What do people see before it opens?

The whole sheet, read-only, with a line at the top: “Sign-ups open Mon, Oct 12 at 9:00 AM CDT.” Every button is greyed out until that minute. Share the link as early as you like.

Can someone still cancel after it closes?

Yes. Closing stops new sign-ups, waitlist joins, and changes to a spot; the cancel link in a volunteer's email keeps working, so a sick greeter is never trapped. Locking is the one that stops cancellations too.

Your church's, set once under the Sign-up window card and used for every sheet. The default is Central; pick yours from the list and it's remembered.

Does this replace the per-slot sign-up deadline?

No — they do different jobs. The deadline (“close each slot two days before its date”) rolls along a meal train slot by slot. The window is one open and one close for the whole sheet. Use either, or both.

Can I still add people myself?

Always. The window and the lock only ever apply to the public page. The Sign-ups tab adds, moves, and removes volunteers whenever you need, and Message volunteers still reaches everyone on the sheet.

Announcement · October 14, 2026

doors open at nine

Sign-ups that open and close on a schedule

Two requests, from two directions. A children's pastor wanted to put the VBS link in Sunday's bulletin but not have forty spots gone by Sunday lunch — before the families who only check email on Monday had a chance. And a worship leader wanted the schedule to stop moving on Thursday so she could print it once. Both are the same feature from different ends: a sheet that's public, but only taking sign-ups between two times you choose.

The short version: On any sheet's Settings tab, the new Sign-up window card takes an Opens time, a Closes time, or both. People see the whole sheet either way; the buttons simply wait until it opens and stop when it closes. Tick Lock this sheet to freeze everything by hand, cancellations included. Times are in your church's time zone, set once. Every plan, any admin.

A fair start

Set Opens to Monday at 9:00 AM, publish on Thursday, print the QR code for Sunday. Anyone who scans it early sees every slot and a line that says exactly when sign-ups open — in your zone, with the zone named, so a grandparent in Arizona isn't left doing arithmetic. At 9:00 the buttons come alive. Nobody camps the page; nobody needs to be told “it's not live yet.”

A final list

Set Closes to Thursday at noon and the sheet stops taking anything new at noon on the dot: no sign-ups, no waitlist joins or offers, no changing a spot. What it doesn't stop is cancelling. We thought about that one for a while and landed firmly: a volunteer who wakes up sick on Saturday should never be stuck on a list because the sheet closed on Thursday. You'd rather know. The spot opens up; you decide who fills it.

The page itself stays up, so people can still see the schedule and who's on it, and the status bar on your side shows a Sign-ups closed badge next to ● Live. Unpublishing is still there for when you want the page gone entirely.

And a lock, for when it's printed

Sometimes even cancellations should route through a person. The schedule is on the wall; the bulletin is at the printer. Tick Lock this sheet and everything freezes — the cancel links politely ask people to contact the church instead. Untick it and life resumes. A lock is deliberately a one-off: a recurring sheet's next occurrence inherits the open and close rhythm but is never born locked.

None of this touches what you can do. The window and the lock only apply to the public page. Adding, moving, and removing people from the Sign-ups tab works at any time, and so does messaging everyone on the sheet.

The small print we got right

Time zones, once. Every church now has one. It's set from the same card, defaults to Central, and is used for every sheet's window. Slot times are untouched — they were never real clock times, and they still read exactly as you typed them.
Move all dates moves the window. If the retreat slips a week, “closes the Thursday before” is still the Thursday before.
Repeating sheets keep the rhythm. Opens Monday 9 AM, closes Saturday noon means the same thing for next week's greeters.
Nothing nags about a sheet nobody can join. The spots-still-open heads-up and the last call both skip sheets that aren't taking sign-ups.

The walkthrough is in Publish, share & embed. If you've been working around this with an unpublish on Thursday and a sticky note to republish, you can take the sticky note down.

Common questions

What do people see before it opens?: The whole sheet, read-only, with a line at the top: “Sign-ups open Mon, Oct 12 at 9:00 AM CDT.” Every button is greyed out until that minute. Share the link as early as you like.
Can someone still cancel after it closes?: Yes. Closing stops new sign-ups, waitlist joins, and changes to a spot; the cancel link in a volunteer's email keeps working, so a sick greeter is never trapped. Locking is the one that stops cancellations too.
Which time zone?: Your church's, set once under the Sign-up window card and used for every sheet. The default is Central; pick yours from the list and it's remembered.
Does this replace the per-slot sign-up deadline?: No — they do different jobs. The deadline (“close each slot two days before its date”) rolls along a meal train slot by slot. The window is one open and one close for the whole sheet. Use either, or both.
Can I still add people myself?: Always. The window and the lock only ever apply to the public page. The Sign-ups tab adds, moves, and removes volunteers whenever you need, and Message volunteers still reaches everyone on the sheet.

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