Someone registers for your meeting a week early, and then things change. They want to speak after all, or they no longer do. They picked the wrong agenda item. They cannot make it and want to free up their seat. Without a way back in, they either register a second time under a slightly different name or they email your clerk, who makes the change by hand.
Registration lookup gives them a way back in. A registrant finds their own registration by phone number or email address, confirms it is them with a one-time code, and then edits the same form they filled in the first time.
New to meeting registration? Start with Registration Settings: Attendee & Speaker Sign-Up. This article assumes registration is already on for your meeting and that people are signing up.
Before you start
You turn this on in the meeting editor, so anyone who can edit the meeting can turn it on. It is a setting on one meeting, not an account setting. It is off until you turn it on, and turning it on for this month’s meeting does not turn it on for next month’s. If your board meets every month, set it each time you create the meeting.
Turn it on for a meeting
Open the meeting and go to the registration settings. Under Attendee Registration, find Allow registrants to look up and update an existing registration and choose Yes. The help text under the setting states what the registrant has to do: find their registration by phone or email, and confirm with a one-time code before making changes.
What the registrant sees
A link appears under the registration form on your public meeting page: Already registered? Look up and update your registration. Opening it asks for the phone number or the email address they registered with, and they can switch between the two.
If there is a registration on that phone number or email, they get a six-digit code by text or email, along with the first name and last initial on the registration so they can tell it is the right one. They can type the code, or tap the link in the message, which does the same thing without typing.
Once the code is accepted, they land back on the registration form with their answers already filled in and a banner across the top telling them they are updating their registration. They change what they need and choose Update registration.
What they can change
Everything on the registration form: their contact details, whether they are attending in person or online, any accommodation they asked for, whether they want to speak, and which agenda items they are speaking on.
Two of those are worth calling out, because they are the ones people ask your clerk about.
Withdrawing from speaking. If they no longer want to speak, they can untick their agenda items, including the last one, and save. That takes them out of the speaker queue and leaves them registered to attend. It works even after speaker registration has closed for the meeting, because giving up a slot is different from claiming one.
Cancelling altogether. Cancelling removes the registration and withdraws any request to speak with it. It frees the seat, which matters when the meeting has an attendee limit.
When a phone number or email is shared
A lookup only works when the contact information points at one person. If two different people registered for the same meeting with the same email address, or the same phone number, the registrant is told:
More than one registration uses that email address or phone number, so we cannot tell which one is yours. Try looking it up the other way, or contact the meeting host for help.
No code is sent, and no name is shown. Often the other method works, because a couple who share an email address usually have separate mobile numbers.
This is the expected answer, not a failure. Sending a code to a shared address would let whoever asked first open somebody else’s registration and change or cancel it. When a resident runs into this, make the change for them from the registrant list on your meeting.
The most common cause is a front-desk or lobby sign-in that uses one placeholder email address for everyone. If your staff sign people in that way, those registrants will not be able to use lookup afterwards.
Good to know
Codes and links last about an hour. After that the registrant requests a new one.
There is a limit on how many codes can be requested in a short window. Someone who hits it is asked to wait a few minutes and try again.
A number that has opted out of text messages cannot be texted a code. The registrant is pointed at the email option instead.
Each emailed or texted link opens one specific registration. Forwarding the message hands that registration to whoever receives it, so tell residents to keep it to themselves.
Nothing changes for people who have not registered yet. They see the normal form.
The lookup messages are shown in English, even on a meeting page a resident is reading in another language. Translating them is a known gap.
Common questions
Does the confirmation email include a link to make changes? Not today. The registrant goes back to the meeting page and uses the lookup link.
Can an admin still edit a registration? Yes. The registrant list on the meeting is unchanged, and it is the right tool when a resident cannot get through the lookup.
Why can a registrant not find a registration that exists? Check the phone number and email on the registration itself. Lookup matches what was entered at registration, so a typo there means neither method finds it.
Does turning this on change anything for meetings that already have registrants? No. It adds the lookup link to the page. Everyone who registered before you turned it on can use it.
Related articles
Registration Settings: Attendee & Speaker Sign-Up, the rest of the settings on the same panel, including speaker limits and agenda item sign-ups.