The Public Site is the site you've created using the CMS.  When someone registers on the public site, they are usually granted a profile of "Volunteer" and have access to all the features of the public site.

Anyone can access your public site without logging in, but only people who have created an account and been granted a profile of Volunteer (or Volunteer Leader or Partner Staff) have access to parts of the public site that require you to be 'logged in'

Profile = Volunteer A contact with the profile "Volunteer" allows a contact to Login and access all the functionality in the Public Site.

The Public Site has another, less public section, which we call the Sharing Portal.  The Sharing Portal gives access to manage volunteer opportunities.  Access to the Sharing Portal is generally limited to contacts who have a profile of either Partner Staff or Volunteer Leader.

Contacts who have a profile of Partner Staff or Volunteer Leader log in via the public site (same as volunteers) but are then taken to the sharing Portal.  (Note: They can also navigate back to the public site and use its functionality as well!)

The sharing portal provides SOME of the functionality that is available to administrative users of Salesforce.

Both contacts with Partner Staff profile and Volunteer Leader profile have access to the sharing portal, but they have two differences:

1) Permissions - what a Partner Staff is able to do in the sharing portal is different than what a Volunteer Leader can do in the sharing portal.  Within limits, we can customize HOC to determine what permissions each profile has. (Permissions refer to what objects the profile can Read, Edit or Create)

2)  Sharing - what records (data) are accessible to the contact in the sharing portal is different for each profile.

Let's talk about the differences between the two sharing profiles:

The partner staff profile is designed to be used to give access to the staff of a partner organization so that they can create and manage volunteer opportunities for their organization.

Permissions:  By default, Partner Staff have the ability to:

1. View, Edit and Create Volunteer Opportunities (Thes are always partner-managed opportunities managed by the account they are associated with)
2. View, Edit and Create Occurrences and Connections.
3. Report Attendance
4. View Contacts for volunteers who have an existing connection with their organization. (It is not recmmended to allow partners to create contacts as it would create duplicate contacts)
5. Update Organizational Information and contacts
6. View, Run and Export Reports. (if reports are enabled and shared by the System Administrator in the CMS)
7. Email volunteers
8. Print Check-In Sheets

Sharing Rules:

All partner staff of the same organization are able to see ALL partner managed volunteer opportunities and occurrences for their organization.  (They do not see Affiliate-Managed opportunities, or any opportunities belonging to other organizations)

Partner Staff are able to see all connections to Opportunities managed by their organization.

Partner Staff afre able to View Contact records for only those contacts who have at least one connection with their organization.

The Volunteer Leader Profile is designed to allow a volunteer to serve as the Opportunity Coordinator for one or more opportunities, for one or more partner organizations.  In a Volunteer Center model, Volunteer Leaders are generally trained by the Volunteer Center (Affiliate), and assigned as Opportunity Coordinator for affiliate-managed projects that serve their partner organizations.

It is also possible for a Volunteer Leader to serve as Opportunity Coordinator for a Partner Managed project (in case the partner wishes to have a volunteer manage the opportunity, but not have full access to all that organization's data).

Whenever a Volunteer Leader is assigned as Opportunity Coordinator, a connection is automatically created for them (since the assumption is that they are a volunteer and they should be credited with volunteer hours for leading the project).  

Connections for Volunteer Leaders have the connection role set to: Volunteer Leader.

The main responsibilities of a Volunteer Leader is to be able to manage an occurrence they are leader for - and report attendance for those occurrences.

A Volunteer Leader can have access to selected occurrences of Opportunities managed by multiple organizations.

Permissions:  by default, Volunteer Leader profile has the ability to:

1. View Volunteer Opportunities
2. View, Create and edit Occurrences and Connections
3. Report Attendance
4. View Contacts for volunteers who have an existing connection to an opportunity they served as leader to.
5. Email Volunteers
6. Print Check-In Sheets

The Volunteer Leader profile is NOT able to CREATE Volunteer Opportunities.
The Volunteer Leader profile does not have access to viewing Reports.

Sharing Rules:

Volunteer Leaders only see Occurrences of Opportunities that they are designated as Volunteer Leader for.  They do not have access to other occurrences of the same opportunity.  They only see the contacts of volunteers who have a connection to an opportunity they have served as leader for.

See the remainder of the articles in this chapter to learn how profiles of Volunteer, Volunteer Leader and Partner Staff are assigned to Contacts.