Blog.
Week 6 email blast just went out with a Week 5 header. Sorry about that. It really is all about Week 6 and our trip on Saturday January 22nd.
When you are trying to register for a trip and get the message "The selected options are currently not in stock" it is a euphemism for "there are no more seats available." That particular stop has reached capacity. When you reach this message, you send an email to Blizzardskiclub@gmail.com with the information of what stop you are trying to reserve. The waitlist is a manual process once we run out of seats. I need to understand how many people are waiting for seats at each stop before I can start to solve the puzzle of the bus routes and where I have excess seat capacity. Don't just sign up for a seat expecting me to somehow magically find seats on the bus that was already full. Sometimes people cancel and I can backfill seats, but usually it is I have to come up with an alternate bus route where I seats to spare. I may not get back to you until Thursday or Friday, but rest assured I do have your email and I am working on a solution.
Sunday January 16th falls during a holiday weekend, which makes our access to Supervisors and Bus Captains a bit thin. Those of you who have already encountered a "no seat availability" message it is because of that limitation. I have added seats sparingly until we source more Bus Supervisors, I have no adults to accompany the buses on certain routes. Our starting points for routes include: Lincoln Park, River Forest, Hyde Park, Winnemac Park, and sometimes Oak Brook. Right now I need Supervisors on Lincoln Park, Winnemac Park, and Oak Brook before I can open more seats. Just send me an email and I will keep a list of who is in need of what seats and where.
We are wrestling with the more than 300 sign ups that happened by 5 PM this afternoon. There are no seats available from the primary stops at this point except Hyde Park. We are limited by the number of Supervisors and Bus Captains and actually the number of buses we can hire. Bus companies are having a hard time finding drivers, so they are scrambling as well. As soon as the actual numbers shake out, we will know if we can add more seats. Rather than take people's money and have to repay them, send an email with who wants a seat and from which stop so I can create a waitlist if we can open up more seats. Likewise I am going to send an email to those with credits from December 11th who I have not heard from already to better understand who is using their credit next Sunday. There are roughly 100 people who are currently holding seats who may or may not actually want them. Less than 1/3 of them have let me know whether they want to use the credit this weekend. If you are one of those - and you have not already reached out to me, please send me an email on whether you want me to hold a seat for you. But, please if you have already corresponded with about it last week or this week, don't duplicate your effort.
Our first trip of 2022 is live for sign up! We continue to work through the accumulated December 11th credits by adding members to the current roster unless you let me know otherwise. As members defer to a later date, that frees up seats for the current trip. So, make certain you let me know if you are not coming with us.