Volunteer Notifications

TimelyChurch keeps volunteers informed about their assignments and makes accepting or declining a one-tap job. Messages go by Telegram when the volunteer has linked their account, otherwise by email, and most also appear in the in-app notification list. This article covers every volunteer message, when it goes out, and the team settings that control it.

Notification Types

1. "You Have Been Scheduled" Invitation

Triggered when: a volunteer is assigned to a serving position (by hand, by auto-fill, from the Schedule Grid, or from Telegram), and the date is within their team's notice window.

Each team decides how far ahead its people hear, under Groups → [Team] → Details → Scheduling Settings → When people are told they are scheduled → Tell them this many days before they serve (default 30 days):

• If the event is within that many days, the invitation goes out right away.
• If it's further out, the invitation is held and sent in the morning (about 9 AM church time) on the day the event comes within range. You can plan a whole term or year at once and each volunteer hears about each date about a month ahead.
• 0 means "tell people the moment you schedule them".

Changing the setting affects invitations that haven't gone out yet. Nobody is messaged twice.

On Telegram, the volunteer gets a message with the event, date, time, and position, and three buttons: ✅ Yes, I can, ❌ Not this time, and ⏰ Remind me before… (which offers 3 days before, 1 day before, or Morning of).

By email, the subject is "Serving Request: [Position Name] - [Event Title]" and the email shows:

• The event title, date, time, and location
• The position name
• Who assigned them (if applicable)
• Accept and Decline buttons
• Links to view their full schedule and to manage their availability in the portal

Important details:

• The Accept and Decline links are secure, personal links that expire after 7 days.
• No login is required to accept or decline from the email.
• Accepting changes the assignment to Confirmed; declining changes it to Declined and alerts the team's leaders (see Substitute Requests).

When the assignment is already confirmed, the team has Auto-confirm assignments (skip pending status) on, so a leader's placement or auto-fill confirms it right away. The message tells the volunteer they're scheduled instead of asking. On Telegram it carries the same event, date, time, and position and "You're confirmed — no need to reply.", with no buttons. By email the subject is "Serving Assignment: [Position Name] - [Event Title]", the email says "You have been scheduled to serve at an upcoming event:" and "You're confirmed — no need to reply.", and there are no Accept or Decline buttons. For a date further out than the team's notice window, the volunteer hears about it with the serving reminder before they serve.

Copying many weeks at once? When you use Copy Forward on a series, each volunteer gets one summary message listing all the dates they were added to, instead of a separate message per date. The summary points them to My Schedule in the portal, where they can confirm or decline each date.

2. Serving Reminders

Automatic reminders go to volunteers who are Pending or Confirmed, once, in the evening (6 PM church time) on each team's reminder day. Each team sets:

• Send serving reminders to this team: on by default.
• Send the reminder this many days before: default 2 ("you are serving in 2 days"; 0 = the morning of the event). When it's 2 or more, people also get one final reminder the day before.

Manual reminders: open the event's Serving tab, click More actions → Send reminders, and every confirmed volunteer for that event is reminded right away. On the Schedule Grid, Remind N reminds everyone still pending in view.

Email subject: "Reminder: You're serving [timing] - [Event Title]". The timing reads "today," "tomorrow," or "in X days."

Email contents: the event title, date and time, location, position, how soon it is, and a link to My Schedule in the portal.

Skipped volunteers: anyone with no Telegram link and no email address on file can't be reached and is skipped.

3. Nudges for People Who Haven't Answered

If a team sets Remind unconfirmed people (days before event) (for example "4, 2"), anyone still pending is pinged again on those days. With Move on when someone does not respond turned on, an invitation that goes unanswered past the Response deadline expires and the next person in rotation is invited. See Cascade Auto-Fill, Sub Invites, and Out-of-Office Badges.

4. Decline Alerts for Leaders

Triggered when: a volunteer declines.

Who receives it: the team's leaders and co-leaders (or your church admins, if the team has no leader), in-app, on Telegram with Find a sub, Re-invite, and View event buttons, or by email with an Open the schedule button.

5. Fill Request Invitations

Triggered when: a leader sends a fill request for an open position. Each invited person gets a personal claim link (on Telegram, an I can take it button). See Fill Requests: Offer Open Spots, First to Claim Wins.

6. Event Change Notification

Triggered when: an event is rescheduled and the admin chooses to notify people.

Who receives it: registered attendees and confirmed serving volunteers for the event. See Event Reminders and Notifications.

7. Swap Request Notifications

Triggered when: a volunteer proposes a swap from My Schedule (see Swap and Trade Requests).

Who receives it:

• The teammate (or the whole team, for an open swap) is told someone wants to swap, with accept and decline actions in the portal.
• The requester is told when their swap is accepted or declined.

If the swap is accepted, both assignments go back to Pending so each volunteer can reconfirm their new date.

The Accept/Decline Workflow

The accept/decline flow is quick for volunteers:

From Telegram or Email

1. The invitation arrives with the assignment details.
2. The volunteer taps Yes, I can / Accept or Not this time / Decline.
   • Accept: The assignment changes to "Confirmed." From email, the volunteer sees a confirmation page.
   • Decline: The volunteer can optionally give a reason. The assignment changes to "Declined."

From the Portal

1. The volunteer signs in and opens My Schedule (List view).
2. Items that need an answer are marked Needs response; they tap Confirm or Decline.
3. They can also Propose swap to trade with a teammate.
4. On the day, they can tap I'm Here to check in.

What Happens on Decline

When a volunteer declines:

1. The assignment changes to "Declined" and the reason (if any) is recorded.
2. The decline counts toward the volunteer's acceptance statistics.
3. The team's leaders are alerted, and, if the team allows it, the next person in rotation is invited automatically (see Substitute Requests).

Check-In

Volunteers can check in to their assignment from My Schedule:

• Check-in window: starts 2 hours before the event's start time and ends when the event ends (or 2 hours after the start time if no end time is set).
• Eligibility: only confirmed assignments that have not already been checked in.
• Process: the volunteer taps I'm Here; the assignment then shows Checked In.

Notification Settings for Teams

These settings live in the Scheduling Settings card on the team's Details tab:

Other Automatic Updates

Two more automatic tasks affect volunteers but send no messages. See Automation and Scheduled Jobs.

Tip: The more volunteers link Telegram, the faster answers come back, since a one-tap button beats an email. Members link it from their portal profile.

Tip: If you have volunteers who consistently do not respond, check whether their email address is correct and whether they've linked Telegram. Someone with neither can't be reached.

Tip: Use Auto-confirm assignments for small, close-knit teams where you know everyone will show up. This skips the accept/decline step. Keep the full accept/decline workflow for larger teams.