Registration Lottery!

Thank You!

Campfire Tails would like to thank the community for its excellent interest in our event!

Years and years ago, we set a reg cap in place so that we wouldn’t outgrow ourselves too quickly. We wanted to be able to grow at a measured pace to keep with the spirit of staying a small, relaxed event. Now, 6 years into it, we’ve finally hit the cap; and WAY earlier than any of us thought we would.

That is both exciting and motivating! When it became apparent that we would hit the cap and close registration unexpectedly early, we gave good thought to how we wanted registration to close up.

Out of recognition of our attendees who have volunteered in the past and helped make Campfire Tails possible, we chose to set aside spots for any volunteer with an existing, but unspent registration credit. (Those holds are temporary, and will expire on July 4th, as those volunteers have already been notified of privately.)

Why A Cap?

Our cap is limited by number of staff available on hand to meet the public demand. We are seeking new staff for next year, to enable us to grow in the coming year. We want to raise the cap and we need strong, driven individuals who want to make CFT all the more awesome.

Should you desire to be considered to be part of the team, send a forum message to @Crowley and @Gnolltime. Include a short cover letter and a resume for us to review. We are currently looking for additional Kitchen, Public Safety, and Happenings positions starting after this CFT to help with 2017. However, there are plenty of unique skills you all possess, so don’t be afraid to let us know what you want to do for CFT!

The Lottery

Spots that open up, whether by a volunteer’s hold going unclaimed and expiring (above) or from attendees who can’t make it this year and choose to transfer their payment to 2017, will be distributed using a lottery process.

Entering the lottery

On June 27th at 6 a.m. Pacific time an option will open up in our registration system to register for the wait list. To do this, you will fill out a form that collects the same personal information you would provide during a normal registration. (This is to allow us to detect and address any multiple-entry abuse of the process.)

Lottery Closing and results

On July 4th at 6 a.m. Pacific time the option to register for the wait list will close, and the entries received will be shuffled. At that point, you will be able to see your position in line to register, and the first winners will be notified.

What happens when you win

When you reach the front of the queue, you will be notified by email. You will have 24 hours to complete and pay for your own registration. Also, you may optionally designate one other person who will also be allowed to register. (We’re doing this out of consideration for self + ride, self + mate, or any other situations where having someone special be able to make it will make your attending Campfire Tails possible or better.)

You will not be able to designate your +1 until you complete and pay for your own registration.

Your +1, should you choose to select one, will have until 48 hours from when you reached the head of the queue to complete and pay for their registration.

Helping Out, and Next Year

While we remain excited to host this year, hitting our cap has shown us that there certainly is room to grow! To that end, we’re encouraging more people to volunteer this year! Not only does it feel awesome, but it guarantees you a spot to attend again should we hit the cap next year too.

Special Bonus for Kitchen Volunteers

Our Kitchen staff especially would love to have more volunteers. And we’re ready to encourage just that!

Attendees that work 2 meal services in the kitchen this year will be awarded a guaranteed spot next year not only for themselves, but also for one other person of their choice. Have a significant other that you want to be sure can attend? Or just a good buddy without whom CFT would just not be the same? Give them the security of a guaranteed spot.

(You’ll have to pick who to give this spot to before we open registration for CFT 2017. We’ll notify you when this option is ready, and give you a window of at least a month to enter your selection before that cut-off.)

2017 Preliminary Details

We’re still working how the registration policies will look in 2017, but we are planning on:

  • The hold on spots in 2017’s registration process for credit transfers (from 2016), 2016 volunteers (and kitchen volunteers’ +1s) will expire 2 months before the final closure of registration for Campfire Tails 2017.

Thanks

Once again, we’re so excited to host this year. Please feel free to reply with any questions about this process.

Awesome! I’m really glad there’s a consideration for mates :slight_smile:

Oh awesome! I totally spaced registration this year. Glad to see I might still have a chance!

I like this policy. It seems not only pretty fair but I like how it encourages volunteering.

Small Change re Expiring Holds

I had implemented it such that having a hold and being able to sign up for the wait list lottery were actually mutually exclusive in the registration system UI. This wound up having the effect of screwing over someone who has a held spot for themself, but can’t attend without their +1, because only their +1 could actually enter the lottery (versus both them and their +1 being able to enter the lottery).

That effect is entirely unintended, and to remedy that, any holds that expire are going to be treated as automatic entries into the lottery, to give those affected one last chance to attend that includes the ability to bring their +1 if they win (or their +1 wins).

1 Like

Status Update

The sign-up for the wait list is still going to close at 6 a.m. today, but due to some bugs I found in last-minute testing, the drawing and automated release of slots to the winners won’t happen until later today—possibly Tuesday morning at the latest.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Drawing Complete

The updates to the system have been pushed live, and the ordering of the entries has been generated. If you entered the wait list lottery, you can now see how many people are in front of you in the queue by signing in at https://registration.campfiretails.org/

The first winners have been notified by email.

6 posts were merged into an existing topic: 2017 Registration Changes