Event committee workload planner
Your committee volunteers want to help, and you need to see whether the work assigned to them actually fits their time.
…
The short answer
This planner compares estimated task hours with stated availability for each role in each period. It shows allocated hours, available hours, any gap, and the tasks that overlap in the same period.
Blank availability is treated as unknown, not zero. Zero availability with work assigned is reported as a gap in hours, with no percentage, so nothing is divided by zero.
What to enter
- Availability: for each role and period, the hours that role can give. Use the same period labels everywhere, such as Oct, Nov or Week 1.
- Tasks: the task, the role doing it, the period, and the estimated hours.
- Leave hours blank when unknown. Enter 0 only when the role truly has no time in that period.
How to read the table
Each row is one role in one period. The status says Within stated availability, Over availability, Gap: no availability, or Availability unknown.
Use of availability is shown as a percentage only when availability is above zero. Otherwise it reads n/a and the gap is shown in hours.
Overlapping commitments
When one role has several tasks in the same period, the table lists them together with their hours and adds them up. This makes it visible that a role is carrying several things at once.
A task without a role or a period, or without hours, is left out of the totals and listed in a warning. Unknown is never counted as zero.
Limits
All hours are your estimates. The tool does not judge whether an estimate is realistic or how many hours volunteers should give.
Settle who is accountable for each task with the responsibility matrix builder, and record any decision to reduce scope in the decision log.
Worked example · Fictional example
A fictional committee in October and November
Fictional roles and hours, to show the three kinds of flag.
The secretariat head has 20 hours in October and 28 assigned across three tasks, a gap of 8 hours with three overlapping commitments. The treasurer has 0 hours and 4 assigned, a gap with no percentage.
The programme chair left availability blank with 5 hours assigned, so the row reads Availability unknown. The total gap is 12 hours.
Use this yourself
Workload worksheet
Fill in one row per role and period, then compare the two hour columns.
| Role | Period | Hours available | Hours assigned | Gap (assigned minus available, if positive) | Tasks in this period |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Handle it in-house, or bring in help?
Your team can usually handle this when
- The committee is small, the period is short and volunteers can say honestly what they can give.
- Gaps are small and can be absorbed by moving a few tasks.
Outside planning help earns its fee when
- The same few people are over-committed across several periods and tasks keep slipping.
- The gap is larger than the committee can close and extra capacity is needed.
- Volunteers are unclear what is expected of them and availability is unknown.
Need extra capacity or someone to coordinate it?
A conference project lead can take on coordination of the workstream, chase decisions and keep the committee's hours focused on what only the committee can do. An embedded project manager can add temporary dedicated capacity. Bring your workload table with its gaps still showing.
Questions organisers ask
Why is there no percentage for some rows?
A percentage of zero availability cannot be calculated. The tool shows the gap in hours instead.
What does availability unknown mean?
Work is assigned but no availability was entered for that role and period. The hours cannot be compared until it is.
Are the hours I enter saved?
They can be saved in your own browser and cleared at any time. Shared summaries contain counts and totals only.
Related resources
Content record: Draft. Written from the cited sources and checked by automated rules; not yet independently reviewed.