How can my 'cats' self-herd?

November 5, 2019 3:06 PM

My volunteer organization needs a method to log member availability for about fifteen separate events over a ten-month season.

• Each Member needs to be able to log in individually to indicate their availability (not just one person with a paper list)
• Member information needs to be kept confidential, so some password protection is good
• For each of about 15 events, members need to be able to indicate Yes, No, or Maybe
• Members need to be able to update/change their answers
• There needs to be a way that all members can see what everyone’s answer is for each event.
• Most users are aged 50+, but they’re smart and follow instruction well, and only a few are afraid of computers (and I can hold their hands.)

Is there an existing web-based service for this, or a good plug in for WordPress that we can add to our website? We have been using a WordPress plug in but the interface is clunky and my members don’t like using it. Free would be ideal, but we can consider something with a not-exorbitant fee if it meets our needs.

Thank you!

posted by AliceBlue to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I'm not sure how confidential it is, but a Doodle poll will fit most of your requirements where you enter the list of possible dates, you sent a link to members and they can follow the link and then click yes/no/maybe for each date. People will see each other's answers. Participants identify with their names (self-chosen). People can come back later and change their answers. Cost is free.
posted by metahawk at 3:24 PM on November 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Echoing metahawk, I've used Doodle Polls to coordinate similar things. It's not exactly what it's made for, but it works. Bonuses are: no sign-up required (for them, the admin has to have an account), easy to use, easy to convert into an excel doc, easy to make changes to, free for most uses.
posted by arcticwoman at 3:28 PM on November 5, 2019

I feel like you can just do this with Google sheets, unless I'm missing something.
posted by pyro979 at 3:42 PM on November 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thirding Doodle Poll
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 5:38 PM on November 5, 2019

I use SignupGenius for something similar and it works a treat.
posted by divabat at 5:43 PM on November 5, 2019

Doodle poll is used to wrangle the cats for Good Bitches Baking here in New Zealand. It doesn’t do the scheduling per se, but does let people indicate their availability very well.
posted by slightlybewildered at 1:11 AM on November 6, 2019