Member Availability
TimelyChurch tracks each member's time off so volunteer schedulers don't assign people on dates they have already blocked. The data is unified across every group a person belongs to: set unavailability once, and it applies everywhere. Here is how it works, who can edit it, and where leaders see it.
Unified Availability — The Big Picture
A blocked date means: "This person is unavailable on this date, optionally for a stated reason." The scheduler checks this across all serving teams when proposing assignments.
A person who serves on several teams has one set of blocked dates. The portal applies a change to all of a person's memberships at once, so the experience is simply "I'm unavailable Saturday June 8", applied across the board.
Who Can Set Availability
| Who | What They Can Do |
|---|---|
| The member themselves (member portal) | Block or unblock single dates and date ranges, add recurring patterns, and set scheduling preferences. Affects all of their teams. |
| A scheduler (admin Schedule Grid) | Mark a person unavailable for a date while building the schedule. |
| Leaders and admins | See blocked dates on the team's Members tab and on the person's profile. |
Members cannot view or edit anyone else's availability.
Member Portal — My Schedule
Members manage time off from the Availability tab of My Schedule in the member portal. Under My availability, which reads "Mark the Sundays you can't serve. Your leaders see this when they build the schedule, so you won't get assigned on days you're away.":
| Action | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Tap any Sunday | Switches it between Available and Blocked |
| Block a date range | Pick From and To, then Mark unavailable to block every date in the range |
A blocked date applies to every team the member serves on.
Scheduling Preferences
For more control, members click Scheduling preferences (on My Schedule, or at the bottom of the Availability tab). The Serving Availability page offers:
- Add Unavailable Date: a Start Date and End Date (set both the same for a single day) with an optional Reason (optional), such as "Out of town" or "Family event". Upcoming Unavailable Dates lists what's blocked, and each can be removed again.
- Recurring Patterns: Add Pattern to block a repeating day automatically (for example, a regular work schedule). Patterns can be removed at any time.
- Scheduling Preferences: Preferred Days to Serve, Preferred Times (Morning, Afternoon, Evening), Days to Avoid, Max Times Per Month, Min Days Between, Include me in auto-scheduling, and I can fill in last-minute when needed. Click Save Preferences.
Admin / Leader View
- On a team's Members tab, a member with blocked dates coming up shows an On Leave badge with the number of days and the next date.
- On a person's profile, the Serving tab lists their Unavailable Dates for the next 90 days.
- The scheduler leaves out members who have blocked a date when auto-filling assignments.
- In the Schedule Grid, a scheduler can use Mark unavailable on a person for a date, with the note "Blocks every service that day."
If a member who blocked a date tells a leader they can serve after all, ask them to unblock the date on their Availability tab.
Tip: Encourage members to add a short reason whenever they mark dates unavailable. It saves the leader from asking "are you sure?" before reassigning, and it gives the leader useful context ("Sarah is out three Sundays in a row — is everything OK?").