VBS
Importing VBS Registrations and Volunteers from CSV
Bulk-import families and volunteers into a VBS event from a spreadsheet, using two separate CSV importers with a review-before-commit step.
If you collected your VBS sign-ups in a spreadsheet before setting up the platform, you can bring them in all at once instead of typing each one. There are two separate importers, both on the Registrations tab of your VBS event:
- Import CSV — for families and their children (the kids attending VBS).
- Import Volunteers — for the adults helping to run VBS, along with the roles they'll serve in.
They are kept separate on purpose: a family registration groups several children under one guardian, while a volunteer is a single person with one or more roles. Each importer has its own template and its own review screen.
Note
Before you start
You need permission to manage registrations for the event (the same access that lets you add or edit registrations by hand). The Import CSV and Import Volunteers buttons appear in the top-right of the event Registrations tab. On smaller screens they live under the “More actions” (•••) menu.
For volunteer imports, set up your VBS roles first — the importer checks the roles in your file against the roles defined for the event.
Importing family registrations
Use Import CSV to bring in the children attending VBS along with their guardians. Multiple children who share the same family name and guardian are grouped into one family automatically.
Download the template
Fill in the columns
- family_name, guardian_first, guardian_last — required for every row.
- guardian_email, guardian_phone — optional but recommended (email is used to match existing people).
- child_first, child_last — required for every row.
- child_dob, child_grade — each child needs at least one of these. Use one row per child; repeat the family and guardian columns for siblings.
- child_gender — optional. Accepts male/female (or m/f).
- child_allergies — optional.
Upload the file
Review the matches
- Auto-match — confidently matched to an existing family; the registration attaches to them.
- Review — a likely match that needs your decision. Expand the row to pick the right family/child or choose to create a new one.
- New — no match found; a new family and child will be created.
- Error — a row that can't be imported (for example a missing name). The reason is shown on the row.
Warning
Import
Importing volunteers
Use Import Volunteers to bring in your helpers. Each row is one person, and volunteers are matched to existing people by email — so a parent who already registered a child won't be duplicated.
Download the volunteer template
Fill in the columns
- first_name, last_name — required for every row.
- email — optional but recommended; it's how the importer matches an existing person instead of creating a duplicate.
- phone — optional.
- volunteer_roles — one or more roles. Separate multiple roles with a semicolon, for example Group Leader;Food Service.
- notes — optional free text (availability, preferences, and so on).
Tip
Upload the file
Review people and roles
- Choose the person — when an email matches more than one person, or only a name match was found, pick the right person or choose Create new volunteer.
- Fix the roles — any role the importer didn't recognize is listed, and you can toggle the correct roles from the chips shown.
Import
Tips for a clean import
- Keep the headers. Both importers match columns by header name — renaming or reordering columns is fine, but the names themselves must match the template.
- Include email where you can. Email is the key for matching people, which prevents duplicate records across registrations and volunteers.
- Start small. If you're unsure about your file, import a handful of rows first, confirm they look right, then import the rest.
Note