Managing Volunteers with the Connections Grid in the Occurrence Record.

The most powerful component in the Occurrence Record is the Connections Grid.  it allows you to view all the connections made to this occurrence, and to take actions on more than one connection at a time.

Most of the work you'll do managing an occurrence will take place in the connections grid. This is where you can see who has signed up or expressed interest, who is waitlisted, mark attendance (after the occurrence has taken place), and record hours.

Connections Grid in the Occurrence Record

Improved Connections Grid in the Occurrence Record

1.  The Connections grid shows you all the volunteers (connections) who have signed up or expressed interest in your opportunity.  The connections are organized into seven tabs:

  • Scheduled Volunteers - shows all confirmed volunteers for connections that have not yet taken place.  
  • Pending Volunteers - shows all connections in pending status   (used for express interest opportunities, where this tab will be selected by default for your convenience!)
  • Waitlisted Volunteers - show all connections on the waitlist.  (Note: This tab does not appear for To Be Scheduled or Individually Scheduled as they don't have waitlists)
  • Attendance Due - shows all confirmed connections in the past, where attendance status is "please verify"
  • Attendance Reported - shows all confirmed connections where the attendance has been reported  (this is essentially, the volunteer history for this occurrence)
  • Declined Volunteers -- shows all connections with status "Declined"
  • Other Volunteers - shows connections that are missing date and times, a place where you can correct the data errors.

2. Checkboxes allow you to select one or more volunteers you wish to 'take action' on, by using one of the Actions Buttons  (i.e. "Email Volunteers, Mark as Attended..."  

3. Action Buttons   (updates or initiates an action for the checkmarked connections)

4.  Column headings allow you to sort connections based on any of the column headings.

5. Any cell with a black border around it can be edited. (In this view, "Guest Volunteers" can be edited.  So can Hours (though this field isn't editable until after you've reported and verified attendance).  Any changes to individual cells (black boxes), will give those cells a red border.  To save the changes in individual cells, click on the SAVE CHANGES button.

NOTE: There are additional columns available in the grid.  To see them, horizontally scroll or use the right arrow key to go to the right.   (Macintosh users may not readily see the horizontal scroll controls due to the way scroll bars are handling in OSX.     (Columns not shown in the above screenshot include:

  • Guest Hours
  • Decline Reason
  • Role
  • Team Name
  • Rating
  • Created Date

Scheduled Volunteers

This tab shows you the volunteers who you have confirmed and scheduled for upcoming dates.  You can sort on the date and see at a glance who is scheduled to volunteer with you in the coming days and weeks, and at what time.

If necessary, you can edit the date, start time and end time of existing connections from this tab if desired.  (You should notify a volunteer if you reschedule them for a previously confirmed connection at a later date.)

Scheduled Volunteers

Pending Volunteers

This tab shows you all the connections that volunteers have expressed interest in via the public site. They are still in pending status.

For date & time specific, express interest opportunities, the connections will all show the date and time of that occurrence.

For Individually Scheduled opportunities, each connection proposed by a volunteer will show up in the pending tab until you confirm it. You can

The date and times are already filled in for you and match the schedule you proposed so all you need to do to confirm a connection is put a check-box next to it, and click on the "Mark as Confirmed" button.  

This is the tab you'll want to go to if you receive an email that a volunteer has expressed interest in one or more dates for an individually scheduled opportunity.

When you confirm multiple connections for one volunteer all at the same time, only one email will be sent letting them know that one or more dates they've expressed interest in are now confirmed, and they can log into their account on the public site to see the days and time they are now confirmed and scheduled for.

The email template sent for this communication is called:  "Volunteer Status has been confirmed for Individually Scheduled."

For any date you do not wish the volunteer to attend, you can put a check-box next to that connection, and click "Mark Declined".

If you wish to reschedule a connection, email a volunteer from the grid, and go to the connections related list to edit the connection before confirming it with the revised date and time.  (Or you can confirm the connection here, and then edit the date and time for the connection when it appears in the Scheduled Volunteers Tab.

For To Be Scheduled Opportunities, there will be only one connection for a volunteer who has expressed interest,   Note though that when confirming a volunteer for a TBS opportunity, the opportunity coordinator will still have to go to the 'scheduled volunteer' tab and manually schedule the date, start time and end time for the volunteer.  Unlike the new Individually Scheduled Opportunities - for TBS opportunities the date and time the volunteer wishes to volunteer is not known and must be manually filled in by the Opportunity Coordinator after they've contacted the volunteer via email or telephone to arrive on an agreed upon connection date.  (This is why we encourage everyone to start using the new Individually Scheduled Opportunities as it makes confirming volunteers faster and easier!)

Pending Volunteers

Attendance Due

The Attendance due tab shows you all confirmed volunteers, whose connection date is in the past, where attendance has not yet been reported.  This tab makes it easy to find just the connections that are due to have attendance reported.   (You can also report attendance across all occurrences of all opportunities with the new, One-Step Volunteer Attendance widget in the left sidebar).

Click on the connections you wish to mark attendance for, and select either "Mark as Attended" or "Mark as Not Attended"

Once attendance for a connection has been marked, the connection will be moved to the Attendance Reported Tab.

Attendance Due

Attendance Reported

In this tab you'll see all the connections that have been reported as either attended or not attended.  If you wish to alter the number of hours that are auto-populated when you mark someone as attended, you can edit the hours in this tab.  (By default, the hours will automatically be filled in based on the duration of the scheduled connection.  You can edit the date, start time, end time, # of hours, guest volunteers and any other detail of a connection in this tab.

This tab groups the past history of all attendance verified connections for this opportunity

Attendance Reported

Declined Volunteers

This tab will show you all connections that have been declined, either by you administratively, or by a volunteer removing themselves from a scheduled date / time for this opportunity.

The 'mark confirmed' button makes it possible for you to return someone to either the Scheduled Volunteers tab or the Attendance due tab in case you've accidentally declined them.

Declined Volunteers

Other Volunteers

Other Volunteers

Sometimes, for one reason or another, you accidentally delete the date and/or start time and end time for a connection.  This is bad data practice, but luckily it can be corrected.  Connections appearing in the "other Volunteers" tab are missing date info.  Just fill in the date info and click "Saved" to update the connection, and it will then be moved to the correct tab (either Scheduled volunteers or Attendance Due".

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