How to track attendance in a volunteer club
Most puppy raising clubs ask members to come to a certain number of meetings and events each semester. Keeping count usually falls to an officer with a paper sign-in sheet and a spreadsheet, and members only find out they’re behind when it’s too late to catch up.
Decide what counts
Start by naming the kinds of things members attend, such as general meetings, training classes and outreach events. Then set how many of each a member needs per semester. Requirements can differ by role. Raisers might need more training classes than members who don’t have a puppy at home. Write the requirements down at the start of the semester so nobody is surprised later.
Check people in quickly
Paper sheets are slow, hard to read, and have to be typed up afterward. A QR code shown at the meeting is faster. Members scan it with their phones as they arrive and they’re counted. For anyone who forgot their phone, an officer can tick them off a list.
Allow makeups
People get sick, have exams, or travel. Decide how a missed meeting can be made up, for example by helping at an outreach event, and record each makeup against the requirement it covers. Members stay on track, and officers don’t have to remember who was excused.
Let members see their own progress
When members can see for themselves what they’ve attended and what’s still needed, they catch up on their own, and officers spend less time answering the same question.
Attendance in Canidary
Canidary lets your club create its own attendance categories, each with a target for raisers, sitters, members and officers. Every event on the calendar can count toward a category. At the event, an officer shows a QR code and members check in from their phones, or the officer marks people present from a list.
Officers can log makeups and choose which category each one counts toward. Every member sees their own progress in each category and whether they’ve met it. Your club decides who can take attendance. See everything Canidary does, or start a club.