You may have experienced issues when registering online for Park District programs over the past few seasons. As we work to resolve these issues, we have made a decision to move to a hosted version of our registration software, rather than use our own servers. Our registration platform, RecTrac (Vermont Systems), will remain the same; however, allowing the registration software company to host the service will help prevent the system from crashing due to the large amount of registrations we receive on the first day of registration. There will also be a virtual waiting room in place to help manage the high-volume registrations. The user experience will be the same for the most part except for the waiting room. Please note: The shopping cart will only allow you to keep items in your cart for 10 minutes of inactivity. If your cart times out, you will be able to add them to your cart again.
Below is information on the waiting room, as well as some other things that will help with the process.
Virtual Waiting Room
The virtual waiting room helps manage high-volume registration events, ensuring that user volume does not exceed the website’s ability to provide a responsive registration experience.
On registration day, you will sign into the site as usual. Five minutes prior to registration, if user volume exceeds the software’s capability, a virtual waiting room will engage and all users logged in will enter a waiting room where you will receive your spot in line. You will keep your place in the waiting room line even if your phone goes to sleep, you lose your internet connection, or you close the virtual waiting room page, provided you log back in on the same device using the same browser.
Once it is your turn to register, you will be redirected to the registration site where you can browse the site and complete your transactions.
The virtual waiting room feature will only kick-in if user volume exceeds the software’s capability. Otherwise, users will simply enter the site as they normally would on registration days.
Virtual Waiting Room Information
Common Registration Questions
Go to the program registration link on the online registration website. At the bottom of the box, you will see “Don’t have an account? Sign Up Now.”
In the registration portal, go to the Sign In page and look for the “Forgot Username?” or “Forgot Password?” options.
You already have an account tied to that email address. Please do not create a duplicate account. You can go through the steps of “Forgot Password.” If you still need additional help or need to change the email address associated with your account, please call the front desk at 847.850.2100.
You must call the front desk or email registrar@bgparks.org with your child’s name, birth date, and gender. If it is a guardian, we additionally need contact info including a phone number and email address.
The tax information for your home should list what Park District you pay a portion of your taxes. There are a few streets that are considered In-District. However, most Arlington Heights residents are considered Out-of-District. They register at Out-of-District times, however they receive In-District rates.
Registration opens at 8:30 am on the mentioned registration date. Most days that registration opens will be on a Tuesday.
The shopping cart will only allow you to keep items in your cart for 10 minutes of inactivity. If your cart times out, you will be able to add them to your cart again.
After selecting Program Registration, you can search for the activity a few different ways on the left side of the screen. The fastest way is by number if you have the class code. You can also enter the age of the person you are trying to register or the type of activity.
Select the empty box on the left side next to the code number. If it shows a basket icon, that program is currently unavailable to register for.
Contact the Park District employee listed in the program description. Please provide us with the error message, as it can help us find the problem.
