First, thank you for using the online system, and especially for recognizing that it is a work in process and that we’re all learning what works and what doesn’t. (Moving the USCF offices to TN in the middle of the changeover isn’t making life easier, either.)
While this isn’t the proper place to resolve specific membership problems, discussing the underlying issues is appropriate and may help generate some good ideas.
(I’ll look into your events later today. You may also get an automated reminder notice in the next few days, that’s one of the pieces of the puzzle that is just now getting put into place.)
Events being delayed because of missing IDs for new members is not a problem that is specifically caused by TD/A, though it does make the TD far more aware of it. We’ve had this problem for years.
What TD/A does is put the TD in the loop in terms of what happens when there are missing IDs, especially ones from another event. Before TD/A, events would sit unrated for weeks while IDs were tracked down from other events, but the only people who knew what was going on and why were the USCF staff. We call this ‘sharing the frustration’. 
What generally has been happening is that if the membership from the other TD doesn’t show up, eventually the office creates an ID so that your event can be rated. The office refers to this as an X member because the membership letter code for a non-member is ‘X’. Generally we have minimal information on such players, ie, no address or birthdate. Usually they assume the player is from the same state as the tournament, though that’s not always a correct assumption.
Creating an X member makes it possible for your event to be rated, but that doesn’t really solve the basic problem, and in some ways it makes the problem worse.
Why? Because when (or if) the other membership does show up, there has been a pretty good chance that it isn’t associated with the X member created to rate your event, which means we now have duplicate IDs for that person. Fixing that can be very time-consuming, especially if both IDs wind up with a rating. (That’s also why creating ‘temporary’ IDs is a bad idea, because there is no such thing as a temporary ID.)
We’re still working on when and how to implement the X member process for events submitted online. Part of the problem is that since it was submitted online, we don’t have the paperwork sitting on someone’s desk as a reminder that the event hasn’t been rated yet. That’s why we’re in the process of setting up the automated reminder system, which is intended to remind both the TD and the office staff that the event is still in limbo.
A related issue is when there is a former member who renewed at another event (or claims he/she did). That’s really a somewhat different issue than the new member problem because in this case we DO have a USCF ID, which increases our options for how to resolve the problem, both for your event and for the member. The Membership Exception Request system has several ways of addressing that problem, there aren’t as many options available for new memberships.
Long term, if more TDs submit their memberships online that will help everyone. You’ll know what the new ID is, the member will start getting his membership benefits faster, and in most cases the submitting TD can get a $2 discount by submitting the membership online.
Even if the submitting TD uses the ‘payment by check’ option, at least we have all the information on the member, which we can use to assign an ID. While we don’t publish those IDs on MSA, the office staff can look them up when they review membership exception requests, and they will usually show up if you do a ‘lookup’ through the TD/A membership module.
In my original specifications for the online system, I wanted to publish those pending memberships on MSA, complete with the information on what TD issued them and when, so that the member and other TDs know who to blame. (Shame is a powerful motivator!)
That part of the proposal wasn’t approved, which led to the system we have now, where the ID exists, we just don’t tell people about it on MSA.