Managing Volunteer Availability
TimelyChurch provides two types of availability management: general availability preferences that describe when a volunteer can typically serve, and specific blackout dates for days they will be absent. Both the admin and the volunteer can manage these settings.
General Availability (Admin-Managed)
Availability is set on a person's team membership. From the admin side, you manage it on the team's page; from the volunteer's side, they manage it themselves in the Member Portal (see the next section).
Setting General Availability
- In the sidebar under People, open Groups.
- Open the serving team the person belongs to, then open the Members tab.
- On the member's row, open Serving Preferences. You can set:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| How often can they serve? | As often as needed (no monthly limit), Up to once a month, Up to twice a month, or Up to three times a month. |
| Available days (leave empty for all days) | Check the days of the week the member is generally able to serve. Leave all boxes unchecked to treat the member as available on every day. |
- Save the changes.
This availability information is stored on the member's team membership and is used by the scheduling tools when assigning volunteers.
Specific Blackout Dates (Volunteer-Managed)
Blackout dates are specific days when a serving team member is not available. These are managed primarily by the volunteers themselves through the member portal, though admins can see them.
How Volunteers Set Blackout Dates
Volunteers who are members of a serving team can mark dates as unavailable through the member portal in two places:
Quick way — My Schedule → Availability:
- The volunteer signs in to the Member Portal and opens My Schedule.
- They switch to the Availability view ("My availability").
- They tap any Sunday to switch it between Available and Blocked.
- Away for a stretch? Under Block a date range, they pick From and To dates and tap Mark unavailable.
Full page — Serving Availability:
- From My Schedule, the volunteer taps Scheduling preferences. The Serving Availability page opens ("Mark dates when you're not available to serve"), listing Your Serving Teams and Upcoming Unavailable Dates.
- They click Add Unavailable Date and then:
- Pick a Start Date and End Date (for a single day, set both dates the same)
- Optionally enter a Reason (optional) (e.g., "Out of town," "Family event")
- Click Add Date
Either way, the unavailability applies to all of their serving teams at once. If someone is on both the Worship Team and the Greeting Team, marking a date as unavailable applies to both teams.
Recurring Unavailability
In addition to one-off dates, volunteers can set up recurring patterns (for example, a regular weekly conflict) under Recurring Patterns → Add Pattern on the same Serving Availability page. These patterns automatically block matching dates so the volunteer does not have to add each one by hand. See Recurring Unavailability.
Removing a Blackout Date
If plans change and a volunteer becomes available again:
- From the Serving Availability page in the portal, find the date under Upcoming Unavailable Dates (or tap a Blocked Sunday in My Schedule → Availability to make it available again).
- Click the remove control next to the date. Remove Unavailable Date? asks to confirm — "You'll be marked as available to serve on this date again." — click Mark as Available.
- The date is removed from the unavailable list for all teams.
What Admins See
When an admin is assigning volunteers through the event's Serving tab:
- Volunteers marked as unavailable on the event date appear in the Unavailable group in the Find Volunteers window.
- The system prevents admins from assigning a volunteer who is marked as unavailable. If an admin attempts to assign an unavailable person, they will see an error message: "[Name] is marked as unavailable on this date."
- On the Schedule Grid, their cell shows – (Unavailable).
- On the team's Members tab, leaders see an On Leave badge with how many blocked days are coming up and the next one (for example, "On Leave 5 days · next May 15").
This check is enforced during:
- Individual manual assignments
- Copying assignments from previous events
- Auto-fill scheduling
Volunteer Scheduling Preferences
In addition to blackout dates, team members can set detailed scheduling preferences in the Scheduling Preferences section of the portal's Serving Availability page ("Set your preferred days, times, and limits for auto-scheduling"). These preferences influence the smart scheduling algorithm.
Available Preferences
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Preferred Days to Serve | Days of the week the volunteer prefers to serve (leave empty if no preference) |
| Days to Avoid | Days of the week the volunteer would rather not serve |
| Preferred Times | Morning, Afternoon, and/or Evening |
| Max Times Per Month | Maximum number of times the volunteer wants to be scheduled per month (or No limit) |
| Min Days Between | Minimum number of days they want between serving assignments (or No minimum) |
| I can fill in last-minute when needed | Whether the volunteer is willing to fill in on short notice |
| Include me in auto-scheduling | Whether the volunteer can be assigned by auto-fill (if unticked, they can only be assigned by hand) |
After adjusting these, the volunteer clicks Save Preferences.
How Preferences Affect Scheduling
The values below apply to auto-fill under the Fair Rotation strategy (a single position, a whole event, a series, or the Schedule Grid). The simpler "Smart Suggestion" priority score that powers the Suggested (rotate in) group in the Find Volunteers window does NOT factor in day/time preferences -- see 08-volunteer-reports.md for the distinction.
- Day preferences: Volunteers who prefer the event's day of the week receive a +5 scoring bonus. Those who avoid that day receive a -20 penalty.
- Time preferences: Volunteers who do not prefer the event's time of day (morning/afternoon/evening) receive a -10 penalty.
- Frequency limits: If a volunteer has reached their team max OR personal max times per month, they receive a -100 penalty (effectively excluding them from auto-scheduling).
- Min days between serving: If the volunteer served more recently than their minimum gap (team setting OR personal setting, whichever is greater), they receive a -50 penalty.
- Auto-schedule opt-out: Volunteers who have unticked "Include me in auto-scheduling" are completely excluded from auto-fill.
Serving Frequency Settings
Team members can also set their serving frequency preference directly on their team membership (in addition to the detailed preferences above):
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| As often as needed | No limit on scheduling |
| Up to once a month | Schedule at most 1 time per month |
| Up to twice a month | Schedule at most 2 times per month |
| Up to three times a month | Schedule at most 3 times per month |
The system tracks how many times each member has served in the current month and respects these limits during auto-scheduling.
Available Days (Team Member Setting)
Each team member can also specify which days of the week they are generally available to serve. This is stored as the Available days setting on the team membership. If no specific days are set, the member is considered available on all days.
Tip: Encourage your volunteers to keep their blackout dates up to date. When volunteers proactively mark their unavailable dates, it saves coordinators from assigning someone who will inevitably decline, and it makes auto-scheduling much more accurate.
Tip: If a volunteer will be away for an extended period (e.g., a month-long trip), have them block the whole stretch at once with Block a date range in My Schedule → Availability, or with a single Add Unavailable Date entry that has a Start Date and End Date, instead of adding each week separately.