Homecoming 2006 will be going digital.

Registration will move online for this year's homecoming to prevent confusion among the homecoming committee and the organizations, Competition Overall Jessica Troy said at last night's first Homecoming 2006 meeting. Troy said the registration link will be ready for access after April 20.

The payments for the homecoming costs will be split between two dates: The first payment is due April 19 and the second is due Sept. 26 through 27, minus the multitude of papers organizations usually fill out, Troy said.

The homecoming registration book will also be online to ensure more people have access to it rather than continually signing in and out on the other paper book, she added.

Another change to the Homecoming 2006 is the removal of the non-competing organization category.

The only two categories used for registration will be overall competitors, who will participate in all events, and event competitors, who can choose which events they will participate in and will pay per event, Troy said. Each category can have paired or non-paired organizations.

Troy said that for every competition event, such as Airbands and Nittany Pursuit, there will be a first through third place.

The homecoming committee is also in the process of planning a few new events for this year's festivities, including HUB-A-Palooza, Special Events Overall Deanna Bucciarelli said.

HUB-A-Palooza will be a spirit-points event Oct. 19 and will feature a battle of the bands competition, T-shirts, foam fingers and a tailgate theme, Bucciarelli said.

"Homecoming will take over the HUB," she added.

Homecoming 2006 is also becoming more service-oriented by pairing with Centre Volunteers In Medicine as its philanthropy, Overall Chairman Mark Poblete said.

Poblete said any cover charges for events such as Homecoming Night Out and kick-off events will go to the philanthropy, and more events will be scheduled for the Homecoming Day of Service.

"We want to get people out into the community," he said.

Homecoming Graduate Assistant Dina Liberatore said the changes were intended to get more people involved and to make everything more organized.

"It's a lot simpler," Liberatore said.