Poll: Group Reg (please comment)

[ewu]

One of the biggest advantages of Group Registration is that someone could register you and pick up your badge for you. Thanks to some changes in registration, the pre-reg line is now moving a lot faster, so this advantage may not be as important.

Two disadvantages for group reg is some limited payment options and ONLY the group leader may register the group and pick up the badges. That means that if you arrive at con BEFORE your group leader, you may NOT register yourself individually.

Please include why you would like group reg back.

[Hakaru_chan]

im so up for group. reason why is because im taking over 40 kids with me and my club and it would help to get them their badges so we can be more organized. (i mean 40 people not standing in the waiting line sounds good to me)

im just wondering why they took it off in the first place. is it because they can't check id to make sure that the right person recieves it?  ???

[ewu]

Mostly due to irresponsible group leaders losing other member's badges, members who arrive at con before the group leader, and the need to pull 300 badges out of a pile of 4000....we think we have solved the badge pulling process. The other issues are beyond our control.

[chifunii]

I think it'd be pretty nice. I know in my high school has a Comicker's Club that wants to attend an anime con as a club together. And especially since we're already in the Bay Area, it's a much better choice over AX [since that's in the summer and so much farther south]. And they couldn't go to Fanime before since they didn't have group reg. :'D My art teacher (the supervisor) is really excited as well...

So I think it'd be a good option to have group reg this year, not just for the groups, but for the individuals as well. As for lack of responsibility, that's the leader's problem. And as the leader, shouldn't they be responsible enough to handle being the leader in the first place?

[ewu]

I think it'd be pretty nice. I know in my high school has a Comicker's Club that wants to attend an anime con as a club together. And especially since we're already in the Bay Area, it's a much better choice over AX [since that's in the summer and so much farther south]. And they couldn't go to Fanime before since they didn't have group reg. :'D My art teacher (the supervisor) is really excited as well...

So I think it'd be a good option to have group reg this year, not just for the groups, but for the individuals as well. As for lack of responsibility, that's the leader's problem. And as the leader, shouldn't they be responsible enough to handle being the leader in the first place?

I agree, as a group leader they should be more responsible, but unfortunately that is occasionally the case. We want to make our members happy, but somethings are beyond what we can do.

[Nyxyin]

Fanime seems to regularly get questions from people without government picture IDs trying to pick up badges, and I get the impression that the procedure for badge pickup by minors is something that slides under the table because there's no good solution.  I think some form of group registration can help Fanime deal with minors who don't have government picture IDs.  To discourage people from using group registration when they don't need it, (a) advertise it as "family registration" but include "youth group with adult chaperone / sponsor" in the fine print or FAQ, (b) do not give a discount, and (c) require the group leader to have a government picture ID, accept only one payment from the whole group, and make it clear that nobody else can get a badge without the leader.  (This was not clear in previous years.)  Except for the case of minors without IDs, it sounds like group registration is more of a headache for Fanime than it's worth.

[Hakaru_chan]

Fanime seems to regularly get questions from people without government picture IDs trying to pick up badges, and I get the impression that the procedure for badge pickup by minors is something that slides under the table because there's no good solution.  I think some form of group registration can help Fanime deal with minors who don't have government picture IDs.  To discourage people from using group registration when they don't need it, (a) advertise it as "family registration" but include "youth group with adult chaperone / sponsor" in the fine print or FAQ, (b) do not give a discount, and (c) require the group leader to have a government picture ID, accept only one payment from the whole group, and make it clear that nobody else can get a badge without the leader.  (This was not clear in previous years.)  Except for the case of minors without IDs, it sounds like group registration is more of a headache for Fanime than it's worth.

yea i can see what you mean. how many people would benefit from this group reg compared to the individual pickup? 

im still for group reg though but i just thought of another issue with group registration. errr... well for one... fanime has no way of figuring out who goes in that group. what if like... a bad person comes with that group? i dunno i mean, it seems a little bit more safer checking and giving out badges one by one and letting people in one by one... just on a safety side in general is what i mean.

[ewu]

what if like... a bad person comes with that group?

we have something in mind.....and honestly then the group leader takes on responsibility for the individual member too.

[RaddaX2]

I say bring it back.  It doesn't make sense that an entire group should stand in line when 1 could suffice.  I won't ignore that there are unreliable group leaders but that's something the con goers themselves should be responsible for.

[ewu]

How should the shorter reg lines affect our decision?

[RaddaX2]

How should the shorter reg lines affect our decision?

I wasn't here for last fanime so I'm not sure how much longer the lines were due to the absence of group registration.  But it's not just that some of us would appreciate shorter lines., it's because some groups would like to pick up badges before the weekend of the con.  That's how it was in '07 for me.  My group leader drove up to San Jose to pick up the badges for us, instead of taking 3 loaded cars.  It saved us the gas money and the time since most of us probably were busy on that thursday.

But see what you're getting at, the ends don't justify the means.  Less people are in line but it's still taking the same amount of time to pull out those badges.  Maybe if there was a way to sort out group badges from the individual badges then it would make a difference but that could be more work than for what it's worth.

It's too bad this thread doesn't get more attention, it could use a little more input.

[lihrah]

I'm a club president and group reg would be a lot easier to do. It's pretty hectic organizing everything one by one right now.

[FanFicGuru]

How should the shorter reg lines affect our decision?

I wasn't here for last fanime so I'm not sure how much longer the lines were due to the absence of group registration.  But it's not just that some of us would appreciate shorter lines., it's because some groups would like to pick up badges before the weekend of the con.  That's how it was in '07 for me.  My group leader drove up to San Jose to pick up the badges for us, instead of taking 3 loaded cars.  It saved us the gas money and the time since most of us probably were busy on that thursday.

But see what you're getting at, the ends don't justify the means.  Less people are in line but it's still taking the same amount of time to pull out those badges.  Maybe if there was a way to sort out group badges from the individual badges then it would make a difference but that could be more work than for what it's worth.

It's too bad this thread doesn't get more attention, it could use a little more input.

Really, it shouldn't take nearly as long to pull out group reg badges as opposed to single badges, especially if they're organized and grouped by leader. When a group registration comes in, you set it aside and say "Ok, this is a group registration under John Smith. He has until the end of March to tell us who all is in his group, and then we make the badges appropriately." Then, John smith walks in, show he's the leader of the group and gets the 6,8 or 15 badges...whatever the group size might be, and you're done.

Eric, I'm confused by what you meant when you said "Why should shorter reg lines affect our decision?" Was this a rhetorical question? It seems kind of obvious that shorter registration lines means people get into the convention faster and start spending more money or enjoying the con faster, thus improving their overall experience and the likelihood that they will recommend the event to a friend to attend the following year.

Granted, the lines were MUCH better last year, but people were still waiting for 2 to 3 hours.

Anyways, these are some of the reasons why I really want group registration to come back. To me it just makes sense to have a group registration/entry system.

[ewu]

How should the shorter reg lines affect our decision?

[Gigantor]

I think that bringing back Group Reg is a great idea. In the past when I organized Fanime for my club it was very useful to have. For many it was the first time attending so they were not sure how to get their badges, this made sure I knew that they got their badges and was a great deal easier to register as well.

This year I have around 100 members in my club, compared to about 30 in 2006. I think it would be very useful to have group reg especially in regards to such a large group. The confusion caused by trying to take care of so many people is equally annoying when around 100 people have to wait and lines, several of whom aren't sure about the procedures.

Also if we do group reg i can head down Thursday and pick up the badges early.

[heeroyuy135]

If Reg is ready and has the sufficient capabilities to do Group Reg, then by all means go for it!

[ewu]

reg is not ready but the capability may be there...

[scsa20]

I would so like group reg back right now, I need to register my sister and her bf but I don't want to create 2 additonal accounts.

[ewu]

even if group reg was set up, the minimum limit would be at least a group of 5 and you would need to create the new accounts anyways.

[scsa20]

even if group reg was set up, the minimum limit would be at least a group of 5 and you would need to create the new accounts anyways.

haha, I know I know, but I haven't included 4 others I know :p  (I'm actually going with about 10 people total but I was planning on registering my sister and her bf along with those other 4).  Welp, hopefully 2010 will have group reg out as I would love to just group them all in one bunch, already reg most of my group separately.