Sometimes, managing a club can be challenging and requires a variety of skills. These days, most of them involves a computer, which can be daunting. Here is a list of some of the skills and tasks we do as volunteers.
- bookkeeping and finances
- poster design
- advertising & promotion
- images & videos
- club newsletters
- dance planning
- membership
- roster distribution
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some easy-to-use programs that could make our unpaid jobs easier and less stressful. Enter a new initiative by Calgary & District to help build some tools or track down some really good, already existing, free software that can help. To kick things off, I created the first in a series of programs, called Roster. I hope to add more programs and content to this page in the coming weeks.
But I also require your help. I need you to let me know what your biggest pain points are with the volunteer work you do. Do you wish there was a program that could help? Do you spend hours trying to assemble a document or file an annual return? Let me know your ideas for tools that could help. Send your ideas and comments to info@squaredancecalgary.com All programs will be Free and Open Source. You are free to copy and pass on these programs to others.
Work in Progress
Best means to make my software available to you
It took me a few tries and some research on how to deliver these programs to you. As you know, security is a concern internet-wide. What makes it difficult for hobby developers is that Email servers and many website hosting services will block – not send – “potentially dangerous” files, which included executable files.
There are generally two ways to get a program to your computer these days: either spend a lot of time and money on a certificate that allows “code-signing” or do what I’ve chosen to do through a source code repository. I chose Codeberg over Github for several reasons – political and ethical – that I won’t elaborate on here.
So, it is now easy to download my projects directly from my Codeberg site and if you are so inclined, you can recompile the program from scratch and not use my distributed executable file at all.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me through the same info email noted above.
Club Books
I am currently working on a generic club bookkeeping system that will help clubs manage their finances without a lot of accounting background, computer skills, or spending money on expensive software. I am modelling the program on the processes that my club treasurer performs, along with all the accounts that are required. The data is saved to a single SQLite database with a snapshot backup function. It will also be available for both Windows and Silicon Mac. I’ll have more to say as I build out more functionality, so stay tuned.
ROSTER
Roster is a small program that makes a PDF document from the membership list. It can format the PDF in two ways: booklet (fold in half and staple in the middle) and normal letter. The booklet should be printed double-sided, but the normal letter version is full page and single-sided works fine. Version 1.1.0 now generates a vCard file of all of the members in addition to the two PDFs. The documentation applies to Version 1.0.0 and a few things have changed. I will work to update the documentation for the latest version of software.
Here are sample versions of the booklet and letter PDF files that the program generates.
You can download the Version 1.0.0 documentation file separately.
Where to get the program
You can download the program for Apple Silicon Macs and Windows 10/11 from my Codeberg software repository at https://codeberg.org/biggianthead/roster/releases
The program is a single executable file and needs no installation. The Zip file contains example input files to get you started, so download that file and unzip it. Move the created folder to your desired working area. Then download the executable file and move it to the same folder. Now it’s ready to run either by double-clicking on the program in your file browser or running it from a terminal like other command line programs.
NOTE:
The program is not code signed for either system, which means your system security will catch it the first time you try to run the program. This behaviour is normal. On the Mac, when this happens, do not move the program to the trash, just close that window. Then, go to System Settings (the grey gear), then Privacy and Security, then scroll down near the bottom. After attempting to run the program, you should see it in the list. Click it and select Run Anyway. You will not be asked again. This only happens on the first run. For further information, please read the documentation file.
Updated: Sept 18, 2026