Taking attendance a few minutes before the event

[Veni Kunche]

Hello,

I'd like to implement taking attendance of events as members are walking in. I looked into using the attendance call: http://www.meetup.com/meetup_api/docs/:urlname/events/:id/attendance/. However, it let's you start taking attendance only once the event has started. Members start coming in for an event usually a few minutes before.

Is there a way to update attendance before the start time?

Thank you,

-Veni

[Doug Tangren]

Hi Veni,

The ability to start taking attendance is not currently available but I've organized event's myself that required attendance taking and understand that it's sometimes less stressful to get it started sooner when early birds start coming through the doors. I feel like there's room for cool attendance taking apps for Meetup to be made. I'll have a look at this next week. Perhaps we can allow for some some 30 minute leeway where you can start taking attendance before the start of the actual event.

Thank you,

-Veni

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[Joe Lippeatt]

Keep in mind though, the platform automatically lists everyone as "attended" anyway.  You're not really able to mark someone as "attended" as they walk in, just "noshow" after the event.  The 30-minute head start isn't helpful unless they reported they will be not attending.

The question of easy - meetup - attendance taking has been a topic covered multiple times (here, here, here, here and others) over the past 6 years or so.  I've written several attempts at an attendance taking app or web app, but the default "attended unless otherwise noted" makes checking-off people as they come in impossible.

So -- like many organizers, I went back to a paper printout and marked people off with a pen.  Folks not marked off are no-shows.

Joe

 

[Jim Guistwite]

I prototyped an app for this, but like Joe said, paper is just easier.  My version included a 2d barcode that the group added to the meetup content.  At the event, I had an IPad running a 2D barcode scanning application using the iPad's camera.  The barcode had encoded in it information that the application then used to register attendance.   It was fun to play with but wasn't very practical.  Perhaps someone else could make the idea work.

Jim

[Veni Kunche]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I assumed that the default is "no show" and I was hoping to change the status to "attended" as people are coming in. I'll have to think of a workaround.

Joe, after you take attendance on paper do you go back to the meetup website and mark anyone that didn't show up as no-show then?

-Veni

[Joe Lippeatt]

Oh, its even more fun than that.  

Since our classes and/or photowalks can have as many as 75-100 people, I hand out 3 or 4 lists of names and ask people to mark their name off.  

Once I get home, I go through all the checkoff lists and click the "good to see you" button on Meetup.com.  This way, the only people that still display the "good to see you" buttons are the no-show people.  They get switched from "attended" to "noshow" on the edit attendance screen.

As each person is moved from "attended" to "no-show", I right-click on the person's name and open their profile in a new window.  Once all the no-shows have been assigned, I then go through all the other windows - one-by-one.  If they have no-showed 4 or 5 times, they are sent a polite "feel free to rejoin when your schedule free's up" email, and get the boot.

Otherwise, they get a polite "we missed you tonight" email. This gives folks the option to reply with "My cat died", in which case I reassign them to "absent".

And now you know why I've been trying to automate the process.  :)

Joe

[Dominique L]

Hi Joe,

The work you are doing to send emails relating to no shows is one of the automated features of MeetupBoost.com. Feel free to check it out!

Dominique

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From: Joe Lippeatt
Sent: ‎2014-‎12-‎16 8:30 AM
To: meetu...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [meetup-api] Taking attendance a few minutes before the event