How to Organize a Tournament Checklist

If you're in charge of your child's basketball tournament or your soccer league's season championships, the task can be daunting. The added responsibility of sponsoring a tournament for charity may mean additional stress. As the number of participants grows, so too can the likelihood of getting overwhelmed and forgetting a major component of the event. Making an organized list of the equipment you'll need and tasks to be accomplished will be essential to pulling off the tournament successfully. Categorizing those elements or listing them along a time line can help with dividing labor.

Things You'll Need

  • Spreadsheet software
  • Printer/copier
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Instructions

  1. Organizing thr Checklist by Master Timeline

    • 1

      Brainstorm major tasks that need to be accomplished on and before tournament day. Examples include reserving event space, placing an ad for participants in a local newspaper, purchasing or arranging for prizes, preparing a registration list and collecting entry fees.

    • 2

      Place items in the order of when they need to be accomplished, starting from tournament day and working backward to today. Ask vendors how much time they need to deliver products to determine where to put ordering from those vendors on the time line.

    • 3
      Separating tasks by when they need to be accomplished will ensure you hit deadlines and keep you from focusing on later tasks at the expense of immediate ones.

      Break the list down into days, weeks or months, depending on how much time you have before tournament day --- a checklist for a simple tournament two weeks away may have the same number of tasks as a major charity function that takes six months of planning, so knowing that certain tasks need to be done today, tomorrow, next Monday, etc. will help you accomplish tasks quickly.

    • 4

      Enter the list into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheet software isn't just for complex math equations --- the built-in grid is perfect for formatting a list and can help keep tabs on expenditures and entry fees.

    Organizing Checklist by Category

    • 5

      Brainstorm major tasks that need to be accomplished on and before tournament day. Examples include reserving event space, placing an ad for participants in a local newspaper, purchasing or arranging for prizes, preparing a registration list and collecting entry fees.

    • 6

      Separate tasks based on the type of skill they require. For example, tracking entry fees or operating costs would fall under Money/Finance, registering a charity tournament as a 501(c)3 would fall under Legal and building goody bags and making signs for the event would fall under Crafts.

    • 7
      Computerized spreadsheets offer built-in structure, helpful to organizing your checklist.

      Enter items on the list into a spreadsheet organized by category.

    • 8

      If you enlisted help planning your tournament, print the checklist by section and put people in charge of each section based on their skill sets.