Inductions waiting lists .....purge

#21

U[quote=“unknowndomain, post:19, topic:7928”]
The idea would be that we have a list of inductions available that people can join the waitlist for, then the techs add a time and it emails the list in a round-robin fashion 20 at a time inviting them to sign up within 48 hours by clicking a link in there email.
[/quote]

Next one I do will be with Eventbrite ,
10 places, first come first served.
Hopefully with the reminders you get with Eventbrite there will be less no shows on the day

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#22

deffo worth an experiment, I recon :slight_smile:

#23

Ideal world it would be nice to be able to have a list of sessions multiple months in advance and people just sign up on a FCFS basis (once the backlog has been pruned a bit). Unfortunately inductors are human and real life gets in the way sometimes :confused:

#24

Yep, it really should be like this long run.

#25

I think this should be automated. I’m sure people with more coding than I could do it standing on their heads…

Also we should be publicising the average waiting time for induction rather than the number of people waiting - my feeling is that if people are willing and available they can get inducted pretty quickly.

#26

+1 for an evening induction, I had been looking at the list with unease but if it’s really not that long and not always on weekends I for one would leap at it.

#27

That’s how I do it with laser inductions

#28

Shouldn’t be a data protection issue, as this is information any member could get by combing discourse profiles checking if the user is in @-members group. Creating a report of that data for the techs is just a timesaver for them…

#29

List now edited down to 55 as I’ve removed 11 inactive – and some non-existent? – members:

@safbank
@Pauls
@edjw
@Henry_Kemp
@leejv
@kimmik
@kamel
@jim
@itsdannytaylor
@tristan_cochrane
@onefrikan

Also found 4 active members who’s accounts weren’t linked to Discourse yet and so aren’t showing as members:

@stuart.darch.smith
@Tim_Harris
@TomL
@FrankiT

If you guys log into the membership system and click the ‘Discourse’ button then you should be able to link the accounts easily – any problems let us know.

P.S. a big ‘yes please!’ to an automated version of this task…was a tad tedious…

#30

I just edited some people off this list I have already inducted.
There was one session I hadn’t taken off.

#31

Radical suggestion!!

Is there any way of finding out how long people have been on the list?

I am suggesting that anyone that has been waiting more than 6 months is removed from the list.

Why?

Because

  1. They have had plenty of opportunities to join an induction

  2. It is obviously not that important for them to be inducted

  3. It is making the @woodtechs look like they are slacking

4.to prove my point, @CriticalTolerance held an induction this week. The only ones that applied were numbers 32,33,35,37and40 on the list.

  1. Having a list of 50+ members waiting for an induction is off putting for new members and makes us woodtechs feel we have a mountain to climb.

  2. I suggest taking the top 20 off of the list and post the reasons why, with their names so they have the opportunity to add their name or complain.

If anyone could give me a good reason not to do this please shout,

Being unfair is not a good enough reason .

Unfair is being on a waiting list that you have no intention of taking a space!

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#32

I’ve missed a few I’m eligible for because I’m hardly ever in London midweek, and spend time with my family at weekends. I try and contribute to SLMS through discourse and making the occasional metal thing for free, and getting to the ‘special’ events - but can’t always do that.

I’d be rather annoyed if i was dropped from the waiting list.

But I agree in part with what you are saying - it looks like you have to wait ages for an induction, and if you’re keen and available then you don’t. So maybe try hiding the waiting list, and publishing the current waiting time? I still think someone cleverer than me could automate this system.

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#33

Might be worth messaging those in the top 20 to ask why they haven’t been on an induction. Could tied information, plus at the same time we can mention the intention to pare the list down.

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#34

Tempted to just do it!
Rather than just writing to everyone
And then waiting for replies.

As I said if it is important to them they will complain as @RichM has just proved

As for posting the waiting time … not possible there are those on the list that have been waiting allegedly since February yet new members have got into inductions immediately so do we post waiting time 6months or 1week?

#35

There are 29 that put their names on the list more than 6 months ago,
Is it ok if I post their names and ask if there are reasons that we can change to make it easier for them to attend?

And give them a week to reply before removing themmfrom
The list?

#36

I can contribute a bit here - a while ago I messaged the top ten on the list asking if they were available for an induction, and only got a reply from Rich (thanks again, btw).

I also noted that of the top twenty, a number were inactive on Discourse (last post in Feb 2017 sort of thing).

As far as this week’s induction goes, I have to say that it wasn’t open for very long before the places were full - at least some of it was luck in terms of people being quick to respond to it.

#37

I would take the top 30 or so off and tell them that you did. Reinstate them only if they complain.

#38

I am going to run a few inductions soon I could do them on a first come basis and see if that works

There must be 20 keen members out there

#39

You post the average time it takes to get an induction. Pretty easy to work out if there’s a database with all the details, which is I think what I’m suggesting. Those who are on the list but not inducted won’t affect the stats as you are reporting the average (and max and min if you like) time people have waited to actually take the induction.

#40

Sticking my big nose in here (having juuuuust signed up as a member). Seems to me the following simplish algorithm[1] does what you need it to do:

  1. Make a list of inductees, with the time they joined the list

  2. Advertise an induction session say 7 days prior

  3. Any potential inductee indicates interest (48 hours)

  4. The inductees who want the session who have been waiting longest are asked to confirm (24 hours)

  5. If they fail to confirm within 24 hours, the remaining n interested inductees are asked to confirm (where n is the number of spaces still available).

  6. If there are still spaces <24 hours, first come first served applies to anyone on the waiting list.

So if someone wants to add themselves to the waiting list because they want to do lathe work some day, that’s fine, they’re not adding to admin overhead, and as they have actually been waiting they’re reasonably assured of being able to get an induction when they do want one.

Re being offputting for new members: it perhaps was a little bit, but doing some digging made it clearer what the situation looked like. I agree with the comment it seems to me something that would be better run through the member control panel than via lists on Discourse, which from what I can see seem to be an admin nightmare.

[1] - this is the same system my old local authority used to allocate council (sorry, social) housing and it worked very well. People only applied for what they wanted and the system was seen to be fair.

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