Organisation

How do you organize a group of people to attend a series of meetings?

I'm currently in charge of the Call Sheet for my dramatic society's next production, so that's about 3 rehearsals a week for just over 2 months with a cast of 9 plus director.

step 1 - cast wrote down dates they couldn't make, e.g. work commitments, parish meetings etc.
step 2 - director planned a call sheet
step 3 - I put it onto a Google spreadsheet and emailed all the cast
step 4 - Cast emailed me with further dates they couldn't make
step 5 - We have rehearsals with half the cast there with me and the director reading in

Which is bad.

What has worked well though is having the call sheet available at all times for the cast - we've linked from the society's website to a published version of the call sheet. I would have liked to have google email the cast when ever I made a change rather than myself having to email them with changed but having set up a group in gmail for the cast this isn't too hard of a job.

Also, the director doesn't use a computer, her husband only checks her emails every few days so, if a cast member emails me a date they can't do, I have to update the Google spreadsheet, email the cast members and phone the director to tell her.

There has to be a better way...