How do I choose a family reunion date?

Shortlist the candidate weekends, put them in one poll, and share the link with every household. Choose the weekend with the highest availability, giving extra weight to relatives travelling the furthest.

Will older relatives be able to use it?

There is no account, no app and no login. Opening the link and tapping the days that work is the whole task, and it works on any phone browser.

Is EveryoneAvailable free?

Yes. EveryoneAvailable is currently free to use. There are no paid plans, no upgrade prompts, and no ads.

What if one relative refuses to use any online tool?

Have another family member call them, note their availability against the same shortlisted weekends, and enter it into the poll for them, so they still appear in the shared results grid.

Family reunions

Find a date for your family reunion

A reunion has the hardest scheduling problem there is: three generations, several time zones, and a range of comfort with technology. The tool has to work for a cousin on a laptop and an aunt on a five-year-old phone.

Find a Date See how it works

Create a free availability poll and share it with your group.

One link, no accounts, no app

Relatives open the link and tap the days that work. There is nothing to install, no password to forget, and no email confirmation to get lost in a spam folder — which is the single biggest reason older relatives drop out of scheduling tools.

Poll weekends, not every day

Most reunions land on a weekend, so keep the range to the candidate weekends across a season rather than every date in three months. Fewer options means more answers, and more answers means a date you can defend.

One responder per household

Ask each household to answer once, with the household name — "The Karlssons (4)" — instead of every person answering separately. Head counts stay accurate and the grid stays readable.

Chase gently, then decide

Set a deadline two or three weeks out and share the link twice: once when you open the poll, once a few days before it closes. Then pick the top date and send it as a decision, not another question.

Accounting for travel distance and school holidays

Weight the result by who is travelling furthest, not just by raw headcount. A weekend with fifteen local relatives but no one flying in from overseas may be less useful than a school-holiday week where the distant branch of the family can actually justify the flight. Ask long-distance relatives which weeks they could plan travel around before the poll opens, and build those weeks into the options rather than hoping they happen to line up.

Handling relatives who won't use a link

There will usually be one or two relatives who will not, or cannot, open a link themselves. Nominate a family member to call them, read out the shortlisted weekends, and enter the answer on their behalf using the same poll — there is no requirement that the person who taps the answer is the person attending. This keeps them in the same grid as everyone else instead of running a separate phone-call tally on the side.

Worked example

Example: a 34-person reunion across three states

An extended family of thirty-four across three states wants to hold a reunion over a summer weekend, with one branch flying in from overseas and one elderly relative who does not use a smartphone.

1The organiser shortlists four candidate weekends across July and August, avoiding the overseas branch's known travel-restricted weeks.
2The poll is shared as one link per household, with instructions for each household to answer once.
3A grandson is asked to call the one relative without a smartphone and enter her answer for her.
4The link is sent again five days before the two-week deadline as a reminder.
5The results show the first August weekend clearly ahead, including the overseas branch marked firmly available.
6The organiser announces the date and books the venue the same week.

Twenty-nine of thirty-four relatives confirmed for the first weekend in August, including the branch flying in from overseas, decided three weeks after the poll opened.

Frequently asked questions

How do I choose a family reunion date?: Shortlist the candidate weekends, put them in one poll, and share the link with every household. Choose the weekend with the highest availability, giving extra weight to relatives travelling the furthest.
Will older relatives be able to use it?: There is no account, no app and no login. Opening the link and tapping the days that work is the whole task, and it works on any phone browser.
Is EveryoneAvailable free?: Yes. EveryoneAvailable is currently free to use. There are no paid plans, no upgrade prompts, and no ads.
What if one relative refuses to use any online tool?: Have another family member call them, note their availability against the same shortlisted weekends, and enter it into the poll for them, so they still appear in the shared results grid.

find a date everyone can makeThe general date-finding flow.guide: choosing a family reunion dateTiming, travel and head counts.plan a group tripIf the reunion involves travel.

Find the day everyone can make it