Who's Coming List(s)

Seems like a simple thing, right?

You can make this either really simple (recommended) or wander into the weeds of super complicated configurations. Our advice is to keep it simple - simple is explainable.

Basics

the listing is based on the reporting warehouse
this means it is not real time
refresh period is 15-30 minutes
do not expect changes to show/hide people to be immediately visible
we never include people with a balance due

It's far more important that we make internal operational reporting performant than keep this list super real time. It'll catch up...just give it time.

Configuration

What's configurable about it? A lot.

on/off the whole thing for the entire master event
alter the intro copy at the top of the page
group registrants by class (alumni only) or by name (everybody)
on/off a filter for preferred school
select which related fields to show
- annotation (the entire tail for their name tag - '99 P'37 GP'52 etc.)
- preferred class year (there's only one per person, 4 digit year)
- preferred school (there's only one per person, as extracted from your warehouse)
- employer + job title (if you're using the employment capture fields)
- student (works with the employer/job title to make them look less unemployed)

And for the new feature for 2024: facets. Hold your questions on that until we get the basic config covered.

Basic/Easy Who's Coming

You want to keep it simple? We can do that!

Setup > General > Master Event Configuration > Edit Master Event

Safest set of options is as follows:

Who's Coming List ACTIVE - otherwise why are we here?
Order by Class then Name - this prescreens your registrant list to alumni only, as they're the only ones who have them.
Filter by Pref School HIDDEN - most of our partner schools do not want/need to slice and dice that finely.
Fields to Show - annotation is the most comprehensive bit of flair that we can put next to each registrant's name. This will include P-years and GP-years if your warehouse contains them. Pref class year should not be checked as it would effectively duplicate what the Order by Class layout already presents.

This next step is CRITICAL.

Setup > General > Org Configuration (for each one!) > Edit Org

Under each Org that you're building out be absolutely certain that the "Who's Coming List (and consent flag)" checkbox under Optional Fields is checked. Without it, we're not asking for consent to list and without that we can't put anyone on the list!

With those options in place your who's coming list will look generally like this once you have data and the reporting warehouse refreshes:

Note that we fold in a few helpful guides:

The total number of registrants (including those who did not opt in to the who's coming list AND minors) near the top.
Quick jump links to each class who has registrants listed.
The number of classmates associated with each class for quick measurement.

Easy peasy and done!

Add Filter by Preferred School

So you're in the category of larger institutions who want to slice and dice by preferred school. That's easy too!

Go back into the master event config and check off the Pref School checkbox next to Fields to Show.

Then pop back to the who's coming list.

Voila. A set of filters per preferred school to filter this listing by that specific database value.

Preferred School Filter Issue Resolution

Preferred schools not filtering the way you expect? Make absolutely certain that the prefschool values in the data warehouse you provide to AlumnIQ match precisely the Preferred School options in the dropdown on the registrant's record. If they do not match, you're in for some difficulty. Cleanup requires AlumnIQ assistance - please file a ticket.

Also remember that the hierarchy of prefschool applicability is what's on the registrant's record first, and if that does not exist then we'll fall back to the one in the data warehouse. This also means we're not able to present those who do not have an xid on their registration record -- so keep up with the matching!

Facets

This is brand new functionality, so bear with us as we iron out the fun parts.

Picture your thousands of registrants as a diamond. The item as a whole is impressive and beautiful. That's your overall who's coming list, more or less.

Now think about what the system knows about these people. It's the sum total of the data in your data warehouse (name, prefclass, prefschool, maybe detailed degree info) PLUS that which is captured during registration (revised name, altered pref class, altered pref school, the org and registration group they're registering with, their package, and so on).

What if you wanted to use a specific data element to look at the who's coming list for a subset of those registrants regardless of which group they're registered with?

This is what facets allow you to do. A facet of the registration data is super special who's coming list that only makes sense in the context of your event.

Opt-In Facets

Many schools include affinity group programming under their reunion/homecoming umbrella. These groups need to have a similar who's coming presence as the classes and schools, but how?

Opt-In Facets are the way to build those.

Because the "members" of those groups are not easily discerned in existing institutional data and the mere fact that they're registering for an event from among hundreds that is associated with a particular group isn't sufficient, we realized the easiest answer was the right one: just ask.

Setup > General > Master Event Configuration > Edit Master Event

Scroll down into the who's coming section and toward the bottom is the panel where we define facets.

If you're using opt-in facets, the intro block is available for you to drop some copy above the checkboxes for registrants to understand what they're being asked. This will obviously vary by institution and event, so be judicious with your copy.

Do not create opt-in facets for schools or units. That kind of data is already in the warehouse, already in the registration data, and already available for front-end filtering in the who's coming list. We don't need them to take action for that to work.

Back to our example: an affinity group.

Facets have an intentional level of customizability:

name, which is the label next to the checkbox to opt in
a short url fragment that defines the who's coming list link for that facet
an active/inactive flag to give you some on/off controls if decisions are fluid
an explicit way to order the presentation of the facets publicly
an optional description blurbity blurb to overwhelm the registrant with copy
and definition of which field(s) to show on the facet's who's coming list

As folks are registering, provided they've opted in to being on the who's coming list at all, they'll then see the intro (if provided) and a series of checkboxes:

You can see how quickly repetitive text piles up and clutters the UI; please use less copy than what we have presented here.

And once you have data and the reporting warehouse refreshes, the who's coming list will show additional facet-specific links to show listings of the self-defined subsets of registrants:

It's new, so we don't have a lot of data to show you a populated set...but it looks just like a typical who's coming list, just smaller - and only including those who opted in to be shown.

And that, friends, is how we solve for affinity group who's coming lists that aren't based on anything except a registrant's election to be listed there.

Cross-cutting Facets

Most schools do not use multi-Org configurations and as a result would never run in to this very specific scenario. Simply turning on the "Pref School" filters under the master event config is sufficient. Proceed only with this context in mind and out of a sense of curiosity.

For example, Cornell's reunion is a big operation. Over 6k people every year, 4 Orgs (1 for all undergraduate/affinity programs, 1 each for law, business, and veterinary professional schools). Their data warehouse contains detailed degree data on each of their constituents. A sizeable number of Big Red alumni have had an extended stay in Ithaca and acquired both an undergraduate degree and a Law degree. When registering for Reunion these constituents pick one group to use as their primary affiliation - most frequently their undergraduate class. But we don't want to deny them the ability to show up as a Law alum too.

So what we did was define a facet that extracts everyone who:

is an adult
is an alum
has opted in to the who's coming list (remember that setting!)
and has a graduate degree from the Law School

With the population identified, the who's coming list now looks a little different (note we have other facets defined here too):

Clicking on "show me Cornell Law" refreshes the list to ONLY show those who are affiliated with the Law school whether they're registered directly with Law or not. And even better: within that facet you can still use the jump-to-class feature and see classmate totals that only include those with the Law affiliation. It's a much more accurate, useful, helpful, and encouraging list to present to professional school degree holders (and senior leadership).

Not only that, but a careful eye may have noticed in the configuration that the Law faceted list has a nice friendly URL so it's directly linkable and shareable to those who are most interested.

Managing Registrant Visibility

Remember we only ever consider adult registrants to be eligible for inclusion. The actual list is always smaller than that absolute number.

On the registrant record we now make who's coming visibility immediately present:

Status	What it looks like
Included and with an opt-in. Note listing of opt-in who's coming lists in addition to the standard one.
Excluded because they didn't check the box
Excluded because the check box was not presented for their Org
Excluded due to balance due

Status

What it looks like

Included and with an opt-in. Note listing of opt-in who's coming lists in addition to the standard one.

Excluded because they didn't check the box

Excluded because the check box was not presented for their Org

Excluded due to balance due

When editing the registrant's bio data the who's coming settings (and opt-in additions) are in a separate section now that also (helpfully) includes the age of the who's coming list warehouse.