Is there something difficult about STIMS registration?

[Qbot2640]

Just interested to see if anyone else has this same problem, but year after year I have difficulty getting members to complete their STIMS registration. The problem always seems to be the parent's consent form completion. Parents get the email, create a user account for themselves, but often fail to complete the consent form.

Does anyone else have difficulty with this? How do you fix it?

[sanddrag]

Same troubles here. I don't know why. It's frustrating. I have no idea what is involved in the process

[wilful]

I was helping someone through it recently, and there is a box you DO NOT want to check if you want to fill out the consent form online.

This box is on one of the earlier pages. That may be an issue you are running into.

[Steven Donow]

The problem I always ran into was that (even in this day and age) many kids have emails (if they even HAVE one) that they rarely check.

At the end of the day, I always found it easier to just use paper consents forms, and have team leaders to STIMS solely for the purpose of awards submission.

[SenorZ]

I found the easiest way to get kids signed in was to have them follow along step-by-step with me.
These kids can build robots, but registration forms stump them.

[MechEng83]

The problem with STIMS registration is there are way too many points of failure. Not all these are STIMS issues specifically, but they do add up to a mountain of frustration.

Here's my (not comprehensive) list of issues I have had to resolve with students/parents this year alone:

1. Students "didn't know" they had to do it.
2. Hard to find the link on FIRST's website.
3. Veteran students don't/can't remember their previous year's login.
4. Student clicks the box that says "I want to use paper forms."
5. Student enters bad/incorrect email for parent.
6. Parent loses/never gets confirmation email.
7. Veteran parents don't/can't remember their previous year's login.
8. Parent "completes" the student registration, but doesn't see the consent form.

Extra Credit Rant: Parent expects me to fix all their problems because they can't read simple written instructions, follow online video tutorials, or bother to TRY to fix their problem...

[protoserge]

This year, we started having one of the veteran students walk through STIMS with the "unchecked" students at our meetings. I don't know why we haven't done this in the past - it works great!

I hear you on getting parents' emails. We have a hard enough time reading them when we get the student applications at the beginning of the season

[MooreteP]

Originally Posted by MechEng83

The problem with STIMS registration is there are way too many points of failure. Not all these are STIMS issues specifically, but they do add up to a mountain of frustration.

Here's my (not comprehensive) list of issues I have had to resolve with students/parents this year alone:

1. Students "didn't know" they had to do it.
2. Hard to find the link on FIRST's website.
3. Veteran students don't/can't remember their previous year's login.
4. Student clicks the box that says "I want to use paper forms."
5. Student enters bad/incorrect email for parent.
6. Parent loses/never gets confirmation email.
7. Veteran parents don't/can't remember their previous year's login.
8. Parent "completes" the student registration, but doesn't see the consent form.

Extra Credit Rant: Parent expects me to fix all their problems because they can't read simple written instructions, follow online video tutorials, or bother to TRY to fix their problem...

Yeah.

The Internet and Computers are awesome tools that make our lives easier.
I just accept the STIMS experience as a another permutation of human nature.

FIRST should incorporate an endgame where a drive team has to complete registration in 10, 20, or 3,000 seconds.

[Nemo]

I experience the same set of problems and sympathize.

[RoboMom]

Very helpful white papers here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2865

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2866

[GBK]

I have run into some interesting problems with it. This year we had students that did not have email and signed up with their parents email. Then when it comes time to provide a parent email, it won't take it. I also had a student transpose two of the team numbers and register for a team in a completely different state. I find that most parents get so much junk email, that when they get then conformation email it either goes directly to junk or they over look it as junk. Now for my rant....I find that the FIRST site is constantly changing the menu so you never know where you are going to find where you need to be or what you want. One would think that an organization that operates with mostly volunteers, they would make it brain dead simple for us to use.