The best volunteer management software for multi-day events
Ensure that volunteers attend multi-day events with linked time slots
Sometimes, you may have events that span multiple days and require that participants sign up for all shifts of that event. In these cases, you will want to use the “linked time slots” feature when creating opportunities within the Helper Helper admin panel.
Some common examples of events with this behavior are summer camps, educational classes, and other short-term recurring events. Read below for the best practices on how to create these events in the Helper Helper admin panel.
Creating linked time slots in the Helper Helper admin panel
Time slots must be linked when you first create an opportunity. Select to “Add Multiple Recurring Dates” from the “Add Opportunity” screen in Helper Helper.
A popup box will appear. Ensure that you check the box titled “Link each recurring time slot — a sign-up for one will trigger a sign-up for all.“
All time slots that you configure within this popup will be linked together. You can create multiple time slots by either selecting dates from a calendar or repeating every week on specific days.
You will notice that “Require full time slot commitment” has also be checked in the popup above. When you link time slots together, it is a requirement that the user will commit to the entire time slot for all linked slots.
Create multiple groups of linked time slots by using the “Add Multiple Recurring Dates” link more than once. For example, maybe you have a morning shift and an afternoon shift on the same days, and would like to link all morning shifts together and all afternoon shifts together. When you choose to create multiple groups of linked slots, it is often useful to also check the box to “Add a name or description to the time slot.“
How it works in the app
When your users sign up for a linked time slot in the app, they will be notified that this opportunity requires multiple commitments and given a detailed list of when those other commitments will take place. This is visible to the right.
If you would like to notify them about these additional commitments on the opportunity overview screen, we suggest using the Time Slot Description field with a brief overview note to do so.
For example, in this case, you might write “You will volunteer every afternoon this week.” This example is visible to the left.
Common questions and tips about linked time slots
Can a user delete only one of the commitments?
What if a user cannot make it to one of the linked time slots?
After the user has been signed up for all linked time slots, it is still possible for the user to return to their Helper Helper and delete a specific commitment.
If you would like to prevent the user from deleting any commitments that are part of your linked time slots, we suggest that you set an appropriate “Cancellation deadline” when creating the linked time slots. Ensure that the deadline is large enough to cover all commitments that may be created using linked time slots.
For example, if you are creating opportunities with linked time slots that are for two months in the future, you can set a cancellation deadline on these time slots for 90 days. That will ensure that any commitment created for those linked time slots will not be able to be deleted by the user, as it would be attempted after the cancellation deadline.
What if one of the linked time slots is already full?
If you have set a maximum number of volunteers for your time slots, it is possible through administrative actions or deleted commitments that some of your linked time slots may be full, while others are available for sign up. In this case, when a user signs up for an available time slot, they will be signed up for all other linked time slots that are not full.
How do registration deadlines work with linked time slots?
If you have set a registration deadline for your linked time slots, that deadline will be enforced for the specific time slot the user selects to sign up with. All other linked time slots will have their registration deadline ignored. You can sync these up with creative editing of your deadlines after the events are created.
For example, if you had linked time slots that were on June 26 – June 30, and you wanted to require that all sign ups occur 48 hours before the first time slot on June 26, you would do the following. Edit your June 26 time slot and set a registration deadline of 2 days. Edit your June 27 time slot and set a registration deadline of 3 days. Do this for all of your time slots, adjusting the deadline to the appropriate amount of time before that specific time slot.
How do custom opportunity surveys interact with linked time slots?
If you are using opportunity surveys to collect custom feedback for an opportunity with linked time slots, for the most part this will work as you would expect. When creating the linked time slots, they will all be assigned the same surveys that you have selected.
However, you must be careful not to edit individual time slots after the fact and add any surveys that are “required when signing up” that are not also attached to all other linked time slots. If you make these manual edits, you could create a situation where sign ups for linked time slots fail due to missing surveys.