fepli
deen
ManualTutorialsPlanning seasonsAdmins

Planning the summer holidays with a lottery

For the summer holidays 2027, Elmsbrück expects significantly more registrations than places. So you plan a season with a lottery, from the editing phase to the allocation of the remaining places. At the end every family has its admission notice, and free places are allocated in order of arrival. The work in the admin panel takes about three hours, spread over the months February to June 2027.

What you need

  • An account of the account type Admin.
  • Organizer profiles for the organizations that offer, e.g. Sportverein Elmsbrück.
  • The period of the summer holidays: 19.07.2027 to 31.08.2027.

Step 1 – Create the season

Create the season in February, a few weeks before the editing phase. That way the schedule is fixed before you announce it to the organizers.

  1. At the top right, select New and then Season.
  2. Enter Summer holidays 2027 as the Name.
  3. Select Create.

Via New to the area New season.

The season is created, and the page Edit opens with the page Phases. Under Timeline it says “No phases set up yet”.

Step 2 – Plan editing and publication

Organizers enter their offers for six weeks, after which the team reviews and publishes for three weeks. On 03.05.2027 the whole programme appears at once, a week before registration, so that families can take their time to select. The phase Publish offers runs until the last day of the holidays, because when it ends, the offers disappear from the website.

Reference · PhasesPeriod
  1. In the section Event period, select set up.
  2. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 19.07.2027 and 31.08.2027. Select Next month to change the month. Enter 00:00 as Start and select Done. End already shows 23:59.
  3. In the section Editing phase for organizers, select set up.
  4. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 01.03.2027 and 11.04.2027. Select Done. The times 09:00 and 23:59 are already there.
  5. In the section Publish offers, select set up.
  6. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 03.05.2027 and 31.08.2027. Select Done.
  7. Select Save.

The page Phases after setting up. The numbers are at the name of the section in which set up stood before. In front, the Timeline, which sits above the sections.

The timeline now shows the rows Editing phase and Offers visible, and below them “Event period 19.07.–31.08.”. Organizers do not learn the schedule on their own; announce it as described in Send a newsletter. How the team approves and publishes the submitted offers by 02.05.2027 is described in Review and approve submitted offers and Publish several offers at once.

Step 3 – Set up the lottery phase

With scarce places, in first come, first served the popular offers would go to the families who book immediately at the start. In the lottery, the time within the phase does not count, and two weeks also give families on holiday time for their wishes. Each participant submits up to five wishes, and the draw takes their order into account.

  1. In the section Registration process, select set up.
  2. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 10.05.2027 and 23.05.2027. Select Done.
  3. Under Registration process, select Lottery.
  4. Make sure that 5 is entered under Maximum registrations per participant.
  5. Select Save.

The lottery's card in the section Registration process.

In the row Registration process of the timeline, the bar “Lottery” now appears. How the draw weighs the wishes is explained in How the lottery and first come, first served allocate places.

Step 4 – Plan the allocation and remaining places

Two weeks are planned for the allocation, to draw and to check the result; for that long the families wait and cannot withdraw themselves. A first-come-first-served phase then allocates the remaining places until the last day of the holidays; places that become free earlier go to the waiting list only when it begins. It may not overlap with the lottery phase, otherwise it could not be decided which procedure applies to a registration.

  1. In the section Allocation of places, select set up.
  2. Select the field Period and, in the calendar, 24.05.2027 and 06.06.2027. Enter 00:00 as Start and select Done.
  3. In the section Registration process, select Another procedure.
  4. In the new card, select the field Period and, in the calendar, 07.06.2027 and 31.08.2027. Select Done.
  5. Under Registration process, select First come, first served.
  6. To keep the waiting list unlimited, leave Waiting list overbooking empty.
  7. Select Save.

Two registration procedures and the allocation in between. If Waiting list overbooking is empty, the field shows “unlimited”.

The row Registration process now shows the bars “Lottery” and “First come, first served”, and the bar in the row Place allocation lies between them. Why the allocation and the first-come-first-served phase wait for each other is explained in How phases steer a season.

Step 5 – Draw the places (from 24.05.2027)

With put on the waiting list, everyone who loses in the draw goes on the waiting list. How long it may grow is set by Waiting list overbooking of the first-come-first-served phase. If the field is empty, it is unlimited. If a place becomes free in the first-come-first-served phase, the next person moves up from the waiting list, and new registrations do not overtake those waiting.

  1. In the sidebar, under Seasons, select Summer holidays 2027.
  2. Switch to the tab Allocate places.
  3. Select Automatic allocation.
  4. Under Registrations without a place, select put on the waiting list.
  5. Leave Also allocate offers that do not reach the minimum number of participants turned off.
  6. Select Start automatic allocation. The draw cannot be undone.
  7. Reload the page after a moment.

Via the sidebar to the tab Allocate places. Automatic allocation opens the dialog Automatic allocation.

The places are now distributed but not committed: families still see “Waiting for allocation”, and in the header the batch icon appears with a counter.

Step 6 – Decide on an offer below the minimum number

The draw skips offers that do not reach their minimum number and leaves their registrations at new. That is the case with the pottery course, and its organizer runs it anyway. If an offer falls through, cancel it as described in Cancel an offer.

  1. On the page Allocate places, in the list of offers, select Pottery course.
  2. In the column To decide, select Confirm all.

On the left the offers with open registrations, on the right the pottery course's columns before Confirm all. The column Waiting list is not shown.

The four cards now stand under Allocated, and the column reports “6 places left · 2 short of the minimum”. The confirmations lie in the same batch as the results of the draw, and families do not hear anything yet.

Step 7 – Commit the decisions (by 06.06.2027)

Only committing makes the decisions valid: every family receives an admission notice with all confirmations and rejections, and the payment obligation arises for confirmed places with a fee. Committing also ends the allocation; the first-come-first-served phase still begins only on 07.06.2027. Why fepli separates deciding from announcing is explained in Why decisions are committed only later.

  1. In the header, select the batch icon and then Commit & send.

Warning

Committing cannot be undone. fepli sends the newsletter to all families whose registrations are in this batch.

  1. Select See preview.
  2. Review the preview for each family and select Send to 18 families.

The batch icon opens the overview of offers with open decisions and Commit & send. The message leads to the preview with Send to 18 families.

The newsletter sends the confirmations and rejections as an admission notice, and the dispatch then appears in the outbox. Until the first-come-first-served phase starts, the offer pages announce the allocation of the remaining places: “You can register from {date} at {time}.”

What you have achieved

The summer holidays 2027 follow a fixed schedule from the editing phase to the last day of the holidays. The places are drawn and committed, every family has its admission notice, and from 07.06.2027 the first-come-first-served phase allocates the remaining places. Places that become free go to the waiting list first.

If your case is different

Where to go next

← BackRunning and completing an offerNext →Allocating the autumn holidays first come, first served