Men’s shed roster
A men’s shed roster with a supervisor on every session
Set the open sessions, say which members are inducted to supervise, and FairTurns shares the supervisor, urn and lock-up turns between them. Print it for the wall, or share a link for the members with phones.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
No supervisor, no saws: and Ray can’t do every Tuesday
Kurrajong’s shed opens three mornings a week. The insurance and the shed rules say the big machines stay off unless an inducted supervisor is there, and only seven of the forty-odd members have done the induction. For two years Ray has opened on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and when he went into hospital for his knee the shed had a month of mornings with nobody allowed near the table saw.
The roster is a sheet of butcher’s paper pinned beside the urn. Half the members don’t use email, a few don’t own a mobile, and the secretary updates it on Saturdays if he remembers.
A shed roster needs to know who can supervise, spread that job across all seven of them, and still work for blokes who will only ever read it on paper.
How FairTurns runs the shed roster
Supervisors only where they should be
Make a Workshop supervisor position and limit it to the inducted members. Fill never puts anyone else in it.
The load shared among the seven
Fill gives each session to the supervisor with the fewest turns, so the job moves around instead of landing on Ray.
Urn and lock-up for everyone
Add an Urn and lock-up position open to every member. New blokes get a job on the roster from their first month.
Members without email or phones
Add members by name only. They’re rostered like everyone else, and you mark their away days for them.
Printed for the wall
Print the roster in list view each month and pin it by the urn. It shows names and dates, nothing else.
Hospital and holidays
When a supervisor is away for six weeks, mark Away for a stretch, then untick him and run Redistribute over those weeks. It names who picks up each session before anything changes.
Set it up
- 01
Create the shed
Create an organisation and a team called Workshop.
- 02
Add the positions
Add Workshop supervisor (1) and Urn and lock-up (1).
- 03
Add members
Paste the membership list; add emails only for members who want them.
- 04
Say who can supervise
Limit the inducted members to the supervisor position.
- 05
Set sessions and Fill
Click each open morning, choose Every week, press Fill and print it.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails a reminder before each session to members who have accepted an invitation. A supervisor who can’t make it replies from the email, and FairTurns asks the next inducted member in line, so somebody can still switch the dust extractor on.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Get more members inducted as supervisors. With fewer than five, even a fair roster asks a lot of each one.
- Members don’t pick their own mornings; you put them on, or Fill does, and they say when they’re away.
- FairTurns doesn’t keep induction records or expiry dates. Update who can supervise when someone is inducted or steps back.
- There are no text messages. Members without email check the printout or the link, or hear it from the secretary.
Questions
How do I make sure every session has an inducted supervisor?
Make a supervisor position needing one person and limit it to the inducted members. Each session then has that place, and Fill only gives it to someone allowed to take it.
Many of our members don’t use email. Will it still work?
Yes. Add them by name only, print the roster for the wall and set their away days for them. Members with email can use the link or get Pro reminders.
Can a member supervise on Tuesdays only?
Put him on Tuesdays by hand. Fill works around anyone already placed. If he can’t do a particular Thursday, his away day keeps him off it.
What about the working bee and the stall at the markets?
Add them as teams with their own dates. Inside your shed, nobody is booked into two places at overlapping times.
What does a men’s shed pay?
The roster is free for any shed. Pro, with reminders and automatic cover, is A$1 a month, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Duty roster template
A duty roster format with each duty in its own column: open up, lock up, first aid, cash-up.
Positions and headcounts
Name the jobs on each date and how many people each needs. Nobody gets a job they’re not set up for.
People without email
Add people by name only. They’re rostered, printed and shown on the link like anyone else.
Similar rosters
Community garden roster
Summer watering, compost turning and working bees for a community garden, shared between members.
Volunteer roster
A free volunteer roster app: shifts shared out by turns, away days respected, one link for everyone.
Committees and working bees
Working bee jobs, duty officer on game day and opening up the clubhouse, shared across the club.