Sections in this article:
- How the Waiting List Works
- When the Waitlist Closes
- Waitlist Status Definitions
- Open-Seat Expiration Calculation
- Waitlist Count Added to Organization Meeting Calendar
- Waitlist Rosters
- Upcoming Meeting Waitlist Roster
- Meeting History Waitlist Roster
- Transferring Member from Waiting List to Registered List
- Member Waiting List Experience
How the Waiting List Works
To improve the overall waitlist reliability and usability, we have made many enhancements. When a meeting is full, and the waitlist function is enabled, a member may choose to be added to the waiting list. If a seat becomes available, the member will be notified, at which time we ask the member to accept or reject the seat.
- If they accept the seat, the member must first subscribe to the organization (if not done so already) and if applicable, pay for the meeting registration (or consider a donation). After these few steps, the member will be registered for the meeting.
- If they reject the seat, the seat is then offered to the next member on the waitlist.
When the Waitlist Closes
The waitlist functionality will be turned off 10 minutes before the start of the meeting. This means that no further seats will be offered to members when there is 10 minutes or less until to the meeting start time. There are two reasons for this:
- The 10-minute cutoff time coincides with beginning of the Standby Room. Members remaining on the waitlist should utilize the Standby Room, where the chance of being offered a last-minute seat is high.
- Members accepting seats and entering the meeting after the start time can be very disruptive to the other attendees. To prevent this issue, open-seats will stop being offered to waitlisted members at 10 minutes before the start of the meeting.
Waitlist Status Definitions
Each waitlist record will have one of four statuses.
- Waiting - The member is waiting for an available seat.
- Offered - The member was offered a seat in the meeting. Each offered seat ("invitation”) is assigned an expiration date and time. Meaning the member has a set amount of time to accept or reject the seat offer. (See Open Seat Expiration Calculation section). An invitation with an “Offered” status means the user has not yet taken any action toward the invitation and the invitation has not yet expired.
- Expired - The expiration date and time listed on the invitation has passed without any user action. When the waitlist record changes to expired, the seat which had been offered to the user will then be offered to the next person in line. If there are no other members on the waitlist, the meeting registration will be re-opened to fill the meeting.
- Rejected - The member received an open seat invitation but chose to reject the seat. The seat is then automatically offered to the next member on the waitlist. If there are no other members on the waitlist, the meeting registration will be re-opened to fill the meeting.
Open-Seat Expiration Calculation
Each time a seat is offered to a member, an expiration date and time is generated. This is the deadline for a user to take action on the offered seat - to either accept or reject the seat. The logic used to generate the expiration time of an open seat is as follows:
- 33% of the remaining time before the meeting starts + 10 minutes
- Maximum time the seat will be held open: 1 day (24 hours).
- Minimum time the seat will be held open: 10 minutes.
Waitlist Count Added to Organization Meeting
The number of members Waitlisted are displayed to the right of the members Registered on the organization meeting tile. This allows the administrator and group leaders to see the current waitlist count in addition to the registered count. This count includes all waitlist records for the meeting except those members whose status reflect Rejected, meaning they rejected an open-seat offer. Clicking on the waitlisted number brings you directly to the waitlist roster.
Waitlist Rosters
Both the upcoming and post-meeting waitlist rosters help administrators better manage their waitlist.
Upcoming Meeting Waitlist Roster
In addition to the name and meeting registration history for a member, administrators can also see the following helpful columns on the waitlist roster for an upcoming meeting:
- Position - The member’s place in the waitlist line. The roster is sorted in position order (ascending).
- Joined At - Timestamp when the member joined the waitlist
- Status - The current status of the waitlist record. See Waitlist Status Definitions above.
Meeting History Waitlist Roster
The post-meeting waitlist roster is accessible through the Meetings History page. The Seat Availability column will display the final status for each member. For example, instead of showing Waiting or Offered, the post-meeting roster record will show Accepted, Expired or No Seat Offered.
Transferring Member from Waiting List to Registered List
From the waiting list roster, the administrator simply needs to select Register from the member's drop-down menu.
When the administrator clicks Register, the following will happen automatically:
- The meeting’s maximum registration number will increase to accommodate the extra attendee
- The member will be registered for the meeting
- A registration confirmation email or text notification will bee sent out to the member (if the member has either of these options turned on)
- The member will be removed from the waitlist
Member Waiting List Experience
Please see Waiting List for Full Meetings to learn more about the member's experience with waiting lists.