It starts as just a ticksheet
Every side gets the ticksheet, which answers the basic question of who's coming. Your side can customise the feature options to what it needs. Look round and take a tour.
Who is or isn't coming
One grid for the whole side
Dance outs run down the left and members across the top, with one answer in each square. As you scroll, your own column and the totals stay beside the event.
A Maybe is a real answer
A Maybe can say how likely it is: 25, 50 or 75%. Any answer can say whether you're coming as a dancer, a musician or both, and whether you're bringing someone.
So the totals show whether you've got a set and a band, not just eight musicians.
The Weekly Digest does the chasing
Once a week it emails each member whatever still needs an answer, with Yes, No and Maybe buttons. The side picks the day on the admin Emails page, and it's Tuesday unless you change it.
Any member who'd rather not have it can switch it off on their own settings page.
Somebody looks after each event
Each event has a responsible member, and gets a Confirmed stamp once the booking's agreed. After that, SideMinder asks before anybody takes a yes back.
Whoever looks after an event gets a weekly note of how it stands and what's changed.
Your own calendar, kept up to date
A private link puts the side's dance outs into whatever calendar you already use. When a time or a place changes, your calendar changes too.
Answer from an email
Submit your availability straight from the event-added email or the Weekly Digest, on the bus, or wherever you are.
That's how the ticksheet stops being the Secretary's job and becomes the whole side's.
To see one for yourself, open Your settings in the demo (opens in a new tab), put your own address in Send a test email, and press Send a test.
Barford Fete
Sat 2 May · 2pm, on the green
Wharf Day
Sun 17 May · 11am, by the lock
Switch on the parts your side will use
Each part below is a switch on the admin Features page. Only the features you want are shown to members.
You can change your mind, too. Turn the minutes on in March, when somebody finally volunteers, and off again if they think better of it.
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Dances
Your repertoire, with each dance's tradition and type. Each member says how well they know it, from Confident to What's that?!, and whether they'd like to dance it.
Music: The Bullring, one of Hereburgh Morris's own tunes, played by their musicians. -
Lists
Each dance list is built from the side's dances and from who's said yes, as a dancer or a musician. It stays a draft until whoever builds it publishes it for the members.
Music: Constant Billy, played by Hereburgh Morris's musicians. -
Music
The band's half: each tune's key, time and tradition, and the dances it goes with. Each musician says how well they know it, up to Could lead it.
A band can switch this on without the dances.
Music: Life in the Old Dog, one of Hereburgh Morris's own tunes, played by their musicians. -
Minutes
The minutes are kept with their meeting, attachments and all. Email them to the side and they're locked, so the record stays as it was sent.
Music: The Miller's Ghost, one of Hereburgh Morris's own tunes, played by their musicians. -
Docs
The constitution, the risk assessment and last year's accounts, kept somewhere other than one person's laptop. Only signed-in members can open them.
Music: Farnborough, one of Hereburgh Morris's own tunes, played by their musicians. -
Polls
Anybody can ask the side a question, from the pub to the date of the AGM. Votes can be named or anonymous, and the poll closes itself on the day you set.
Music: Jockie to the Fair, played by Hereburgh Morris's musicians. -
Practice notes
Put practice nights on the ticksheet, so you know who's coming. Whoever runs the practices can plan what gets taught at each one on Practice notes, and see when each dance was last practised.
Music: Orange in Bloom, played by Hereburgh Morris's musicians. -
Associate members
People who stop dancing come off the ticksheet but keep their history. If they come back, their own record is waiting for them.
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Calendar feed
The private link that puts your side's dance outs into everybody's own calendar. Most sides will want it, but it's a switch like the rest.
Each member can be assigned a role
A side isn't one administrator and twenty spectators. SideMinder lets each role do its own job.
Roles, each with its own powers
Squire, Bagman, Foreman: your side sets up the roles it really has. Each one carries only what it needs, such as editing events or building dance lists.
Everybody can see who holds what on the Members page, because knowing who to ask is half the battle.
Admin view is an option, keeping things tidy
An admin sees the same pages as everybody else until they turn admin view on. It lasts an hour, so a forgotten evening never leaves the extra powers switched on.
Every answer keeps its history
Tap a square to see who changed it, when, and what it said before. An argument about what somebody said becomes something you can look up.
It explains itself
There's a written guide inside the app, and anybody can read it without signing in. A new member can find out how it works without somebody sitting beside them. You can read it on the demo (opens in a new tab) now.
How it behaves
- There's nothing to install. Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app, with your side's badge as its icon.
- It wears your side's name, badge and colours, which an admin sets and can change whenever you like.
- There are no passwords. You sign in from a link in an email, and your phone remembers you after that.
- It reads properly in the dark, and the ticksheet has buttons to make it bigger.
- Your data is yours. Ask, and I'll send it back in a form a spreadsheet will open.
Look round a demo side that's already running
The demo is the real app, running an invented side. You can be any of four members, from somebody with no role to the admin. Change whatever you like, because it goes back to how it was a few minutes after you leave.
Pick morris, rapper or longsword first. Each is a different invented side, with its own members, its own dances and its own words.
Your side's history comes with you. When Hereburgh moved across, every dance out and every answer back to 2017 came too. On the Events tab, each past season is one press of History away.
Send me your spreadsheet, with the names taken out if you like. I'll tell you honestly how much of it can come across.