Sign up genius....how to add what people.are bringing

[Ottakee]

A friend is trying to set up a sign up genius for her SIL family. She can't figure out how to out something on there for people to specify what they are bringing for each meal so that they don't end up with lasagna 3 days in a row.

 

Any hints? How do you do this?

 

SIL is a close friend of mine and her son is having a bone marrow transplant so they will be inpatient for 8 weeks or so leaving her husband and the other 5 kids at home.

[justasque]

I like Take Them a Meal instead of SignUpGenius for that; it's designed specifically for organizing meal contributions and is set up so they can say what they're bringing.  Easy to set up, easy to use, sends automatic reminders to the meal provider and the coordinator, etc.

[domestic_engineer]

Just ask the respondents to leave a comment about what they are bringing.  Everyone should be able to see it, I think.

[Anne]

I *love* Take Them A Meal! Extremely easy to use for all involved and very thorough!

 

Anne

[Guest]

Another vote for Take Them a Meal. That and Perfect Potluck are what we use at church all the time.

[kirstenhill]

I know there is a way to add a "comment" field on sign up genius - we've used that for church events before and had broad categories like "dessert" - with a blank for someone to add a comment as to what specific item.

 

For just bringing a family meals (vs. having a big potluck event), I like Meal Train - it is a bit easier to set up for that purpose. What I have noticed though is that people who sign up toward the bottom of the list often write TBA or "?" for the meal comment field. I think the problem is that if everyone is signing up now, the people bringing a meal in two weeks may not know what will be on sale, what they will have on hand, etc...making it hard to commit to a certain meal to bring.

Edited April 9, 2016 by kirstenhill

[Ottakee]

She is hoping to figure it out so that people can look a week or so in advance and see what is planned and then add their meal idea in then.

[kirstenhill]

She is hoping to figure it out so that people can look a week or so in advance and see what is planned and then add their meal idea in then.

On either Sign Up genius or Meal Train (or probably the other sites too), people could start by putting TBA in the "meal" comment field, and then go back later and "edit" their comment based on what other people have brought. The challenge is to get people to actually follow through and check/edit their entry. I know for me, when I sign up for a meal that is more than a week away, I often write TBA and mean to go back and edit it, but I rarely remember.