Tokens are used to represent information that changes depending on the volunteer to which it pertains, called the focus volunteer. Tokens are used in the content of emails, the Web Terminal, and as fields in rosters. When tokens are included in the body (or subject) of an email, the focus volunteer is the volunteer to whom the email is sent. In the Web Terminal, the focus volunteer is the volunteer who is logged in. In rosters, the focus volunteer is the volunteer listed on that line of the roster. Tokens are always enclosed in curly braces when used in the Announcements pane and Web Terminal. For example, the text {{FirstName}} will be replaced by the first name of the focus volunteer. This section includes a list of all available tokens, and a discussion of expandable tokens and custom tokens.
Profile Settings Tokens
{{FullName}}
The full name of the focus volunteer (e.g. Warren Smith). This token may also optionally include the focus volunteer’s title.
{{FirstName}}
The first name of the focus volunteer.
{{Family}}
The focus volunteer’s family name, or the names of the other people in the family, or both, depending on the token’s option settings. If the volunteer has no family grouping “No family grouping.” is output.
{{Phone}}
The focus volunteer’s phone number.
{{Cell}}
The focus volunteer’s cell phone number.
{{Address}}
The focus volunteer’s address. You may optionally make this a one line address, replacing return characters in the address with commas.
{{Email}}
The focus volunteers’ email address.
{{Comments}}
The focus volunteer’s comments field.
{{AutoEmailReminderSettings}}
The number of days in advance auto email reminders are sent to the focus volunteer.
{{AutoSMSReminderSettings}}
The status of the focus volunteer’s SMS reminders – “on” or “off”.
{{MinistryQualifications}}
A multi-line list of the ministries in which the focus volunteer is qualified to serve. You have the option of listing subdivision qualifications within each ministry, titles, and/or an indicator whether a volunteer is a substitute in the listed ministry.
{{ServicePreferences}}
A multi-line list of the focus volunteer’s service preferences. You may optionally choose to include or exclude monthly and yearly services from this list, as well as the special “[Any special service]” preference. Moreover, you may specify whether or not “Schedule only at these times” is included at the end of the list when the volunteer has that option checked in his profile.
{{PreferredServingFrequency}}
The focus volunteer’s preferred serving frequency.
{{CantServeTimes}}
A multi-line list of the focus volunteer’s can’t serve times. You may choose which types of can’t serve times to include in this list. For instance, you can optionally exclude “service” can’t serve times (i.e. Sunday, 9:00 AM). You may also chose to just include can’t serve times in a specified date range.
{{DateCreated}}
The date and time the focus volunteer’s profile was created.
{{DateModified}}
The last date and time the focus volunteer’s profile was modified.
Preassignments and Teams Tokens
{{Preassignments}}
A multi-line list of the focus volunteer’s preassignments.
{{Teams}}
A multi-line list of the teams that include the focus volunteer.
Assigned Positions Tokens
These tokens list the positions to which a volunteer is assigned in the active set of schedules. Which schedules are included in the active set depends on whether or not a schedule is Live. If a schedule is not Live, then the only schedule in the active set, and thus the only schedule that is considered when listing scheduled positions, is the schedule that is currently open.
You may not use schedules that have been saved in MS Word or web page format because MSP can’t extract the information it needs from these formats.
{{ScheduledServices}}
A multi-line list of positions for which the focus volunteer has been assigned in the active set of schedules. You may optionally limit the positions to a particular ministry, service time, or date range. If a volunteer is not scheduled for any positions that pass the criteria you specify , “No scheduled times.” is displayed. You may optionally include links that allow volunteers to request swaps for any of their scheduled positions via the Web Terminal.
{{NoShows}}
A multi-line list of positions for which the focus volunteer has been flagged as not showing up in the active set of schedules. You may optionally specify a time period for the included no shows. If sending an email, you may choose to send the email just to volunteers who have at least one no show during the specified time period. You may also choose to expand non-empty no shows list to a specified full text. Token expansions are discussed below.
{{Extras}}
A multi-line list of those positions that have been flagged as Extra services for the focus volunteer. This token may also be expanded, as discussed under Token Expansions below.
Potential Fill-in Positions Tokens
These tokens list positions in the active set of schedules for which the focus volunteer may be able to fill in. Which schedules are included in the active set depends on whether or not a schedule is Live. If a schedule is not Live, then the only schedule in the active set, and thus the only schedule that is considered when listing scheduled positions, is the schedule that is currently open.
{{AllAvailablePositions}}
A multi-line list of any unfilled positions and positions that have been flagged as Swap Requested. You may optionally include only positions in ministries and/or service times for which the focus volunteer is qualified. You can limit the list to a specific date range, as well as optionally limit the ministries and/or services included in this list. You may optionally include “volunteer now” links that allow volunteers to sign up for the unfilled positions via the Web Terminal.
{{UnfilledPositions}}
A multi-line list of any unfilled positions in the active set of schedules. You may optionally include only positions in the ministries in which the focus volunteer is qualified to serve, and/or at times at which the volunteer is available to serve. You may also limit the list to a specific date range. You may optionally include “volunteer now” links that allow volunteers to sign up for the unfilled positions via the Web Terminal.
{{SwapRequestedPositions}}
A multi-line list of any positions that have been flagged as Swap Requested in the active set of schedules. You may optionally only include swap requested positions in the ministries in which the focus volunteer is qualified to serve, and/or at times at which the volunteer is available to serve. You may also limit the list to a specific date range. You may optionally include “volunteer now” links that allow volunteers to sign up for the unfilled positions via the Web Terminal.
Next Schedule Tokens
The following tokens can be configured with the dates that relate to future schedules that will be generated. These are useful for reminding volunteers of the next scheduling period and are used in preconfigured templates in the Announcements pane.
{{NextScheduleCutoffDate}}
The date by which volunteers can submit updates to their preferences and availability before the next schedule and still have them considered when the schedule is made.
{{NextScheduleStartDate}}
The first date of the next schedule.
{{NextScheduleEndDate}}
The last date of the next schedule.
Attendance Statistics Tokens
The following tokens output the total number of times a volunteer has been scheduled, has been flagged as not showing up, as making a swap, or as taking on extra services. You may choose to output the total numbers from date range based on schedules that are saved in MSP. All of the tokens may either output the numbers in digit form (“4”), or in text form (“four”). Moreover, all the tokens may be expanded based on their values, as discussed on “Value Based Token Expansions” at the end of this section. Note that the values of these tokens do depend on which schedules are in the active set of schedules.
{{ScheduleServicesCount}}
The number of times the focus volunteer has been scheduled. The token may also be set up to display the number of times he has been scheduled in each ministry separately.
{{NoShowsCount}}
The number of times the focus volunteer has been flagged as not showing up.
{{SwapsMadeCount}}
The number of times a service originally assigned to the focus volunteer was swapped out.
{{ExtrasCount}}
The number of times the focus volunteer has been flagged with an extra service.
Web Terminal Tokens
{{WebTerminalHomePageLink}}
A link to the URL of your license’s Web Terminal. The value of this token is constant and does not depend on the focus volunteer.
{{WebTerminalMyProfilePageLink}}
A link to the URL for the focus volunteer’s My Profile tab of the Web Terminal.
{{WebTerminalUsername}}
The focus volunteer’s Web Terminal username.
{{WebTerminalPassword}}
The focus volunteer’s Web Terminal password.
Live Schedule Post Links
Live Schedule Posts are exported schedules that appear in the Web Terminal and are updated when their related schedule changes. The following tokens provide the links your volunteers will click on to view your Live Schedule Posts. These tokens are replaced with the same information regardless of who the focus volunteer is.
{{LiveSchedulePostList}}
A list of all of your Live Schedule Posts, one per line.
{{LiveSchedulePost:name}}
A link to the Live Schedule Post called [schedulename]. You’ll see one of these tokens in the token menu for each of your Live Schedule Posts. These tokens are often used when a new schedule is finalized. You can send an email with a link to the new schedule by using the appropriate token. You may also customize the text in the link to be something other than the name of the Live Schedule Post by adding a semicolon and the text you’d like to appear after the schedule’s name. For instance, to output the text “To see the new schedule, click here.”, where “click here” is a link to the new schedule, you can use “To see the new schedule, {{LiveSchedulePost:Spring Schedule;click here}}.”
Live Roster Post Links
These tokens provide the links your volunteers will click on to view your Live Roster Posts. They work the same way as the tokens described above, but they pertain to Live Roster Posts instead of Live Schedule Posts.
{{LiveRosterPostList}}
A list of all of your Live Roster Posts, one per line.
{{LiveRosterPost:name}}
A link to the Live Roster Post called [rostername]. You’ll see one of these tokens in the token menu for each of your Live Roster Posts. You can customize the text in the link to be something other than the name of the Live Roster Post by adding a semicolon and the text you’d like to appear after the roster’s name. For instance, to output the text “To see the new roster, click here.” where “click here” is a link to the new schedule, you can use “To see the new schedule, {{LiveRosterPost:New Roster;click here}}.”
Custom Tokens
Custom tokens can be used to further customize the text generated in the Web Terminal and Announcements pane for each volunteer (custom tokens may not be used as fields in rosters). For example, using custom tokens you can include an additional message for all volunteers in a certain ministry. You can also use custom tokens to quickly change the value of text that appears in multiple places in the Web Terminal or in multiple email templates.
To define Custom tokens, click on the Custom Tokens heading in the Token Options dialog. (You may access the Token Options dialog by choosing “Token options…” from the “{{Token}}” menu in the Announcements or Web Terminal pane.) For each custom token you create, you may specify the text with
which the token will be replaced (which may include other tokens), and you may also specify a filter so that the token is only shown when the focus volunteer passes given criteria.
Let’s say that you are sending an email to all of your volunteers regarding Holy Week, and you’d like to give special instructions to your Ushers, but you don’t want those instructions to be shown unless the recipient of the email is an Usher. You can accomplish this by defining a custom token called “UsherInstructions”. Enter your instructions for the text of the token, and then click on “Only show this token for volunteers passing | this filter…” button, and specify the filter to only include volunteers qualified in the Usher ministry.
Token Expansions
As noted in the above token descriptions, many of the available tokens may be expanded in the case that their contents are non-empty (i.e., when the token will be replaced with something, rather than nothing, in the case of the focus volunteer). This means that you may specify a “header” to go in front of the contents of the token, or a “footer” to go afterwards, just when the token is non-empty. The header or footer you specify will not be output when the token is empty. For example, using this option with the “Unfilled Positions” token allows you to create an email that reads, for volunteers that have at least one unfilled position that they can fill:
Dear Ed,
Please remember to submit your can’t serve dates for the Spring schedule by tomorrow! Also, the following positions in the next two weeks are still unfilled. Please let me know if you are available to help at any of the following times!
Sunday, Dec 5, 11:00 AM – Eucharistic Minister
Saturday, Dec 12, 4:30 PM – Eucharistic Minister
Thanks,
Father Johnson
But for volunteers for whom there are no positions that they are able to fill, the email will just read:
Dear Ed,
Please remember to submit your can’t serve dates for the Spring schedule by tomorrow!
Thanks,
Father Johnson
Using this feature is useful to introduce the contents of a token just for the volunteers for whom the token is not-empty, but to omit that introduction in the cases where it is not needed.
Value Based Token Expansions
All the attendance statistics tokens may be expanded in different ways based on their specific value. For instance, you may choose to expand the {{NoShowsCount}} token in one way if the count for the focus volunteer is 0, another if it is 1, and still a different way if the count is 2 or above. Using this feature you can create personalized messages based on the attendance record for each volunteer.
Continuing with our example, if the {{NoShowsCount}} token has a value of 0, you could have the token expand to “We noticed that you have a perfect attendance record. Thank you so much for coming to all of your scheduled services.” However, if the token has a value of 1 you could have it expand instead to “We noticed that you recently missed one of your scheduled services. It is very important that you are present at your scheduled times or find a replacement ahead of time.” Finally, for values of 2 and above, you could have it expand to “We noticed that you recently missed [x] of your scheduled services. You need to be present at your scheduled times or find a replacement ahead of time!! We miss you greatly when you do not show up.”
Token expansion settings can be found in the Token Options dialog for each attendance statistic token.
