Hyperfest registration is open

[bimmerboodle]

I will talk with Laura about how to make it easier for the entrants. This event has a butt load of extra details to work out.
I think Laura tried tickets the first year and it was a disaster. The entrants "forgot" them, etc....

I was helping out with this the first year when we mailed them out and heard all kinds of excuses as to why they didn't have their passes and therefore had to pay at the gate. I even know first hand of a situation where they didn't forget them, they just gave them to friends so they could get in for free and the participant complained to us till Laura gave him the refund. Other than that:
Entrants "forgot" them.
Flat out said they lost them.
Gave us the wrong address to mail them to.
Got pulled off the wait list at the last minute and therefore couldn't get them in the mail in time.
Etc
Etc
Etc

This current process is a pain in the ass, but it's the only surefire method of guaranteeing that those who shouldn't be paying to get in aren't. You start emailing out passes, or mailing them, and people will start duplicating them to give them to friends. This way NASA has complete control over the situation. Participants know this going in, and they know the procedure for being refunded, if they or someone on their crew can't find the time to go up there and get the money owed to them during the time they're allowed to that's their own fault.

Not that this is the place to hash this out, but, make the process harder on those that 'forgot' and easier on those that 'didn't' is called customer service. Since you already have a process in place to check a 'list' of entrants via refunds then it should be pretty easy to verify actual tickets against duplicates just by putting a check mark next to a name. If dups are issued to 'lost' tickets make them pay on friday/saturday then issue refund to those people if the ticket isn't used by sunday lunch. Just a suggestion. Last thing I want to do is stand in line for a refund when I suppose to be getting a car ready for a race. If I were a synical person I'd say that is built into the Hyperfest budget and count on X% of people not showing up for a refund, but I'm not that synical .

I hear you on the customer service thing...anyone who has had to deal with me knows this. This is Laura's call and based on past experiences probably the most efficient way to do it. That said, it is not definite that this will be the way it will be done this year as it has not yet been discussed.