Last Minute Cancellations and No Shows- Common Courtesy

DMS General
#1

Dear Makerspace Students,

If you have to drop a class last minute please let folks know on Talk if possible (or even Discord). At the very least it gives the instructor a heads up, and lets others know that there’s an opening in a class they might have wanted to take. I had 3 classes this weekend (4 students per class) and ended up having 4 last minute cancellations and 2 no shows. I have no idea why either, like did you get stuck at work, or get into a wreck, are you ok? It’s frustrating as I’ve had a lot of requests for these classes and that definitely kept others from being able to take those spots. Weekends like this make me feel like I am wasting my time and not want to teach anymore. Please be courteous to our teachers and your fellow students.

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#2

My dentist sends me no less than two texts, 2 emails and calls me the night before. It’s super annoying but you can bet I never miss an appointment. My guess is the no shows forgot. Has the calendar been fixed to the point that cancellations open a spot back up?

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#3

I completely agree. On the average I see about a 25-30% no show/“day of” cancellation rate. And don’t get me started on the ones that come in 15-20 minutes after the session begins.

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#4

I’m in the same boat here. People register and then bail at the last minute. Rarely, do I get a cancellation early enough to ensure others have an opportunity to take the slot. I used to teach more but this phenomenon has discouraged me from teaching more.

I, too get all kinds of notices from my doctors, dentists even my auto repair place, but it is very annoying and almost insulting since I’m an adult and I honor my appointments. I also keep a calendar to schedule them.

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#5

Maybe I do need to start sending reminders a day or 2 before, that’s a good call. That is assuming they are giving their primary email address or real phone numbers. I have one right now where its a 2 parter and one person signed up for part 1 but not 2. They have either not received or ignored the emails and texts I have sent.

I think the calendar does allow others to sign up after a cancellation so long as you don’t do an “instructor approval required” set up.

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#6

I’d honestly be ok with a 15-20 min late student since I don’t mind staying late. I get traffic or life happens, but just let me know if you can is all I am asking.

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#7

Not only do cancellations open up a spot, but it’s now fixed so that the header doesn’t show “Full” if there’s been a cancellation.

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#8

This is a problem that seems to have no visibility outside the teacher community. I limit my Arduino and RPi Pico classes to six and the nine classes I have taught this year have been full going into the day of the class. A recent class had three no-shows and a very late cancellation. I generally send out an email reminder about three days before class and refer to the following link to emphasize the importance of cancelling early if they cannot attend.

There are a number of other methods including the above and requiring teacher approval, which @jphelps uses successfully. They all have one thing in common: They put an extra load on the teacher.

I will probably raise the limit back to eight students after the classes that I currently have on the calendar. This will increase the probability of an honorarium. I will also drop back to one or two classes a month.

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#9

I do have a problem with it. I have no problem staying after a scheduled class time to help members complete or feel comfortable with a project or technique. I’ve had too many that feel that start times are flexible and I’ve found that it impacts the rest of the class. I’ve also considered a “two strikes” and you are out approach to repeated late /cancels and no shows in that I value my own maker time as well as the time those that are on time for a class.

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#10

Yep…definitely part of the overall issue, as well as the apologists that routinely come up with hypothetical excuses for folks that no-show.

A possible solution, or at least the start of one:

In the calendar/event system there is an instructor’s interface where they mark attendance. Add a similar checkbox to mark a no-show as well. Marking this is at the instructor’s discretion. At the very least this triggers an email or text (or both) saying how very, very disappointed we are in your behavior and you should go to your room and think about what you did.

Even better is if checking this box updates the database, and if/when certain no-show behavior is accumulated, e.g. some combination of frequency over some time period, system disallows that member from signing up for classes for some period of time. There are still issues and loopholes with this, but no sense in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.

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#11

Charge $10 up front, even if you refund later. It is a show fee. There is nothing wrong with this concept, especially when you are the teacher on the short end of the stick.

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#12

I am not against this either in principle or practice. I think this was suggested a while back (or something like?), though, and the concern was that the only way to know if the student showed up which would then trigger the refund, was the instructor’s diligence in making attendance, which has actually been an issue on occasion (“why doesn’t my badge work on the RFID reader!”).

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#13

I bet the students would take care of any follow-up. This would only be an issue with required classes. We should collect enough so the instructor gets their comp either way,

I also feel strongly that we should text folks a couple of days out and the night before, with an option for them bow-out.

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#14

Any class submitted for honorarium I think, required or not. Although I am a persistent advocate for only required classes being eligible for honorarium.

This might create a financial tracking, administration, and tax reporting/1099 nightmare.

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#15

Part of some of the infrastructure reworking/updating that is going on is to standardize the way we contact people and also to allow multiple systems to send out notices (like the calendar for classes). I can’t for sure say when it’ll get done cuz… life; however, it is something we’d like to get working.

I know that I have been guilty of accidentally missing a class or two because I totally forgot that I had signed up for it. I think that even just sending out a notice a day or two ahead of time would improve attendance, as would making the signup email maybe also send an ICS/calendar invite.

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#16

If the minimum number of members sign-up and pay, then the teacher is covered.

Every member gets a couple of vouchers each month for classes. If you teach a class that is sub-par word will get around. People will show up since they have some monopoly money to spend. Might be a win-win. Just like stat fair tickets… did you really need that last funnel cake?

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#17

When I teach machining classes the first 5 minutes is Admin and chance for people to show up slightly late. The next 10 minutes are usually safety reviews for that machine and general safety rules, if you miss any of that, you can stay for class but will not get sign off for machine. I place that high a value on safety. Safety and safety training is an attitude.

Some may think that is overly harsh - but when you see members machining on a Hoover Board, I’d say it can’t be stressed enough.

Other solutions I’ve seen:

  • Personally, I like the $5 signup fee that was started in the past in response to no shows. If there is no consequence to “Yeah, I might go, what the heck, sign-up.” It is amazing how just a $5 fee will deter folks.

  • Some instructors require approval, they are usually keeping a list of no shows-no notice folks and will only allow them to attend stand-by.

  • Since I donate my instructor portion to the committee, not getting the honorarium isn’t the issue. Classes are generally full within hours of being posted. A No Show has taken a spot for someone that could have attended, they cheated someone else.

I understand that “Life Happens”, show me your smashed phone and I’ll accept you were unable to call.

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#18

I agree with that. When I teach lathe basics the first 15 minutes are safety and lathe anatomy. If you miss that I feel like you haven’t gotten the root of the class. I can teach you anything about wood turning after the fact except for how to be safe. And that’s the biggest thing that I want people to come away with at the end of class.

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#19

Call who? DMS? We don’t have functional phones at the Space anymore. Call you? Did you give them your #?

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#20

I’m not sure that will make a difference.

We hold casting classes once monthly. They always sell out within a day or two. We charge a nominal fee but more than the $10 you’re suggesting (it covers the investment plaster and the metal). Second-to-last class: 4 slots, 3 no-shows; no cancellations - 1 attendee. Last class; 6 slots, 1 same day cancellation (that filled), 4 no-shows (i.e., 3 attendees).

The calendar will allow you to set a cancellation deadline, after which a cancellation will not garner a refund. That’s a good idea. It prevents people from cancelling a class 5 minutes before show time in order to get a refund. Last minute cancellations are not only disrespectful to the instructor, but prevent other people from taking that class.

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This would also send an automatic reminder to people. The reminder is about the cancellation window but it would do double duty to remind people about the class.

@nausser915 … we might consider adding a cancellation window to the casting classes so that it sends the auto-reminder.

EDIT:

The cancellation window would automatically do that.

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