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Configure Group Schedule

This chapter delves into the administrative setup and management capabilities of the Group Scheduling feature. In the prior chapter we covered what volunteers are empowered to do themselves. Now, we’ll show you how that all gets set up, and what Group Scheduling looks like on the administrative side.

Before starting to scheduling volunteers, you’ll need to configure things like locations and schedules. Locations ensure volunteers know where they're needed, while Schedules pinpoint when their help is required. Then, the Group Scheduler is used to place volunteers into those positions at those times.

Configuring Group Scheduling

There are two critical pieces of the puzzle you need before starting to schedule volunteers. It’s simple to get these pieces because when it comes to asking for help, people are hardwired to know when and where they are needed. So, we are going to make sure our Named Locations and Schedules are configured.

Be sure to check out the Checking-Out Check-In user guide for more detail about adding locations. For Group Scheduler, however, you will be adding more than rooms. Perhaps you’ll be adding sections, areas or positions. These might be used to schedule specific areas of your lobby for the greeters to be stationed. Or, if you’ll be using Rock to schedule your band and technical teams, add a location named ‘Audio’ or ‘Piano’ and change the location type to be a position.

Note

Adding Location Types
Location Types (Campus, Building, Room, etc.) are Defined Types. To add more, open the Defined Type Location Type associated with the Location category and click the ti ti-circle-plus button.  

Next up: schedules, also known as times. This is found in Admin Tools > Settings > General > Schedules. You should have a few parent groups for different types of schedules. For group scheduling, we want to make sure the times are accurate since, you guessed it, location and time are critical aspects of scheduling volunteers.

Note

One Schedule
It is best practice to have one schedule for each time. If you have multiple sites with the same start times, you will only need one schedule for that time.

Lastly, make sure scheduling is enabled on the Group Type. Navigate to Admin Tools > Settings > General > Group Types > Serving Team | Scheduling. There are additional settings you can configure for your organization. To enable, check the Scheduling Enabled box as pictured below.

  1. Scheduling Enabled - Enabling scheduling unlocks all of the scheduling features for groups of this type.
  2. Schedule Confirmation Communication - Select the System Communication that you want to send to people to confirm their schedule. Rock ships with the Scheduling Confirmation Email System Communication for this purpose.
  3. Schedule Cancellation Workflow - You can optionally launch a workflow whenever a person indicates they can't make it at their scheduled time. You might use this to notify people that you're a person shorter than planned.
  4. Requires Reason If Schedule Declined - This setting determines if a reason is required if a person says they can't attend at their scheduled time. The available reasons are stored as a Defined Type called Group Schedule Decline Reason.
  5. Schedule Reminder Communication - This is the System Communication to use for sending people a reminder about their scheduled serving time. Rock ships with the Scheduling Reminder Email System Communication for this purpose, but you can use a custom communication if desired.
  6. Schedule Confirmation Offset Days - This is simply the number of days before the scheduled serving time that you want to send the confirmation email.
  7. Schedule Reminder Offset Days - This is similar to the setting described above but applies to the reminder email.
  8. Schedule Confirmation Logic - Here you can choose to Ask the person if they accept their schedule, or you can have all schedules automatically accepted by choosing Auto Accept instead. If this is set to Auto Accept, then the confirmation email will only contain a Decline button. 
  9. Schedule Coordinator Notification Options - Here you can designate which types of schedule changes the group's Schedule Coordinator should be alerted to. See the Schedule Coordinator Notification section below for more details.

Warning

Changing Schedule Confirmation Logic
Keeping in mind it should happen rarely, use caution when changing the Schedule Confirmation Logic setting. In some scenarios, changing this setting could result in a person who is not confirmed receiving a confirmation email with only a Decline button and no way to Accept the assignment. This typically happens when changing from Ask to Auto Accept before the person receives their confirmation email.  

In the Group Type configuration pictured above, note the Schedule Confirmation Email and Schedule Reminder Email settings. These communications can be sent via email or SMS messaging.

To send these as SMS messages you'll need to be sure to have SMS messaging configured (see the Communicating With Rock guide for details) and the person needs to have an SMS enabled phone number. You'll also need to make sure the System Communications for these are configured for SMS. With all that in place, the communication medium will be decided based on the person's group member communication preference or, if not specified there, the person's personal profile communication preference.

Group Schedule Types Configure Groups for Scheduling