Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Working with Waitlists in the Age of Covid 19

For many  events, capacity constraints and wait lists are a fact of life. Many facilities can only accommodate a set number of boats. Wait lists in the Regatta Network system are based on the number of paid entrants received for a specific fee. As a reminder, the Waitlist Limit is established when setting up the registration fee, and will allow entry into your event until the limit is reached.



Once that limit has been reached, and entrants are being actively wait listed, we recommend you revise the Waitlist Limit downward, say from 50 to 35 or 40. This will let you delete entrants that have to drop out and override the wait list status for entrants currently wait listed. Otherwise when you delete a paid entrant, the waitlist will open up for the public, and let anyone jump in line in front of the wait listed entrants.

Step-by-Step: To override the waitlist status for an entrant --
> Click "Edit Event Entries"
> Click on the entrants name
> At the bottom of the next page, click the check box to "Override waitlist for this registrant "
> Click button to Modify this entrant.
> Notify the Entrant either through the email console, or directly to edit their registration form.

With the fluid nature of state and local "Stay At Home" orders due to Covid-19, you may wish to capture registrations, but not accept payments until you are sure the event will be able to happen.  In this case set the waitlist limit to "-1"  and the system will accept the registrations but not allow payment.

With "Multi-Registration" fees, the fee will disappear when the waitlist limit has been reached, to let the entrant pay for the classes or races that are available.  So you may want to include a custom question to capture second choice for their registration.

Waitlists do not function with Meal or Merchandise fees, only with registration and multi-registration fees.   As always if you have any questions regarding using waitlists, feel free to contact us.