Event leaders now have some new booking options to choose from when managing events on the website in My GOC, both simpler and more advanced.

To make things simpler for both event leaders and attendees, it is now possible to limit the number able to book for an event while using the default attendance list to accept bookings, instead of adding a booking plan to use the more complex ticketing system.  Simply select the YES option under 'Limit the capacity of the attendance list', toward the bottom of the add/edit event form, and then enter the maximum number of attendees.

This means that the vast majority of event leaders will only need to use a booking plan, which requires attendees to add tickets to their basket and go to checkout in order to complete their booking, if they need attendees to make a payment in order to book.

For those events that do require a payment to book, and for those that might have other advanced booking requirements, additional advanced booking options are now available when adding tickets to a booking plan.  These have been introduced primarily to make bookings for the Annual Outdoor Gathering easier for all involved, and I think few other events are likely to need them. However, they are now available to all event leaders that might find them helpful.

To access advanced booking options, simply check the "Advanced Options" checkbox when adding a ticket to the booking plan.   Four new advanced options then appear:

• "Add note" enables you to accept or require a short text response to a custom question, for example "Dietary requirements, if any" for a meal ticket
• "Add members" enables you to accept or require one or more additional members (which must be a Friend of the member making the booking) to be assigned to a ticket, for example for a double or twin room, so that they will appear as attendee on the event page as well as the member making the booking
• "Add choices" enables you to accept or require one or more options to be selected from a drop down list, eg. to select a double bed or a twin bed in a double or twin room.  I hope this will soon allow multiple drop down menus of options, in order that members can be enabled to select eg. starters, mains and desserts from a set menu at the point of booking
• "Allow waiting list" enables members to add themselves to a waiting list if they find that what they want to book is sold out.  In that case, those on the waiting list will be notified by email when a ticket they are waiting for become available again, and they will have priority access to book those tickets before they are made available to other members

Please note that the option within the booking plan to "Limit total number of people attending" applies only to bookings of tickets added to the booking plan, and cannot be applied without enabling the booking plan and so disabling the default attendance list.

Event leaders should always use My GOC to manage events, in preference to Site Admin (those that have access to that as Group Co-ordinators).  My GOC is now tailored for the purpose in many ways that Site Admin is not, and the latter should only be used as a last resort in case what is needed cannot yet be done in My GOC.

If you have any questions about managing bookings and events, or any suggestions for how to make the website easier or more useful for event leaders or for attendees, please do let me know by emailing me at [email protected]. Thank you!