Doodle is a completely free very simple to use tool for on-line scheduling - it can be used for almost anything from finding meeting availability times to choosing from a Christmas lunch menu

Simply go to the home page www.doodle.com and choose one of two options

"Schedule an event" - where you want people to indicate their availability. This can be for days or even specific times

or "Make a Choice" where you want people to choose something from a range of items.

Enter some simple details about what people should do and click next

You are them presented with the option of creating the lists you need by dates or items - there is a very useful option that allows you to have a third option of something like "if I must" rather than just available/unavailable or Yes/no

When you complete you are given two links  One is to give out to participants and the other is to view and edit the poll

If you have given your email address (you don't have to!) then you will be sent these links by email as well and if you want to use it regularly you can create a free account so that you can see all your polls in one place.

One good thing is that there is no apparent limit to the number of choices you give people or the number of responses you get.  However you should be aware that there is no control - beyond who you send the link to, and what they type in the name box - so if someone chooses to answer "Mickey Mouse" then you wont know who they are!

Another downside is that there doesnt appear to be any way to edit the answer text in make choice which is always  "in favour" (green) "could live with this option" (yellow/optional) or "against" (red) - however if you explain what people should do it should work ok as you can see in this example  http://www.doodle.com/participation.html?pollId=kfxek7p2zu5mfbrc  Feel free to try it out.  The terminology for the "schedule a meeting" works much better

Simple, easy to understand, easy to use - but probably best for groups of people who you trust to give sensible answers!