Thanksgiving Potluck Sign Up Sheet (free, online)

How to set it up

A Thanksgiving potluck has a fixed menu, which makes it the easiest potluck to run and the easiest to get wrong. Without counts you get four green bean casseroles and no stuffing. This sheet lists the meal the way people expect it, with a number next to each dish, so the first person to open it sees what is still needed.

Plan on one 12-pound turkey for every ten to twelve guests, two sides per guest, and a pie for every six. Hot dishes should arrive in the dish they bake in; ask for a serving spoon and a label. The last three rows are the ones people forget to sign up for and the ones you will be gladdest someone did.

Questions people ask

How much food for 40 people?

Two turkeys or one turkey and a ham, four or five sides with twelve servings each, two dozen rolls and six pies. The counts above are set for about 40; change any number in the editor and the open-spot count on the page updates.

Can people say what they're bringing?

Yes. Add a short text question, 'What dish?', and the answer shows next to their name so the fourth person sees three potato dishes and picks something else.

Does it work for a church fellowship hall?

That's where most of these run. Put the service time and the hall in the description; the page sends each person a reminder the day before with what they signed up to bring.

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.