Does potluck planning software exist?

August 2, 2005 7:22 PM

Does the software I'm looking for exist? My family and I have dinner, potluck style, with a group of about 6 other families on a bi-weekly basis. Every week we have to do the same round of emails about what people are bringing for dinner etc... How do we automate it?

I'm not a programmer, though I dabble in a bit of php. I imagine a database/flat file that is loaded by a web form, where people are able to sign up for main dish, side dish, desert, bread and drinks, and then fill out a free text form with what they want to bring.

In typing it out, perhaps a wiki or something would be useful, but then there's the whole having to train people how to use it. Does anyone have any ideas if something like this exists?

posted by TuxHeDoh to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I know this doesn't directly answer your question, but have you thought of maybe just starting a blog on blogspot, with posting privs for all? There's practically no learning curve, and barely anything for you to do, besides pick out a template, and invite them via an invitation email. Everyone can post, and everyone can comment on the posts of others. You could start a post called "What's for dinner/August 23", and everyone could post to it and comment on it.
posted by iconomy at 7:45 PM on August 2, 2005

QuickTopic - simplest is best in this situation
posted by yclipse at 7:48 PM on August 2, 2005

Evite would do this, wouldn't it?
posted by luriete at 8:16 PM on August 2, 2005

similar to iconomy's blogspot suggestion, have you considered setting up a wiki that everyone involved can edit?
posted by clarahamster at 8:21 PM on August 2, 2005

Evite works great. You can put together a list that says "We need 2 hors d'oeuvres, three bottles of wine, a main course, and a dessert" and people can see how many of these are spoken for and then pick what they want to commit to bringing. The company I work for used it for a party and everything worked out fine.
posted by kindall at 8:52 PM on August 2, 2005

Maybe the free version of Basecamp.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:04 PM on August 2, 2005

I recommend Darkguest, an ad-free clone of Evite.
posted by O9scar at 10:44 PM on August 2, 2005

A pretty simple solution is tadalist.com. I've had luck using it with non-techies.
posted by Sorcia at 2:04 AM on August 3, 2005

Unless everyone involved is tech-savvy, I'd be very careful about trying to do this with a "come to this site and sign up" approach. What seems stupidly easy to you or me might intimidate and confuse one (or many) of the others in the group. Then they don't use the program, then you get frustrated ("It's so easy!"), yada yada yada.

We have two weekly potlucks with ... let's see ... 7 couples in one, 9 or so in the other. For the 7-couple one, we rotate in shifts of 2 or 3 couples, so we team up with another couple to provide the whole meal for everyone, and then we're off for 3 or 4 weeks. For the 9-couple one, one person volunteers to make a chart for the next month, assigning: 1) host and main dish; 2) salad and bread; 3) dessert. In that case, we're on for one or two of those items twice in the month, and we just show up and eat the rest of the time.

I know none of this helps you with your quest, and maybe the dynamic here is different (a web app would never work with these groups). But the point is this: Maybe one person could assign tasks for the next 4–6 weeks, rather than going through the hassle of people volunteering every week.
posted by Alt F4 at 3:28 AM on August 3, 2005

You could create a yahoo group, which allows you to create a table for a fill-in-the-blanks signup sheet.
posted by theora55 at 8:52 AM on August 3, 2005

So, how did you go about starting up these potluck groups? Sounds kind of cool.
posted by theora55 at 8:53 AM on August 3, 2005

I'm not sure how others are started, or what the ones that Alt F4 attends, but ours is a meal with the members of our biblestudy. Of course, I also have this crazy desire to have potluck style meals with people every night of the week, preferably the same group of people. This is never gonna happen, but I think it would be awesome.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 10:13 AM on August 3, 2005

Ours are with a prayer group (the 9-couple one) and a weekly neighborhood dinner party (the 7-couple one), which happens (coincidentally) to be 20- and 30-somethings from church.

If you were looking to start a potluck dinner, I'd say get two other interested couples (or individuals). Develop a simple rotating schedule. See how it works. If it's going well, invite people to join you (as guests). If they click with the existing people, ask your new "dinner friends" to come regularly and to join the meal rotation. Continue to add people as you like. I think that geographic proximity is pretty important. Moreso than other things, like age or profession. But that's just my opinion.
posted by Alt F4 at 7:04 PM on August 3, 2005