A monthly roster template for the whole month at once

A month at a glance

The Banksia Street Community Garden meets on Sunday mornings and waters on Wednesdays in summer. Four jobs, about a dozen regulars, and a noticeboard by the shed. A monthly sheet suits them: one page up on the first of the month, taken down on the last, and nobody needs to remember which version is current.

Only write the dates you actually meet. If a job doesn’t happen on a given day, leave that box empty, as with compost on Wednesdays above. The working bee gets its own row, with the whole group in it.

Tips for a monthly roster

• Make next month’s sheet in the third week of this one, so it’s up before anyone has to ask.
• Keep a running count of turns on the back of each month’s sheet and carry it forward. Otherwise everyone starts from zero each month and the keen ones drift to the top.
• Five-Sunday months happen four or so times a year. Plan the extra date as a lighter one, or use it for the working bee.
• In December and January, expect half the group away for a week or two. Ask for away dates before you write the sheet, not after.

From one sheet a month to a year ahead

The monthly sheet has to be redrawn twelve times a year, and the turn count on the back is easy to lose. In FairTurns, you set the dates once: “Every week on Sunday”, “Every week on Wednesday”, “Every last Sunday of the month” for the working bee. The dates are kept up to 12 months ahead. Sundays, Wednesdays and the working bee are each their own team, because a team’s positions appear on every one of its dates: Sunday has all four jobs as positions, Wednesday just watering and the tool shed. Fill gives each place to whoever has had the fewest turns at it, so the count carries forward without a tally sheet. Members mark the days they’re away, and the month view of the public roster looks very like this page. Print it from there if the shed still needs a paper copy.

Questions