How to pick the next kitty party host fairly, every month
The short answer
The fairest way to pick the next kitty party host is a draw in which anyone who has already hosted is left out until everyone has had a turn. Draw one name a month from the members still waiting, or draw the whole order once at the start of the year and share it. Do it where everyone can see, and agree beforehand how swaps and missed months work.
Choosing the next host is the one moment in a kitty when a few hundred rupees and an afternoon of cooking are being handed to someone at random. That is why it causes more quiet resentment than any game. The answer is not a cleverer method but a visible one with rules agreed in advance. Here are three that work.
The rule that makes any method fair
Nobody hosts twice until everybody has hosted once. Every fair method is built on this. Each round, the names of members who have already hosted come out of the bowl, so each draw is between the members still waiting. When the last member has hosted, every name goes back in and a new round starts.
Without that rule, an unlucky member can be drawn three months running while another goes a year without hosting, and the draw stops being trusted however fair it was.
Method 1: draw one name each month
At the end of every kitty, put the names of the members still waiting into a bowl and draw one. She hosts next month.
This is the classic, and it keeps a bit of suspense in every meeting. It has two weak points. Handwritten chits can be recognised by their fold or their writing, and the bowl has to be kept carefully between months, with the right names in it.
Both go away if the draw is on screen. In the kitty party chits maker, choose Next host draw, replace the sample names with your members’ names (one per line), and press Draw a chit with everyone watching. The name comes up in large type, the draw picks at random from the names not yet drawn, and the page remembers on that device who has already been drawn, so next month you open it and draw again. When everyone has hosted, press Start again.
If you would rather keep the paper ritual, print the names as chits: 24 to a page with the fold layout, so every chit folds the same way and shows only its label.
Method 2: draw the whole year at once
In the first kitty of the year, draw every name in order and write the list down: January is Meera, February is Pooja, and so on. Share the list in the group chat.
This is the most practical method for busy groups. Everyone knows months ahead when their turn is, books the date, and plans the menu around festivals and exams. The draw happens once, in front of everybody, so there is nothing to suspect later.
On screen, press Shuffle into an order instead of drawing one at a time: it lists every remaining member in a random order at once. Copy the order into the chat. With twelve members and twelve months, the year is settled in a single tap.
Method 3: a fixed rota
Host in order of joining, alphabetically, or by where members live. A rota needs no draw at all and suits small groups that have met for years. It is less fun, and new members always land at the end, but it is the easiest to explain and nobody can call it unlucky.
Swaps, missed months and new members
Agree these before the first draw, write them down, and most arguments never start.
- Swaps. If the member drawn cannot host that month (a wedding, exams, guests at home) she swaps with a willing member and the swap is recorded. Avoid redrawing: a redraw quietly lets anyone skip a date she dislikes.
- A cancelled month. If a kitty is cancelled, the host for that month keeps her turn for the next one. She has usually already planned.
- A new member mid-year. Add her name to the members still waiting. In the on-screen draw, editing the list starts the draw afresh, so remove the members who have already hosted this round when you add her, then keep drawing. With a year’s order already drawn, add her to the end.
- A member who leaves. Take her name out of the waiting list; nothing else changes.
Do it in the open
Whatever the method, draw where everyone can see it, at the same point in every kitty, for example just after the kitty money is handed over. On a phone, turn the screen to the room; on a TV, use the Fullscreen button so the name fills the screen. The same chits maker runs the lighter games too: lucky chits, task chits, Who am I and icebreaker questions, all described in kitty party chit games. For the rest of the afternoon, see twelve kitty party games.
- Kitty party
