http://schedule.austinimprov.com/ still works.
What I mean by that is not that some baffling web-based doodad functions as designed, it means that we once had a system that solved this precise problem. Not a technical system, a
social system; the web doodad just handled the bookkeeping and communications.
Backstory: There was a time when Micetro scheduling was a fucking trainwreck. Out of the people that showed up, a few would be sacrificed to work tech or host. If you're in a mindset to play and have been looking forward to it all week, it's really demoralizing to get cut or shoved in the booth. Sometimes we'd either have too few people and have to change format at the last minute or we'd have too many and the director would have to be a bastard and cut someone then and there. Even worse was when That Guy Who Should Not Be Onstage, Ever would show up with 4-6 coworkers and you'd have to let him play because of all the shitty beer his toothless cohorts bought (strangely, this was also That Guy Who Was Unavailable To Run Lights, Ever.) Combine all this - we were never sure who was playing, if we had tech, or who that tech was - and that spells trainwreck.
I felt this was unfair to both the cast and the audience and it really pissed me off that it was
totally and completely avoidable. So when I ended up managing Micetro, I created a tool where I put in all the upcoming events and all the jobs I needed filled, created a list of regular players, and had people submit their availability whenever they felt like it (via the web, or email, or in person.) On Monday I'd mail out a call for availability and by Thursday I mailed out a draft roster to the people scheduled plus a link to the current roster for the show. It was web-accessible so you could always see the lastest incarnation; some people check the web more than their email or vice versa so it was important to have both. A bonus was that the scheduler acted as a giant address book so I always had contact info for people, plus people updated their own info so it was self-maintaining (the incentive was that you kept your contact info current or you didn't get notified of upcoming shows & calls for availability.)
As a manager, I felt pretty comfortable because I knew that I had all the roles filled at least 48 hours before showtime, giving people plenty of time to line up replacements if something came up in the interim. I could schedule the flaky and hopeless people less and track who'd done tech recently and rotate people into the light booth for fairness. People who submitted their availability on Monday were more likely to be scheduled to play than people who submitted on Thursday so there was incentive to send in availability earlier and thus make my job easier.
The result was that everyone knew what they were doing and that the show was fully staffed which let people stop worrying and focus on performance. There were still problems with That Unstageworthy Bozo and the occasional last-minute flake-out, but those were exceptions; overall from a production standpoint the shows ran much more calmly and smoothly for nine months than they had before.
Then I bailed and we don't do that anymore.
To summarize:
- Constant, avoidable chaos is unprofessional, and personally destructive , contributing to crappy shows and cast burnout; therefore,
- Chaos should be exceptional and saved for the stage.
- People need to be held individually accountable; to wit,
- Each show needs a owner (manager) who oversees staffing, production, etc.
- The further in advance people know their responsibilities, the more time they have to arrange replacements or let the show manager know; so,
- Information (availability, rosters, etc.) needs to be easily available to everyone who needs it
- Using both 'push' and 'pull' media (email & web), we can accomodate people's different communication styles.
- A scheduling database has additional uses
- the event calendar can be exported to advertise shows
- the contact list can be used as an address book
- you can track who has flaked out and who has taken on support roles and reschedule people as appropriate
- If attendance and receipts are tracked, we can measure the success of our shows and slots, marketing campaigns, etc.
Aside: I believe that having a host troupe diffuses responsibility and communications (quick: name the primary point-of-contact for all the troupes you know of. Now name the secondary PoC because the primary is out of town.) It doesn't take into account the sizes of troupes and people's other responsibilities (say you're a parent and/or you're in three troupes...) Finally, tech and support roles can be filled by non- or not-yet-performing volunteers to help grow the organization. I understand the desire to have member troupes support the theater as a whole, but it sounds like this isn't working.
If my feelings got hurt every time I suggested a piece of software to help solve a social problem and people looked at me like I just offered to stuff a blender in their ass, I'd have given up years ago. The software I built worked for me and the Micetro cast three years ago; the only reason I built it was because at the time I couldn't find anything that did what I needed. There might be something better now, but as I said, the software is secondary. It's just a tool. What really made things work was the combination of ownership, individual responsibility, clear and early communication in both directions, and active participation by the cast.
I haven't seen solutions based on hand-wringing, horse-whipping, or hippy-dippy wishful thinking work. Give me a show roster 24 hours before showtime and confirmation (verbal, email, whatever) from each person that they'll be there and I'm happy. YMMV.
