online reports for sales and attendees
- leverage social media and other avenues to promote and sell tickets
- Check in guests with a smartphone (iPhone/Android) with a app.
Cons
- Slight added cost to tickets and your event for guests
- There may be more, but I can’t find any.
As you can see there is a definite benefit to selling your event tickets online via Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA. So, what’s the downside? Well, the software that runs the system is not ‘inexpensive’. So, we have implemented a ticket fee which we believe was fair to all. So, when you create tickets, the fee is subtracted from the total. It will most likely be $1.00 per ticket. Plus, the merchant (credit Debit Card) processing fee, which is currently 3.7% + 0.49 per transaction. This must be taken into account when creating tickets for your event. So if you expect to collect $25/per person for your event, you would need to create tickets for about $28.00 to recoup ~$25.00 after fees are collected. Update: The systems has been modified to allow to site fees to be added at checkout. This means the Lodge sells the ticket for $25, the system will add the ticket fee and Credit/Debit Card processing fee at checkout automatically and the Lodge get the $25 they set as the price for every ticket.
A Zoom or in person instruction will be announced to walk anyone interested in learning how to navigate and add events & tickets and get paid for the tickets. We sincerely hope that the members of the District will use and take advantage of the system and actually enjoy the events that they plan. Or those who have the online knowledge, jump right it and start creating events and tickets. We can provide detailed instructions on how to setup a ticket on the system on request and of course we’re always available to assist if needed.
On the day of your event one or a few members with smartphones scan QR codes at the door to check-in your guests and verify attendance and generate reports. You can see from the image below that you can view your attendees and sales reports with Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA, you can also export the reports into PDFs, Spreadsheets, or email them.
Payouts: OK so guest have purchased ticket though the system, when will the Lodge get the money sent? The new Policy is that tickets when purchased, and completed, (transaction finalized and tickets emailed to the guest, the payment will be queued (batched) once ever 24 hours. So, if 5 guest buy tickets, the event organizer (Lodge) will have the funds sent to their PayPal account withing 24 hours. The process repeats if there are any ticket sales for that 24-hour period. So, if you sell 100 tickets in one day, the organizer will get the funds send to their account the next day. As a result, all refunds, due to cancellation of the event or guest request, must be resolved by the organizer (Lodge) as Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA will no longer hold the funds.
A note about PayPal accounts: It is highly recommended that each lodge has the Secretary and or Treasurer setup a BUSINESS PayPal Account. Using a Personal PayPal Account is strongly discouraged. Each account must have a federal ID, SS# or FEIN associated with it, just like a bank account. Setting up a Business PayPal is relatively easy and can be done 100% online. You must have certain business records and FEIN. If your Lodge is a 501 c (x), non-profit or not for profit, you can also indicate this, and PayPal will discount your fees on processing. Also, you will need a business checking/savings account that PayPal can electronically deposit funds to. Connecting a bank account takes a few days as PayPal will deposit a test amount (a few cents) and withdraw it. You will need to indicate the deposits to PayPal, and they will open the account. Once open any tax reporting go to the Lodge ID and not one individual members SS#. For the more information please see PayPal
One of the most useful added features of Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA is the ability to check-in attendees to your events via QR code. These scannable codes are generated automatically for all ticket purchases or reservations, and each code references a unique URL that can be used to quickly check-in guests without needing to manually access your attendees list. If scanning on your phoner or tablet is not possible, you can still use a mobile device to check-in your event. If you open your even on the app, you will see the attendees list in alphabetical order, just slide the name in the list to the right and a check-in button will appear, click it and done. Its super-fast and no lag. For a final headcount this cannot be beat.
Additionally, each ticket purchased will be sent to the guest e-mail. If they have an iOS (Apple) device, they can save the ticket to their Apple Wallet. The ticket can be visually checked or scan the QR code there.
Event Tickets Plus App
Through Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA is the Event Tickets Plus App is the easiest and fastest way to check-in your attendees directly from your Android or iOS device without the need to log in to your site. Simply install and connect to the site using an API key and start scanning your tickets. (please request the API key from the Webmaster to connect). The API key is also in the detailed documentation available on request.
Download the app from:
- Google Play Store – for Android devices
- App Store – for iOS devices
Once you have registered, created an event, created a ticket with a PayPal associated email and the event is approved, your off to the races. Each person that purchases a ticket or RSVP’s to your event, you will receive and email notification (the organizer)). You can go onto the system anytime and check attendees and sales, export, print or e-mail your reports.
The day of your event, there is nothing for you to do really but enjoy. Hiram’s Tickets powered by LIPMA, is that simple.
I forgot to mention or add the link for easy reference. So here it is, get planning those events today. You must be logged into Suffolkmasons.com to access the below link.
- Posted by William Arnold
- On November 22, 2021
- 0 Comment
