How to get the help you need for your school carnival, fall carnival, parish festival, or large event
This post proudly sponsored by Carnival Savers
10% discount on carnival supplies & prizes: Promo Code=VOLUNTEER
If you're reading this article, you know large events take lots of coordination - and with lots of different ways groups are organized, how you choose to use SignUp.com is more art than science. Our free online sign up tool is here to help save you time and make it easier to get volunteers signed up - you can even easily delegate volunteer scheduling to team leaders and room parents.
If you have just a few people responsible for recruiting and scheduling volunteers for your large event, please see our help article on Carnival and Large Event Volunteer Scheduling.
If you're delegating volunteer scheduling and coordination to several sub teams (think Room Parents, teachers, team leaders), we've got you covered too! We'll walk you through the process a volunteer coordinator would follow to create online carnival booth sign up forms and pass them on to Room Parents. These parent leaders would then ask parents in their class to sign up to help. This would be the same process for Charity Race Water Stations, Silent Auction Baskets, and any other activity where a Committee Chair owns the plan/structure but team leaders will be the ones asking volunteers to help.
Here are the steps for scheduling several hundred carnival volunteers by delegating booth sign ups to room parents (or team leaders) who are responsible for recruiting their own team of volunteers:
Step 1: Plan Your First Activity (Carnival Booth Sign Up Sheet)
Step 2: Plan a NEW Activity for Each Additional Carnival Booth Sign Up Sheet
Step 3: Copy the Original Activity Plan to All the New Activities
Step 4: Get a Unique URL Code for each Activity (Carnival Booth Sign Up Sheet) and Share it with each Team Leader/Room Parent (see sample letter below)
Step 5 (OPTIONAL): Designate Assistant Organizers (or a New Primary Organizer)
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Step 1: Plan Your First Carnival Booth Sign Up Sheet
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Using SignUp.com's simple planning wizard, create your first carnival booth sign up sheet.
- The name of the activity should identify the booth, such as:
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Identify what you need volunteers To Do and To Bring, but leave the details fairly generic because you will copy this booth structure to other activities.
- Invite yourself and open the invitation to be sure the online sign up sheet looks the way you want it. Here's an example:
Step 2: Plan a NEW Activity for Each Additional Carnival Booth Sign Up Sheet
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Create a New activity for each booth that will have volunteers.
- Give each activity the name of the booth, such as:
Fall Carnival - Kindergarten Duck Pond
Fall Carnival - 2nd Grade Ring Toss
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When you get to the Calendar screen - click "Finish Later".
Step 3: Copy the Original Activity Structure (4th Grade Dunking Booth) to All the New Activities
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Go to MyActivities and open the original booth Activity (Fall Carnival - 4th Grade Dunking Booth).
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Click on the day that you want to copy from, and select Copy from the drop-down menu.
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At the bottom of the Copy window, choose, Copy to "Your New Activity Name".
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Choose the day or dates you want to copy to and click Copy.
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Repeat this step for each booth.
Step 4: Get a Unique URL Code for each Carnival Booth (Activity) and Share it with each Room Parent (see sample letter below)
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Go to MyActivities and one-by-one, open each carnival booth Activity Sign Up Sheet. (At this point, you may make changes to the plan details or contact information.)
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Click the "Get Link" icon on the left and copy the unique URL Link for each Activity.
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You may choose to use TinyURL.com to change the URL code link to a more recognizable link -
So this: http://www.signup.com/login/entry/8-0861881
Becomes this: http://tinyurl.com/4th Grade Dunking Booth.
- Share each URL link with the room parent responsible for inviting volunteers to sign up for that booth. (sample letter below). Here's a link to our blog article with more options about How to Invite Volunteers including adding HTML Sign Up Buttons to your website.
Step 5 (OPTIONAL): Designate Assistant Organizers (or a New Primary Organizer)
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This is a management decision on your part. Will you be monitoring all the booth signups, or is this a role you expect your team leaders/room parents to play? Click here to see our blog article about How 2 Add Assistant Organizers to your Online SignUp Sheet. A few notes:
Adding Assistant organizers is a Premium Feature on SignUp.com. You may add up to 10 assistants per activity.
Confirmation and reminder email messages will come FROM the primary organizer.
Both Assistants and Primary organizers may view the signup status and print reports at any time.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to click Close and Unlock EACH time you exit your Activity to avoid locking out volunteers and other organizers. The lock ensures just one organizer is working on the activity at a time.
***Putting on a school or community carnival is a huge undertaking. We hope SignUp.com makes your job easier by simplifying and speeding up a critical piece - recruiting and coordinating parent volunteers - and may even help you get to bed on time. Have a fun and memorable carnival fundraiser!!
Looking for fresh ideas for Carnival Games and Booths, please see our recent blog post. Best Fall Carnival Games and Fall Festival Ideas
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Here's a sample letter you may copy, customize and share with Room Parents (or team leaders) explaining how the URL link works:
Fr: Carnival Committee Chair
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Dear Parents,
It’s carnival time and we need your help to make it a success. Each class will sponsor a booth at the carnival – and this year, our booth is <ADD NAME HERE>!
We’re using SignUp.com (an online sign up and reminder tool) to schedule parents to staff our class booth. Please sign up to share an hour and help our kids have a Memorable and Fun DAY!!
Here’s how it works:
<ADD LINK HERE>
2) Enter your email address. SignUp.com will then send you a PERSONAL signup invitation coded to your email address.
3) Go to your inbox and open the invitation from SignUp.com – click the link to choose your shift. (If you don’t get the link within a few minutes, please check your spam/junk folder).
Note: SignUp.com is optimized for Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7. If you have any trouble at all accessing the site or prefer not to enter your email address – please email me and I can sign you up manually.
