People who sign-up but don't attend

[Fox]

Hi folks, 

I'd like to find a way of dealing with the recurrent problem of people who sign-up but don't attend, therefore denying people who are on the waiting list a place. There were a few good suggestions last night and I'm wondering if people can add to them. I'd rather not take a punitive stance on this, but would rather adopt a system that somehow encourages people to do the right thing.

It seems that this isn't something unique to the London Code Dojo, or even meetup.com, but represents a wider trend in society, see here for an article in the Guardian today about this very topic: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/you-lastminute-cancellers-are-causing-a-flakiness-epidemic-8594983.html

What I have already done is set the deadline for RSVP changes to 48 hours previously: there's nothing worse than finding out a few hours before that you've been moved from the waiting list to get a place and it being too late to do anything about it.

Fox

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[Edward]

Hiya Nigel, sorry for the late reply.

Personally I think it a question of educating people. Not showing up is so often see as having no consequence, people don't appreciate they are both using up a space and making it harder for organisers to plan properly.

To make things more tangible, I think there should be a karma system where not showing up gives you -X points. If you reach some threshold (say you miss two meetings), then you are blacklisted. This means that if someone with higher karma wants to attend, they can auto-bump you to the wait list.

Any other ideas?

[John Stevenson]

You can see how many events each member in the group has previously atteneded.  When neccessary I have bumped a few people around manually.

Usually a strong email of encouragement on the morning of the event usually has things sorted on the RSVP's just after lunch.

Thanks
John.

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[Fox]

Thanks John, I've begun doing something similar. I'm keeping track of 'no-shows' at events and then tracking people according to a 3-strike rule. People who are regular get priority on the waiting list over normals who get priority over those who've got a strike, or two. This requires me manually twiddling the waiting list, but it's the best solution I have for the moment.

Fox

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[Paweł Krupiński]

I propose a lazy solution (aka embrace chaos): allow people to attend even if they're on a waiting list list or haven't responded at all.

If it starts to get crowded (I believe that's not a problem at the moment), try to solve that, since it's a good one to have. Obviously works only if you have enough space for people actually attending to start with. It solves the issues mentioned though. 

     Paweł

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[Todd Chaffee]

I agree with Paweł. About 6 months ago I really wanted to attend. But it was always wait-listed. Then when I finally got on the list something came up with my family that I couldn't avoid so I had to cancel. One thing I'd like from a Dojo is to be able to attend most events so you can get to know people. I would focus more on getting a larger space.

I've been chairman of Social Developers London for the past 2 years and I can say for sure that the one thing you can count on with a regular meetup is that last-minute cancellations are normal.

[Andrew Black]

I tend to feel that if an event tends to "sell out", people will sign up without really thinking through whether they really are free that night.  

Having said that I don't really agree with suggestion that people should just turn up.  I think we want to encourage people to sign up meaning to come and to cancel if they can't.   

Not sure that setting RSVP limit to 2 days encourages people who find they can't come to sign off.If you know on the day that someone else can use your place then you are more likely (IMHO) to make the effort.  A message a few days before asking that people check they are really coming, and to remove themselves from waitlist if they are no longer able to come.

(I have travelled home only to find when I got back that I had been accepted in the last couple of hours!)