# How do we plan this year's big event without starting from scratch? — SorrelSites *Stop re-deriving the event every year. The knowledge is already in last year's planning spreadsheet — on SorrelSites it becomes a live checklist with owners and due dates, so this year starts from what worked instead of a blank page. On the day itself, one screen runs the door: check-in by QR code, announcements, live polls, and floor Q&A.* [← All guides](/guides/) Events ## How do we plan this year's big event without starting from scratch? Stop re-deriving the event every year. The knowledge is already in last year's planning spreadsheet — on SorrelSites it becomes a live checklist with owners and due dates, so this year starts from what worked instead of a blank page. On the day itself, one screen runs the door: check-in by QR code, announcements, live polls, and floor Q&A. 4 min read · Updated 2026-08-17 Every organization has one: the banquet, the annual meeting, the fall fundraiser. And every year it gets planned almost from scratch, because last year's plan lives in a spreadsheet on someone's laptop, half the tasks lived in the chair's head, and the chair is new this year. ### The spreadsheet was never the problem Last year's spreadsheet actually holds the good stuff — what needed doing, roughly when, and what got forgotten until the last minute. What it can't do is act: it doesn't remind anyone, it doesn't know what's done, and it doesn't belong to the team. On SorrelSites, that spreadsheet becomes a live checklist — every task with an owner and a due date, visible to the whole committee, so "who was handling the raffle?" has an answer that isn't an email search. ### The day itself, from one screen - Check people in at the door by QR code — no printed list, no laptop balanced on a folding table. - Send announcements to the room when the schedule shifts: doors opening late, dinner moving up, auction closing soon. - Run a live poll when you want the room's voice, and take floor questions in an orderly queue instead of a shouted free-for-all. Next year, the checklist is simply there — what worked, who owned what, when things actually needed to start — waiting for a new chair who no longer needs the old chair's laptop, or their memory. The real prize isn't a smoother event — it's that the job of "event chair" stops requiring heroics, which is how you find someone willing to do it next year. ### Not ready to start a trial? Get what we're building for clubs and associations, who asked for it, and what we decided not to build. [What's in it →](/newsletter/) Want a look at your own setup? Half an hour with the founder, and your first two months are free if you join. [Book half an hour →](/evaluate/) Subscribe ### Ready to spend your time on members? Start free for 14 days — no credit card, and your site is live at your own address as soon as you confirm your email. [Start free](/signup/)