Background: We do a camp every summer that has hundreds (300-500) of kids come through each night for an entire week (nonprofit). The first night we have an extended registration (1.5 hours) to get the kids registered. We have about 60% pre-registered online, but still have to get them their packets. After that it takes us about 45 minutes each night.

Issue: That is way to much time. (need to get night 1 down to 30 minutes and each additional down to 15)

Resolution Ideas: So my thought was to setup a database with bar-code label registrations. We will open a pre-registration packet pickup with bar-coded wrist bands. Then we can scan them as they walk through the door. Then we could just have them return with the same bands each night. Then we would only have to deal with lost bands and new registrations.

Actual Question: Anyone have any ideas to the proper software at affordable pricing? I can handle the infrastructure, just need to figure out the rest.

Not sure what is affordable for your budget, but similar systems I have worked with in the past cost between $5000 and $20,000 to implement. *This price range was the price tags we were looking at for a turn key SOLUTION and what was to be OFFERED to us as solutions. The hardware is costly new, and the software they ALSO do not give away, and you will likely need to change a preexisting product to work for your needs or hire someone to write an interface tied to a database for you to create the rapid data entry database.

We had one system at a Cooperative Food Store that was a piece of junk that cost $5000 and we ended up doing away with it and instead issued members of the food store membership numbers, and they would tell their member number at the check out to apply their purchases to thei account. At the end of every year they would get a percentage back based on how much they spent and the not for profit business ending the year with profits earned against operating costs. So if they had $700,000 above operating costs of 23 Million, the $700,000 was refunded to the members based on who spent more got more back etc.

The lowest cost solution would be preregistration and issuing them a number on a card or bracelet and have someone or group of people with multiple computers keying in each 3 digit member number since you will have less than 1000 people.

The processing is fastest with multiple lines and a computer at the end of each one with someone keying in the 3 digit number and hitting the enter key which then allows for the next 3 digit number to be entered.

You can get through them all very quickly, and each computer can have a copy of the database and interface running locally, and later at your convenience you can merge the data into a single database if needed or if you want to go one step further workstations connected over a network to a central transactional database accepting all the numbers.

If you already have the computers and MS Office or ANOTHER Database featured product and are good with creating a database setup for this, it can be done very inexpensively.

If you really want to go the route of a bar code and barcode scanner its likely to be more expensive than you are intending to pay for it, however... a friend of mine showed me an app for his iPhone that decodes BARCODES and I suppose if you had an app tied to a database you can save yourself from buying barcode scanners when the camera on the phone can read and decode the number, however porting that info to a database is something I havent done yet and would likely be also expensive unless someone else here has tied an iPhone to a database to share the setup process for software etc.

My friend a coworker, was showing me how his iPhone can read an IMB barcode with the camera and decode the IMB barcodes on mail, since we work at the USPS and wanted to look at and verify the data in the IMB was correct for the mailpiece the barcode was sprayed on, and it worked out well... more info here: http://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/tools/imb-reader_izzy.html

While an IMB would be overkill for the data amount you need to contain in a barcode, a simple barcode would work out ok with a reader that can read it. BUT... they are slower to decode barcodes than a laser scanner as for with the camera you have to have the barcode a certain distance away and correct lighting to get it to lock onto it and process the result.Quote from: DaveLembke on October 31, 2013, 03:33:05 PM

If you already have the computers and MS Office or another Database featured product and are good with creating a database setup for this, it can be done very inexpensively.