Re: Meal Tracking Programs
From: Diana Carroll (dianaecarrollgmail.com)
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 14:47:19 -0700 (PDT)
"The systems showing up on this thread now make my eyes cross.
 Spreadsheets?  Google Docs?  Forms?  Couldn't we just eat together?"

Maybe with 15-20 adults like you say.  We have something like 70 adults and
god knows how many children...a majority of the, eat common meals
-sometimes-, no one I know makes them all.

Your system only works for people who can make all or at least most Monday
nights in a given rotation. Anyone else doesn't get to participate.  What
about if someone is a picky eater, or has allergies, or for other reasons
finds they simply can't eat what ends up getting served on a given night?
 Or whose schedules vary a lot and don't have them home the same night
every week?

Our system is confusing and frustrating sometimes...but it also means that
people who have very strict eating requirements (e.g. my husband who is
celiac and can't eat any meal that might have been cross contaminated with
wheat during preparation), or who have erratic schedules, can still sign up
for the occasional meal when the stars align for schedule and menu to allow
it to happen.   My family would never participate in a program like yours,
sadly.

The upside our of confusing system is flexibility.  Tomorrow night one of
our most "advanced" cooks is making an "at cost" meal (meaning instead of
the usual fixed $4 per meal, we who sign up agree to pay whatever it ends
up costing, in this case I think something like $12 per)...and he'll be
making duck l'orange ala Julia child.  I'm psyched...duck at a common meal!
 (And no gluten to boot.).   In the past we've been able to have
interesting meals that appealed to only a subset of eaters (lobster bake!
 Spicy Indian food! Minecraft themed food! Carnivore-only BBQ!) because we
all sign up on a per meal basis, and have meals often enough that people
who don't/can't share a particular meal don't have to feel left out for
long.

As always, there's a tradeoff between simplicity and flexibility, and no
perfect balance that applies to all use cases.

Diana

On Wednesday, April 2, 2014, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:

>
> Diana -- it's just the people signed up in the rotation.
>
> About 15-20+ adults participate in the one meal a week.  Everyone is on a
> team that cooks once during the rotation.  The meal price is fixed at $4.00
> per person.  The team buys the food, cooks and cleans ONCE during the
> rotation.  If a participant doesn't show up for a meal ... he/she can have a
> plate saved.  But no money changes hands.
>
> I learned the above system visiting a cohousing community in Denmark in
> 1999.  I was struck by the simplicity of it all.
>
> We tried a number of systems here at TVC before settling on this one.
>  They involved index cards, forms, cash, checks change, collections ...
>
> The systems showing up on this thread now make my eyes cross.
>  Spreadsheets?  Google Docs?  Forms?  Couldn't we just eat together?
>
>
> Best --
>
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church VA
> 703-688-2646
>
>
> On Apr 2, 2014, at 4:18 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] 
> gmail.com<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > Holy moly, you have 100% attendance at every meal?  I don't think we've
> had
> > a single event at which we had 100% attendance.  That's pretty
> > impressive!!!!
> >
> > We've never found a technological solution that really satisfies our
> needs
> > as a community.  We ask cooks to keep track of signups, which they do in
> > whatever way works best for them.  Most use Google Forms to allow people
> to
> > sign up, but some have other systems or ask for just an email to indicate
> > signup.
> >
> > Cooks need to get the data into a spreadsheet that can be passed to the
> > volunteer who handles money (we have a "per meal" payment system), and I
> > understand that the Google Forms let that happen pretty easily, which is
> > why I think so many choose to do it.
> >
> > Sign up data includes who is eating, what unit they are in (for billing
> > purposes), whether they are eating a child-sized or adult portion (also
> for
> > billing purposes), and information cooks need for meal planning like
> which
> > dish they want if multiple dishes are offered; any allergies or special
> > requests; whether they will need a "late plate" and so on.
> >
> > Diana
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 2, 2014 at 4:08 PM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] 
> > earthlink.net<javascript:;>>
> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Sharon --
> >>
> >> We have ONE meal a week here at TVC.   Since everyone in the rotation
> >> attends every meal in the rotation you only have to sign up ONCE to
> cook.
> >> You don't sign up for every meal.   That's it. One time.  Do you think
> >> having a more sophisticated computerized system would produced more
> meals?
> >> If more meals is your goal I don't think a better tracking system is
> going
> >> to produce that.
> >>
> >> Do you have another goal?  Something I'm not hearing?
> >>
> >> On Mar 13, 2014, at 1:39 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
> >> sharonvillines.com<javascript:;>
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> Katie mentioned that they have a great mealtracking program. What do
> you
> >> use? And what do others use?
> >>>
> >>> We are still paper and pencil on a bulletin board and I find it very
> >> inconvenient. There could be many more possibilities if we had it
> online.
> >>>
> >>> Sharon
> >>> ----
> >>> Sharon Villines
> >>> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> >>> http://www.takomavillage.org
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Best --
> >>
> >> Ann Zabaldo
> >> Takoma Village Cohousing
> >> Washington, DC
> >> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> >> Falls Church VA
> >> 703-688-2646
> >>
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> >>
> >>
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>
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