I don't think that this system would work for The Villages for a number of reasons.
First of all Active Network assumes there is some kind of central activity management of the activities, like a town or something like the YMCA might have. Activities in The Villages are managed independently by each volunteer that runs that activity.
From the point of view of the volunteer who runs an activity Active Network (and many systems other like it) it is much more overhead than the current system. Active Network would require the volunteer access Active Network and check each person coming to the activity. If someone doesn't show up space in the room probably goes unused. The current system is much less overhead for the volunteer... open the door, when the room is full close the door... no training in how use the system, no network outages to deal with, no need for a computer or smart phone.
Volunteers are the key to all the activities we have here. I think a system like Active Network would frustrate a lot, probably most, of those volunteers to a point where they drop out of leading an activity.
The Active Network web site doesn't say much about cost but it appears to charge based on the number of transactions that take place in the system. That is they would having a charge each time someone signs up for an activity. This is similar to Open Table. My guess is that this system would be pretty expensive in the end.
Every volunteer would have to learn how to use Active Network. Not everyone who volunteers to lead an activity is computer literate. Also not all of the people going to activities are computer literate either. Some volunteers would have no problem with it but many would run into hiccups along the way that would frustrate them make the wonder why they ever volunteered to lead... especially compared to what they needed to do with the old open the door, close the door system.
The Active Network site says that their system will "Manage multiple facilities and hundreds of programs centrally." That's not even close to the scale needed to manage The Villages activities.
The Active Network is light on technical details on how well that can manage things when lots of the activities are over subscribed like they are in The Villages. An activity management system for The Villages activities should be models after the golf reservations system. It should give users priority level on using activities... the more activities they sing up for the lower their priority. That would give everyone a chance to take part. It would penalize someone who doesn't show up for an activity they signed up for by lowering their priority. It would have to allow someone to choose multiple activities knowing they would only get a reservation to one of them but would increase their priority when the do that. It would also have to provide phone access to the reservation system (like the golf reservation system does) so residents who don't use computers or are not comfortable with them will still have access.
In the end I don't see how a system like Active Network can even begin to compete with the simplicity of the current system from the point of view of the volunteer who leads an activity or work for Villagers who just are not comfortable using computers.
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