How Volunteer Scheduling Is Organized
TimelyChurch organizes volunteer scheduling around the Event — the dated workspace where everything for that day lives. This article walks through the five concepts that make up the model and shows you exactly where each one lives in the admin panel.
The Five Concepts
TimelyChurch's volunteer scheduling boils down to just five things:
| Concept | What It Is | Where It Lives |
|---|---|---|
| Event | A single occurrence (e.g., "Sunday Worship — May 11"). The hub for everything that happens that day. | Planning > Events > pick an event |
| Series | A recurring pattern that generates events (e.g., "Sunday Worship, every Sunday at 10 AM"). | Planning > Events, then Event Series button (top-right) |
| Team | A group of people who serve together (e.g., the Worship Team, the Hospitality Team). | People > Groups (filter by Type: Team) |
| Position | A role within a team (e.g., Sound Tech, Greeter, Lead Vocalist). | Inside each team |
| Assignment | A specific person scheduled to fill a specific position on a specific event. | The Serving tab on each event |
You read it left-to-right: a Team has Positions, an Event is generated by a Series, and you fill the event's positions by creating Assignments on the event's Serving tab. That's the whole model.
Where to Find Each Piece
A complete map of the admin panel locations:
- Events — Planning section in the sidebar > Events.
- Schedule Grid (cross-event grid of who is serving when) — on the Events page, click the Schedule Grid button in the top-right.
- Event Series — on the Events page, click the Event Series button in the top-right. From there you can create a new series, edit an existing one, or run Auto-Fill Series across every upcoming occurrence at once.
- Teams — People section in the sidebar > Groups, then filter by Type: Team.
- Team Schedule Templates — open a team and click the Templates tab. This is where you set up auto-applying position lists for each event type.
- Cascade auto-fill toggle — on a team's Details tab, in the scheduling settings card. Turn this on to have the system pick replacements automatically when someone declines.
- Open positions / serving needs — on any event, the Serving tab.
- Need Attention — top-level item in the admin sidebar. The single dashboard for unfilled positions, open sub requests, and prep tasks across every event.
- Sub Requests — visible on each event's Serving tab, and aggregated on the Need Attention dashboard.
A Typical Workflow
A normal week now looks like this:
- Series generates the event. Sunday Worship is a series, so May 11's event already exists with the right time, room, and (if you have a team template) the right serving positions pre-loaded.
- Team templates pre-fill the positions. If you have a Team Schedule Template that auto-applies to Worship event types, May 11 already has slots for Sound, Greeters, Vocals, etc. — you did not have to add them.
- Auto-Fill picks the volunteers. From the event's Serving tab, click Auto-Fill All (or do it for the whole series at once from the series page).
- Volunteers accept or decline. They get an email; if anyone declines, the cascade auto-fill setting on the team can pick a replacement automatically.
- Sub requests handle the leftovers. Anything that cannot be cascade-filled shows up in Need Attention for one-click "Invite Substitute Teachers."
That is the whole loop. Just the event, the team's standing positions, and a few smart defaults.
What to Read Next
- Team Schedule Templates — set up a template once and every new event of that type arrives pre-loaded. The single biggest time-saver in the volunteer system.
- Cascade Auto-Fill, Sub Invites, and Out-of-Office Badges — the three admin features that handle declines and absences for you.
- Creating an Event Series with a Template — skip the recurrence-rule guesswork and start from a known-good shape.
- Scheduling Volunteers for Events — the full reference for adding serving needs and assigning people.
Tip: If you only have time to set up one thing, set up a Team Schedule Template. It is the single change that turns "I have to add the same five positions to every Sunday event" into "I never have to add a position to a Sunday event again."