Events and Forms

These are called 'actions' in Action Network jargon.

What are event and forms for?

Events and forms are called 'actions' on Action Network.

Why use them?
They are a way of getting the subscribers on your list to interact and respond. Instead of sending them away from Action Network (e.g. to read a newspaper article or to sign up to a zoom) you keep them inside Action Network and therefore track responses.

You can use forms to do surveys, ask questions or collect more data on interests or skills.

You can use events for both in-person events with a physical location or for online talks, meetings, training etc.

If people fill in your form or event, you'll be able to see their response and learn more about the people on your list.

A list of useful ready-made standard questions are available for you to use.

Creating a form

Forms are for collecting extra information or feedback from your list. E.g

To start a new form - start here

From the Create a sponsored action menu on the right hand side, choose Form

Start a new form

To edit a current form - start here

Click on Actions then either Manage for a published form OR Edit for a form still in draft. Follow the same instructions below, but obviously some things may have already been set up.

edit a current form



1. Title and description

Give your form a short and clear title (and optionally a more descriptive different title for internal use only) and also a description/instructions written clearly for the person you want to fill in the form.

Form title and description

2. More settings

You can let people know how many other people have taken the action of filling out the form by leaving the Progress Bar on, but usually this is turned off. Then you need a short Form Heading and at the is you can update the text that appears on the submit button depending on what kind of form this is. This could be e.g. 'Update', 'Submit Info' or 'Register'.

3. Edit Form

Then click Edit Form (as seen just above), which takes you to a drag and drop type page to add or remove questions from your form.

This part is hard to describe in words and images - so you need to just have a go. You can drag and drop any fields you don't want for your event (it's up to you). Just click on them and drag away from the left and let go.

In this example the surname and postcode have been removed and the GDPR field is being picked up and moved in to the form.

The fields can then be set to 'Required' if they are mandatory.

NOTE: Historically all admins could create questions and we've ended up with hundreds of questions with lots of overlap. So we are documenting a list of some standard XRUK questions that you can use.

You could also add your own questions at this stage, but note that the information will only be stored within the form answers, not with their activist record. It might be worth requesting some training from the Action Network Data Team to explain how all this works in more depth.

In the bottom right click 'SAVE AND PREVIEW' and 'SAVE AND GO TO NEXT STEP'.

4. Thank You page

To keep things simple - turn off the sharing options (you can investigate this later), and change the title to something that suits your form.

5. Write a short message

6. Click 'Save and Publish'

You form is now live, some last things to do are:

If you need help with setting up a Form, please book a training or coaching session via our Training Request Form, or contact the Action Network Data Team.

Online events

Guidance below focuses on events that point to a zoom link.

The zoom meeting link should be one that doesn't require the person to register (otherwise they'll end up having to register on the AN event AND again on the zoom link).

There are benefits to using Action Network events instead of sending people direct to a zoom registration. It enables you to easily see who has registered without having to download details from Zoom. Also it makes it easier to set up auto-reply emails, 24hr reminders and follow up emails.

This page covers how to:


1. Create an Event



2. Add the key details

Title, start and end time, zoom link and timezone

3. Add some short text about the event and upload graphic

Write something a little shorter than you might do on a Facebook event or other advert - because by the time they've reached this registration page - they should already know something about what they are signing up for.



4. Then the graphic



5. Update the form data entry details

Check the button to 'Register' and then click 'Edit Form'

6. Choose data fields

This part is hard to describe in words and images - so you need to just have a go. You can drag and drop any fields you don't want for your event (it's up to you). Just click on them and drag away from the left and let go.

In this example the surname and postcode have been removed and the GDPR field is being picked up and moved in to the form.

The fields can then be set to 'Required' if they are mandatory.

NOTE: Historically all admins could create questions and we've ended up with hundreds of questions with lots of overlap. So we are documenting a list of some standard XRUK questions that you can use.

You could also add your own questions at this stage, but note that the information will only be stored within the form answers, not with their activist record. It might be worth requesting some training from the Action Network Data Team to explain how all this works in more depth.

In the bottom right clock 'SAVE AND PREVIEW' and 'SAVE AND GO TO NEXT STEP'.

7. Thank You page

To keep things simple - turn off the sharing options (you can investigate this later), and change the title.

8. Also you can write a message here e.g.

9. Click 'Save and Publish'

You event is now live, some last things to do are:

In-person events

The guidance for creating an in-person event is very similar to creating an online event - but in step 2 you just need to give the physical location of the event.


If you need help on this, please book time on our Training Request Form, or contact the Action Network Data Team.

Useful fields and questions

All these questions are available to all groups using the the XRUK network

When you use these questions in your forms/events the data you collect will be added to subscribers record.

You can also create your own questions in a form or event, but these will just be held within the 'action' itself (this is more suited to temporary information e.g. to ask people what shifts they could cover when stewarding for an action with options of 12-2pm,2-4pm, 4-6pm)

If you need help on this, please book time on our Training Request Form, or contact the Action Network Data Team.

Commonly used questions

If you have an idea for a question that could be useful system-wide then get in touch. If you feel like you need the freedom to create your own questions, read more here

Please include on every from and to 'required'. This adds GDPR_Policy_V2 into a field called GDPR_consent.

Which Region

Drop down menu of options of every nation or region and an 'other/nomad' category too. Apologies for this question and field being just called 'region'.

Principles and Values

This give a link to the P&Vs on the website and asked for use to tick if they agree with them. Then it tags their activist record with P&Vs_agreed

Mattermost Handle

This is a free text field for someone to enter their mattermost handle.

. . .

(this page will have more information soon)