Special Olympics Alberta is proud to pilot Special Olympics Canada’s online enrollment application. Athletes, volunteers, coaches and community coordinators are able to register through Special Olympics Canada's online portal.
This is the first time we are venturing to have athletes, coaches, volunteers, and community coordinators to be able to register online and the pilot his program which is only open to Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The goal of the online registration portal is to streamline and create an efficient process of registration and data management. Special Olympics Alberta’s goal is to have all affiliates and community programs registered through the online portal for the 2018-19 season.
With all new processes and systems, there will be a learning curve and room for improvement for users. The current system is not a final polished product- - things are constantly being changed to improve user experience. No new program is perfect and this portal is not an exception. We had launched information to our community leaders in May and provided sessions and tutorials June 2.
It is not mandatory for affiliates and community programs to use this system to run their registration and programs this fall, although we encourage you to use the system as this is the transition the whole country will be heading in future.
Over the next year, we will require all members to be entered into the database and we will support our members to achieve this goal. The more we use the system, the more we can identify and provide feedback for improvement and ease. As a result of this transition, we hope our communities receive all the benefits of being able to communicate, manage, track, and report with ease and accuracy in the coming years and allow ease for recruitment and registration of new athletes and volunteers.
Keys to successfully use the online registration requires time, patience and a willingness to try.
- First and foremost, arm yourself by educating yourself with user guides and instructions. Please have registration instructions on hand (either on another screen or printed by your side) for reference if you come across barriers during the process.
Go to
ONLINE REGISTRATION HELP
Download resources or have them available when starting your registration.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is it possible to enroll an athlete online without registering a portal account for them?
- Yes! All you need to do is go to the portal and select Athlete- Join Program. Be sure to select whether you are filling out this application for yourself or on behalf of an athlete. This makes a difference to the legal waivers on the next step of the process.
I try to search for a specific sports program and nothing comes up.
- This is a common problem we are finding when entering a search for a sport program. Try entering just the Chapter/Province/Territory then the Region/Zone then the Community and select the red Search button. This will show all of the options available for enrollment from your community which you can then use to look for the specific sports program you wish to enroll into.
How do I know if I have paid? / How do I pay?
- Each community has different procedures on how they are accepting payments this year. Some are accepting payments online, some are not. It is best to check with your community leaders as to what the best option is to take regarding this. If your community is accepting online payments and you have a payment outstanding, you will need to go to log into your account on the portal, enter My Roles, find the program for which you are needing to pay for, select Continue and then find Membership Balance from the options on the right hand side. From here you will be able to add a Credit Card to pay for your outstanding balance. Upon payment, you will receive an email confirming your payment has been processed.