Scheduling volunteers

The Tuesday job is finding out who is missing this Sunday and fixing it before Saturday night. This article covers the Volunteer schedule page, filling slots, sending the ask, and what happens when someone says no.

Where it lives and how it is laid out

In the sidebar under Sundays, click Volunteer schedule. The page is titled Volunteer Schedule at /schedule, with the subhead Who's serving each week. The service plan itself lives on Services.

Top to bottom:

• The hero, for the date you are working: 12 of 18 spots filled · Sunday, July 26, a meter, and a legend reading N confirmed, N waiting on reply, N penciled in (only when it is above zero) and N still open. On the right, either a count of teams still needing someone, a reminder that people still need to be asked or reply, or Every team on this date has its people.
• One Scout notice, at most. A charcoal strip with one sentence, a Why disclosure, and one button. Scout raises a decline first, then a double-booking, then a team where everyone is new to their position. When none of those apply the strip renders nothing, which is not a bug.
• Date bands, each carrying either a count like 13 open across 4 teams (that counts distinct teams, not crews) or a green Fully staffed pill. Only the first date is expanded. A later date shows a compact tile strip with Show teams to open it and Collapse to fold it again.
• Team cards. Each card covers one team, on one date, at one service time. The card shows filled over total, a meter, the roster, one primary button, and Open service →.

Three views sit in the top bar under the control labeled Schedule view: By week (the default), By team, and All weeks. Your pick is saved in that browser and restored next visit. On the first two, arrows either side of the date range (Earlier weeks and Later weeks) move two service dates at a time.

The horizon is the next 8 services, not 8 weeks, and it merges every service template. If you run Sunday and Wednesday services, that is about four calendar weeks.

What each slot status means

The status tells you whether someone is penciled in, has been asked, or has replied.

| The state | All weeks chip and person modal | Team card row | |---|---|---| | Nobody on it | Empty | a dashed Assign a {Position} button | | Penciled in, nobody asked | Penciled in | Not asked yet | | Asked, no reply yet | Requested | Waiting | | Said yes | Confirmed | no tag | | Said no | Declined | Declined, name struck through |

A declined slot keeps the person visible and counts as open on both the Volunteer schedule and the service’s Volunteers tab. When you add a replacement after a member declines, that earlier decline remains visible beside the position.

Fill an empty slot

1. 1

   Open the position

   Click Assign a {Position} on a team card, or Assign in the All weeks view. The service’s Volunteers tab uses the same assignment panel.

2. 2

   Review the suggestions

   The panel names the position, service, team, date, and service time. It lists all eligible team members who have that position, excluding active holds, prior declines for this slot, and known scheduling conflicts. Use Search eligible people to find someone within this list. Read the reasons and other serving commitments beside each person. How Scout suggests volunteers covers the ranking.

3. 3

   Pencil someone in

   Click Pencil in to save the person on this spot without sending a request. A saved assignment closes the panel and confirms that no request was sent. Use Send requests when you are ready to ask them.

4. 4

   Search beyond the suggestions if needed

   Click Search all people, type at least two characters, and review the results. This search includes people outside the team and position. Check their suitability and availability before choosing them. Known overlapping assignments are labeled and cannot be selected. Back to suggestions returns to the shortlist.

No suggestions available for this spot does not necessarily mean the team has no members. People may be on hold, have declined, already be serving, or need the position added to their membership. Review {Team} positions opens the team page. See Setting up a serving team.

If suggestions or search cannot load, use Retry. If an assignment fails, the panel keeps the position and your results open and shows the reason. You can choose someone else or try again. Close the panel or press Escape to cancel before saving; closing is disabled while a save is in progress.

Fill a team

On a team card with empty slots, Fill this team asks Scout to pencil in its best available candidates. It fills only empty slots with no person assigned. It does not replace declines or people who are already penciled in. Review the roster afterward; some positions may remain open if no eligible candidate is available. The result tells you how many people were added, or that no one was free.

A card shows one primary button based on its state: Find a backup for a decline, Fill this team for empty slots, or Send N requests for penciled-in people. The service’s Volunteers tab uses the same team cards and actions. There is no separate Auto-Fill button in a service Teams panel.

Send the requests

Choose the scope before sending:

• The date summary’s Send N requests covers penciled-in slots on that date across its teams and service times.
• A team card’s Send N requests covers that card’s team and service time. This works on both the Volunteer schedule and a service’s Volunteers tab.
• In All weeks, click penciled-in names to select them, then use Send N requests in the bottom bar. Cmd or Ctrl plus Enter also sends; Escape clears the selection.

Sending changes the selected assignments to Requested. Scout tries an app push notification first, then email when push does not reach a device. A volunteer without an app account can receive the request at the email address on their person record. Requests also appear in the member app schedule. Scout does not send text messages.

Read the delivery result after sending. It reports the app and email counts and names anyone Scout could not reach. If several people were missed, Who? opens the list with the reasons. An assignment can be Requested even when notification delivery fails, so contact those people yourself. Provider acceptance does not prove that someone read the request.

If Scout reports an unknown delivery outcome, check before sending again. If the team uses published role details, Scout may direct you to Prepare serving plan to review those requests before sending.

When the answers come back

In the member app, a card whose pill reads requested carries Confirm and Decline. Serving requests and the schedule shows their side of it.

• Confirm flips the pill immediately and emails the team's leads, subject {Name} confirmed for Sun, Jul 26 {Position}, with a View schedule → button.
• Decline opens a sheet, Can't make it this time?, and takes Yes, decline. No reason is captured anywhere. The leads get [Action needed] {Name} can't make Sun, Jul 26 {Position} with a Find a backup → button that lands on that exact crew card.

Those emails go to people whose team role is Lead and who have a Scout login. If the team has no lead, the email fans out instead to owners, admins, and everyone in a role that can assign volunteers, so one decline can reach your whole staff. Setting a lead on the team is what narrows it.

Click Find a backup on the team card to review alternates for its first declined position. To replace a specific person, open their declined roster row and choose Find a backup in their dialog. You do not need to unassign the person first. Penciling in a replacement does not send a request. Member decline history remains visible beside the replacement.

Scout excludes the current declined person and the recorded prior decliner from suggestions for that slot. This also applies when staff marks the current assignment as declined. Search all people remains a manual choice; check with someone who previously declined before assigning them again.

There is no swap, no sub request, and no way for a volunteer to hand a slot to someone else. Declining is their only exit, and finding the replacement is yours.

Double-bookings

Scout blocks known overlapping assignments. Search all people labels a blocked result Already serving at this time and shows the existing assignment. The same checks run again when you save, so a change made by another coordinator can still prevent an assignment.

Different explicit service times can be scheduled for the same person when they do not overlap. An all-morning assignment occupies the date. Linked events use their dated start and end times; published serving plans can add arrival and finish times to the conflict check. A non-overlapping assignment may appear as Serving this service and can still be selected.

These checks cover recorded commitments. Scout does not collect volunteer availability or vacation blockout dates, so a suggestion is not a guarantee that someone is free.

What the coverage numbers mean

Coverage is only ever stated about something you can go fix: a team card's 4 / 5 and its meter, a date or team band's 13 open across 4 teams or Fully staffed, a small meter under each date column in All weeks, and the hero for the focus date. There is no overall coverage percentage anywhere. The instance-wide bar was removed on purpose, because one number across every team and eight weeks moves whenever anything moves and never tells you which crew needs a person.

The Volunteer schedule and the service’s Volunteers tab use the same coverage counts: empty and declined slots are open. Penciled-in and requested assignments count as filled, but they are not confirmations. Check Not asked yet, Waiting, and the confirmation status before treating the team as ready.

Controls that are not there

• No drag and drop. Use the assignment panel from an empty position or the suggestions in All weeks. Both save a penciled-in assignment through the same checks; neither sends a request.
• No copy last week and no repeat this crew.
• No rotation or recurring scheduling. There is no "every other week" or "1st and 3rd Sundays". Slots are created per service from the counts on the service template.
• No print view, PDF, CSV, or calendar export, and no calendar subscription for volunteers.
• No way to message a volunteer from the schedule. The only outward button on the team person dialog is Details, which opens their profile. Scout sends no texts and hosts no chat.
• No availability or blockout dates from volunteers. Scout does not know who is away, so a shortlist can offer you someone on vacation.

Published serving plans

When serving plans are enabled for your church, requests and reminders include the published arrival time. Confirmations stay saved when the plan changes; Got it acknowledges the current plan separately. Old responses ask you to refresh before acting on a newer plan.

Team coordinators can turn day-before reminders off in the serving-plan editor. When on, reminders go out at 10 AM in the church timezone the day before arrival, with email fallback when push cannot deliver. Turning off push on your phone is separate from this email fallback. Plan notifications and their delivery status appear in the editor. Provider accepted does not mean the volunteer saw it.