Organizing large groups of people to do something even as “simple” as bringing snacks to a group event can quickly turn into a logistical nightmare. Some folks prefer email, some people only text, others never even look at their cellphones. Trying to get everyone on the same page in this day and age of excess communication can feel like a Sisyphean task.
Unless, of course, you have SignUpGenius.
“We were having a party for our… small group one time and told people with last names starting with A-M to bring drinks and those with N-Z to bring snacks,” SignUpGenius founder Dan Rutledge said. “We all showed up and were shocked to find that every snack family brought chips and salsa and every drinks family brought Diet Coke. It was the most disgusting party meal ever!”
Dan got sick of those kinds of mistakes really quickly and decided that rather than complain, he was going to do something about it. “I’ve got too many important things on my plate to stress about stuff like this. I kept thinking to myself… there has got to be a better way. So I set out to create one,” Dan shared.
The result is SignUpGenius, online sign up forms for individuals and organizations that can be used for anything from hosting sports tournaments to scheduling parent/teacher conferences or fundraising for nonprofits.
Here’s how it works:
Super simple is the name of the game with this website. It’s a four step process:
- Build your own custom sign up sheet.
- Invite the people in your group, whatever that group may be.
- Those people sign up.
- SignUpGenius sends email reminders.
That means there’s no more phone trees, no more missed messages, no more parties that have only Diet Coke to drink and chips and salsa for dinner.
And the price? Basically free.
SignUpGenius has a free “Basic” package that will cover most individuals but for the real organizational kings and queens, the highest price (with the most in return, of course) is the “PRO Platinum” package for $49.99 per month, which includes a whole host of options.
You can also accept payments with your sign ups for those events that also require everyone to pitch in monetarily. The SignUpGenius Payment Feature runs through PayPal and has no additional monthly fee but costs 2.1% of whatever payments are processed through it plus $0.20 per transaction (in additional to PayPal fees).
So if you find yourself frequently coordinating and even more frequently cussing under your breath as you spend hours upon hours trying to get everyone organized around one thing, why not cut out the stress and join the 24.5 million people who have already used SignUpGenius to make their lives easier?
