SupporterBase
How-to guidesRostering

Assign volunteers to shifts

Put supporters onto shifts, take them off, and undo a removal before it sends

There are two ways a spot gets filled: you assign someone, or a volunteer claims it themselves from the public sign-up form.

Assignments are private until you publish

Assigning someone doesn't email them. They find out when you publish the roster, and you can shuffle people between shifts as much as you like beforehand.

Who you can assign

You can only assign people who are already supporters in the group, so add them first if someone's missing.

Assigning someone to a shift

Find a shift with an empty spot

On the Roster & shifts board, shifts that still need people show how many spots are open.

Click Assign

Click Assign on the empty spot you want to fill.

Search for the supporter

Type a name into Search supporters, which searches the supporters in your group and narrows the results as you type.

Pick the person

Pick the person you want, and they're placed on the shift.

Repeat assignments

  • If you try to add someone who's already on that shift, the board tells you and does not add them twice.
  • The same person can work several different shifts, which is normal for a long event.

Taking someone off a shift

  • Each volunteer on a shift shows as a chip with their name and a small x.
  • Click the x to take them off. There is no confirmation step.
  • Hovering the x first shows Remove [name], so you can check you have the right person before you click.

What happens next depends on whether the shift has been published.

On a draft shift

They're simply removed, and nobody knew they were on it.

On a published shift

They're marked Removed and shown as a dimmed row. They are still on the roster your volunteers see, and still expecting to turn up, until you publish the removal.

Undoing a removal

While a removal is still unpublished, you can reverse it:

  • To put a volunteer back, click the back-arrow on their dimmed chip. Hovering it shows Restore [name].
  • Undo removal reverses a staged shift removal.

Both only work before you publish.

After you publish

The volunteer has already been emailed that their shift is cancelled, and putting them back is a new change that emails them again.

When a restore fails

Occasionally a restore fails because the shift filled up while the removal was staged, usually because a volunteer self-selected into the freed spot. The board tells you the shift is now full, and you can add a spot to the shift if you want them both.

Further reading

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