Small Group Host Sign Up Sheet (free, online)

How to set it up

A small group needs three things it tends to settle at the end of each meeting, badly: whose house next week, who is feeding everyone, and who is watching the kids in the back room. Put the whole semester on one sheet, one list per week, with a host row, a meal row and a childcare row. Members claim what they can on the first night and the rest of the season runs itself.

The mistake is making the host also cook. Split them so the person with the big living room and the person who loves to cook can both say yes. One tip: put the size of the job in the row, like 'main dish for 12' or 'dessert only, we eat before we come', so a first-time host knows exactly what they've agreed to.

Questions people ask

How does everyone get the address each week?

The host's confirmation goes to them; the group gets the address when you email everyone on the page from the dashboard, which takes a minute on Sunday night. The reminder the day before tells each person what they signed up for that week.

What if a host has to cancel?

Their confirmation email has a cancel link that reopens the spot and tells the leader, usually early enough for someone else to take the week. The page shows the open row so nobody has to ask around.

We have four groups. One page or four?

One page per group, so each one sees only its own weeks. Build the first, then copy the page for the others and add each group's leader as a co-organizer of their own.

Why not a paper sheet or a Google Form?

A paper sheet lives in one place and fills up with the first people who walk past it. A Google Form takes forty signups for a row that needed two, and you find out in the spreadsheet. An online sign-up sheet closes each row when it's covered, sends a reminder the day before, and gives every person a link to cancel so the spot reopens. See the side-by-side with Google Forms.