Potluck sign-up sheet

What a potluck sign-up sheet looks like

This one is for a holiday lunch at work. Each row is a slot. People open one link, choose a slot and give their name and email.

How to make it

These steps build the example. Every new signup comes with a What field and a Date field, so the only field you add is Kind.

1. Sign in to OpenSignup and choose New signup. If “What are you organizing?” appears, choose “Skip, fill in by hand”.
2. Enter “Office holiday potluck” as the Title. Add the lunch time, room and fridge rules as the description, then choose Create signup.
3. Choose Fields, then Add field. Name it Kind, pick List, and choose Add field again to save. Set Group slots by to Kind.
4. Open the Set what slot. Enter “Ham or turkey, sliced” as What and Friday, December 18, 2026 as the Date. Under Kind, choose Add to list and type Main. Ignore Option 1: the builder adds it, and people never see it.
5. Choose Duplicate and open the copy, which keeps the date. Change What, and add the next Kind with Add to list when you move on to sides. Repeat down the list.
6. Now set Capacity on the open slots: 2 for any main, 4 for any side, 2 for any salad, 3 for any dessert, and 2 each for drinks and clean-up.
7. Choose Publish. On a phone it's in the three-dot menu as Publish signup. Copy the Public link and post it in your team chat.

Step 6 comes last because a copy keeps the spots of the slot it came from. For pictures of each screen, see how to create and publish your first signup.

Should you list named dishes or open slots?

Every potluck sheet makes this choice. A named dish, like “Vegetarian main”, has one spot. Once it's taken, nobody else can bring it. An open slot, like “Any side dish” with 4 spots, lets people bring what they cook best.

Open slots are less work for you, but they allow repeats. People can see that two of four side spots are gone, but not what those two are bringing. Notes stay private too.

A mix works best:

• Name the things you can't do without. The main meat, a vegetarian main, plates and cups. Then exactly one person owns each.
• Leave the rest open. Sides and desserts are where people like to choose, and a repeat there does little harm.
• Name a slot once a gap shows. If three people have taken “Any dessert” a week out and fruit matters to you, add “Fruit platter” as its own slot.

How many dishes do you need for 25 people?

The example has 14 spots for food: 4 mains, 4 sides, 3 salads and 3 desserts. That's about one dish for every two people, because at a potluck people take a little of several things. Treat it as a starting point to adjust, not a sourced rule.

At 40 people, raise Capacity rather than adding rows: 6 for any side and 5 for any dessert, plus a second vegetarian main. Below 15, drop the open main and give sides 3 spots. People who don't cook can take drinks, supplies or clean-up, so keep those slots.

What to sort out before an office potluck

A potluck at work runs into limits a home kitchen doesn't have. Settle these and put them in the description, as the example does:

• Fridge space. Ask for a shelf, and tell people how much there is. Cold dishes that don't fit wait in a cooler bag.
• The microwave queue. One microwave and eight dishes to heat means cold food at 12:30. Ask for dishes to arrive hot, or ready to serve cold.
• Outlets. Count the free outlets in the room. Ask anyone bringing a slow cooker to say so in their note, and check the notes in your CSV file.
• A set time. Food out by a stated time means lunch starts together, and people on calls know when to come.
• Clean-up. Make it a slot with two spots. Otherwise it falls to whoever organized the lunch.
• Allergens. People name nuts, dairy or gluten in their note and on a card by the dish. The card matters more, because only you can see the notes.

How long can potluck food sit out?

The FDA says perishable food shouldn't sit out for more than two hours, or one hour above 90°F. (FDA buffet food safety, checked September 27, 2026) To keep it longer, the USDA says to keep hot food at 140°F or above and cold food at 40°F or below. (USDA potluck food safety, checked September 27, 2026)

For a 12:30 lunch, that means perishable dishes are cleared by 2:30. That's why the example's clean-up slot starts at 1:30. A slow cooker keeps a hot dish hot, and a tray of ice keeps a salad cold.

When should you send the link?

For the example, send it on Monday, November 30, just under three weeks ahead, before December calendars fill up. Look again on Friday, December 11 and post the link a second time with the gaps named: “Still need a vegetarian main and two salads.” OpenSignup doesn't message people for you, so that post is yours to send.

Church, club and monthly potlucks

The same sheet works for a church supper or a club night. Swap the fridge rules for what your hall has, and add a slot for setting up tables.

Each potluck is its own signup. OpenSignup can't copy a whole signup or repeat one each month, so a monthly potluck means a new signup each time. For a Thanksgiving dinner at home, where the host cooks the turkey, the Thanksgiving potluck sign-up sheet has its own example.

What happens after people sign up

• Each person gets a confirmation email with their slot's What, Date and Kind, and a link to change or cancel.
• They can choose Add to calendar to put the potluck in their calendar as an all-day event on Friday, December 18.
• They get a reminder email the day before, on Thursday, December 17. Someone who signs up less than a day ahead gets one about an hour after signing up, though a sign-up on the day itself may get none. Each reminder has a link to stop them.
• Reminders are on for every new signup, and you can switch them off.

What it won't do: take payments, ask questions beyond name, email and a note, send text messages, or print a paper sheet. If you're moving from another tool, the comparison with SignUpGenius sets out what each one does.

Frequently asked questions

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