Club Policies, Procedures & Protocols

Can’t reset password on my own. It says “forbidden.”

Eileen Lenkman wrote: Eleanor, regarding your password reset on regfox.com, there is a "forgot your password" link.... doesn't it work for you?

Let me know ASAP if it doesn't and I'll contact their Tech Support to reset your password. They only work Monday - Friday (yes a drawback) so I need to ask them to do it Friday.

Hi Eileen,
I only see the link to the ACA member waiver (see screenshot). When you click on the link it takes you to the member waiver and there is some small text that non-members must fill out the non member waiver and there is a web address, but it’s not live/I can’t click on it. Is it actually the same waiver form and you just fill out a single event option at the bottom? This confusion is where I got stuck last week before the kids and family float. What am I missing? Sorry if it’s totally obvious…

Regarding the waivers, we will be using the smartwaiver system for all trips in the very near future. I will be getting that set up for all trips starting after this weekend. The benefit to that is the Trip Leader and others can figure out who (if any) will need to complete a paper copy at the beginning of trip.

I intent to be writing a lot of instructions and How Tos and posting them here and on Facebook. My goal is to make all the online stuff as easy and efficient as possible. I am checking the forums ever day now to approve any pending messages. I think after someone posts three messages, they don't need approval any more but need to verify that.

Yes, password management is a pain in the you know where. I'm in IT and so have tons so I feel your pain.

I'm going to post instructions on how people can edit their profile information and I think that includes cancelling their own registrations but if it doesn't, I'll try to keep on top of that as soon as I find out.

Please keep the suggestions and comments coming!

Really appreciate it. Eileen

We do have a link to the waivers -- both the Annual Online Waiver for ACA members and non ACA member single event waivers on the Link page of this forum.[/quote]

Hi, I'm a newer member but I got to run through sign-ups with the old system (2022) and the new system this year. Here are some thoughts:

WAIVERS
--The online waiver system is great! It's a wee bummer that the fields don't auto-populate my address when I do it on my phone but that's really not a problem. The entire waiver is really easy to fill out.
--It would be great if you could post links to both the member/annual waiver and the non-member/waivers in an easy to find spot on the club homepage. I would make an effort to fill it out in advance every time I bring my kiddos or alert friends to it if I bring a new friend along with me.

REGFOX
--I *think* I quite like regfox for registering for single events as a participant. It seems better than what I remember from the old system. I think my registration and paperwork for the clinic was much easier this year compared to last year. I had virtually nothing to do at the sign-in desk this year.
--I REALLY like the ability to pay with a credit card (which might be through the "WePay" system and not necessarily requiring regfox???).
--It IS a bummer that trip leaders and participants can't see participants, though hopefully that can be alleviated with trip leaders being added to the system and posting of trip registrants to the forums here. I do like seeing other participants for bigger events because I can see who I know, who I might be comfortable asking if I can borrow something or for advice, etc.
--I find regfox harder to use for canceling registration - seems like that has to be done via email or forum.
--My biggest difficulty with regfox has been access to my entire account so that I can see all of my registrations. I accidentally keep forgetting my password and apparently there is no way for a user to reset their own password; I think it has to be done manually by one of our admins. I'm currently locked out due to my poor password habits and memory :-(

I JUST WANT TO PADDE / COMMUNICATING / FORUMS
--Honestly, these forums are one of my biggest hurdles. I find the forum system to be a somewhat strange, foreign, cumbersome technology. I think the forums are a real hurdle for new people because there are no instructions that you need to post multiple times before your posts will actually go through. so you feel very "on the outside" and you're not sure what's going on. I still don't even know how many times a new user has to post for posts to go through and I'm not sure if it's an automatic function to finally go through or if it has to be manually approved by a real person to go through. All that is a hurdle that works against welcoming new members. I was able to tell two friends "just keep posting the same thing over and over; I can't explain it, but just do it," but if a random person who has no existing connection (like me last year) tries, then they wouldn't know that. That could be enough to keep folks away. Perhaps instructions could be posted somewhere obvious for new people. Additionally, it takes quite a few steps to log in to the website/forums on my phone after I read an email, so it's a hard technology for fast moving conversation like this one (which is why my response here is delayed).
--All this said, I *DID* learn how to use the forums, even though it's a challenge for me and not my favorite because I love y'all and think y'all are awesome and I'm willing to learn something new to participate in a fun activity with great people.
--I DO like that the forums are limited to dues-paying members to be able to post - it makes it feel safe and secure with active, engaged members rather than being in a really large, unwieldy facebook group.
--For "I just want to paddle" communication, I find Facebook communication faster and easier. Facebook groups can be set to public or private. Some private groups only allow addition after people sign up/pay dues. If folks wanted to keep the group to dues-paid members only, you could review FB group membership every 6 or 12 months and compare against the membership list. But not everyone is on Facebook.
--Overall I found the forums really workable for pop-up paddles this spring.
--I'm still all for ACA membership and waivers for scheduled, non-pop-up paddles. I'm happy to do that paperwork if it means added protection for officers and the club.

CALENDAR
I like the calendar with color codings. I did also really like the calendar of events in a big list on the home page! I can understand that might be too much to keep updated.

One more thing about the meetup group. We want nothing at all to do with ACA. I don't want any ACA ratings or ACA or other designations that I am an expert in any facet of kayaking. The fastest way to become liable for mishaps is to present yourself as an authority or expert. We are just average kayakers, and behave as good samaritans towards each other, nothing more. We suggest people read up on coast guard rules for boating.

I have been absent from most activities for the past year due to ,y knee problems and my job. I wasn't able to kayak last year due to my knee. It has been replaced 3 months ago and I went kayaking for the first time in over a year this past Thursday. I am still not back to normal. While I have been gone, I am completely clueless about the operations of the website for signing up for events. And all of the requirements. I actually started a meetup group for kayaking and we don't have any of these rules, we don't pay much attention to ACA, and we just try to go kayaking with minimum hassle like 95% of all kayakers enjoy. I am not encouraging anyone from this group to join our meetup group. The meetup group is more for beginners, people with inflatable kayaks, or sit on tops, etc. Nothing fancy.
The hardest problem we should be concerned with is shuttling. Signing up for events should be meetup easy.