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

1. In the sidebar under People, open Groups.
2. Open the serving team the person belongs to, then open the Members tab.
3. Click the member to open their membership panel. You can set:

1. Click to save the membership 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 specific dates as unavailable through the member portal:

1. The volunteer logs in to the Member Portal.
2. They navigate to Serving Availability (accessible from their serving schedule page).
3. They see:
   • A list of their current team memberships
   • Their existing unavailable dates (from the current month onward)
4. To add a new unavailable date, they click Add Unavailable Date and then:
   • Select a date (must be today or in the future)
   • Optionally enter a reason (e.g., "Family vacation," "Out of town," "Medical appointment")
   • Save the entry
5. The unavailability is applied 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) on the same Serving Availability page. These patterns automatically block matching dates so the volunteer does not have to add each one by hand.

Removing a Blackout Date

If plans change and a volunteer becomes available again:

1. From the Serving Availability page in the portal, find the date in the list.
2. Click the remove control next to the date and confirm.
3. 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 category in the assignment modal.
• The reason for unavailability (if provided) is displayed next to their name.
• 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."

This check is enforced during:

• Individual manual assignments
• Bulk assignments
• Copying assignments from previous events
• Auto-fill scheduling

Volunteer Scheduling Preferences

In addition to blackout dates, team members can set detailed scheduling preferences through the portal. These preferences influence the smart scheduling algorithm.

Available Preferences

After adjusting these, the volunteer clicks Save Preferences.

How Preferences Affect Scheduling

The values below apply to the auto-scheduler's Fair Rotation strategy (Auto-Fill Position / Auto-Fill Series). The simpler "Smart Suggestion" priority score that powers the green Suggested badge 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 disabled "Available for Auto-Schedule" 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):

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), you can change their team membership status to "On Leave" instead of adding individual blackout dates for each week. Change it back to "Active" when they return.