I don’t know about you, but for me one of the most daunting tasks associated with hosting an event or party, is the organization. Sending out invites and making sure that guests or participants aren’t bringing the same items, and all have the proper time and information can be more time consuming than you expect.
Doing these tasks online, and emailing guests/participants, can be a real time saver, but even this can be challenging to do without good organization. Using a ready-made template can make the whole planning and implementation process much easier for your event. The free event and volunteer organization service from SignUpGenius.com will make parties and events so much easier to manage.
SignUpGenius is all set up to help you put together your next, volunteer sign-up list, snack list, Potluck list or party RSVP. The free tool is easy to use, and you can send out and keep track of everything right in one convenient place. To show you how simple the process is I am going to set up a fictitious pot luck Halloween party, and walk you through the process.
After signing up for an account (this only takes about 30 seconds), I selected the Party Genius tool to help me organize the party. as you can see below a six step process will complete everything.
In step one, you simply fill in your group and event names, and fill in a message to guests/participants. Style and color of fonts can be readily changed, links can be added and several other customizations can be done.
The second step gives you the choice of many templates to change out the overall look of the emails and organizational sheet. This is just one page of the fall & winter themes. There are not just more pages under this category, but there are twelve more categories to choose from. You are sure to find something that will give you the perfect look for your event. Just click your choice and hit continue.
Time, date, place and RSVP settings are set in the next step.
The fourth step is where you input the items you would like guests to bring, how many are needed, and any additional notes that might be helpful for guests.
You then have the opportunity to preview what your emails will look like. I love the way everything is concisely assembled on the page.
In the final step, add the emails of the people you are inviting, select accessibility and whether you want to be notified of each sign-up, and choose whether guests can swap slots with each other. Press the button and your savvy invites are delivered.
It is just as easy as this to organize volunteer sign-ups or assemble “to bring” lists. Even if you just want to send out a party invite, without the need for task or item sign-up, this tool would be well worth using. I am surprised this great tool is free to use. Not only is it free, but they also offer free planning resource articles with tips on coordinating volunteers for all types of events, and hold regular contests to engage and reward site users. .
A few more benefits of SignUpGenius
- Eco-friendly: Using this tool would save a lot of paper for just one small party, imagine how much it would save when used by a group such a a Little League team.
- Eliminates the need for phone trees.
- Simple wizards and video tutorials for creating sign ups, are provided.
- Sends automated email reminders in advance of a sign up date to each volunteer/guest.
- Sign ups can be copied and transferred to other SignUpGenius user accounts .
- Users can create new groups or utilize old ones, from archives.
- Each sign-up “sheet” has a unique url, so groups can add to their website or newsletters.
- A customizable report is available for each sign up.
Disclosure: I was compensated for spreading the word about SignUpGenius with a gift card. There was no requirement for a positive review. All opinions presented here are my own.
