A sign-up table with three columns: who is coming, what they are bringing, and how many it serves. Above it sit date, time and where fields for the host to fill in before the sheet goes up. The subtitle on the page puts it plainly: put your name down so nobody turns up with a fourth trifle.
The serves column is the useful one
Most sign-up sheets collect a name and a dish and leave the host guessing. A narrow serves column turns the sheet into something you can count. Four puddings that each serve two is a different evening to four that each serve ten.
It also nudges people into being honest about what they are actually bringing, which is usually a smaller dish than the word trifle suggests.
Put it up early and leave it up
The header block gives the date, the time and the address, so the sheet works pinned to a staff room board, a church noticeboard or a kitchen door without a covering note. People sign it as they walk past.
A line printed at the foot asks everyone to bring it ready to serve and to say on the sheet if there are nuts in it. Putting that on the page rather than in a group message means it is in front of the person at the moment they are writing.
Rows and printing
Twelve rows as it opens, or sixteen from the control above the sheet. The rows are deep, so a dish written in a hurry with a marker pen still fits on one line.
If more than sixteen people are coming, print a second copy rather than switching to smaller rows. A sheet on a wall has to be readable from a step back, and two sheets side by side do that better than one dense one.
Questions
- How many people can sign the potluck sheet?
- Twelve as it opens, or sixteen from the control above the page. For a bigger gathering, print two copies and pin them side by side so the rows stay deep enough to read from a step back.
- What does the serves column do?
- It asks each person how many their dish feeds. That turns a list of names into something the host can count, and it is the difference between enough pudding for everyone and four small ones.
- Is there anywhere to note allergies?
- The sheet asks people to say on it if there are nuts in a dish, in a printed line at the foot. Write that in the dish column alongside the name of what is being brought.
- Can I use it for an office or a church event?
- Yes. The date, time and address block at the top is designed for a sheet pinned to a noticeboard, and printing is free and unlimited for workplaces, churches, schools and clubs.