Cars and coffee: one page for a meet that repeats

A cars and coffee meet has three problems every single week, and none of them is registration. Nobody knows how many are coming, so the organizer tells the coffee shop “a hundred, maybe three.” The 6 a.m. weather call is a Facebook post that forty people never see. And the business whose lot it is wants its name on the thing and some proof the lot is worth giving up. A series page answers those three, and stays out of the way of everything else.

What a series is

A series is one page with a permanent address for a meet that repeats. Yours might be yourclub.thecarshowhq.com/saturdays/, or the root of your site, or your own domain. At the top: the name, the rhythm in your words (“Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m.”), where it is, and the host if there is one. Below that, the next date and whether it’s on. Then an “I’m coming” button with a running count, and a roll of photos from past weeks.

It sits on top of a show that repeats. If you already have a show set to weekly, every two weeks or monthly on the Show details tab, the series takes its dates from that chain and its photos from every week that has happened. Nothing about the repeating show changes; each week still has its own page, its own photos, and, if you use it, its own ballot.

In Manage the meet is one thing, not one entry per week. The show switcher lists it once, as “Meet: Saturday Coffee” with the next date. While you’re on it, the dashboard is the meet’s: the date, the headcount, the call for the week with its three buttons, then the address for the sign, this week’s page and the photos. No show controls, no kiosk, no voting tiles. The menu drops Registrants, Categories, Results and Forms and adds Series and Photos, and a Recurring meet badge sits beside the page title with the address. Past weeks live on the series page, in the report, not in the switcher. The same goes for the public side: “More from the club” on your show pages links the series page once, marked as a recurring meet.

Making one

If you’re new, you’ll never have to find it. The first screen after you sign in asks what you’re setting up: a car show, or a recurring meet. Pick the meet and the rest of the setup is four short questions: how often it meets, what the page is called, what “I’m coming” asks, and whose lot it is. Press Make the page and you’re looking at your series page in Manage with the address to put on the sign. No fee question, no gate question, nothing about who picks the winners. If you said “cars and coffee” or “cruise-in” when you asked for your account, the meet card is already picked.

Already have shows? Manage, then Series (it’s in the search palette as “cars and coffee” too). The New series form on the right is already filled in if the show you’re managing repeats: pick it under Built on, give the page a name and an address, and press Create the page. A show you set to repeat this morning is on the list straight away; it doesn’t wait for its first week to end. The address shares the space with your show and page addresses, so the form tells you if it’s taken.

The rest of the form is the page’s words and its switches. When, in your words, prints under the name. Where prints beside it. The host business gets a name, a website, and a logo that sits in the sidebar. Then four switches: take RSVPs at all, ask for an email, ask whether they’re bringing a car, and show the headcount on the page. A meet that wants a pure headcount turns the email off and loses the rain-out email with it; a meet that’s nervous about its landlord hides the count.

“I’m coming”

A first name, an email if you asked for one, and a tick for “I’m bringing a car” with a line for what it is. That’s the whole form, and it works on a phone with one thumb. Saying it twice with the same email updates the car and never doubles the count. The count under the button is what makes the next person click; it’s per week, so Saturday morning starts from zero the moment the chain moves on.

The emails are the asset. They’re the people who said they were coming this week, and they’re the only ones the rain-out call goes to. Every email carries its own stop link, and someone who uses it is off every future call for that series.

The call

On your dashboard, the tile for a repeating show shows the count for this week and three buttons: On as planned, Rained out, Skipping this one. The same three sit on the series page in Manage with a line for a note. Rained out and Skipping change the public page immediately and email everyone coming this week, once, with your note (“Lot’s under water, see you the 12th”). On sends nothing, on purpose; a “still on” email every week is how people stop reading. The call belongs to that week: when the chain moves on to the next date, the page reads On again by itself.

It’s email only. Car Show HQ doesn’t text people.

What the venue sees

The host’s name and logo on the page, linked to their site, is most of what they asked for. The rest is on the series page in Manage: a meet-by-meet table with the date, how many said they were coming, how many with a car, how many photos went up, and the call that was made. That table is the answer to “is the lot worth it,” and it’s there every Monday without anyone counting.

If the host wants the page to carry their brand rather than ours, that’s the white-label plan, and the annual pass is priced for a meet that runs every week: one pass covers every week of the year.

What it does not do

• It doesn’t register anyone or charge anything. An RSVP is a name, not an entry.
• It doesn’t send a reminder. The email goes out when a meet is called off, not before every one.
• It doesn’t text.
• Sponsors and the donate button come from the week’s show, the same way they do on any show page.

Next: set your show to repeat if it doesn’t already, make the series, and put the address on the sign at the entrance. The count takes care of itself from there.

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