Set the alarm for 10 minutes before midnight or fight to stay awake.
Log on and enter the account code. The Web site freezes.
Wait a few minutes and try again. Nothing.
It?s a scenario played out in houses around Howard each Feb. 1, as parents scramble to register their children for the county?s summer camps.
“You couldn?t exactly figure out what was going on,” said Heidi Gaasch, a Columbia mother of two who was among hundreds of parents frustrated by the county?s summer camp registration process.
But relief may be in sight. Howard?s Recreation and Parks officials have announced that the computer system has been upgraded to handle the volume, and registration will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday instead of midnight Feb. 1.
“We are always concerned about customer service,” Recreation Bureau Chief Laura Wetherald said.
The annual midnight registration started about eight years ago when officials began offering online registration, because it was the beginning of the day, Wetherald said. Before that, parents had to stand in line early on a Saturday morning.
Officials changed it to 6 p.m., figuring it gave parents enough time to get to a computer after work, Wetherald said.
The county runs more than 300 camps for 12,000 children, Wetherald said.
Parents may also register by phone, in person or by mail starting Thursday.
Gaasch, who works as the director of government and community affairs at the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, went to bed that night not knowing whether her daughter made it into the camp she wanted.
Even County Executive KenUlman and his wife, Jaki Ulman, have felt the frustrations from the online system.
In his State of the County speech last year, Ulman pledged to fix it, and at this year?s speech, he said he had fulfilled his promise to his wife and hundreds of other parents.
“I really hope it works,” he said earlier this month.
