Volunteer Notifications

TimelyChurch sends email notifications to keep volunteers informed about their assignments and to streamline the accept/decline workflow. This article covers all notification types, how they work, and how to manage them.

Notification Types

1. Assignment Request Email

Triggered when: A volunteer is assigned to a serving position (either manually by an admin or through auto-scheduling).

Email subject: "Serving Request: [Position Name] - [Event Title]"

Email contents:

• Volunteer's first name
• Event title
• Event date (formatted as day of week, full date -- e.g., "Sunday, March 15, 2026")
• Event time (e.g., "9:00 AM - 11:00 AM")
• Event location (if set)
• Position name (e.g., "Sound Tech")
• Who assigned them (admin name, if applicable)
• Church name
• Accept button -- A signed URL that confirms the assignment with one click
• Decline button -- A signed URL that declines the assignment with one click
• Link to the member portal serving page
• Link to the availability management page

Important details:

• The accept and decline URLs are time-limited signed URLs that expire after 7 days.
• Clicking the accept link changes the assignment status to "Confirmed" and updates serving statistics.
• Clicking the decline link changes the assignment status to "Declined" and may trigger a substitute request.
• No login is required to accept or decline -- the signed URL handles authentication.

2. Volunteer Reminder Email

Triggered when:

• Automatically, every day at 6:00 PM, for every confirmed volunteer who is serving the next day. TimelyChurch runs this for you automatically (see Automation and Scheduled Jobs).
• Manually, when an admin clicks Send Reminders on the event's Serving tab.

Email subject: "Reminder: You're serving [timing] - [Event Title]"

The timing is calculated automatically:

• "today" if the event is on the current day
• "tomorrow" if the event is the next day
• "in X days" for events further out (e.g., "in 3 days")

Email contents:

• Volunteer's first name
• Event title
• Event date and time
• Event location
• Position name
• How soon the event is (e.g., "tomorrow," "in 3 days")
• Church name
• Link to the member portal serving page

Who receives it: Only volunteers with Confirmed status for the event. Pending and declined volunteers do not receive reminders.

Skipped volunteers: Volunteers without an email address on file are skipped. The admin is shown a count of how many were skipped.

3. Substitute Request Notification

Triggered when: An admin invites specific volunteers to fill an open substitute request.

Email contents:

• The event name and date
• The position that needs to be filled
• Why a substitute is needed
• Urgency level
• Link to respond

4. Event Change Notification

Triggered when: An event's details change (date, time, or location) and the admin opts to notify.

Who receives it: All confirmed volunteers assigned to that event.

Email contents: Details about what changed and the updated event information.

5. Bulk Communication

Triggered when: An admin sends a bulk message to volunteers across selected events.

Who receives it: All volunteers with pending or confirmed assignments for the selected events who have an email address.

6. Swap Request Notifications

Triggered when: A volunteer requests to swap their assignment with another team member through the member portal (see Swap and Trade Requests).

Who receives it:

• The target volunteer is notified that someone wants to swap shifts with them, with accept and decline actions in the portal.
• The requester is notified when the target accepts or declines.

If the swap is accepted, both assignments revert to Pending status so each volunteer can reconfirm their new commitment, which retriggers the standard Assignment Request email flow.

Sending Reminders

Automatic Daily Reminders (6:00 PM)

By default, TimelyChurch automatically emails every confirmed volunteer the evening before their assignment. The reminder runs each day at 6:00 PM and looks at all events scheduled for the next day. You do not need to do anything to enable this -- it is on by default.

What it does:

• Finds every assignment with status Confirmed for tomorrow's events.
• Sends each volunteer the standard volunteer reminder email.
• Records when each reminder was sent so you can see in the admin area when each person was last reminded.

Pending and declined assignments are skipped, and volunteers without an email address are skipped silently. See Automation and Scheduled Jobs for the full list of scheduled jobs and how to inspect their logs.

Manual Reminders for a Single Event

You can also fire reminders on demand at any time:

1. Open the event and go to the Serving tab.
2. Click the Send Reminders button.
3. The system sends a reminder email to every confirmed volunteer for this event.
4. You will see a summary: "X reminder(s) sent (Y skipped - no email)."

This is useful when you want to remind people earlier than the automatic 6 PM run -- for example, on Thursday for a Sunday morning service.

Reminder Behavior (manual or automatic)

• Reminders are sent to confirmed volunteers only (not pending or declined).
• Volunteers without an email address are skipped.
• Failed sends are recorded but do not stop the process for other volunteers.

The Accept/Decline Workflow

The accept/decline workflow is designed to be as frictionless as possible for volunteers:

From the Volunteer's Perspective

1. Email notification arrives with the assignment details.
2. The volunteer clicks Accept or Decline directly in the email.
   • Accept: The assignment status changes to "Confirmed." The volunteer sees a confirmation page.
   • Decline: The volunteer can optionally provide a reason. The assignment status changes to "Declined."
3. Alternatively, the volunteer can log in to the Member Portal and manage their assignments from the My Serving page.

From the Portal

1. The volunteer logs in and navigates to My Serving.
2. They see a list of upcoming assignments, separated by status.
3. For pending assignments, they can click Confirm or Decline.
4. For confirmed assignments, they can Check In when the event is happening (starting 2 hours before the event until the event ends).

What Happens on Decline

When a volunteer declines:

1. The assignment status changes to "Declined."
2. The decline reason (if provided) is recorded.
3. The decline is tracked in the volunteer's acceptance statistics.
4. If the position is no longer fully filled and the event is in the future, a substitute request is automatically created (see Substitute Requests).

Check-In

Volunteers can check in to their assignment through the portal:

• 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 clicks Check In on the portal, and a timestamp is recorded.

Notification Settings for Teams

Some notification behaviors are controlled at the team level:

Other Background Jobs That Affect Volunteers

Two more scheduled jobs touch the volunteer system but do not send email -- they keep the data underneath fresh. Admins should be aware they run, even though they are silent. Both are documented in detail in Automation and Scheduled Jobs.

In-App Notifications

In addition to emails, TimelyChurch may create in-app notifications that appear in the user's notification center within the admin panel or portal. These serve as a backup for volunteers who may not check their email regularly.

Managing Notification Tracking

Each assignment tracks:

These timestamps help admins see at a glance who has been notified, who has responded, and who has checked in.

Tip: Send reminders 2-3 days before an event to give volunteers enough time to prepare. For Sunday services, sending a reminder on Thursday or Friday is a good practice.

Tip: If you have volunteers who consistently do not respond to assignments, check whether their email address is correct. The system skips volunteers without email addresses on file.

Tip: Use the "Auto-Confirm" feature for small, close-knit teams where you know everyone will show up. This eliminates the accept/decline step and simplifies the workflow. Reserve the full accept/decline workflow for larger teams or less committed volunteer pools.