Volunteer Calendar Options and Setup

Event Management can be used to manage a variety of volunteer-related online calendars and registerable events. This article includes the following sections:

• Types of Volunteer Calendars
• Setting Up Volunteer Events and Calendars

Types of Volunteer Calendars

Volunteer Orientation/Training Events

A calendar page could be created to display only training opportunities for new volunteers to register online. The events could also be included on your main calendar if desired.

Registration could be restricted if desired, or it could be open to the public.

An auto-login link to this calendar could be included in a welcome email to new volunteers through Gnosis communications and the calendar page, and a link only available to registered volunteers could be included in the portal home page.

Volunteer Positions/Shifts

A separate calendar could be created to manage online registration of single or recurring volunteer tasks/shifts for individuals and or groups. This may not be appropriate for all volunteer tasks so you can decide how this setup might benefit your volunteer management. Some possible applications:

• Greeter shifts (multiple daily shifts, if desired)
• Special events tasks
• Administrative shifts
• Event mailer shifts
• Outreach deliveries
• Outreach events
• Childcare shifts
• Cooking shifts
• Cleaning shifts

Registration would be restricted to volunteer records only.

Maximum registrations should be set appropriately for all shifts.

An auto-login link to this calendar could be included in regular and special emails to volunteers through Gnosis communications.

NOTE: If you previously used kiosk Resource options to track tasks, you may wish to hide the Resource option(s) from the kiosk and manual attendance management to eliminate confusion for check-ins and reporting. Contact Support to request to hide desired Resource options.

Setting Up Volunteer Events and Calendars

Step 1: Create the necessary new volunteer event category(ies).

*If you wish to manage both volunteer training opportunities and volunteer shifts using an online calendar, you may wish to add two new event categories and have a calendar page/link for each or one combined page showing both.

• Create new Event Categories in Reference Data Management.
• Be sure to check the Flag on the right for Kiosk: For Volunteers Only. This prevents the volunteer event from showing on the kiosk for participants and guests checking-in for the day.

Step 2: Create events for each desired volunteer task/shift.

In Event Management, create new events, completing all necessary fields paying special attention to the following:

• Apply the new category created in Step 1.
• Turn Registrations on:
  • Be sure to set the desired Maximum Capacity number.
  • Registration Category setup: Category and Memb. Cat. should be set to Volunteer to prevent non-volunteer persons from registering.
  • 
  • A reminder: the General Attribute Role of Volunteer must be set for current volunteers in the Gnosis app to allow them to use this registration category.

Step 3: Send request to Support to exclude the new volunteer category(ies) from your main calendar pages*.

If you wish to display the new volunteer category(ies) on separate pages on your website*, you will need to work with Support to create the necessary calendar pages (additional support/SSA time may apply).

If you don't want to create new calendar pages for volunteers, you can generate a calendar page link to show only the volunteer category by using the example below:

• https://YOUR_ORG_ID.gnosishosting.net/Events/Calendar?CatFilter=[add RefDataID#]
• RefDataID# is displayed in Reference Data Management with the desired category selected:
  ​
• To use this link in your emails, make sure that you add the <<AutoLoginParams>>to the end of the URL if you want to allow your volunteers to auto-login.

If you are not interested in managing volunteer tasks/positions using a calendar and registerable events, you can implement/continue to use kiosk Resource options for static volunteer time check-ins and tracking.