City of Toronto improving 'nightmare' system for recreation programs

Interim solutions meant to speed up, streamline often frustrating registration days

TheStar.com
Aug. 30, 2016
By Jennifer Pagliaro

For thousands of Torontonians, trying to sign up for much-in-demand city recreation programs has often meant long waits and disappointment while struggling with an outdated online system.

This year, when signup for fall and winter programs opens Sept. 10, the city is promising customer service improvements meant to streamline the process.

“What we’ve done is we’ve focused some time and energy on fixing what we can within the current system that we have,” said Janie Romoff, general manager of parks, forestry and recreation. “We’ve heard the concerns loud and clear.”

In March, Mayor John Tory announced that the decades-old system used for more than 500,000 registrations annually for programs like swim lessons, skating and gymnastics would be completely overhauled.

But the city acknowledged then that the long-term fix - which will also improve signups for things like park permits and wedding chapel bookings - will take time. Romoff said the plan is for that new system to be ready by the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, the city has added new tools and cleaned up their website to make searching for programs easier and allows users to add programs they are interested in to a “wish list.”

The most noticeable change may be the wait times on registration day.

In 2009, it took two hours to process 20,000 registrations, according to the city. After server capacity was increased last year, it took just 15 minutes to process the same number of registrations. The server capacity has again been increased by 25 per cent for this upcoming round of registrations.

The city reported that last year 72 per cent of registrants waited 15 minutes or less just to log in into the registration page.

As parents have waited for a better way with occasional improvements some have come up with their own solutions.

Phil Vlach, a father of two children aged 5 and 8, said he and his wife, like many parents, would frequently prepare in the lead-up to registration day, circling multiple registration codes and backup codes in the city’s physical “Fun Guide” booklet, making handwritten notes to prepare.

“City programs are fantastic, it’s just the run up to the registration is a nightmare,” Vlach said.

For the Fall 2014 season, Vlach developed an iPhone and iPad app by extracting all of the information from the PDF version of the guide, then wrote 10,000 lines of code to make the program information searchable and more user-friendly.

Before the city developed the “wish list” function, Vlach’s app let users save all of the programs they are interested in ahead of time. The app links directly to the signup page for that program during registration to avoid having to click through the city’s site.

“The key with the app is really that it’s searchable,” he said, something the city acknowledges was a key criticism of their system. The city does not have an app for registration.

Vlach, who works in IT and develops the app on the side, said it takes him about a week each new registration cycle to update the app (the city has not yet made the program data accessible through their Open Data site).

While the city’s 27,000 programs are well-used - registration was at 91 per cent this past June - Vlach, who crunched the city data on enrollment, found the city could potentially bring in millions more in fees by filling vacant programs if signup was easier.

Tory’s spokesperson Amanda Galbraith said the mayor “has been clear he wants to make it faster, easier and more convenient for parents and families to register for the city’s recreation programs.”

For this registration cycle, the city is also increasing the number of agents who will be available by phone and social media and expanding the hours they are available.

Registration opens at 7 a.m. on Sept. 10 in Etobicoke/York, Sept. 11 in Scarborough, Sept. 13 in North York and Sept. 14 in Toronto/East York.