Registration Information
What you need to know to register for the Gathering
Forms
These forms are to help Adult Leaders collect data to prepare for online registration:
2012 Primary Leader and Adult Counselor Registration Information Form 
2012 Youth Registration Information Form
These forms must be filled out by each participant and brought with your group to New Orleans:
2012 Youth Agreement and Release of Liability
2012 Adult Leader Agreement and Release of Liability
2012 Gathering MYLE/DAYLE Medical Form
Eligibility
Any teenager going into ninth, tenth, eleventh or twelfth grade or having just graduated from high school at the time of the Gathering is eligible to register as part of a congregational group. All registrants should be members or guests of ELCA congregations.
Youth to adult ratio
The ELCA Youth Gathering is, and will always be, a ministry by, with and for teenagers. For that reason we cannot support a one-to-one ratio of adults to youth. We have noticed, however, and want to be supportive of, a growing connection between caring adults and young people in ministry. The ideal youth to adult ratio is 5 to 1, but the only ratio we insist on is one adult for every ten youth, and we encourage at least one adult for each gender represented in a group. Adult leaders must be at least 21 years of age at the time of the Gathering.
Registration fee
The registration fee is now $365 per person and includes five inspirational sessions in the Superdome, Community Life activities in Gathering hotels, interactive, faith-informing, service-learning experiences and community-based justice projects. Congregations should budget additional money for housing, transportation and meals. A $150 nonrefundable deposit per person is due at the time of registration and the balance is due on or before May 26, 2012.
Before cancelling a participant, first try to find a substitution. There will be a $75 processing fee for cancellations made prior to May 26, 2012 by congregations that have paid in full. The $150 per-person deposit is not refundable and cannot be applied toward your congregation's remaining balance. There will be no refunds for cancellations made after May 26, 2012, or for last minute no-shows in New Orleans.
How to register
Gathering registration opens on October 9, 2011, but you can start to enter your data online in September. In keeping with our hopes that groups mark the Youth Gathering registration opening in worship and with a celebration, and not spend the whole day watching a leader type away at a computer, we have programmed the registration site for a soft opening in September.
Throughout the month of September, you will be able to access your congregational account, do your data entry, and save the information. When October 9 rolls around, all you will need to do is hit the ‘submit’ button, print your confirmation page, and send it with payment to the address listed on the page. Sounds easy, and it is!
Each congregation should select one adult to serve as Primary Leader. The Primary Leader is the main point-person for the group; communications and other correspondence between the Gathering office and the congregation are channeled through the Primary Leader, and the Primary Leader’s email address becomes part of the log-in for the congregational account.
To start the process, you’ll need your 5-digit congregational ID number (don’t forget the leading zeros, if you’ve got them!), and the Primary Leader’s email address. Your congregational account holds all of your congregational group’s information: your Region/Synod, your congregation’s address, the names of all your adults and youth, your t-shirt sizes, your emergency contact information, and your financial information. In February your housing assignment will be posted to your account, and later in the spring you will access your account to see the rotation schedule to which your group has been assigned for Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Gathering.
This information is kept live and on-line for the duration of your Gathering experience. Logging on is easy! We hope to make it viewable on a smartphone!