diff --git a/register_participants.inc.php b/register_participants.inc.php
index 0ae496d..2aaf1a4 100644
--- a/register_participants.inc.php
+++ b/register_participants.inc.php
@@ -655,6 +655,26 @@ function addRegistration($userId){
 	return $regnum;
 }
 
+// get the registration id for a specific user.
+//Accepts either the user object or the user id, and returns the registration id, or NULL if none is set, error message if something's borked
+function getRegistrationsId($user){
+	// get the user id
+	if(is_array($user)){
+		if(!array_key_exists('id', $user)) return "register_participants.inc.php::getRegistrationsId -> Invalid user object";
+		$uid = $user['id'];
+	}else{
+		$uid = $user;
+	}
+
+	// grab their registrations id
+	$result = mysql_fetch_assoc(mysql_query("SELECT registrations_id FROM users WHERE id = $uid"));
+	if(mysql_error()){
+		return "register_participants.inc.php::getRegistrationsId -> " . $mysql_error();
+	}
+
+	return $result['registrations_id'];
+}
+
 function getProject($registrations_id){
 	global $conference;
 	// FIXME - in the future, this should be able to handle a many-to-many