Answer
What a brigade sign-in sheet has to record
Issue 1Dated First issue
A brigade sign-in sheet records six things: date, name, time in, time out, signature and who was in charge. The first five are columns, with one row for each person. The officer in charge is written once for the whole sheet. You can rule one up on paper, or use a kiosk at the station instead.
The six things
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Use one sheet for each turnout, training session or meeting, with a row for each person.
- Date. The day of the activity.
- Name. The person's full name. A first name on its own is hard to match to a member later.
- Time in. When they arrived at the station.
- Time out. When they left. Without it there is no way to work out their hours.
- Signature. Each person signs their own row to confirm it.
- Who was in charge. The name of the officer who ran the activity. This only needs to be written once, at the bottom of the sheet.
Ruling one up on paper
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An A4 page turned sideways fits the five columns and about twenty rows. Write the brigade name, the date and the activity at the top, so a loose sheet can still be identified. Leave a line at the bottom for the officer in charge to sign.
Start a new sheet for each activity instead of using one sheet for the whole week. It is much easier to see who was at a particular turnout that way.
Where a paper sheet goes wrong
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A paper sheet does the job on the day. The problems start when someone has to type it into a spreadsheet a few weeks later. By then some sheets have gone missing, some people have not signed out, and some of the handwriting is hard to read, so they end up guessing at the times.
That is nobody's fault. It is a lot to ask of one piece of paper.
Signing in at a station kiosk instead
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With responda, members sign in on a kiosk at the station instead of on paper. They enter their member number and tap the reason for their visit. When they leave, they enter their number again to sign out. responda records both times, so there is nothing to type up later. Brigade leadership can check who is signed in whenever they need to.
Station sign-in shows how it works, with a sign-in record from our demo brigade.
Ask about your own sheet
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Every brigade does sign-in a bit differently. Tell us how yours works and what you need to report on, and we can tell you whether responda is a good fit.