Sign-In Sheets: Use Them!

You’re having an event.  You’ve got people who support your cause enough to take time out of their busy lives and show up.  These are some of your best allies — make sure you know who they are!

The main goal of a sign-in sheet is to get names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses, for everyone at the event.  You can solicit these supporters again and engage them in your organization.  Here are some best practices that GGG recommends for every event:

• Have a standard sign-in sheet that you can copy and use. It looks more professional than a blank piece of paper.  If you don’t have one, feel free to take ours (Word | PDF); you’re welcome to edit it.  If you develop your own, here are a few tips we implemented on ours:
  • The top right of our sign-in sheet has a short inspirational message about why this is important.  This supports the goal of collecting data by helping people connect their signing in directly to helping the cause they’re supporting.  Otherwise, people may be disinclined to sign in, or may leave out information.
  • The ordering and spacing of columns is intentional.  We put e-mail address and phone number first, right after the name.  We’d like for everyone to fill in all the information, but if they’re going to leave something out, we’d like to capture the e-mail address.  We also made sure to leave plenty of physical space for people to write in e-mail addresses.

• A check-in table is a good way to get people’s information as they enter the event.  If you do a check-in table, it needs to be staffed (try using volunteers).  Plan the layout to manage traffic, and make sure people don’t take too long at the table, or attendees will start skipping sign-in.  You could have many sign-in sheets at one long table, with only one person staffing it.  Having people write name tags can be a nice touch, but also could be more time-consuming than it’s worth.

• Have volunteers or staff roam around the room with clipboards asking attendees to sign in.  (Buy clipboards! Having worked here and there in politics, I don’t know how anyone would ever get elected without clipboards.)

• “Prime” each physical sheet of paper by filling in one person’s information (yours, maybe, or a fictitious name) on the first line of every sheet.  This will encourage attendees to sign in below with their full information.  You’ll notice that if one person leaves out the e-mail or phone number at the top of a sheet, others will often follow suit.  Priming reverses this effect with an example line including full information.  It can’t hurt, and people will get the message that it’s an example line.  You can prime one sheet and then use photocopies of it for sign-in.  Be careful not to enter these priming lines into your database after the event - this is why I use a standard name, like Avery Allen or Judy Weiss.

With a good sign-in sheet and good management, you’ll leave the event with a gift that keeps on giving: an expanded database of supporters.  So don’t forget the sign-in sheets.  Your next big fundraiser or major volunteer leader might have just walked in the door!