Slots, RSVPs, and Capacity

A slot is one row on your sheet with a label and a number of spots: a dish to bring, a shift to cover, a time block to reserve, or an item to donate. An event can be a single slot or dozens, and each slot has its own capacity. Guests see every slot as a card with live availability.

Not every event needs a structured sheet. In RSVP mode there is no slot picker at all; guests just say they are coming, and the optional attendee limit caps total headcount. In slot mode you control the structure: you can make choosing a slot required, or leave it optional so guests can sign up even without claiming a specific spot.

You can also allow multiple slot selections, letting one guest claim several spots in a single signup, for example the same volunteer taking both the setup and cleanup shifts. Capacity is checked per slot, and the person counts once toward the event headcount.

With collect party sizeenabled, a guest reports how many people they are bringing, up to 50 including themselves. Each slot then has a choice to make: does the whole party count against the slot's capacity, or just one spot?

• Count the whole party for things like seats at conference tables, where a family of four really uses four spots.
• Count one spotfor things like "bring a side dish", where one signup covers the dish no matter how many people tag along.

Party sizes always count toward the event-wide attendee limit either way, so your total headcount stays accurate for planning food, chairs, or space.

Capacity works at two independent levels. Per-slot capacitycontrols each row, and the attendee limit caps the entire event. The form closes when either layer fills: slots can have room while the event is at its headcount cap, and vice versa. Leave the attendee limit empty for unlimited total attendance.

When a signup link hits a group chat, a dozen people can go for the last spot within the same second. Reservations are checked and claimed in a single atomic database operation, so exactly one of them gets it and everyone else sees the slot fill in real time. Pending signups from the double opt-in flow hold their spot only until they expire, so abandoned holds release automatically.