Group ski house scheduler/organizer application?

[gonzo]

We have a 3 bedroom condo w/12 people and several couples. I've been thinking it would be helpful to use something to schedule ski house bedrooms/weekends in advance in a democratic fashion to avoid 1) the mad rush every Friday to try to get a bedroom 2) the single guy getting shafted and sleeping on the couch every weekend 3) not knowing if you were going to be on the couch when your SO is coming up to visit.

The optimal arrangement I can think of would be some sort of fantasy sports style "draft" that pooled all the bedrooms and for each weekend and allowed picks in order. Then folks would know when they "had" a bedroom and they could trade down the road with others if they wanted to.

Any ideas how to pull this off without actually getting everyone in the same room? Barring some application being out there that I don't know of, I'm thinking a shared Google spreadsheet with a random pick order might do it?

[MassLiberal]

Continually randomizing picks may end up screwing someone in the end. Why don't you have a fantasy style draft for the first weekend and then have a set "bedroom schedule" that revolves each weekend. That way you can have a set schedule for the entire season. When you have that solidified, people can trade independently if they are unable to use the house on a weekend that they are stuck in the city working or appeasing their lady's desire to watch hugh grant movies and complain about it being cold.

By the way, don't you live in Chicago? Where the hell is your ski house?

[gonzo]

I'm moving to CA next week

Seems like a fixed rotation would be easiest up front but would involve the most trading later...definitely can get through it though. A fixed draft order would be more work up front but would result in less trading later...some people won't care to draft though which could pork the whole thing.

[Brock Landers]

if they dont draft, then automate their weekend. if they dont like it, theyll need to draft or trade their weekend. seems like you idea is pretty fair. being the single guy in a house like that sucks especially when you go out to the bars after and invite a nice ski bunny back to your...bathtub/couch/lazy susan

[Steven S. Dallas]

I'm moving to CA next week

Yeeeeeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Odin]

Key party.

[The Dad]

I think that Ubashare may have features like that.

[woodstocksez]

I think you should use the system that I'm using with Alpinedad. I plan on showing up at his ski house every weekend and taking the best bedroom. So far he hasn't indicated that's a problem.

[Sinecure]

A guy I know created a good site for scheduling/coordination. Its called Ubashare. I know he was planning some upgrades for this season to incorporate suggestions I and others had made. I don't know if it includes the bedroom prioritization stuff you ask about (it was one of the suggestions I've made - but there are so many different ways to accomplish it that I don't know how realistic it is to implement in software).

I've seen houses do it any number of ways. Of course the reality with most ski leases is that they are rarely full. That said, you probably still need rules to avoid conflict. We used to have a rule that if you had a BR one weekend, you were at the bottom of the list for having one the following weekend. Everyone had until Wednesday to make their "reservation," at which point if there were unclaimed beds, they were fair game to be reserved by the people who had been up the weekend before. There are also likely to be some more/less desirable rooms. You might try to work something in about that, but I think we mostly did first come first served there (assuming you had a right to a room/bed).

Anyway, give Ubashare.com a try. If you want something added, write to Bill - the guy who runs it.

[The Dad]

I think you should use the system that I'm using with Alpinedad. I plan on showing up at his ski house every weekend and taking the best bedroom. So far he hasn't indicated that's a problem.

Change yer plans, big guy.

[Sinecure]

Hmmm. Woodstock vs. AlpineMom. Even with Snoopy and the Red Baron on his side, I'd say Woody doesn't stand a chance.

[truth]

Congrats Gonzo. Enjoy the ride man.

[tarkman1]

I used a system similar to MassLiberal's recommendation to great satisfaction. Posting the schedule on a commonly accessible calendar works well.

Keep track of the 'books' well. Whoever is organizing shouldn't be expected to pay out of pocket without reimbursement for cleaning, cleaning supplies. It's safe to say that some people will show up and not drop a penny on keeping the place clean.

[woodstocksez]

Change yer plans, big guy.

Oops. Should've kept that plan secret, I see.

[yogachik]

Be sure you charge for guests. That way, you have a kitty for bills, supplies, etc. Make sure there is one person in charge of keeping things like toilet paper stocked. If there isn't, you'll never have TP

Online calendars work well. The best way to handle the bedroom vs no bedroom thing is to have a deadline, as mentioned above. Ours was Thursday at noon. If you aren't on the calendar, and you decide to go on Friday night, you get what you get, period.

You'll find the house empty a lot of the time - but I do hope you have an even amount of weekenders vs mid-week/storm-chasers, that makes a big difference in terms of spreading out the bodies needing beds.

Where is this house?

[Sinecure]

FYI, the Ubashare thing takes care of much of the accounting for you. Someone signs up with a guest, it automatically adds guest fees to their "account" so you know what to collect as the organizer. You can set one guest fee for weekdays and another for weekends as well. Plus you can limit the number of allowed cars, how many times an individual guest can stay during the season (this can be a problem if someone brings their gf nearly every weekend but doesn't sign them up as a member).

I wrote a Ski Lease Primer once on a local SF ski board that you may find helpful to read. It doesn't cover everything, but there's a fair amount of stuff in there.

[likwid]

draft + google calendar.
done.

[comish]

We have used the Yahoo Calendar function in the Yahoo Groups for a ski house in Mammoth for the past 3 years and it has worked well. The place is never full, but on the rare weekends that a lot of people sign up, then "members" get beds, "guests" get what ever and in general guests are only allowed if there is room. We do charge a guest fee like Yoga suggested and it has gone well for us.

[Superstar Punani]

Here's some tips/rules:

1) "Check yoself befo' you wreck yoself"
Choose lease holders who either:
- have a good track record of wrecking themselves
- is most likely to wreck themselves
or
- is scheduled to undergo some sort of surgery in the immediate future.

More gimps = more room in the house!

2) Leaseholder couples (both paying) get dibs on the mastur bateroom / private room

3) Guests- cool guests welcome as long as there's room in the house. Leaseholders have dibs on beds. Guests get whatever is left. Alcohol and lap dances gladly accepted in lieu of cash.

4) Create an email distribution list- find out who's heading up the weekend, etc. This helps plan out shit. Also helps to have a mix of weekend warriors of the wasteland, midweekers, and people who head up once every 2 weeks, once a month, etc.

5) Freeloading JONGs, nerds, dweebs, geeks, wastoids, who PM leaseholders with messages like "Hi I rarely post on TGR but noticed ur in a ski lease. can I come stay and we can be BFF's?" are encouraged to GET THE FUCK OUT.

[Evmo]

I'm moving to CA next week

You have been saying that for months, I'll believe it when I meet you for a beer...

We typically use evite, that is just for who is going, not for bedroom prioritization.

Just get a slacker "interweb" job that allows you to leave early on Friday (want to carpool and just go up Thurs PM?)