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• Danielle commented  ·  September 18, 2012 3:46 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Absolutely! We really miss this feature from Evite since we made the switch to Meetup. And that was a free site!

• Kimberly commented  ·  July 18, 2012 12:47 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  Thank you Steve for your last detailed comment on June 24th (18:41)! I am going to encourage members of my meet up group to support this much NEEDED feature as well. Not only is it great for pot lucks but we also coordinate donation kits and it would work perfect for that as well to allow people to sign up for items they are bringing and track items still needed. Your support is very much appreciated!!! Hopefully the programers at Meetup will step up to the challenge.

• Steve Afrin commented  ·  June 24, 2012 6:41 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  I think this idea from Kimberly is a fantastic new value-added feature to add as an optional feature to Meetup.com for event planning! This feature would allow an event host to optionally create a list of desired potluck items (and quantity of each item) for event guests to bring to the event. As each guest RSVPs for the event, the guest is able to select an item or also possibly multiple items from the potluck list.

  Each subsequent guest RSVP sees the potluck list with updated counts to know what still needs to be brought by other guests. This type of management is an added value by the Meetup.com website because it helps the host to avoid having too many guests bringing one specific type of item while another item on the potluck list is ignored or not enough is brought.

  Right now, potluck lists need to be manually managed by the event host offline. The event host needs to keep an Excel spreadsheet or some other kind of list and has to use phone calls, e-mail messages, or comment threads on the event to communicate with each guest who RSVPs for the event to manually manage who is signing up to bring how much or which items.

  Some key features of such a "potluck management" feature might be:

  o The Meetup.com website for an event can track multiple items and quantities of each item (specified by an event host or organizer)
  o The Meetup.com website can keep track of which item(s) (and counts of the items) each guest selects to bring to an event
  o The Meetup.com website can provide a potluck management report exclusively to the event host or organizers so they can see a comprehensive list of guest names and who has agreed to bring which item(s) to the event
  o Picking an item to bring from the potluck list could be an optional requirement to RSVP for an event
  o Guests could use the potluck management feature as a way to suggest an item to the event host or organizer that they would like to bring to an event - perhaps a guest thinks of an item the event host or organizer has not thought of, or the guest has a specialty dish he or she can prepare of which the event host or organizer is unaware the guest has a unique talent for making or unique ability for providing.

  For models of how a "potluck management" feature might work on Meetup.com, Meetup project managers and software architects can take a look at some existing models on exiting online invitation websites such as evite.com and punchbowl.com.

  As the Organizer of a successful social Meetup group in the northern Idaho and greater Inland Northwest region of the United States, I think this would be a valuable and useful feature for my group's Event Organizers, especially as we head into the warmer summer months and event hosts start scheduling more potluck and picnic type of events.

• Steve Afrin commented  ·  June 24, 2012 6:36 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  In the Meetup.com Help Section, Ali provides great advice in her suggestion,
  http://www.meetup.com/help/How-do-I-run-a-successful-potluck-Meetup/. She provides all great ideas in the absence of such an optional "potluck management" feature for planning a Meetup event. Yet Ali's solution is not nearly as complete as the potluck management features offered by online invitation management websites such as evite.com and punchbowl.com.

• Steve Afrin commented  ·  June 24, 2012 6:34 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  John B., your comment is a workaround, but not a solution. The purpose and goal of Meetup.com and any other online tools should always be to make event management easier for the hosts and organizers. There is no reason the power of the Meetup.com servers and databases should not be able to provide that kind of added value for dues-paying Organizers to automatically manage those potluck sign-up lists for the event hosts rather than having to use phone calls, e-mail messages, and comment threads as a means of communication and the event host still has to manually manage some list offline via an Excel spreadsheet or some other type of online list management tool.

• John B. commented  ·  June 9, 2012 3:17 p.m.  ·  Flag as inappropriateFlag as inappropriate  ·  Delete

  You can just have people list what they are bringing as an answer to a question you ask them when they RSVP.

  Or you could just have them list it as a comment with their RSVP so everyone can see it.