[SJAA-announce] Small change in CalStar reservation procedure

[Rob Hawley]

I had always planned to provide a backup registration mechanism to
accommodate walk-ins.  Since there seems to be much angst over having to
provide a license number now, it makes sense to flesh out that mechanism
sooner.

CalStar 07 will use a placard system as was used as GSSP to identify which
vehicles agree to comply with the road closures.  One improvement over GSSP
is that most people will be able to print their placard ahead of time and
thus will not have to hunt down the check-in booth (and we will not have to
hunt you down). Those that don't know their license plate, walk-ins, and
those who forget their placard can stop at the booth.  Pre-printing will
reduce the load on the volunteers.

We will set up a check in booth at the Y where the roads to the dark and
casual areas split.  I need to work with the GSSP folks to see how often it
is (wo)manned.  Needless to stay that this increases the opportunities for
volunteering.

We will at least verify that every car Saturday night has a placard.  We may
do so other nights depending on our ability to recruit volunteers. Check the
signage at the entrance and visit the booth, if required.



All this will require a fairly large change in the reservation system which
will likely take about a week.  After the change you will get your placard
as an immediate response to filling out the reservation form.

Anyone who registers before the change will get the placard emailed to them
if they have provided a license number.  If you don't know your license
number then enter "at LSA" in that field and you can say hello to one of our
smiling volunteers. I will deal with those already in the system.  I know of
at least two people so far that will need to visit the booth, but I have not
scanned the 50 some reservations in detail.

I hope that this will prove to be a painless process that will ensure
everyone's night vision is preserved.


Rob Hawley