Volunteer rotas

Set out the jobs and shifts for an event, then share one link. Parents pick a slot with just their name, with no account and no password, and you can see who's coming at a glance.

1. Create the rota

Open the event and click the Rota tab. If the event doesn't have a rota yet, click Create rota.

Ran the same event last year? Click Or copy the rota from a previous event instead. Pick the event, give each day its new date, and every job and shift comes across ready to fill.

Only the event's admins can build the rota. Anyone else on the event team sees a button to ask an admin to set it up.

2. Add the jobs and shifts

Click Add slot. Each slot is one job at one time:

• Job / role: what the helper will be doing, such as "Car parking" or "Cake stall".
• Date: this starts on the event's date.
• Volunteers needed: how many people the job needs at that time.
• Shifts: one or more start and end times. Each becomes its own row on the rota, so a four-hour stall can be covered in two-hour shifts. Auto-fill shifts works them out for you: say when the first one starts, how many there are and how long each lasts.

Click Add. The button counts the rows it's about to create, so you can check before you save. To change a slot later, use the pencil on its row. Everyone already signed up to it is emailed about the change.

3. Share the link

Open Share & manage at the top of the rota.

• Copy link copies the rota's link for your class WhatsApp groups or newsletter.
• Copy message copies a ready-written message with the link in it.
• Share opens your phone's share sheet.
• Print QR poster gives you a poster for the school gate. Parents scan it and they're on the rota.

Anyone with the link can see the rota and sign up. It's made to be shared, so there's nothing to keep secret. Parents see a page like the one in Signing up to help.

4. Put someone on a slot yourself

Someone said yes at the gate? Click Volunteer? in the empty space and choose them from the list.

The list has everyone on the event team, and your external helpers: grandparents, neighbours and other people who help out but don't use Upfayre. To add someone new, click + Add someone new, then Confirm.

A team member you add is emailed their slot with a calendar invite. An external helper isn't sent a confirmation, but if you gave their email address, they get a reminder the day before and are told if the slot changes or is cancelled.

To take someone off a slot, click their name and choose Remove. They're emailed to say so, if we have their email address.

Reminders

You don't need to chase anyone the day before. Everyone on the rota who gave an email address gets a reminder the evening before their shift, with a link to cancel if they can't make it. If they cancel, the event's admins are told.

About a week before the event, if the rota still has empty spaces, the event's admins get an email saying how many are still to fill.

To nudge your own team, use Send rota sign-up email under Share & manage. It goes to the people on the event team (all of them, or only those not yet on a slot), with your message at the top.

Printing the rota

On the day, Download rota PDF under Share & manage gives you a printable list of every shift and who's on it, with empty spaces marked. It's available to your committee.

Helpers without an account

Parents who sign up from the link, and anyone you add as an external helper, are kept under People. If one of them later joins Upfayre with the same email address, their slots and tasks move onto their new account by themselves. If they joined with a different address, click Link to member next to their name and choose their account.