Using the provided templates, Coordinators can create a variety of different types of Activities: Giving Rides, Preparing Meals, Shopping, Childcare, Visits, Coverage, or Miscellaneous. Activities on the Calendar that do not require volunteers are called “Occasions” and can be used to make note of relevant or important dates. Activities can occur once or repeat over a period of time. For example, there might be an Activity titled 'Weekday Dinners' for delivering meals to a family every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday night for the next six weeks.
A Task represents a single, specific instance of an Activity, on a particular date and time. Thus, in the above Activity example, there would be eighteen tasks available (3 meals a week for 6 weeks = 18). Of course, one Activity might contain only a single Task, such as a ride to a special medical appointment, while a different Activity might contain multiple Tasks, as in the above Weekday Dinners example. Volunteers can sign up for one or several tasks at a time.
Events are simply a way to organize logically-related Activities for reporting purposes. For example, if you’re planning a fund raiser, there might be multiple Activities associated with the fundraiser requiring volunteers such as Registration, Money Handling, and Food Table. For each Activity you need multiple volunteers over multiple time slots throughout the day. By creating an Event called ‘Fund Raiser’ consisting of all related Activities, Leaders and Coordinators can view aggregated reports for that Event. (Please note: any Activity that is not associated with a specific Event will be grouped under the ‘General Activities’ Event.)
Signing Up (Volunteering) for a Task
To sign up for a Task, click on the Help Calendar Section from the Home page. You will see a color-coded Calendar indicating which dates have available tasks, which dates have all needs met, and which dates you have already signed up for. Dates in green have available tasks for sign-up. You can view the specific details by clicking the Task.Click on the 'Sign Up' link if you're interested in committing to this specific task. You'll see the email that will be sent to you and the designated Coordinators, confirming that you have signed up for this task. Reminder emails also will be sent to you automatically one month, one week, and one day before the date of this task.
Creating / Editing an Activity (Leaders and designated Coordinators only)
Clicking on the link 'Create a new Activity' (next to any Calendar) will allow Leaders and designated Coordinators to create any number of Activities.To manage and Edit your Activities, you can go to the 'Administration' tab and follow the link for List of Activities. This will provide a structured list of all of your Activities and will allow you to select one to edit, deactivate, or delete it.
Deactivating a task is different from deleting it in that it can be restored if the need arises. Deleting it will remove it from your Community web site entirely.
If you are trying to edit something more specific, like removing just a few days (Tasks) or editing time slots or changing the number of volunteers requested for a Task, you'll click the Edit link for the Activity you are changing and then use the various relevant tabs: edit’ General Info’, add ’New Dates’, ‘Change Dates/Shifts’, or set ‘Permissions’.
See also: Calendar
For more help, look for help links with a yellow dot
, see the complete list of Help Topics, or contact a Coordinator (listed on the right side of your Home Page).
While we continue to add to our Help Section please do not hesitate to be in touch if you need any assistance. You can always reach us at support@lotsahelpinghands.com. We’re here to help!