Setting up a waitlist in ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager
Camp & Class Manager has a waitlist built in, and most of it switches on with a single number. The pieces that trip camps up are further in: how the order is really decided, why a session can start waitlisting before it sells out, and what changes when you ask ACTIVE to turn the automation on.
Everything here describes ACTIVE’s own behavior and is drawn from their support documentation, read in July 2026. Camp Notice is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACTIVE Network.
- Capacity creates the waitlist — Setup → Sessions, enter a number in Session capacity, and the Waitlists checkbox appears already ticked. A session with no capacity can never be full, so it can never have a waitlist — and any automation configured later has nothing to do.
- Waitlist registrations are free — ACTIVE charges neither your organization nor the family for a waitlist registration, so there is no cost to carrying a long list.
- The order is built for you — Registrants are grouped by tuition and ranked by when they joined, with a session-wide Waitlist Ranking column alongside. Promoting someone from Season → Waitlist makes them rank 1 for both, moving any previously promoted registrant to 2.
- Manual or automated — A standard waitlist is worked by hand — email families from Reports → Waitlist report and transfer someone in. Auto-waitlist emails the first family a time-limited invitation, and has to be switched on by ACTIVE support.
- The automation settings — Under Setup → Waitlist Automation once support enables it: invitation validity in hours, the automation end time, which sessions it covers, and the invitation email’s header and body. The sender name syncs from your agency URL key and cannot be customized.
- Five things that surprise people — Seats held in shopping carts count as gone and switch the waitlist on; for that scenario ACTIVE sends invites twice daily at 5 AM and 5 PM CT; declining removes a family from the waitlist; the window is set in hours; and the sender name is not yours to change.
How to set up a waitlist in ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager
- Open the session — Go to Setup → Sessions and select the session you want a waitlist on. Waitlists are configured per session, because capacity is.
- Give the session a capacity — Enter a number in the Session capacity field. This is the step that matters: without a capacity the session can never be full, so no waitlist can ever form.
- Leave the Waitlists checkbox ticked — It appears as soon as there is a capacity, already checked. Unchecking it means families arriving at a full session simply see “full” and leave with nothing.
- Write the waitlist policy — Families read it when they add a waitlist registration to their cart. Answer four things: what joining does, what it does not promise, how you will contact them, and how long they will have to respond.
- Decide manual or automated — Work the list by hand from Reports → Waitlist report, or contact ACTIVE support to enable waitlist automation. Automation also needs “Allow waitlist registrations when capacities are reached” on your sessions.
- Configure the automation — Once support enables it, open Setup → Waitlist Automation and set the invitation validity in hours, the automation end time, which sessions it applies to, and the invitation email content. Set the validity against your calendar — a window that is generous in March is why a July seat goes unfilled.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set up a waitlist in ACTIVE Camp & Class Manager?
Open Setup → Sessions, select the session, and enter a number in Session capacity. The Waitlists checkbox appears already ticked. Once registrations reach capacity, families see the session is full and can join the waitlist instead, where they read your waitlist policy. Waitlist registrations are free — ACTIVE charges neither your organization nor the family.
How does ACTIVE decide waitlist order?
Camp & Class Manager builds the order itself: registrants are grouped by the tuition they chose and ranked within that group by when they joined, with a session-wide Waitlist Ranking column alongside the per-tuition rank. Staff can promote someone from Season → Waitlist, which makes them rank 1 for both the tuition and the session and moves any previously promoted registrant to 2.
How do I turn on waitlist automation in Camp & Class Manager?
It is not self-serve — ACTIVE support enables it for your account, and the settings page is not there until they do. Sessions also need “Allow waitlist registrations when capacities are reached” and a capacity set. Once enabled, Setup → Waitlist Automation controls invitation validity, the automation end time, which sessions it covers, and the invitation email’s header and body.
Why is my ACTIVE session waitlisting before it is sold out?
ACTIVE counts inventory held in other families’ shopping carts as unavailable. If three seats are open and three people have the session in their cart, others see zero available and the waitlist switches on. Those seats can be released again later without anyone cancelling. ACTIVE’s waitlist FAQ notes that for this scenario the system sends invitations twice per day, at 5 AM and 5 PM Central.
Can I change the sender name on ACTIVE waitlist invitation emails?
No. Per ACTIVE’s documentation the invitation email’s sender name is synchronized from your agency’s URL key and cannot be customized. You can edit the header and body, including fonts, styling, and merge fields, and reset to the default content.