Quick and Easy Gate System
Contributed by Maitresse Anne-Marie d'Ailleurs, OP OL

Madrone uses a pretty spiffy system (I'm a bit biased, I developed it some years ago for that first hotel 12th night we did). Its tidy, easy and newbie volunteer proof :). It also guarantees your gate proceeds balance with the signin sheets. Woohoo!

Generate a stack of sign in sheets. These have numbered lines for the person's name, branch, amount paid and if they're a minor, etc. Number each sheet with a unique number. Match each sheet with a regular sized envelope and put a big matching number on the outside.

As folks sign in, have them fill in the sheet. When they give you money, note down how much they gave you, and stick it in the matching envelope. If you have to make change, do it from the money in the envelope. Periodically, break larger bills as need, but always keep the same net amount in the envelope. When the sheet is full, tally the amount of money that SHOULD be in the envelope and the amount that is in the envelope. These should be the same. If they're not, write on the sheet why not, and sign it. ("took out $20 to pay for TP"...not recommended but sometimes you gotta :))

Seal the envelope with the attending sign-in sheet, and those funds. Write on the outside the amount that's in there, and sign it. Put the envelope away for later pickup.

At the end of the event, you can just tally the number of envelopes (each sheet has say 25 name slots, so one envelope means 25 people) and the amount of money on the outside. Your gate is balanced!

The matter of non member waivers is a newer one, but can easily be dealt with by just adding a column on the sign-in sheet "member?" and if they check NO, they get handed a separate waiver form that gets filed immediately. Ditto minors.