How attendance works on your events — a guide for hosts

You check people in; anyone unchecked hears from us the next morning and can say "I was there". Nothing counts against them unless that message reached them, and you can correct any of it for 30 days. Here is the whole system from the host's side.

Your part is simple: check people in at the door. Everything below follows from that — and none of it asks you to judge anyone, argue with anyone, or hand out a penalty yourself. Scan people in, and the rest takes care of itself.

The three things that matter

Scan everyone who turns up, latecomers included. A missed scan is the only way somebody who came ends up on a list.
Glance at the list the next morning. It takes seconds, and it is the moment the record is still soft.
Be generous. If you think they were there, they were there. You know the room; the roster doesn't.

What happens, and when

At the door — you check people in.
Next morning, from 10:00 — you get a list of anyone who wasn't checked in. They each get their own message too, with a tap that says "I was there".
End of that day — anyone still on the list is recorded as a no-show.
For 30 days after — you can still waive an absence, or mark one you missed.

To fix a missed scan after that first day, waive it rather than trying to check them in late — the door closes once the room settles, but waiving stays open for the full month.

Two things that protect your members

Nobody is marked absent without being told. If that morning message never reached them, their seat settles as attended, whatever the roster says. Being recorded depends on us having actually warned them in time to do something about it.

If you never check anyone in, nothing is recorded for anyone. No scans isn't evidence that nobody came — it's evidence that nobody checked, and we won't guess about a room whose door never opened. You still get the list, and you can still mark whoever genuinely didn't turn up.

What never counts against anyone

Events with no cap on numbers — attendance is recorded, but it never touches anyone's standing.
A seat someone paid for in advance. They bought it; missing it is their loss alone.
A seat taken less than 3 hours before the start — a late waitlist spot they may never have seen.
A seat released because they didn't answer "Still coming?".
You, your co-hosts, your club's hosts and staff. Never.
Anything in a city's first 90 days — recorded, but nothing counts yet.

Cancelling late counts too

On a limited event, cancelling inside 24 hours of the start costs the same as not coming — the seat is too late for anyone else to use. Two things clear it automatically, so you needn't do anything:

Someone from the waitlist takes the seat and comes. No empty chair, nothing recorded.
They answered the day-before "Still coming?" with a no, before the seats were released. Nobody is penalised for telling you straight.

The cards

First absence in 90 days — a message, no card.
Second — a yellow card. They join limited waitlists at the back.
One more after that — a red card. They can't take a limited spot until it clears. You are never asked to turn anyone away, and events with no cap stay open to them.

Cards clear by turning up: 2 check-ins for a yellow, 3 plus an admin's review for a red. They don't expire on their own, and hosting or volunteering doesn't buy one off — showing up is what the card is about, so showing up is what clears it.

If something looks wrong

Fix it yourself — that's fastest, and it's what the 30-day window is for. A member can also tap "I was there" within 30 days, which sends it to an admin.

Where to look

Attendance review — your events still open for correction: who wasn't checked in, who was told, and how long you have. This is the page for the morning after.
Check-in — the screen you use at the door. Check someone in, waive an absence, or add a walk-in.

About that "Still coming?" message

Limited free events ask attendees to confirm about 48 hours ahead, deliberately earlier than the 24-hour cutoff so anyone answering "no" is still clear of it. If they don't answer and somebody is waiting, the seat passes to the waitlist 24 hours before you start. A few seats moving the day before is the system working, not a problem — whoever lost theirs is told, can rejoin, and is never recorded as absent for it.

Members have their own version of all this at Standing — that's the page to send anyone who asks. Anything here look wrong? Message Nate.