One of the many changes brought on as a result of COVID-19 was the rise in the number of Stitch events and activities with a limit on attendees.
Prior to COVID-19, most Stitch events and activities had no attendee limit. If you were organising a walk or a trip to the movies, the more the merrier! But once COVID-19 restrictions came into effect, almost every Stitch activity started being posted with an attendee limit.
In-person events were of course subject to the local rules & restrictions in place at each location, while virtual events were most often set up with limited numbers to make it easy for members to chat online.
This change, along with a surge in interest in virtual activities from members all around the world who found themselves stuck at home, meant that suddenly many of the events on the Stitch Activities page were showing the "Event full" flag:
In turn this meant a big increase in the number of requests we received for a waiting list feature. We're now happy to report that this feature is available!
Stitch's waitlist feature will let you add your name to the waiting list for an event or activity. If a place comes available because one of the attendees drops out or the organizer has increased the attendee limit, then you'll be notified and added to the attendee list.
Please note the system will automatically make you an attendee if you're at the top of the waitlist when a spot comes up, provided the event is more than 24 hours away.
How it works for attendees
Joining the waiting list for an event as an attendee is really easy. If an event is full, instead of the "Attend" button at the top of the page you'll see a "Join waiting list" button:
Just click the button and you'll be added to the waiting list!
You can check your position on the list on the Attendees tab for the event. The waiting list is shown at the bottom of all the attendees.
How it works for organizers
If you are the organizer of an activity which is fully booked, and space becomes available more than 24 hours from the start of the event, the system will automatically add members from your waitlist to your attendee list. No further action is required from you here.
If your event begins in less than 24 hours, you will need to manually invite members from your waitlist to your event. In these cases, you will receive an email notification asking you to invite someone else along.
If it's very close to the start time for your activity (less than 24 hours) and you're desperate to fill the extra spot as quickly as you can, you can choose to make an announcement to everyone on the event that there is space available. In this case the first person to respond will get the spot, regardless of their place on the waiting list.
Disabling the waitlist
If you disable your waitlist after members have been added to it, all these members will be removed. Enabling the waitlist again will NOT restore these members back onto the waitlist.
Please note this is only one the first implementations of our waiting list feature for Stitch, and we're planning on adding extra capabilities in the future. In the meantime, however, the waitlist feature helps ensure more people have the opportunity to attend your events when someone drops out.