Setting Up Volunteer Registration

People can offer to help while they register for an event, but volunteering is off by default. Switch it on and a volunteer option appears on the event page beside the ordinary registration button.

Turn on volunteer sign-ups

Open the event's registration settings

From the event, choose Manage, then Setup → Registration in the left rail.

Set Volunteer Applications

Under Volunteer Settings, find Volunteer Applications and choose who may apply:

Public — anyone can apply, including people who are not members.
Private — members of your church only.
Disabled — no volunteer option appears. This is the default.

Save Changes

The volunteer option appears on the public event page straight away.

Volunteer Settings sits below the ordinary registration settings

Tip

Enable Childcare Requests, just below, lets volunteers say they need childcare for their own children while they serve. Turn it on for anything running long enough that a parent would otherwise have to say no.

Note

Share Event on the Overview page gives you a separate volunteer link once volunteering is on. Send that one to the people you are recruiting and the ordinary registration link to everyone else.

What volunteers see

A volunteer works through the same short form as an attendee. On the step that asks how many are attending, they can tick I’ll also help volunteer, and the form then asks about their availability. They can volunteer without registering anyone to attend.

If the event has roles, they are offered as checkboxes under How can you help? so people can say what they are willing to do. With no roles defined, that question is skipped and volunteers simply offer to help.

Choosing which jobs people can sign up for

Roles live at People → Roles in the left rail. Every event starts from a standard set — group leader, helper, setup and teardown, registration and check-in, food service, childcare, activity leader, transportation, safety monitor and other — which you can rename, reorder, or add to with Add Role.

Decide which roles the public form offers

Each role is marked On form or Hidden on form. Hidden roles still exist for assigning jobs internally; only the ones on the form appear to people signing up.

Reuse last year's set

Import from Event copies the roles from another event rather than rebuilding them by hand.

Only roles marked On form appear to people signing up

Tip

Trim the list before you publicise the event. Ten roles on a sign-up form is a lot to read; showing the three or four you actually need gets better answers than offering everything.

Approve or decline the people who apply

Volunteers land in the same list as attendees, at People → Registrations. Each one carries a heart beside their name and a Pending or Approved badge. The Volunteers button above the table filters the list down to just them, and the count appears on the Volunteers card on Overview.

Open the row's actions menu

Click ⋯ at the end of a volunteer’s row.

Decide

Choose Approve Volunteer or Decline Volunteer. An approved volunteer can be moved back later with Revoke Approval, and a declined one can be approved after all — the menu offers whichever choices make sense for their current status.

Approval, notes, documents, and background checks all live in the row menu

The same menu holds the rest of a volunteer’s record:

Manage Notes — internal notes that only staff see.
Upload Documentation — attach a file to their record.
Edit RSVP — correct their contact details or guest count.

Requiring a background check

Background checks are set per volunteer, not per event. Open a volunteer’s ⋯ menu and choose Require Background Check; their row then shows the check as outstanding until it is completed, and Upload Documentation attaches the paperwork to their record.

Warning

Requiring a check does not block anyone by itself — it records a requirement and its status. Anyone working with children should be approved only after you have seen the completed check, whatever the badge says.

Permissions

Changing Volunteer Applications needs permission to edit the event. Approving, declining, and editing volunteer records need permission to manage it. If Setup is missing from the left rail, your role does not include event editing — ask an organisation administrator.