A reunion is a scheduling problem defined by reach rather than by calendars: the people are spread across email, text and several chat groups, span a wide age range, and many will not create an account for a one-off event. A date poll answered from a plain link with no sign-up is the format that survives that. Who can when? handles up to 50 people per poll, free.
Reach is the hard part
The dates are almost incidental. The difficulty is that your list lives in four places, half the addresses are stale, and there is no single channel that reaches everyone.
So the poll has to survive being forwarded. One link, no account, works on any device, and readable out loud if it comes to that - a six-character code with no characters that can be misheard.
How to run it
- Send it in every channel at once, and ask people to forward it.
- Ask very early. Six months is not too far ahead for people travelling.
- Offer whole weekends, since most attendees are coming from elsewhere.
- Do not require an email address, which is the single biggest cause of drop-off in an older group.
- Put a name and a why in the title, so a forwarded link makes sense with no context.
What the answers tell you
Beyond the date, the count itself is the decision about what kind of event this is. Fifteen and forty are different venues, different budgets and different formats, and you want to know which one you are planning before you commit to anything.
Common questions
- What if there are more than 50 people?
- Fifty is the ceiling per date poll. For a bigger list, poll a core group to fix the date and announce it to the rest.
- Can people answer without an email address?
- Yes, if you turn that requirement off. For a reunion, turning it off is usually right.
- Can someone answer on behalf of a couple?
- Yes. Nothing stops one person entering more than one answer, under separate names.
Ready when you are
Friends, family and the weekend
The occasions where everyone is willing and nobody is free on the same evening.
Related
- Scheduling a family gathering Get the family onto one date without a group chat meltdown. Propose a few weekends, share one link, and everyone marks when they can. No account, no app.
- A WhenIsGood alternative A group date poll built around the people answering rather than the person asking: three taps, no account, and the option to answer from the invitation email.
- Church group scheduling A group that spans every age and every level of comfort with technology. One link, three taps, no account, and a code that can be read out loud.
Read next
- How to get people to actually answer your date poll Most people who do not answer a scheduling poll are not refusing - they hit friction. Here is where the drop-off happens and what removes it.
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