Sausage sizzle roster
A sausage sizzle roster from set-up to the last sausage
Break the day into short shifts, set how many cooks and sellers each one needs, and FairTurns fills the places from your members. Everyone knows their slot before the gas bottles come out.
Free, with no limit on people or dates. No card.
Two hundred sausages, one hotplate and nobody on from 1 till 3
The hardware store has given the club a Saturday in May. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year: last time it cleared about A$2,000 for new hurdles. It also needs around twenty people across the day, two of whom must hold a food-handling certificate, and somebody has to collect the trailer and the gas the night before.
Sign-ups through the club chat go the usual way. The 8 am shift fills in an hour. Nobody takes 1 till 3, when the lunch queue is longest. Three families who did the last two sizzles say yes again, and the families who joined this season don’t hear about it until it’s over.
A BBQ roster is a one-day puzzle: short shifts, a few jobs, a couple of skilled people, and a lot of willing ones. FairTurns lays it out and fills it.
How FairTurns runs the BBQ
Short shifts on one day
Add the cooking shifts as single dates: 8 till 10:30, 10:30 till 1, 1 till 3:30. Set-up and pack-down get a team of their own.
Cooks, sales and the float
Give each shift positions with headcounts: Cooks (2), Bread and sauce (1), Sales and float (1). Each shift then has four places to fill.
Certificate holders where needed
Limit the Cooks position to members with a food-handling certificate, and Fill only puts them on the hotplate.
Fair across the season
Fill gives each place to whoever has had the fewest turns, counting earlier sizzles and canteen days in the same organisation.
No double shifts by accident
Within your club, Fill never puts one member on two shifts at overlapping times. A long day is your choice, made by hand.
One link in the club chat
Share the public roster link a fortnight out. Helpers see their slot on their phone with no sign-in.
Set it up
- 01
Make a BBQ team
Create the organisation if you haven’t, and add teams called Fundraising BBQ and Set-up and pack-down.
- 02
Add the jobs
Add positions for Cooks, Bread and sauce, and Sales and float with their headcounts.
- 03
Add the shifts
Click the sizzle date and add each shift as Just this once.
- 04
Fill
Put the organiser on set-up, then press Fill for the rest.
- 05
Share it
Share the link in the club chat and print a copy for the trestle table.
When you want it to run itself
Pro emails the roster to members who have accepted an invitation and a reminder before their shift. If someone wakes up with a sick child, they reply “I can’t make it” and FairTurns asks the next person in line, so the coordinator isn’t flipping sausages and texting at the same time.
A$1 a month per organisation, paid 1 to 5 years at a time. See Pro and pricing
Good to know
- Two and a half hours is about right for a shift. Four per shift (two on the hotplate, one on bread and sauce, one on the float) handles a steady queue.
- Rosters for a sizzle work best set two or three weeks ahead, once the store confirms the date and the times.
- Members don’t book their own slot. You put them on, Fill does the rest, and they can mark the day as away.
- FairTurns doesn’t handle the float, the takings or food-safety paperwork. It covers who is on, and when.
Questions
How many volunteers does a sausage sizzle need?
A typical 8 till 4 sizzle outside a busy store needs four people per shift across three or four shifts, plus two or three for set-up and pack-down: about fifteen to twenty people in all.
Can we roster several sizzles across the year?
Yes. Add each sizzle date as it’s confirmed. Turns booked counts across all of them, so Fill gives the next one to members who haven’t done one yet.
Can only certificate holders cook?
Yes. Limit the Cooks position to the members who hold a certificate. Everyone else can still be on bread and sauce or the float.
What if half the helpers drop out the week before?
Untick them on the Redistribute page. It hands their shifts to others, moving as few people as it can, and lists every change before you confirm.
Is it free for a club fundraiser?
Yes, the roster is free with no limit on members or shifts. Pro is A$1 a month for the club, paid 1 to 5 years at a time.
Free templates and guides
Volunteer roster template
A volunteer schedule with shifts, roles, a contact column and a spot to tick in on the day.
How to make a volunteer roster
Roles, headcounts, away days and a roster people can check: a volunteer roster that lasts the season.
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.
Similar rosters
Event volunteers
Gate, car park, raffle and pack-down shifts for a fête or festival, on one page every helper can open.
Club bar and BBQ
Bar shifts for RSA holders and BBQ turns for everyone else, on Friday nights and game days.
Club canteen and kiosk
Every family takes a canteen shift, the season is mapped out, and one link shows who’s on.