Registration is OPEN!

[Jenna Dilts]

I was just wondering if anyone else was having an extremely hard time focusing on school work today!!!!!

I am *seriously* considering declaring today a mental health day and not doing school, especially with bronchiolitis also wreaking havoc over here. I mean, illness we can handle, but this suspense is killer!

(I must clarify that I'm not complaining. I send much love and gratitude to Leslie and Lani for working so hard on this and sacrificing their day. Also pom poms and poorly executed backflips and cheering.)

[cmharig]

Is there a time it will be unpaused? I already have a plane ticket and am going to cry. I mostly use the facebook group and everyone kept saying noon. Then I saw this morning that forum members got to register at 6.

[michelle dawn]

Is there a time it will be unpaused? I already have a plane ticket and am going to cry. I mostly use the facebook group and everyone kept saying noon. Then I saw this morning that forum members got to register at 6.

They don't know yet- once they have the confirmations out for rooms that are already purchased, they will re-open if there are still available spots. Perhaps they will announce before they re-open so people are ready, not sure yet. They probably aren't sure yet, since this is unprecedented.

[WendiC]

Is there a time it will be unpaused? I already have a plane ticket and am going to cry. I mostly use the facebook group and everyone kept saying noon. Then I saw this morning that forum members got to register at 6.

No time predicted- it's only two people and they have to work through the list in order by time stamp, and processing is taking them a while- they were flooded quickly, much more quickly than we expected.

I am praying that anybody with a plane ticket already can definitely come. If you can pray for the peace of mind and heart-rates of the two people handling registrations, and for no technical glitches, that would be much appreciated as well.

[LynnBruce]

We are really sorry for all the suspense! Registrations flooded in much faster than any of us anticipated. It will take us all day to process them and trickle out the confirmation emails.

Hopefully there will still be some bunkhouse registrations available when the team processes through the registrations that have already come in.

Please pray for our registration team! They are working so hard and feeling quite overwhelmed this morning.

[Tana]

I am very disappointed I wasn't able to get a ticket. I hope a time will be given for registration to reopen if there are remaining spots that way we can plan accordingly.

[BrittanyM678]

Me too! Us poor West Coasters lol. I will be sticking close to my computer today, I guess. Thank you for everyone's hard work, I'm excited so many people are excited about it!

[cmharig]

How big is the venue? How many people are even able to attend? We had a big group locally that wanted to go and I know of only 2 that were able to register before it closed. I know it's probably not feasible to add a second group later in the week and that it'll be several years before you do another conference, but hopefully this will show y'all how popular AO is and how much interest you do have for renting a larger location.

[LynnBruce]

I am so sorry your group may not have all gotten in. I hear you, that is disappointing.

This is by far the largest event we've ever had, almost twice the capacity of our 2016 conference. Honestly, we could not handle an event any larger than this with our staff of volunteers only. We work every day on AO and we're doing all we can! Nobody anticipated this incredible response, and we are stunned, frankly.

Again, I'm sorry for all who will not be able to register.

[Dawn Duran]

The interest in attending an AO event has never been a question. The amount of labor involved in planning a conference - particularly one of this capacity - is the limiting factor. 

As with everything created by AO this is a home-grown affair that is funded by love alone. We are moms trying to juggle the responsibilities mothering our children, paying attention to our spouses, managing our homeschool, dealing with chronic illness, etc., etc., etc. - not to mention a commitment to maintaining and improving all that the AO curriculum has to offer. Add conference planning to that mix and one or more of those other balls in the air fall. 

We are doing our best with the human capacities we have been given. Unfortunately, people are going to be disappointed regardless of our efforts. We wish that weren't the case but we are unable to be everything to everyone and we thank you for your grace in understanding.