Wouldn’t it be nice if your local or state genealogical society could handle registration for its major events on-line just like major genealogy conferences? The technology is out there. We just need a host. Here’s how it works.
Your Society’s event is listed on the host site, perhaps with its own page. The website is linked up in such a way that you can enroll and pay on-line. Built into the registration fee is an enrollment fee. Every month the total registration to date is sent along with a check. At the cut-off date, usually two weeks before the event, the Society gets a printout showing all registered with addresses and emails. The Society also gets a a list ready to print for name tags. And a check in list for the pre-registered participants picking up the syllabus. This reduces volunteer needs and symplifies the the work of the registrar immensely. Locally on the day of the event late registration can be collected.
One of the benefits is that list of those who sign up. It includes address and email. THat list, as it appears can be used to gather pre-conference feedback on attendees expectations. Supposing 15 percent of those who attend are not members of the Society, these people can be easily identified and after the conference the Membership Committee can followup with a personal invitation to join. And the 85% who are members and on the list? You can use those email addresses to do a followup questionaire of some kind.
What do you think?
Genealogy Education 
The biggest reason why groups don’t use these services is cost. These on line registration services charge $5 or more to handle all the stuff that is currently done by volunteers of the organization. That’s alot of money to give up.
This model can be followed in a low-tech way as well. It’s easy enough to set up a form on a website that will generate an email to the registration person. Ask for the name, address, email, phone number, etc., and tell people to pay that door. You don’t get the cash up front, but our experience is that virtually everyone who goes to the hassle of giving the information will really show up for the seminar.
Another choice, if getting money ahead of time is important, is to use Paypal, but again there are fees involved with that.