How to deal with a kids 'fun run' for event registration?

Christine 3 · February 2011

Hi,

I'm setting up a TeamRaiser event, for a run, that will include a kids 'fun run' as a participation type for young children. I have a few questions about how this could work:

1) Since young children (ages 4 to 10) aren't likely to have email addresses, their parents will most likely be registering them. If they're parents are also registering for the run, their email addresses will already be in the system. From a data hygiene point of view, the site is configured to enforce unique email addresses right now, but this won't allow for parents to register their children. If we change the site configuration, to not enforce unique email addresses, parents could register their children. What would be the data implications of this? Is there any other way around this?

2) We will be using waivers for all participation types and would like to do so for children. Since children can't 'sign' their own waivers as minors, their parents would need to. Is there a way to make the system double-check that a parent/guardian is agreeing to the waiver? I've seen this done on other systems with an additional checkbox ensuring the waiver is agreed to by a parent/guardian but haven't seen any examples in Convio. Is there a way to do this?

If anyone has experience with a run/walk/ride event where kids are participating, I'd appreciate some insight!

Thanks...

Christine

Brian Mucha · February 2011

This is a giant problem for us too.

Bascially, you can not require email addresses for the secondary registrations. But that means those users don't get ANY emails, and so pretty much can't use the teamraiser. No welcome, no coaching, no username and password.

Or you can require unique addresses, which means you will get a ton of fake email addresses and STILL have the above issues.

Or you can do as we did and allow duplicate email address and require secondary emails. With this set-up the parents almost always use their email address for their kids (and often spouses.)

This didn't bother us too much until we started to move email from an outside system to Convio. Now we see that some users will get 4 or 5 copies of an email, each personalized to a different member of their family. At the last summit this topic came up in the Duplicate Management seminar and the lecturer's opinion was that actual duplicates must be cleaned up, but this situation is of the user's own making. They 'wanted' 5 emails, they get 5 email. Let the unsubscribe system deal with it.

I think we will send out a special 'welcome' email to all the duplicates explaining the situation with links to the user profiles.

The waiver issue hasn't come up with us...yet.

Regards, Brian

Christine 3 · February 2011

Brian Mucha:
This is a giant problem for us too.

Bascially, you can not require email addresses for the secondary registrations. But that means those users don't get ANY emails, and so pretty much can't use the teamraiser. No welcome, no coaching, no username and password.

Or you can require unique addresses, which means you will get a ton of fake email addresses and STILL have the above issues.

Or you can do as we did and allow duplicate email address and require secondary emails. With this set-up the parents almost always use their email address for their kids (and often spouses.)

This didn't bother us too much until we started to move email from an outside system to Convio. Now we see that some users will get 4 or 5 copies of an email, each personalized to a different member of their family. At the last summit this topic came up in the Duplicate Management seminar and the lecturer's opinion was that actual duplicates must be cleaned up, but this situation is of the user's own making. They 'wanted' 5 emails, they get 5 email. Let the unsubscribe system deal with it.

I think we will send out a special 'welcome' email to all the duplicates explaining the situation with links to the user profiles.

The waiver issue hasn't come up with us...yet.

Regards, Brian

Hi Brian,

Thanks for you info! Can you expand a bit on secondary emails and how that works and what it means? It sounds like that is the best option for us but I just want to make sure I'm clear on it.

Christine

Brian Mucha · February 2011

Christine :
Hi Brian,

Thanks for you info! Can you expand a bit on secondary emails and how that works and what it means? It sounds like that is the best option for us but I just want to make sure I'm clear on it.

Christine

I should have said 'Secondary Registration emails'.

You can set up TeamRaisers so that a user can register themselves and then register another person in the same transaction. Those secondary registrations are often the kids. You can set which fields are requested and which are required when the registration is primary and when it is secondary in 6. Manage Participation Types -- c. Select Registration Info.

Regards, Brian

PS - You can only change the email requirements there if it isn't forced to be required in EVENT OPTIONS -- 16. Required Registration Fields

Brian Mucha · February 2011

Brian Mucha:
I should have said 'Secondary Registration emails'.

You can set up TeamRaisers so that a user can register themselves and then register another person in the same transaction. Those secondary registrations are often the kids. You can set which fields are requested and which are required when the registration is primary and when it is secondary in 6. Manage Participation Types -- c. Select Registration Info.

Regards, Brian

PS - You can only change the email requirements there if it isn't forced to be required in EVENT OPTIONS -- 16. Required Registration Fields

So I think you can set up...

Adult Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Required

Child Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Requested but Not Required

So that way a child registering themselves must have an email address, but someone if else with an email address and credit card registers them they do not.

Regards, Brian

Christine 3 · March 2011

Brian Mucha:
So I think you can set up...

Adult Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Required

Child Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Requested but Not Required

So that way a child registering themselves must have an email address, but someone if else with an email address and credit card registers them they do not.

Regards, Brian

Hi Brian,

I'm revisting this again. The client is worried that by enabling multiple registrations (ie: allowing a secondary registration) that someone might register another adult who therefore won't sign the waiver, which their legal team isn't comfortable with. But am I correct to assume that if a child has to register themselves they'll need an email address? Is there any way around this?

Christine

Brian Mucha · March 2011

Christine :
Hi Brian,

I'm revisting this again. The client is worried that by enabling multiple registrations (ie: allowing a secondary registration) that someone might register another adult who therefore won't sign the waiver, which their legal team isn't comfortable with. But am I correct to assume that if a child has to register themselves they'll need an email address? Is there any way around this?

Christine

The secondary registration must still be either an Adult or Child participant type, and the associated waiver will still appear.

The process is like this...

Choose your participation type (Adult or Child).

Complete registration wizard, which includes your waiver.

Just before completion, notice the 'would you like to register another participant?' link.

That link brings you back to the first screen, where you select the participation type (Adult or Child).

Repeat as necessary.

Complete and pay.

So they could register a whole family of 2 adults and 3 kids this way, all on a single credit card transaction. Each participation type can have its own list of questions and waiver. The waiver is not connected to primary or secondary, but to the adult or child participation types.


"But am I correct to assume that if a child has to register themselves 
they'll need an email address?"

So you want...

Adult Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Required

Child Registration

Primary: Email Requested but Not Required

Secondary: Email Requested but Not Required

Well, I think you could set it up that way. However, again you wind up with a user that cannot get their welcome emails, coaching emails, donation notices, password resets or anything. I don't see how that would be useful, unless they also won't be doing any fundraising and won't need the participant center and all the other fundraising tools.

I have also heard there is an issue with having no email address and the datasync, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. (The email address is/was used as the unique id for some things.)

Regards, Brian

Christine 3 · March 2011

Brian Mucha:
The secondary registration must still be either an Adult or Child participant type, and the associated waiver will still appear.

The process is like this...

Choose your participation type (Adult or Child).

Complete registration wizard, which includes your waiver.

Just before completion, notice the 'would you like to register another participant?' link.

That link brings you back to the first screen, where you select the participation type (Adult or Child).

Repeat as necessary.

Complete and pay.

So they could register a whole family of 2 adults and 3 kids this way, all on a single credit card transaction. Each participation type can have its own list of questions and waiver. The waiver is not connected to primary or secondary, but to the adult or child participation types.
"But am I correct to assume that if a child has to register themselves 
they'll need an email address?"
So you want...

Adult Registration

Primary: Email Required

Secondary: Email Required

Child Registration

Primary: Email Requested but Not Required

Secondary: Email Requested but Not Required

Well, I think you could set it up that way. However, again you wind up with a user that cannot get their welcome emails, coaching emails, donation notices, password resets or anything. I don't see how that would be useful, unless they also won't be doing any fundraising and won't need the participant center and all the other fundraising tools.

I have also heard there is an issue with having no email address and the datasync, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. (The email address is/was used as the unique id for some things.)

Regards, Brian

Hi Brian,

They have decided against enabling multiple registration though - because they don't want one person agreeing to the waiver on behalf of others if they're not minors. So we're now going to have users potentially registering with the same email address which creates data issues. Do you have any experience with this? Any idea how messy it might get and/or how easy it is to resolve after the fact?

Christine

Brian Mucha · March 2011

Christine :
Hi Brian,

They have decided against enabling multiple registration though - because they don't want one person agreeing to the waiver on behalf of others if they're not minors. So we're now going to have users potentially registering with the same email address which creates data issues. Do you have any experience with this? Any idea how messy it might get and/or how easy it is to resolve after the fact?

Christine

For the most part I think you just live with the data pollution and let the cons themselves work it out with opt-outs.

For example, I get the first broadcast email after registering... twice. One is personalized for me, and the other to my wife - both messages in 'our' inbox. Presumably we will then use the unsubscribe on one of the two.

We do get people that have the same address on eight different accounts. A manager paying to register himself and his staff, or whatever. The attitude of the guy at the Convio summit bascially said "Hey, don't worry - they CHOSE to do that."

The real treat is duplicate resolution with Senior/Juniors using the same email address.

Regards, Brian

Christine 3 · March 2011

Brian Mucha:
For the most part I think you just live with the data pollution and let the cons themselves work it out with opt-outs.

For example, I get the first broadcast email after registering... twice. One is personalized for me, and the other to my wife - both messages in 'our' inbox. Presumably we will then use the unsubscribe on one of the two.

We do get people that have the same address on eight different accounts. A manager paying to register himself and his staff, or whatever. The attitude of the guy at the Convio summit bascially said "Hey, don't worry - they CHOSE to do that."

The real treat is duplicate resolution with Senior/Juniors using the same email address.

Regards, Brian

Ok. Sounds like that is how we'll have to do it then! I guess neither option is ideal so it's the lesser of two evils in this case. Thanks for your help!

nicole.sheahan · March 2011

Christine :
Ok. Sounds like that is how we'll have to do it then! I guess neither option is ideal so it's the lesser of two evils in this case. Thanks for your help!

This has been a big issue for us -- parents want to set up a fundraising webpage for themselves but not their kids, the email issue, etc. We are going to use upsells and are setting them up right now. So a parent can add a child's registration to their own registration. I'll post in about a week to say how it is going!

How to deal with a kids 'fun run' for event registration?

Comments

Categories