How can I recruit volunteers?

Modified on Mon, 20 May at 11:49 AM

To recruit volunteers you'll need to add "tasks" to your event. Click "Tasks for volunteers" from your event management menu, which can be found in "Admin" > "Events" > "Manage" (for the appropriate event):

You then have two options of adding tasks:

Add single tasks

To add single tasks click the "Add task" button:

You will be able to define the following fields:

Organisers	You can specify up to 4 people who can be responsible for organising this task. When these people log in to your PTA Events website, they will be able to access the volunteers report for this specific task.
Task group	If defined you can choose a target group that this task is related to. This enabled you to easily group all of your tasks together.
Name	The name of your task. Names should be kept fairly succinct. If you need to add more information about your task use the description. This could be a generic name if you just want to recruit volunteers for an event - eg "School Disco helpers" or could be a specific time slot eg "Hook a duck". Note the times defined in the tasks start and end date fields are always shown after the name so you can have specific time slots.
Description	A description for your task where you can add more information.
Message to volunteers	This text will appear in the task confirmation email which is sent to the customer when they have volunteered. You can use it to add a personal thank you to your customers for volunteering or inform them of further information relating to this task.
No of helpers	This is the number of people you require to run this task efficiently and effectively. For example if you have a disco you may need 20 volunteers.
Hide no helpers required	This will hide the number of helpers required where your tasks are shown.
Sort order	Entering a value in the sort order field will allow you to sort your tasks in your own specific order.
Required by date	The the cut off date and time when your organisation will need to make a judgement call if you have enough volunteers to run this task. The task will no longer be shown to your community after this time.
Task start date	The date and time that your task will start.
Task end date	The date and time that your task will end.

When you have added all of the required information, click the "Add task" button to save your task.

Add bulk tasks

Adding bulk tasks allows you to easily add many tasks at the same time. This is especially handy if you need to create time slots for the duration of an event.

To add bulk tasks click the "Add bulk tasks" button:

You will be able to define the following fields for each collection of task.

Task for event set up	If checked we will automatically create a task for event set up.
Task for event set down	If checked we will automatically create a task for event set down.
Organiser	This drop down list shows all customers defined as committee members for the current academic year.
Task Name	The name of the task eg "BBQ Cooks" or "Bar". When the task gets added for the time slot it will show the times along side the task name so no need to enter times here.
No Volunteers (per slot)	This is the number of volunteers you require for each slot.
Slot time (mins)	This is the length of time for each task.

In the screenshot above we can see that we have defined two bulk tasks. The first one will create tasks for "BBQ Cooks" every 30 minutes during between the event start and end times (defined in your event settings). We also require two volunteers for each 30 minute slot. The second one will create tasks for the "Bar" every 60 minutes and will require 3 volunteers per 60 minute slot.

Click the "Add tasks" button to create your tasks. All of your tasks will be shown where you can edit them further by clicking the task name. You can also continue to add individual tasks or use the bulk task functionality again.

To delete a task click the "Bin" button next to the task.

To delete more than one task at a time, click the checkbox under the select column and then you can click the "Delete bulk tasks" button which will appear top right of the page:

If you want to copy a task click the "Copy" button next to the task:

Your tasks will then be visible to your community so they can volunteer in a number of places:

1. Your "Can you help?" panel

2. The dedicated volunteers page in "About Us" > "Volunteers"

3. In "My Account" > "Volunteer" tab.

4. If you have checked "Ask for volunteers" in your event settings then we will interrupt the checkout process and ask for your community to volunteer.