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How to set up volunteer scheduling rules
Volunteer Scheduling Rules
Volunteer scheduling rules can be found on the user Profile/Preferences page under the “Schedule Preferences/Rules” panel.
Below are the list of available Rules:
- Rule #1 – allows users to specify if they want/do not want to be scheduled within a certain number of days as another volunteer.
For example, Person A can specify that they want to be scheduled within 2 days of the scheduled date for Person B.
This rule is especially useful for organizations with multiple services.
Person A may/may not want to be scheduled during the same weekend as Person B. Rule is more effective if all parties add this rule.
Rule commands that start with ‘when possible’ do not guarantee that parties will be scheduled together; it just raises the probability. - Rule #2 – allows users to specify if they want/do not want to be scheduled in the same Activity/Service as another volunteer.
Rule is more effective if all parties add this rule.
Rule commands that start with ‘when possible’ do not guarantee that parties will be scheduled together; it just raises the probability. - Rule #3 – allows users to specify if they want/do not want to be scheduled in the same Workgroup as another volunteer.
For example, if both Person A and Person B have the usher skill, Person A can specify a desire to be scheduled with Person B. Rule is more effective if all parties add this rule.
Rule commands that start with ‘when possible’ do not guarantee that parties will be scheduled together; it just raises the probability. - Rule #4 – allows users to specify which Workgroup they want to be considered for only in the case when no other volunteers are available.
With this rule, the auto-scheduler will schedule all available volunteers in that Workgroup before considering users who added the rule.
For example, Person A has the usher skill for an organization with 2 Services. Both services have a ‘Ushers’ workgroup however, Person A prefers to mainly be scheduled for 1st Service. Using this rule, Person A can specify the 2nd Service Ushers workgroup as a substitution only workgroup.
This means that the auto-scheduler will only consider Person A for 2nd Service Usher workgroup when everyone else has declined the assignment or is unavailable. - Rule #5 – allows users to specify how often they want to be scheduled within a given period.
For example, if Person A specifies that he/she only wants to be scheduled once every 21 days, then the auto-scheduler will not schedule him/her more than 1 time within a 3 week period. - Rule #6 – this rule is similar to Rule #5 above; however, while Rule #5 will make sure the user does not get scheduled more than the times specified in the given period, this rule only raises the probability.
If there are no other volunteers available to be scheduled, then the user with this rule will be considered for the assignment even if they have already been scheduled more times than the threshold that was set. - Rule #7 – this rule allows users to not be scheduled in certain Workgroups on the same day.
This rule is most useful for organizations with multiple services and volunteers who have multiple skills.
For example, Person A has both usher and greeter skills in an organization with 2 services on Sundays. Person A may not want to serve as a greeter for Service 1 and usher for Service 2. This rule blocks the auto-scheduler from scheduling Person A in both services as a greeter and usher. - Rule #8 – allows users to specify how often they want to be scheduled within a given period.
For example, if Person A specifies that he/she only wants to be scheduled once every 21 days for Workgroup Ushers, then the auto-scheduler will not schedule him/her more than 1 time within a 3 week period for Workgroup Ushers only.