Checklists and the New Event Registration Module...Hmmmm.

Bill Birch
Bill Birch
Fifth Anniversary Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Enrollment Management System™

It's about that time when we'll sit down and set all of our admissions events dates for the fall of 2024. That also means it's time to build new checklists. After a few years of using the old events registration module and learning its quirks and how to create work-arounds to get past its limitations we're now forced to use the new event registration. From what I'm researching am I correct in understanding that when someone registers for a tour or an Open House it will not automatically check off that step on the checklist and you have to do it manually?

I have found this article (113940) in the knowledge base which states:

Scenario A: Parent/Parent of Candidate fills out an Enrollment Management Event Registration for an existing Candidate. School processes the event registration and on the Candidate Record, you will see the Event. The Checklist item should display with status of Scheduled.

Scenario B: Parent/Parent of Candidate fills out an Enrollment Management Event Registration and the Candidate is not in the system. The school processes the event registration and makes them a Candidate. The Candidate Profile gets created and the Event will show on the Records Tab. The school will go to the Candidate Profile to select a checklist. However, the checklist item will not show as scheduled.

The school can go into the checklist item and add in the date/time, type, and check off Registered and set the Checklist Item status to Requested. The checklist item will show a Status of Scheduled.

PLEASE NOTE: new event registration forms (using the Admissions Event type) will not be able to show as Scheduled. The new event registration will only display as Awaiting (when not submitted) and Completed (when submitted).

We have an option to fill out an inquiry form on our website but I would say less than 5 candidate families filled that out last year. Mostly, they just register for an admissions event and we count that as the date of 1st inquiry. That means none of them are in the system and they will fall into Scenario B above. That means A LOT MORE manual entry this coming fall. Am I missing something? Is there a work-around? Have to admit the new module does look better but the old one was more functional if this is the case.

Anyone having similar frustrations and hopefully answers? Is that article still up-to-date or have things been fixed since then?

Would love to hear from others and how they are handling this.

Bill Birch

Los Encinos School

Los Angeles

Comments

  • Carissa Goddard
    Carissa Goddard
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    @Bill Birch I wish I had an answer but we are running into the same issue. We wanted the external link to make it easier on our prospective families, which it is, but it is a pain on the back end for us. We discussed as a team making families fill out an inquiry form so they have access to the checklist which includes the Open House registration, however, we were concerned about those who inquire during the weekend. Our office doesn't process weekend inquiries until Monday, so there is a lag in their initial interest and being able to register for an Open House. Super frustrating.

  • Kelsey Huijgen
    Kelsey Huijgen Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Bill Birch We are going to be changing this functionality soon, so that it will update the status of the checklist step when you're creating a new record from that event registration. We hope to have this update out by the end of the month.

    Thanks!
    Kelsey Huijgen, Product Manager

  • Donna Orr
    Donna Orr
    Sixth Anniversary Facilitator 1

    Did this change ever occur? I had to create a workaround by adding a new inquiry form (titled Event Inquiry). Marking the step on the checklist Completed does not pull that date into a report that includes Inquiry Date Submitted and Inquiry Date Processed. So each new student who comes into the system through an event registration has to be manually entered as a new inquiry.

    Would love if this was automated!

  • Grace Jorgensen
    Grace Jorgensen
    Sixth Anniversary Facilitator 1

    Hello! We are experiencing some issues with this as well, I am happy to hear that a solution is being worked on. My concern is that we are creating a barrier by having to process an inquiry in order for a family to sign up for a tour. Is there a way to autoprocess an inquiry, and thus give them the option to sign up for tours? I'd love to hear if anyone has come up with a workaround until this is solved.

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