Naperville Park District officials apologizing for registration delays

Naperville Park District officials are apologizing after residents faced frustrating delays last week while trying to register online for popular spring programs and summer camps.

Registration opened at 8:30 a.m. March 6 on the park district website, but the third-party registration software experienced issues that forced registrants into multiple queues and led to classes and activities filling up before residents could check out.

At last week's board meeting, park board President Mary Gibson and Executive Director Brad Wilson addressed the problems. Gibson said she was stuck in lines on the website even though she logged in right when registration opened.

"I was really discouraged when the system put me into a queue, panicked as I flashed back to trying to get Taylor Swift tickets," Gibson said. "The whole process was frustrating and confusing and took way longer than registration normally does.

"For now, I want to apologize to residents for (last week's) registration process," she said. "We know how important it is to be able to register for your desired programs, and we know how valuable your time is."

Wilson stressed the park district did not implement a new queuing system and there were no issues with the new napervilleparks.org website.

After apologizing to residents on behalf of the park district, Wilson said the problems resulted from the third-party registration group, ACTIVE Net, and a software update installed the week before registration began. Because of the failure during park district registration, Wilson said, ACTIVE Net removed the update from all customer platforms and is reviewing processes for the future.

"The company apologized for what occurred and understands that the issues resulted in a poor, frustrating experience for our residents and eroded community trust in the registration system," Wilson said.

While the queuing process and long wait times contributed to residents' missing out on quickly booked classes and programs, Wilson said, a record number of registrants was also an issue.

He said first-day spring registrations were up 40% compared to those in 2022, and there was a 117% increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Wilson said the park district staff over the next few weeks will work to expand classes and add more offerings to accommodate residents who couldn't register or were placed on wait lists.