To alleviate the stress so many of us are feeling right now, I’m sending out this post immediately. All five my 2018 Maine Quilt Retreats filled within 15 minutes. In fact it crashed our email for a few minutes.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Like I said in last week’s post don’t be hesitant to put your name on the waitlist. In the retreat I taught this last week, half of those attending had been waitlisted.
Both Tom and I felt the stress as well and have been trying to think how we can hep alleviate that in the future. This sort of sign up produces a gold rush, where everyone tries to register at once. We considered using a lottery system to pick attendees, but that would not have allowed for people to sign up with friends or relatives.
What it does tell us is that as we start looking at my 2019 schedule we will try to add a couple more Maine retreats, though that won’t solve the problem of the rush for registration.
If anyone has any ideas how we can improve this process please, please, please let us know.
In the meantime, thank you again for your enthusiastic support.
Now, I’m off to work on that online class, which may help to alleviate some of the fabric collage fervor.
I’m wondering if some “gamed the system” by waiting at eventbee.com rather than waiting for the email.
I don’t know if that’s possible. I didn’t release the links for eventbee.com until the email was sent.
I actually had a spot/ticket but was timed out because it wouldn’t take my payment. Bummer. Now i am wait listed. I think the process could use a little adjusting to be fairer.
So sorry. That is a problem we didn’t foresee. Would you prefer a lottery system? That’s one way we considered doing it.
Could you somehow once you secured a spot, not to get timed out? I was so elated to get the spot and then lose it. And i got up at 6 am my time and did this without aid of coffee. Hopefully next year!
I have been thinking, i was an data base analyst in a different lifetime. What if you staggered the opening times of the different retreats? One open at 9, the next one at 9:15 and so forth. It could help to eliminate everyone hitting the servers at the same time and maybe then there would be less timeouts on the session. Resources would not be taxed so heavily.
Now that’s an idea I wouldn’t have thought of. Thank you very much!
It would be nice if people who are waitlisted and don’t get in this year, would have a better chance for the following year. I too was waiting and it was already full immediately upon receiving the email!
I’ll consider that!
I was on at 5am Alaska time and got a Waitlist at 5:02. I just keep watching for other classes and working on my own. I am loving your blog.
Be
I think that people should not be able to get more than one ticket at a time. This results in a person being able to buy all the spots for a day and then everyone else is booted to waitlist. If each person had to get on and get their own it would at least even the score for those getting on at the same time. It seems really unfair for one person to take everyone’s shot at getting in.
I was sitting on my I Pad, clicked got in, hit one ticket had it and then got booted to waitlist. Very frustrated.
Leslie
So sorry you were frustrated. I have always let people come with a friend or two. I did limit the number of tickets a person could reserve, so they couldn’t buy up all 12 of them.
Good points.
An idea to throw out to you and it might get you more supporters on Patreon, let your $20.00 a month supporters get an early bird registration for your classes. I did put myself on all your beginner classes’ waitlist just hoping to get any of your classes. I hope that was ok.
Totally neutral on this, as I’m in he UK. Perhaps those who are on the waiting list and don’t get in for the current classes could be emailed and given first refusal next time, followed by individuals who haven’t been on your retreats before? And maybe include a couple of opportunities for a pre-formed group of 12 to book their own retreat with you by mutual agreement? Delighted that you are so popular
I was extremely fortunate to get a spot for 2018. I have mixed feelings as I know that many people did not get a spot and I sooooo understand their disappointment. The Masters (golf) does a lottery every year for tickets and although many people put their name in just to get tickets to sell, as long as the lottery winners could not transfer their spot it would be a really fair way to select participants as well as wait listed people. You could set a max of two tickets per request and pick so many entrants who want 2 tickets and so many who are asking for a single ticket. 1 entry per address. That way everybody would have the same opportunity and people who want to come with a friend would not miss out.
I’m very disappointed as I never received an email for signing up. How do I get on a wait list? Do not see anything that will allow me to do this.
JoAnne, I’m not sure why you didn’t receive an email. Are you signed up to receive the blog and/or the newsletter? To be put on the waitlist, when you try to purchase a ticket, there will be a gray button “Put Me on Waitlist” above the nonfunctional “Purchase Ticket” button.
Sounds like you will have many new ideas to sort through. I love your blog and appreciate that you teach your beautiful craft in that as well. When I actually retire, maybe there will be a spot for me for in person. Would love to visit Maine again. Took The Shelter Institutes home builders class back in the eighties and loved traveling in the area around Bath. Keep up the good work.
Great response, take it on as a compliment.
Each class could have its own time slot, maybe an 1 hour apart or same time each day for 5 days running.
Good luck and have fun everyone.
Maybe you need more classes. Lol
I’ve worked in Higher Ed Student Systems for 12 years, and this problem is very similar to class registration at Universities. A possible solution is to issue registration appointments – although, I’m not sure if your class reg software has that option. Staggering the class open day / time (as suggested by other comments) could possibly lighten the system crash issue. But really, the only solution is more classes or less demand. THIS is a wonderful problem to have. Congratulations!!
Morning
Was wondering if you considered doing a online class something like a craftsy class which can be purchased and done at a students pace. I would def consider purchasing such a class as getting into a retreat seems unlikly for a year or more. Love your videos, your technique, and wonderful artistic eye.
Penny, you obviously need to be reading the blog on a regular basis! Yes, there is an online class in the works. I can’t say it will be similar to Craftsy classes. It will be a “process” class (learning the technique) rather than a “project” class (creating a particular project). A first draft of the class will be made available to my higher-level Patreon supporters later this month.