Shift confirmations and attendance

Volunteers who sign up for a shift get fewer, more useful messages than other attendees: one the day before that asks them to confirm, and one on the day that tells them where to go. The Volunteers tab on the event shows who confirmed and lets you record who worked each shift.

What a volunteer with a shift receives

The day before. At the time your event's day-before reminder goes out, each volunteer gets one message about their shift: by text message if they have opted in to texts, otherwise by email. It names the shift and its time, and has a link to confirm and a link to cancel. Volunteers who have opted out of event reminder emails and have not opted in to texts get nothing, and the Volunteers tab shows them as Confirmation not sent.

On the day. Each volunteer gets one message with their shift's start time and where to go, or the join link for an online event. It arrives at 8:00 AM in the event's time zone, or three hours before the shift if that is later, and always at least 30 minutes before the shift starts. It goes by the same rule: text if they opted in, otherwise email.

Volunteers with a shift do not get the other automated messages (day-of details, the starting-soon note, the feedback ask and suggested next events). Attendees without a shift get all of them as before; see Automated event communications.

Both shift messages follow your event's Communications settings: switching off the day-before reminder stops the confirmation, and switching off day-of details stops the day-of message. Turning automated reminders off for the event stops both.

Confirm and cancel links

Opening either link changes nothing on its own. The confirm page shows the event and the volunteer's shifts in the event's time zone with one Confirm button, and the cancel page asks them to press Cancel registration. If a link page is opened too many times in a short while, it asks the volunteer to wait a minute and open the link again. Cancelling frees their places on every shift so someone else can sign up. A link that no longer works (an old link, a cancelled registration, or an event that was unpublished) shows "This link isn't valid anymore" with a link to the event page.

Seeing who confirmed

Open the event in your workspace and select the Volunteers tab. There is one section per shift. For a shift that has not started yet, each person shows one of:

• Confirmed: they pressed Confirm.
• Not confirmed: the message went out and they have not confirmed yet.
• Not sent yet: the day-before message has not gone out yet.
• Cancelled: they cancelled with the link in their message, or dropped this shift. Someone who cancels from their own account no longer appears in the list.
• Confirmation not sent: there was no way to reach them, or they signed up after the day-before message went out.

There is no second automatic message. If someone has not confirmed, give them a call.

Marking who worked

During and after the shift, mark each person Worked or No-show. You can change or clear a mark for 48 hours after you set it; after that it stays. A person you have not marked stays unmarked: nobody is turned into a no-show automatically.

Checking someone in at the door marks their shift Worked for you when they hold exactly one shift on the event and you check them in between two hours before that shift starts and the time it ends. People with several shifts are marked shift by shift on the Volunteers tab. Someone who checked themselves in with the event's check-in code shows as Checked in, shift not marked, and someone who answered "yes, I attended" after the event shows as Said they attended, shift not marked; mark them yourself. Mark everyone who's checked in as worked marks every person on the shift who was checked in at the door and has no mark yet. People who cancelled cannot be marked.

Marking someone Worked also starts the follow-up: an organizer gets a task to call or text them (see Volunteer debriefs), and the volunteer gets a thank-you with your next open shift. Clearing the mark closes the task unless another of their shifts is still marked worked.

Your marks feed Volunteer show and return rates, shown above the roster for people who can view volunteer activity.

Who can use the Volunteers tab

The tab opens for owners, admins, and team members whose custom role includes View volunteer activity and shifts, Create and edit volunteer shifts, Manage RSVPs for events or Check attendees in at events. Marking attendance takes Check attendees in at events or Create and edit volunteer shifts; others see the roster without the buttons. A custom role also needs View events in the organization to open the event. See Roles and permissions for your team.