Running an action

Once an action goes active, two separate views come into play: the volunteer's execution view (scoped to the work assigned to that person) and the lead view (the whole-action picture a lead or organizer monitors while the shift runs).

What a volunteer sees

When a volunteer opens an active action, they land in an execution view shaped to the action's type:

• Canvass shows a walk list containing only the doors assigned to that volunteer.
• Phonebank shows a notice that phone banking is being rebuilt: calls for the action are paused until the new caller screen arrives, and no calls are made from it.
• Text bank shows the message batch assigned to that volunteer.
• Event check-in shows the event the volunteer is staffing.

The interface a volunteer sees is the same workspace tool the organizer uses for that work type (the canvassing tool, the texting console, the event check-in panel), but locked to that volunteer's slice.

Resource scoping: seeing only your slice

Every action that carries a resource (a walk list, a text batch, or an event) assigns each volunteer their own portion of that resource at signup time. When the volunteer opens the action, they see their portion only, not the full list.

This scoping serves two purposes. Operationally, it prevents two volunteers from working the same door or texting the same contact. For data quality, it means every metric captured during the session is unambiguously tied to the volunteer who generated it.

How metrics are captured

As a volunteer works through their slice, the system captures activity automatically. The metric set varies by action type: a canvass records doors knocked, doors answered, and contacts made; a text bank records texts sent. These counters update in near real time as the volunteer works, without any manual submit step.

Checking attendees in at an event

On an event check-in action, members of the organization see the event's attendees. The action's lead, and assigned team members whose role includes Check a volunteer in at an action, get a Check in button next to each attendee who has not arrived yet. Everyone else sees the list with a note that only the action's lead or a team member with check-in permission can check attendees in. A lead whose own sign-up has been cancelled, or who has been marked as a no-show, no longer gets the buttons. If your access is removed while the screen is open, your next attempt shows a message that you do not have permission, and the buttons go away.

A check-in records the attendee's arrival, the time, and who checked them in. It does not change their RSVP, and checking in someone who is already checked in changes nothing. Staff running the door of the event itself use the event's own Check-in tab instead; see Checking attendees in.

The lead view

A volunteer assigned to a running action as its lead can open a dashboard for that action and see two things at once:

• Roster. Every volunteer currently signed up or checked in, with their individual status.
• Live aggregate metrics. Totals across all volunteers for the action so far (doors knocked, texts sent, and so on), updating in near real time as volunteers work.

This view is read-only during the shift, and a lead sees it only while their own sign-up is active. Controls for reassigning slices between volunteers or ending sessions early are not yet available. Other volunteers on the action never see the roster or each other's metrics. Owners, admins, and team members whose role includes Assign and remove volunteers; promote leads see every volunteer on an action's page in the workspace; see Actions.

Why this matters

Running an action well depends on giving each volunteer a clear, bounded task while keeping your lead informed of the whole picture. Scoped slices remove coordination overhead from volunteers so they can focus on the work in front of them. Live aggregate metrics let you catch when a shift is falling behind and decide whether to call in more people or adjust targets before the window closes. The automatic capture of every contact also means your CRM and reporting reflect what actually happened, without relying on volunteers to file separate notes afterward.