New online-only format intended to simplify
By Myra Holmes
Registration for Named 2015 opened Feb. 3. The new online-only registration process is designed to be more streamlined for both youth leaders and the planning team.
Named 2015 is the next National Youth Conference (NYC) and will be held April 9-12 in Denver, Colo. NYC is held once every four years to allow students to attend once during high school.
“Improving registration was one of the planning team’s top priorities for National Youth Conference,” says NYC planning team member Kyle Goings. “Not only was it hundreds of man hours of work for us the past couple of conferences, but it was also a source of complaint from youth pastors we talked to. So we made the decision very early on to do most of our advertising and all of our registration through a website.”
Goings notes that the guiding motto for the new registration process has been “one deadline, one price, one payment.”
“We wanted to keep things simple,” he says.
The planning team had hoped to open registration in early January, but setting up the new process proved to be more complex than anticipated. “Since this was a new adventure for both us and the website developer, it took longer than we expected,” the team writes in an email to youth workers.
Because of the delays in launching, registration is opening in two phases. The first phase, which opens Feb. 3, allows parents or students to log on and provide student information. No student or parent will pay on the website. One lead youth worker from each church will be asked to set up a username and password for their church.
The second phase is expected to launch the week of Feb. 9. Lead youth workers will receive an email, allowing them to log in to the account they created and check student information. They will also be sent instructions on how to make room assignments. Finally, they will send in one payment for the entire group. Payment can be sent via credit card, bank transfer or mailed check.
The final deadline for all registrations and payments is March 1, which means that youth leaders need to set an earlier deadline for students within their youth group.
The March 1 deadline was set as close to the conference as possible in order to allow groups more time to fundraise and prepare before registering. However, the planning team notes, the late deadline also means the date is “rock solid,” and changes or late registration will be considerably more difficult.
Named 2015 attendees will be asked to choose Learning Ops—workshops–as they register. The planning team notes that these are not permanent commitments; they simply help the team plan based on interest level for each of the Learning Ops. More information about the different Learning Ops is available here.
Named 2015 registration information is available here.
