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Allocating the autumn holidays first come, first served

In the autumn holidays 2027, Elmsbrück offers a small programme of about 25 offers, and the places are usually enough for everyone. You carry over last autumn's offers and allocate the places first come, first served from the start. A short waiting list absorbs cancellations and moves people up automatically. The work in the admin panel takes about an hour, spread over the months August to October 2027.

What you need

  • An account of the account type Admin and the role View and create participants.
  • The season Autumn holidays 2026 with last autumn's offers.
  • The period of the autumn holidays: 11.10.2027 to 23.10.2027.

Step 1 – Create the season with its schedule

In carried-over offers, organizers mostly enter new dates, so three weeks of editing phase are enough. The programme appears a week before registration starts, so that families can browse at their leisure. This season needs no lottery phase and no allocation, because first come, first served decides on every registration immediately.

  1. At the top right, select New and then Season.
  2. Enter Autumn holidays 2027 as the Name, and select Create.
  3. On the page Phases, in the section Event period, select set up. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 11.10.2027 and 23.10.2027. Select Next month to change the month. Enter 00:00 as Start and select Done. End already shows 23:59.
  4. In the section Editing phase for organizers, select set up. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 16.08.2027 and 05.09.2027. Select Done. The times 09:00 and 23:59 are already there.
  5. In the section Publish offers, select set up. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 13.09.2027 and 23.10.2027. Select Done.
  6. Select Save.

The page Phases after setting up, in front the timeline Timeline. How to create and name the season is shown in Planning the summer holidays with a lottery.

The timeline Timeline now shows the rows Editing phase and Offers visible, and below them “Event period 11.10.–23.10.”.

Step 2 – Set up registration first come, first served

If almost every offer has enough places, the time of registration rarely decides who gets a place, and allocating in order of arrival is fair enough. First come, first served then confirms families immediately, and the team has nothing to allocate. So that popular offers do not go to a few families within the first minutes, registration begins after working hours, and each participant registers at most three times a day.

  1. In the section Registration process, select set up.
  2. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 20.09.2027 and 23.10.2027. Enter 18:00 as Start and select Done. End already shows 23:59.
  3. Under Registration process, select First come, first served.
  4. Under Maximum registrations per day, enter 3.

The card for first come, first served in the section Registration process.

The card now shows Maximum registrations per day and Waiting list overbooking; the settings of the lottery are hidden. Anyone who tries a fourth registration on the same day sees the message “You cannot register {name} because no more than 3 registrations per day are possible.”

Step 3 – Limit the waiting list

When an offer is full, further registrations go on the waiting list. Elmsbrück limits it to five people per offer: that absorbs individual cancellations, and anyone who comes after that selects another offer straight away instead of waiting for an unlikely place. The registration phase runs until the last day of the holidays, so that families can still book free places during the holidays.

  1. Under Waiting list overbooking, enter 5.
  2. Select Save.

The same card, in front the timeline after saving.

The timeline now has the row Registration process with the bar “First come, first served”. If an offer is full and five people are on its waiting list, its offer page shows “The offer is overbooked.” and no longer offers registration.

Step 4 – Carry over last autumn's offers

Most offers repeat every year, so you carry them all over at once. The copies are drafts without dates and without a registration deadline, so nothing goes online unchecked. fepli does not carry over date variants.

  1. Select Offers.
  2. In the season switcher, select Autumn holidays 2027.
  3. In the empty list, select Carry over from an earlier season.
  4. Select Autumn holidays 2026.
  5. Select Carry over offers.

The list of offers with the season switcher, in front the dialog Carry over offers. The dialog offers every season that has offers.

The message “{count} offers carried over to “Autumn holidays 2027” as drafts.” appears, and the list shows the copies in the status Draft. By 05.09.2027 the organizers enter the new dates and submit their offers. How you review and publish the offers by 12.09.2027 is described in Review and approve submitted offers and Publish several offers at once.

Step 5 – Accept a withdrawal and let the next person move up (October 2027)

The canoe trip is full, three participants are on its waiting list, and Alex Beispiel's family withdraws by phone. During the first-come-first-served phase, the first person on the waiting list then moves up, with an immediate confirmation and the email “Moved up from the waiting list to the participant list”. The withdrawal therefore goes through the participant list, because changes in the Allocate view do not trigger moving up.

  1. Open the offer Canoe trip.
  2. Switch to the tab Allocate, and look in the column Waiting list to see who is at the top.
  3. Switch to the tab Participant list.
  4. Select Alex Beispiel.
  5. At the bottom of the side panel, select Withdraw.
  6. Switch to the tab Allocate.
  7. Reload the page.

At the back the waiting list in the tab Allocate, in front the participant list with the registration as a side panel. Its structure is described in Viewing a registration.

Alex Beispiel no longer stands under Allocated; the person who was at the top of the waiting list does instead. fepli lets the waiting list move up in the background, so the person appears under Allocated only after reloading. For an offer with a fee, their registration now has a payment obligation.

What you have achieved

The autumn holidays 2027 run with last year's offers and a first-come-first-served registration that begins on 20.09.2027 at 18:00. The waiting list is limited to five people per offer and moves up automatically on withdrawals until the first date of an offer begins.

If your case is different

Where to go next

← BackPlanning the summer holidays with a lotteryNext →Giving families from Elmsbrück priority