Volunteer Opportunities of any type can ask "custom questions" as part of the sign-up process.

If you'd like to get more information from a volunteer when they sign-up or express interest in an opportunity, create 'questions' that will appear as part of the sign-up for that specific Volunteer Opportunity.

If you are posting a 'to be scheduled' opportunity - a good practice is to create a custom question that asks something similar to this:  "We need volunteers in the afternoon, Mondays - Friday" -- when would you like us to schedule you to come in and volunteer.  Please propose a date and time and let us know how long you can attend."    

NOTE: This post reflects the changes made in the 2.5 Release.  If the Volunteer Opportunity Question related list and "Add Question" button are not listed on your page layouts.  Please direct your System Admin to the 2.5 Release Notes for how to enable this feature.

A Prerequisite Opportunity is one that a volunteer is REQUIRED to sign up for in order to signup or express interest for another opportunity.  (Example: You require volunteers for a painting project to also attend the prerequisite 'painting training' opportunity.  They will be unable to sign up for the opportunity unless they also signup or express interest in the training OR have attended that prerequisite in the past.  

When a volunteer signs up or expresses interest in an opportunity that has a prerequisite, they will be also automatically be directed to signup or express interest in an occurrence the prerequisite opportunity

NOTE:  Because of the complexities of team signups, prerequisites are not compatible with the team signup process.  If an opportunity requires a prerequisite, and a volunteer signs up as part of a team, they will NOT be automatically redirected to signup for the prerequisite opportunity as well.  We recommend that you turn off team signup for any occurrences that are part of a volunteer opportunity that requires a prerequisite.  See this link to enable the functionality to "turn off team" if it is not present in your occurrence records.   Alternately - you can monitor when a team captain makes a connection - and contact them, telling them they need to sign up each team member for the prerequisite opportunity as well.