Run your first calling session
Walk through creating a calling session, working the queue, skipping supporters, and starting a new cycle
A calling session gives you a live queue, progress tracking, skip controls, and per-cycle reporting while you work through a call list. This tutorial walks you through your first session end to end.
Before you start, make sure you have a call list with supporters in it. If you don't, set one up using the Call Lists guide first.
Who can run a calling session
Admins, captains, and vice-captains can create and run calling sessions. Anyone in your group who has a call list can start one from that list.
Create a calling session
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From the left-hand sidebar, open Calling Sessions. This is the index page showing all your sessions and their statuses.
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To start a new one, go to the call list you want to work: Supporter Groups > [Your Group] > Call Lists > [Your List].
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Click Start a calling session.
Can't see the button?
If Start a calling session isn't visible, it's almost always because you haven't saved a mobile number on your user profile. Click your name in the left-hand navigation, open Edit My Profile, add your mobile number, and come back. The button will appear. See phone troubleshooting if you're still stuck.
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Give the session a name. It pre-fills as
[Your first name] - [Call list name], but we recommend editing it to follow the convention[Your name] - [Date] - [Purpose], for example Ben - 15 Apr - Event RSVPs. A consistent naming pattern makes paused sessions much easier to recognise later. -
Click Create.
You'll be taken straight to the calling session dashboard.
Get oriented on the dashboard
The dashboard has three main parts.
The impact panel shows session-level stats across all cycles (calls attempted, contacts made, outcomes breakdown).
The current cycle card is the live cycle. It shows how many supporters are still available to call and has the Start calling session button.
The calling journey is an accordion of each completed cycle, each with its own stats, so you can review how past cycles went.
The progress bar at the top tracks completed supporters across the whole session, not just the current cycle.
Start the cycle
Click Start calling session on the current cycle card.
You'll receive a phone call on your registered mobile. After a short message you'll be connected to the first supporter in the queue.
Billing
Call charges are covered by your organisation's SupporterBase subscription, not your personal account. To update your mobile number, click your name in the left-hand nav and open Edit My Profile.
Log a contact
After each call ends you'll be prompted to log the outcome:
- Whether the supporter was successfully contacted
- RSVP confirmation (if relevant to your list)
- Contact method (defaults to Phone Call)
- Notes from the conversation
- Any tags to update
Once you've logged the contact, press any key on your phone to continue to the next supporter. Repeat until the cycle is done.
Skip a supporter
If the current supporter isn't going to be reached right now (busy tone, they asked you to call back later, wrong time of day), you can skip them so they come back into the queue later. There are five skip types:
- Quick duration (15 min / 30 min / 1 hour / 2 hours). For mid-call "call me back in 30" situations.
- Today. Returns them to the queue tomorrow.
- Custom date. Returns them on a specific date you pick.
- This cycle. Comes back next cycle.
- Remove from this session. Permanent. Requires a reason.
Open the three-dot menu on the supporter's row (or the Skip button on their detail card), pick your skip type, add a reason if you want (optional except for permanent), and confirm. The supporter gets a Skipped badge. Hover it to see the skip type, when they'll return, and any reason you gave.
To undo, open the same menu. It now shows Remove skip, which restores the supporter to the queue instantly.
Prioritise a supporter
If a supporter needs to be called next, say they just texted back, you can move them to the front of the queue.
Open the supporter's three-dot menu and click Prioritise, or use the Prioritise button on their detail page. They'll jump to the position immediately after whoever's currently next to call.
Pause and resume
You can stop a session at any point. Just hang up your phone. Next time you come back, click Resume calling session instead of Start. That picks up where you left off in the current cycle.
On the Calling Sessions index page, paused sessions show as Started (you've called at least one person) or In Progress (a call is happening right now).
Complete the cycle and start the next one
Once you've called (or skipped through) every supporter in the queue, the cycle completes automatically. The current cycle card shows the completion state and offers Start a new cycle.
Starting a new cycle resets the this cycle skips so those supporters are back in the queue. Longer skips (today, custom date, permanent) stay in place. The completed cycle drops into the calling journey accordion with its own stats.
You can run more than one session at once
You can have multiple calling sessions active at the same time. This is useful if you're working two different call lists, or if two leaders are calling the same list in parallel. The Calling Sessions tab in the sidebar shows them all.
Further reading
Calling sessions guide
Full task-oriented reference for every calling session feature.
Supporter statuses and skip types
Reference for every supporter status and skip variant.
Call lists vs calling sessions
How the two work together and when to use each.
Call lists
Create and manage the call lists that feed calling sessions.