What Happens When You Outgrow Excel? The National Register Found the Answer

Lineup Teams helped the National Registry enhance their volunteer database by standardizing demographic and panel data, while also enabling faster recruitment, smarter volunteer matching, and broader panel diversity. The ability to quickly create customized reports on their data made reporting for accreditation compliance a breeze.

Our centralized platform improves accountability and supports cross-departmental collaboration across teams like Marketing, Research, and Psychometrics.

Meet The National Registry – And Their 135+ Tabs of Information

When volunteers signed up online with the National Registry, their information was funneled directly into an Excel spreadsheet.

Over the years, that spreadsheet ballooned to include more than 135 tabs, making it unwieldy. 

The spreadsheet presented several challenges:

• It contained outdated names and contact information.

• It captured information from individuals who misunderstood the volunteer role, such as those expecting to volunteer as an EMS or at a fire station.

• It lacked a centralized storage system, with various versions saved and scattered across shared drives.

• It held incomplete records, making comprehensive data compilation difficult.

• It lacked a standardized protocol for tracking no-shows or scheduling conflicts.

• It relied on manual searches or personal networks for recruitment. 

• It made demographic analysis, such as assessing regional or ethnic diversity, difficult.

As Jennifer Bahan, part of the National Registry’s  Examinations Operations Team, explained “It technically worked, but just barely. Trying to filter for everything we needed in a spreadsheet felt like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

The National Registry needed an upgrade – that was neither a needle nor a haystack. 

Enter Lineup Teams 

When the National Registry began utilizing Lineup Teams in 2019, it allowed them to do something they had never done before: build a structured volunteer database that was filterable, taggable, and, most importantly, usable.

“It was night and day,” Jennifer said. “We went from this overwhelming spreadsheet to something intuitive and visual. I can now see who’s active, who’s participated recently, what their skills are, and even get diversity metrics. That matters to us.”

Outcomes That Made a Difference for the National Registry

• Improved accreditation compliance: Store and export comprehensive demographic and panel data in a standardized format, significantly simplifying the organization’s accreditation process.

• Faster recruitment: Identify a list of skilled candidates in minutes (versus hours). 

• Better matching: Easily find qualified volunteers who meet specific criteria. 

• Increased panel diversity: Ensure a broader range of perspectives in certification exam development. 

• Improved tracking and accountability: Archive unreliable volunteers and avoid wasting time on repeat invitations.

• Cross-departmental utilization: Leverage Lineup Team’s versatility to benefit other National Registry departments, including Marketing, Research, and Psychometrics.

"Now, we have a concise tool where all the information about a potential panelist lives,” said Jennifer. “And one of the best things is that we can attach all the documentation that we're supposed to have for our own records and for accreditation. It’s made life so much easier and made our panels more effective."

Feature Spotlight: Customization

“Being able to customize the data we pull, and how we organize things has been a game changer,” Jennifer said.

Earlier this year, the National Registry required advanced customization support. 

“We have government contracts, so we always need to be in compliance with executive orders,” explained Jennifer. “When the executive order came in regarding that the federal government recognizes only two sexes, male and female, we had concerns.” 

Previously, their forms offered three options for gender: male, female, and non-binary. To remain compliant under new guidelines while still gathering useful gender data, they needed to adjust. In Lineup Teams, this specific data field was built into the original programming, which meant the National Registry had two options: turn it off entirely or risk noncompliance. 

Jennifer reached out to the Lineup team—and they delivered. They created a custom gender field that allowed the National Registry to toggle off the “non-binary” option for as long as the executive order remains in effect.

“That was a big deal, and I know it involved a lot of work on their end,” said Jennifer. “But they figured it out for us. They always figure it out.”