"Allow multiple constituent registration" - Problems with Invitee's using Online Express

Abigail Townsend 2

When we invite our constituents to an event we add them as participants on the event module for that event to show they are invited but not yet registered/accepted. We send out the invitations via email with a link to the online express form for that event but when we come to process the transactions we encounter one of two problems:


1. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Unticked the transaction will not go through informing us that in order to process the transaction we must tick it. This is because we already have the constituent on the event as an invitee. The only way to process the transaction to make them show as accepted/registered is to make note of the attributes/guests etc and do it manually in the participant record.


2. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Ticked it creates a duplicate participant record and updates the original one too, but not to a full extent. Attributes and Registration is carried accross but Fees paid are not. The new record created has all the details but does not have the invited, canvasser and some other sections populated.



Is there a way of allowing registrants to register for an event if they are on the event already as being invited or is this not the way to record your invites?

Amy Walsh

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Matthew Garbarino

Amy Walsh:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Hi Amy. I merged this topic with a similar post. Currently, invitation based events aren't supported in Online Express, but it is something we are considering for the future.



That said, to get around the error message, you would need to select the allow multiple constituent registrations option. The downside here of course is that it will create a new registration for someone that's already invited that will have to be manually cleaned up.

Amy Walsh

Amy Walsh:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Thanks for letting me know, Matt. I would be happy to chat with you a bit about the structure of our event, if it would help inform future Online Express updates at all. This is definitely a feature we would be interested in, and I am sure it would make OEx more appealing to orgs with similar event structures as well. Please keep me posted on future updates related to this matter.

Matthew Garbarino

Hi Abigail. Events based on invitations aren't well supported yet in Online Express - but it is something we are looking at for a possible future enhancement. We would love to learn more about the specifics of your events. I'll reach out to you via email.

Rene Rosengren

Amy Walsh:

Amy Walsh:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Thanks for letting me know, Matt. I would be happy to chat with you a bit about the structure of our event, if it would help inform future Online Express updates at all. This is definitely a feature we would be interested in, and I am sure it would make OEx more appealing to orgs with similar event structures as well. Please keep me posted on future updates related to this matter.

 

Hi everyone,

I think this is a common practice - putting your invitees into an event so that you can easily mark them as registered as they rsvp. I'm glad I saw that this is not a function that Online Express can handle right before we used it for a major event where we preload the invitees! Please keep me posted. I'm also willing to talk about this with you, Matt, but sounds like you have folks who are describing the same practice with their events.

Amy Stubbings

ALL (6+ per year) of our events are invitation based. We also preload so that we can confirm we didn't spell names incorrectly!

I hope that this is fixed soon!

Peggy McBean

Matt Garbarino:

Amy Walsh:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Hi Amy. I merged this topic with a similar post. Currently, invitation based events aren't supported in Online Express, but it is something we are considering for the future.


That said, to get around the error message, you would need to select the allow multiple constituent registrations option. The downside here of course is that it will create a new registration for someone that's already invited that will have to be manually cleaned up.

 

Hi Matt,


I realize that this was an older posting but would you be able to provide an update on the status of this limitation in OE.  We are looking to move to OE for event registrations but we would similarly want to have invitees in the event record prior to rsvp (as I always had with RE/net community). I am concerned about this limitation & manual work involved in tracking invitees, accepted rsvp's, etc.  Thanks in advance for your guidance on this.

Stephen Robertshaw

Peggy McBean:

Matt Garbarino:

Amy Walsh:
This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Guests registering who were on module as not registered (i.e. invitation list).


We have a major fundraiser through which committee members invite guests to come, learn about what we do, make gifts, etc. We have always put all invitees into the event module as such: Committee member = registrant, and their invitation list = guests. Maybe this is incorrect, however I imagine we are not the only ones using it this way, and we did this for an event in January and had no problems with using it with OE.


Last fall we adopted Online Express. Now, we are having the problem where people on our invitation list will register online but we can't process them because they are "already registered" even though they are not. This is the error message I get: The constituent you selected is already registered for this event. You may need to enable "multiple constituent registration" in Raiser's Edge..."


We were able to use this in January, and I can't remember how or maybe something changed. But it would be much appreciated if someone could offer some advice here. It simply doesn't make sense that we can't have an invitation list in our event module, and then have people register from it.


TIA!

Hi Amy. I merged this topic with a similar post. Currently, invitation based events aren't supported in Online Express, but it is something we are considering for the future.


That said, to get around the error message, you would need to select the allow multiple constituent registrations option. The downside here of course is that it will create a new registration for someone that's already invited that will have to be manually cleaned up.

 

Hi Matt,


I realize that this was an older posting but would you be able to provide an update on the status of this limitation in OE.  We are looking to move to OE for event registrations but we would similarly want to have invitees in the event record prior to rsvp (as I always had with RE/net community). I am concerned about this limitation & manual work involved in tracking invitees, accepted rsvp's, etc.  Thanks in advance for your guidance on this.

 

I would like to add my weight to the people requesting this feature.  I say feature but this is surely a bug - we are getting told that the person cannot be processed because they are already registered despite the fact that on their participation they are listed as 'Not Registered'  - the error message is wrong.  What exactly is OLX checking against before reporting this error?  Checking that person is listed within an event is not enough - it needs to check their registration status.


It is also something that NetCommunity was able to deal with perfectly fine.


We run upwards of 60 events a year and the overhead this causes is immense, especially as if we manually register them using the data we move from the registration form by hand it doesn't add onto the overall capacity which can lead to overbooking issues.

Michele Stender

Hi everyone!

We totally agree that what you are asking for here makes total sense. We have a full work load for the remainder of 2016 BUT I am putting this on our roadmap for sometime in Q1 of 2017. Sorry for any frustration and work arounds this is causing.

Best, Michele Stender

Karen Diener 2

Michele Stender:

Hi everyone!

We totally agree that what you are asking for here makes total sense. We have a full work load for the remainder of 2016 BUT I am putting this on our roadmap for sometime in Q1 of 2017. Sorry for any frustration and work arounds this is causing.

Best, Michele Stender

I need to weigh in on the topic to say that I REALLY dislike that we need to have that configuration option checked.  I have gone though a lot of work to group events to make it easier for some of my reporting and general cleanup.  We were figuring out how well grouped events could work for some of our registrations, and then we started using OLX.  Extremely frurstraing and I feel like we are taking steps backward.  I really hope this makes it to Q1!!

 

Patti Hommes, bCRE-PRO

Michele Stender:

Hi everyone!

We totally agree that what you are asking for here makes total sense. We have a full work load for the remainder of 2016 BUT I am putting this on our roadmap for sometime in Q1 of 2017. Sorry for any frustration and work arounds this is causing.

Best, Michele Stender

Hopefully sooner in Q1 than later!! I am on the same page as everyone else! I currently have 3 event registrations going on and have had to do a lot of manual work that I shouldn't have to be doing. Online Express is not as "Express" as it should be. 

Heather Loebe 3

Abigail Townsend:

When we invite our constituents to an event we add them as participants on the event module for that event to show they are invited but not yet registered/accepted. We send out the invitations via email with a link to the online express form for that event but when we come to process the transactions we encounter one of two problems:

1. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Unticked the transaction will not go through informing us that in order to process the transaction we must tick it. This is because we already have the constituent on the event as an invitee. The only way to process the transaction to make them show as accepted/registered is to make note of the attributes/guests etc and do it manually in the participant record.

2. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Ticked it creates a duplicate participant record and updates the original one too, but not to a full extent. Attributes and Registration is carried accross but Fees paid are not. The new record created has all the details but does not have the invited, canvasser and some other sections populated.


Is there a way of allowing registrants to register for an event if they are on the event already as being invited or is this not the way to record your invites?

Update? I am setting up RE for a new org and I'm being told over and over by my Blackbaud-issued consultant that best practice is to put all invitees in to the event. How can I follow his advice when OLX can't handle it? I have changed the setting to allow multiple registrations for the first event we will be setting up in OLX, but I am not comfortable with that. Hope a fix to this and other annoyances (like the uneditable "(1 registrant)" that shows up and confuses everyone) comes soon!

Stephen Robertshaw

Heather Loebe:

Abigail Townsend:

When we invite our constituents to an event we add them as participants on the event module for that event to show they are invited but not yet registered/accepted. We send out the invitations via email with a link to the online express form for that event but when we come to process the transactions we encounter one of two problems:

1. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Unticked the transaction will not go through informing us that in order to process the transaction we must tick it. This is because we already have the constituent on the event as an invitee. The only way to process the transaction to make them show as accepted/registered is to make note of the attributes/guests etc and do it manually in the participant record.

2. If "Allow multiple constituent registration" is Ticked it creates a duplicate participant record and updates the original one too, but not to a full extent. Attributes and Registration is carried accross but Fees paid are not. The new record created has all the details but does not have the invited, canvasser and some other sections populated.


Is there a way of allowing registrants to register for an event if they are on the event already as being invited or is this not the way to record your invites?

Update? I am setting up RE for a new org and I'm being told over and over by my Blackbaud-issued consultant that best practice is to put all invitees in to the event. How can I follow his advice when OLX can't handle it? I have changed the setting to allow multiple registrations for the first event we will be setting up in OLX, but I am not comfortable with that. Hope a fix to this and other annoyances (like the uneditable "(1 registrant)" that shows up and confuses everyone) comes soon!

 

Yes, an update from Blackbaud would be appreciated.  It was slated for Q1 2017 and that has passed now.  When will we see the fix?

Michele Stender

Hi all,


We have not been able to do this work yet mainly because our priorities have been refocused on getting Email and Donations into the webview of RENXT.  For the latest updates on our roadmap, please check out the quarterly update. https://community.blackbaud.com/reviews/item/19/1654


Sorry that we haven't been able to get to this yet!


Michele Stender

Sunshine Reinken Watson

It is really frustrating to have to do manual merges for the duplicate registrants. We have participants who go back and buy more tickets for other friends, and that is a mess.

Darlene Wolf

Michele Stender:

Hi all,


We have not been able to do this work yet mainly because our priorities have been refocused on getting Email and Donations into the webview of RENXT.  For the latest updates on our roadmap, please check out the quarterly update. https://community.blackbaud.com/reviews/item/19/1654


Sorry that we haven't been able to get to this yet!


Michele Stender

Is there an update on this topic? We are getting ready to send invitations for an invitation only event. We would like to use Online Express to gather RSVP's, but if the issue of adding new registrants instead of updating invited constituents is not resolved, it may be better to just take RSVP's via phone calls and and update the participant records manually.

 

Faith Murray

There's two schools of thought about entering invitees as participants. We don't enter them as participants. For tracking invitees, we use an Appeal with packages, which also easily shows who has been invited and at what level. They only get entered into the Events module once they have registered.

Kathleen Eastman

Faith Murray:

There's two schools of thought about entering invitees as participants. We don't enter them as participants. For tracking invitees, we use an Appeal with packages, which also easily shows who has been invited and at what level. They only get entered into the Events module once they have registered.

I am also thankful I saw this! In my former position we had NetCommunity and the functionality worked great, even for a Grouped Event, which I recently found out the OLX event form doesn't support. Huge bummer and pain. Now with my new employer, we were hoping to utilize the sign up form, but if we can't have the invitees in prior to sign up, it makes absolutely no sense! BB needs to fix this glitch asap. There are already processes within OLX that require workarounds, but if the functionality was working in Netcommunity, why couldn't BB retain the same functionality here? Especially when it is integrating with the Database view and not NXT? I'm very disappointed and my superiors are not going to be happy at all! Please BB, fix this issue asap!!

Troy Estrellado

 

I am getting the error message even AFTER I have manually removed a constituent as a participant for the event. Anyone else have this issue as well?

Rene Rosengren

Is there an update to the issue of OLX Event Registration not being able to support invitation based Events? If there are Ideas related to this in Idea Bank, I'd be happy to go vote for them.

Does anyone have any updates or know of Idea Bank topics that can be voted on? Thanks!

Miki Martin

I just checked the OLX Ideas and could not locate an idea for correcting this issue. And this is STILL an issue because I experienced this with an event we had in March. Are there any updates on correcting this issue of uploading those receiving an invitation and then getting a second entry when they actually register through the form? It has been seven years since the first question was posted in this thread.

Austen Brown

Hi @Miki Martin - NXT Event Forms will do what you are looking for, OLX Event Forms will not. There is a trick you can do in within the Event Module to make it work though, check out this thread for more information:

Miki Martin

Thank you so much, @Austen Brown! I will definitely look into that. I am considering moving our forms to NXT.