Herding Cats

Staffing & season planning

Staff every weekend without the spreadsheet scramble.

Twenty-six weekends, four tabs, one availability sheet that was true in September. The scramble isn't a personality problem — it's a data problem, and this board fixes it.

Best forOps coordinators who own the Thursday-night scramble
  • Free for up to 5 events
  • Nothing saves until you apply it
  • Set up in an afternoon

Season board · 2026–27

0/9 slots

Oct 10–12 weekend

Charlotte RegionalCLT

  • Judge
  • Judge
  • Event manager

Richmond RegionalRIC

  • Judge
  • Judge
  • Event manager

Oct 17–19 weekend

Nashville Fall ClassicBNA

  • Judge
  • Judge
  • Event manager

Nothing is saved until you apply it. Run it five times with different tags and you get the same answer for the same inputs — no model, no surprises.

  • Staff mark time off, not permission slips
  • Same inputs, same answer — reasons attached
  • Built with operators who staffed real tours

How it works

From staff list to a season, in four moves.

1

Import your people

CSV, Excel, or PDF roster — columns map themselves.

2

Staff mark time off

In their own portal, on a real calendar. No surveys.

3

Run the staffing

One weekend or the whole season, inside every rule.

4

Read the reasons, apply

Nothing touches the roster until you apply the run.

Availability, inverted

Stop asking who's free. Ask who isn't.

Your staff are assumed available all season. They mark the exceptions — a weekend toggle or a time-off range — in their own portal.

  • Toggles and the calendar write to one shared list
  • A stated “no” is never overridden
  • Coordinators see exceptions the moment they're marked

My availability · Dana Whitfield

Available unless marked — exceptions only

  • Feb 21–22 · CharlotteAvailable
  • Mar 7–8 · NashvilleAvailable
  • Mar 14–15 · LouisvilleTime off
  • Mar 21–22 · RichmondAvailable

Time off · Mar 12–19

“Out for spring break” blocks every weekend it touches. One list, one version of Dana's March.

Explainable runs

Every name comes with a why.

Every suggestion carries its reasoning — and every qualified person who wasn't offered shows up with the reason they were excluded. Same inputs, same answer, every run.

  • Reasons cite availability, conflicts, load caps, distance, day rate
  • One gig per weekend, enforced across the whole season
  • Assignments spread the load instead of burning out your three cheapest flyers

Judge · Louisville Spring Classic

Suggested: Bryce Coleman · CVG

Why Bryce

Available, a 100-mile drive instead of a flight, and only his 3rd weekend of a 6-weekend cap.

Who it didn't offer, and why

  • Dana W. — time off Mar 12–19
  • Jordan D. — already suggested for Richmond
  • Priya S. — at her season cap (6 of 6)

Swaps and removals

Take someone off a roster and the travel cleanup queues itself.

A swap keeps the outgoing assignment as history, notifies both people, and hands the travel coordinator the cleanup as work items — bookings never transfer silently.

  • Cancel-flight and cancel-hotel items, queued automatically
  • Swap chains: out of one event, into another, one move
  • Everyone affected is notified on their own channel

Swap · Nashville Fall Classic

Jordan Diaz out · Bryce Coleman in

  • Jordan marked replaced — kept as history
  • Bryce added as Judge and notified
  • Cancel flight — BOS → BNA, Thu Oct 15
  • Cancel flight — BNA → BOS, Sun Oct 18
  • Cancel hotel — 2 nights, Gaylord Opryland

Fair questions

What coordinators ask before trusting a run.

What if the AI overbooks someone?
It can't. One gig per weekend and season caps are enforced inside the engine, and nothing writes until a human applies the run. Same inputs always give the same answer.
Is this actually AI, or a black box?
The engine is rules — availability, qualification, load, cost — run the same way every time. That's what makes every suggestion explainable and every run repeatable.
Can we start mid-season?
Yes. Import your staff, staff one weekend, and leave the rest of the season wherever it lives today.
My spreadsheet works. Mostly.
A spreadsheet holds the plan; it can't enforce it. The rules that break every March need something checking all twenty-six weekends on every change.

Also in this module

The rest of what staffing covers.

  • 16 positions out of the box
  • Role qualification, enforced
  • Season load caps
  • Weekend-by-weekend build wizard
  • Day rates in every suggestion
  • Priced runs with live fares (add-on)
  • Staff and driver portals
  • Bulk import — CSV, Excel, PDF
  • Profile change approvals with audit trail

Ready for the season

Build next season in an afternoon.

Import your staff, drop in your calendar, run the board. Nothing saves until you say so.

  • Free for up to 5 events
  • No card required
  • Cancel any time