Build and publish your first roster
Build a roster for a beach clean-up event and publish it to volunteers
Build a roster for one event and publish it to your volunteers. By the end you'll have created shifts, filled some of them, checked your coverage, and published, having seen exactly who got emailed.
The example throughout is a Freshwater Beach Clean-up on a Saturday morning, so swap in your own event as you go.
What you need first
You need an event that already exists, and a group with some supporters in it. This guide starts from the event's roster, so build an event first if you don't have one.
Plan the shifts
Spend five minutes on the roles and times before you open the board. For a clean-up you might land on this:
| Role | Time | Volunteers | Who can sign up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Site setup | 7:00–8:00 | 2 | Staff only |
| Registration desk | 7:45–10:00 | 2 | Anyone |
| Zone leader | 8:00–11:00 | 3 | Staff only |
| Clean-up crew | 8:00–10:30 | 12 | Anyone |
| Welcome and sign-up table | 8:00–11:00 | 2 | Anyone |
| Sorting and weighing | 10:00–11:00 | 4 | Anyone |
| Pack-down | 11:00–12:00 | 4 | Anyone |
Roles needing judgement or a briefing are Staff only. The rest are open for volunteers to claim themselves.
Build and publish the roster
Add the shifts
- Open your event and click the purple Roster & shifts button, below the event details. The board opens empty.
- Click Add shifts.
- Set the Role to
Site setup, the Day to your event date, Start time 7:00 and End time 8:00, and Volunteers to 2. - Click Add another shift and enter the next row from your plan.
- Repeat until every row is in, then click Add shifts.
- New shifts are open for volunteers to claim. Open the three-dot menu on the
Site setupshift and click Edit shift. - Untick Let volunteers sign themselves up, then click Save changes.
- Do the same for your
Zone leadershift. Leave the rest of your roles open.
Check the board
Every shift shows as Draft:
- Volunteers can't see any of it yet.
- Nobody has been emailed.
- The header shows your totals: no spots filled, and every shift In draft.
Fill the staff-only roles
Nothing else will fill them.
- Click Assign on an empty spot.
- Type a name and pick the supporter.
- Repeat for the second spot, and for your zone leaders.
Leave the open roles for volunteers
The clean-up crew has twelve spots. Once published, those spots appear on the public sign-up form for volunteers to claim, so assign a few people you already know are coming and leave the rest.
Check your coverage
- In the filter toolbar, set Coverage to Needs people. You'll see every shift with an empty spot.
- Click Clear filters to see the whole board again.
No volunteer can fill a staff-only shift for you. If your third zone leader spot is still empty, either assign someone now or run with two.
Publish
Click Publish all. The dialog works out the impact and shows it grouped:
- Added to a shift holds everyone you assigned. On a first publish that is all of them.
- The shifts nobody is on yet reach no one.
- The open spots that will appear on the sign-up form for volunteers to claim.
Click a row to see the names, then click Publish. Your shifts go live, the open spots appear on the sign-up form, and the people you assigned get an email telling them their role, date and time.
After you publish
What the board looks like now
Every shift you published shows as Published:
- Coverage still shows the gaps, and volunteers can now fill them themselves.
- Your Spots filled total climbs as they claim spots.
Make a change
Edit a shift and change its end time. The shift moves to Changes to publish, and your volunteers still see the old time until you publish. When you do, only the people on that shift are emailed, under Shift details changed, and everyone else is left alone.
Batch your changes
Because edits queue up, you can make several changes over a week and publish once. Your volunteers get a single email for the lot.
Export the roster for the day
Click Export roster, choose PDF for printing or sharing, and you'll be emailed a secure link.
Exports only include published shifts. If you added a pack-down shift this morning and haven't published it, it won't be on the printout.