Volunteers can sign up for unfilled positions online through the Web Terminal. To allow volunteers to sign up for services, it is best to follow these steps:
Create your schedule and make it Live
In order to allow volunteers to sign up for specific positions in a schedule, you first need to create a schedule and make it live.
If you are going to use other scheduling methods to fill some positions, this can be done either before or after allowing volunteers to sign up online. Many churches will use their regular scheduling process for weekends and allow self sign up for only special services or unfilled positions. However, some will allow volunteers to sign up first and then schedule the remaining open positions.
If you want to run the auto-scheduler before you allow volunteers to sign up, you can edit a service and check the “Don’t fill this service when the auto-scheduler is run” box to leave a specific service unfilled. This is often used when leaving special services unfilled for volunteer sign up.
Create a separate Live Schedule Post (optional)
In order to help volunteers easily find the open services, you can create an additional Live Schedule Post for only unfilled positions or special services.
Special Services
When creating a Live Schedule Post for special service sign up, be sure to use the following options:
- Layout Settings: For only a few services, we recommend the “List of services with scheduled volunteers under each”, but for a more complex schedule, “Interactive Calendar” is a volunteer favorite!
- Document Settings: We suggest choosing a title that reflects the type of special services you will be including (for example: Christmas Services).
- Included Ministries: Choose “Include all ministries” or select the ministries where you want volunteers to be able to sign up.
- Included Services: Choose “Include only these services” and then select only the services where you want volunteers to sign up.
- Included Volunteers: Choose “Include all volunteers” so others will be able to see positions where someone already signed up and know who they are serving alongside.
Only Available Positions
If you want to create a Live Schedule Post for only unfilled positions, chose the following:
- Layout Settings: We recommend the “Interactive Calendar”, but make sure the checkbox below in options that reads “Include unfilled positions in list of volunteers” is checked!
- Document Settings: We suggest choosing a title that reflects the purpose of this Live Schedule Post (ex. Unfilled Positions)
- Included Ministries: Choose “Include all ministries” or select the ministries where you want volunteers to be able to sign up.
- Included Services: Choose “Include all services”
- Included Volunteers: Choose “Include only these volunteers” but then do not select any volunteers in the list. This will mean no volunteers will appear in the list of services so volunteers ONLY see the unfilled positions.
Send your volunteers information about signing up for services
Once you have made the schedule with open positions live, there are several ways for volunteers to sign up for services:
Email volunteers with a link to the Live Schedule Post or list of unfilled positions
Use the Announcements pane to alert volunteers of their schedule and be sure to include a note about signing up for unfilled positions. If you made an additional Live Schedule Post, we suggest using the token for that post, which can be found by going to the {{Token}} menu and selecting Live Schedule Post Links and then the link for the Live Schedule Post you created. If you did not create an additional Live Schedule Post, you can choose the {{UnfilledPositions}} token from the Available Positions from the the {{Token}} menu and include it in the body of the email. It should be noted this token will only populate the first 8-12 unfilled positions available to the target volunteer in this schedule, which is why we recommend creating a Live Schedule Post so volunteers will know of all unfilled positions.
Post the Live Schedule Post or list of unfilled positions to the Web Terminal
Similarly, you can post the customized token for the Live Schedule Post you created or the {{UnfilledPositions}} (or {{AllAvailablePositions}}) token in the Web Terminal for volunteers to have quick access to those positions in the Home or My Schedule tab. For more information, see Changing the Content of the Web Terminal.
Consider using the Available Positions automatic emails to remind volunteers of open positions for upcoming services
Worried about positions still being unfilled the week leading up to the service? Use the automatic Available Positions email to alert volunteers that positions have still not been filled.
