Facebook post re: Oct. 4-5

[ThePoet]

This post was made by Tim Green on our national Facebook page.  Can someone please let me know how to respond?  Thanks.

My wife and I are signed up for an Appleseed this weekend, (Oct. 4-5). I think it was near Terre Haute, IN. However I can't find any info on the location or schedule for this Appleseed now. The online Indiana schedule has taken down everything before next weekend in Noblesville. We're not sure where to show up or how to get there. Can anybody help?

Thanks.

[AuntieBellum]

It was canceled due to zero preregs. Perhaps they made it in before the cancellation, in which case they should have gotten an email at the time. I'll text spitfire to clarify.

[ATM]

The same thing happened recently when the Lake Village event was cancelled, two or three people I spoke with actually got registered before the sign-up page was removed and immediately found themselves needing to transfer elsewhere or request a refund.

Can we examine and tweak our cancellation procedures or is this truly unavoidable?

[George Hacker]

There is no incentive for early registration, so I'm not sure how to solve this problem. On the Facebook page in our region we remind our audience that we need early preregistrations to plan for an event.

George

[AuntieBellum]

Tim and his wife have already been in email contact with Indiana peeps. It seems that they signed up shortly after the pm was sent to scuzzy to cancel the event due to zero pre-regs.

As for the Lake Village event, it seems that the one I know about was a mail-in. Can we throw out that option? They can just pay at the door of they don't want to pay online. They can even pre-reg as free and still pay at the door. Less work and confusion for everyone that way.

[scuzzy]

The same thing happened recently when the Lake Village event was cancelled, two or three people I spoke with actually got registered before the sign-up page was removed and immediately found themselves needing to transfer elsewhere or request a refund.

Can we examine and tweak our cancellation procedures or is this truly unavoidable?

Not sure if there is a good procedure. When I get a PM asking to cancel an event I do so. If there are pre-regs I do send an email asking if they want a transfer or a refund. Lately I also ask the SB to send emails too in case they don't get delivered - which does happen sometimes.

I also don't see Mr. Green listed on the EventBrite page as being a pre-reg for the cancelled event. Not sure what's up there. EB has been giving me other problems lately so no telling what.

[George Hacker]

As for the Lake Village event, it seems that the one I know about was a mail-in. Can we throw out that option? They can just pay at the door of they don't want to pay online. They can even pre-reg as free and still pay at the door. Less work and confusion for everyone that way.

+1000 - Perhaps we could create a "free - pay at the door" category in Eventbrite. That question comes up a lot - "How can I preregister if I want to pay with check or cash? I am not a LEO or military."

[ATM]

The same thing happened recently when the Lake Village event was cancelled, two or three people I spoke with actually got registered before the sign-up page was removed and immediately found themselves needing to transfer elsewhere or request a refund.

Can we examine and tweak our cancellation procedures or is this truly unavoidable?

Not sure if there is a good procedure. When I get a PM asking to cancel an event I do so. If there are pre-regs I do send an email asking if they want a transfer or a refund. Lately I also ask the SB to send emails too in case they don't get delivered - which does happen sometimes.

I also don't see Mr. Green listed on the EventBrite page as being a pre-reg for the cancelled event. Not sure what's up there. EB has been giving me other problems lately so no telling what.

I guess my suggestion if cancelling specifically due to lack of pre-regs would be:

1. Ask for the event sign-up to be removed or "put on hold" a day earlier than we currently do.

2. Check to see if any late pre-regs appear by the next day.

3. If so, reevaluate if the event still needs to be cancelled or if it should proceed as originally scheduled.

Of course, this doesn't apply to events which must be cancelled due to other factors - that's still going to occur on occasion.

[spitfire51]

Part of this is due to my relentless optimism that we'd somehow be able to staff the shoot and that we'd have some shooters (plus the fact that I can barely remember what day of the week it is and thought I had a little more time).  I knew earlier in the week that we'd likely be cancelling, but I hate having to cancel shoots and wanted to wait as long as I thought was practical.  Right before I pm'd scuzzy and asked him to cancel it I checked eventbrite and it still showed no pre-regs so I thought we were in the clear.  My best guess is the gentleman in questions sneaked in between when I sent the pm and when scuzzy saw it.  We've been in contact with him and I'll be following up this evening (I swear brianheeter checks that email address the second he wakes up in the morning because he got to that way faster than I could've).

I think having a "pay at the door" type option would be a very good thing to consider in the future.

[dirtdawg]

I would bet that if there were a free- pay at door option, we would see a a lot of no shows.

[Earl]

I was sure that putting my money on the table meant I was a serious buyer, but if you just want to know if I am interested - I like lots of stuff, and will do it as I can get to it. A free sign up for a shooting event, that I have to schedule around, buy ammunition for and gas and a place to sleep and eat... well, I could cut a commitment to that easily, so sign me up. What do I owe the Appleseed Project?

I am with dirtdawg

[Unbridled Liberty]

I would bet that if there were a free- pay at door option, we would see a a lot of no shows.

I agree with you and Earl.  I see it all the time.  No skin in the game, they get a better "offer" at the last minute, or the weather looks bad, or the couch feels extra comfy, or __________, and they just don't show up.  And there we are with border raiders who traveled six hours to help out, and we end up not really needing them.  Not that I don't like walk-ons, but I think making an actual pay-at-the-door prereg option in EB would be counterproductive.

UL