Jenny -
We have a direct system.  The person at the desk marks down how many come in
over what hour.

In your case, perhaps you would want to do a test of your new system by
using a manual system in conjunction with it for a period of time.  The
manual system could count everyone that came in, and try to record people
who came in more than once, too.  You may find that the people who get
counted twice balance out the people who get lost in a group.  On the other
hand, you may find that you need another means of tallying groups or you may
be able to establish an accurate percentage of error to incorporate in your
statistics.
Personally, I wish the bean counters would develop another interest.  I'm
sure all of us would like to use the time we spend refining statistics for
more mission driven activities.  However, I have heard no news of such a
change in the works!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jenny Yearous" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 7:05 AM
Subject: electronic door counters


> We are having some concerns about the new door counters that have been
> installed using an electronic beam.  The problem is that when a number of
> people enter at the same time, we lose people.  The new counter that we
have
> is supposed to count legs, so at the end of the day we divide the total by
> 4.  I estimate that we may be missing anywhere from 10 to 25%, depending
on
> the group.
>
> Some of the issues that we are dealing with:
>  1-We don't charge admission so, no way to track there.
>  2-Turnstiles while giving us an accurate count would be challenging
> because of safety/accessability issues.
>  3-Visitors that come in and out of the door more than once.
>
> Answers I'm looking for:
>  1-What methods of counting visitors are other facilities using.
>  2-Do they use a formula to account for those passing through more
> than once.
>  3-If they use the electronic beam, a) how accurate are they
>   b) do they use one unit or more
>   c) what distance do they measure (I think ours is measuring
> in a distance of about 25 ft)
>
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