A three-hour school festival, timed: the run-sheet skeleton.
A school festival does not fall apart at the games; it falls apart in the fifteen minutes nobody wrote down — the check-in crush, the handover where the money moves, the hour after close when six volunteers look at a field of tables. A run sheet is the day, timed, line by line, with a name on every line. Here is the skeleton for a three-hour festival, from the invented Maple Hollow pack on the sample page.
Setup — two hours before the gate, not one
Tables, signage, the float counted and logged, the first shift briefed where they stand. The line most chairs cut is the one that saves the day: a 30-minute buffer between "set up" and "doors", because the bounce house arrives late everywhere, every year.
Check-in — staffed 30 minutes before you think you need it
Families arrive before the posted time. Two people at the gate for the first hour, one after. The wristbands or tickets and the cash box each have a named owner; "someone at the gate" is how a cash box goes missing without anything being stolen.
The middle — one line per station, one name per line
Each game, the food table, the raffle-free prize table: who runs it, when their shift ends, who relieves them. A volunteer who knows who relieves them stays cheerful for the whole shift; one who does not starts packing up early.
The handover — the programme pauses when the money moves
Once, mid-event, the cash gets consolidated: the run sheet names the two people who do it together, where it goes, and what pauses while it happens. Two names, always — not because anyone is suspected, but so nobody can be.
Last call — said out loud, twice
Thirty minutes before close and at close: the announcement line is written on the sheet so whoever holds the mic says the same thing. Food stops first, games second, so the lines drain instead of growing.
Close and count — the shift with the best view
Cleanup 6:00–7:30, named crew, specific jobs (tables stacked, field walked, trash out, lost-and-found boxed), then the count: two people, the same two who did the handover, with the total texted to the chair before anyone leaves. The sample’s volunteer ask calls cleanup "the shift with the best view: the field empty, the money counted, the leftover hot dogs" — because the ask for the unglamorous shift is the one that has to be written well.
The rule behind the skeleton
Every line has a time, a job and a name. If a line has two of the three, the day finds the gap. The run sheet is one page; if it needs two, the event has too many stations for the volunteers signed up, and the sheet just told you that on Tuesday instead of Saturday.
Three questions.
How detailed should the times be?
Fifteen-minute lines for the first and last hour, half-hour lines in the middle. The edges of an event are where the day is won; the middle runs itself if the names are right.
Who gets a copy?
Everyone with a name on it, the night before, plus one taped at check-in and one with the chair. The sheet on the fridge at home runs nothing.
What about weather?
One line at the top: the call time ("8 AM day-of"), who makes it, and the one-sentence plan B. Not a second sheet — a second sheet is a second event nobody rehearsed.
Get the sample pack first
The invented Maple Hollow Fall Festival pack — flyer, sponsor letter, volunteer ask, run sheet and thank-you post — as a PDF.
Download the run-sheet skeleton now (PDF, one page, 109 KB) — no email needed.
All five pieces for one event, written from your own notes within two days, $29 / C$39. Nothing invented; we contact no sponsor or school for you.