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Congregant Care

Volunteer Roles and Teams

Because it takes the time contribution of so many people to create a successful VBS, it's important to plan ahead for volunteer management. You can do this by organizing volunteer activities into roles and placing those roles on serving teams. Once you create teams for VBS, you can communicate with groups of volunteers through inbox messaging, newsfeed and chat. You can also create volunteer schedules for these teams that serve your VBS events.

This guide will assist administrators and others who have volunteer management permissions in setting up the foundation of VBS volunteer scheduling by creating roles and teams.

Skills and Interests

Before you plan what kind of volunteer roles or teams you'll need for VBS, first ensure that you have a comprehensive list of skills and interests that your volunteers can add to their serving profiles. Skills and interests help match individuals to the volunteer opportunities that are best suited to them during recruitment and even while you create a volunteer schedule.

To manage skills and interests, go to Profiles > Settings and click the Skills & Interests tab. You'll start out with a default list, but to get the most out of volunteer management, consider creating some customized skills and interests just for your VBS needs.

Skills are activities that an individual has experience with or enjoys doing, such as:
  • teaching
  • singing
  • playing guitar
  • cooking
  • coaching
Interests are activities or areas of knowledge an individual has a passion for, such as:
  • youth ministry
  • music ministry
  • hospitality

You could even consider creating an interest for "VBS" itself if you'd like!

Set Up Roles for VBS

Once you've defined your skills and interests, you're ready to set up roles for VBS volunteers. A role is just what it sounds like - the part the volunteer plays during VBS. This could be a teacher, an assistant, a decorator, or a parking attendant. If you need to find a volunteer to carry out a specific activity, then you should make a role for that serving opportunity.

For example, you might need to recruit people who have musical skills and interests to assist with VBS worship.

Some roles could include:
  • Music team leader
  • Music team assistant
  • Guitarist
  • Keyboardist
  • Singer
Some additional related roles could be:
  • Sound technician
  • Lighting setup
  • Stage setup

Here's an example of how to set up a new role for a worship guitarist.

Add a Role

You can create new roles that fit your volunteer opportunities.

  • Only available to administrators and users who have the Manage Volunteer Teams/Serving Roles permission.

When you create a new role, you associate skills and interests with it. This helps match the opportunity with volunteers who have the same skills and interests on their serving profile. You can also set requirements for a role, such as completing a background check or being of a certain age.
Writing Assistant

When you start typing in a text box, and this icon displays next to it, you can click the icon to open the writing assistant. Using this assistant you can check your spelling and grammar or rephrase what you've written in a friendly, formal, or inviting tone. You can also generate written content from keywords that you provide.
  1. In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Volunteers > Serving Roles.
  2. Click Add Serving Role.
  3. Enter the role's name and description.
    1. Optional: After you've entered information into the Description text box, you can click the writing assistant to use the writing assistant.
  4. If there are requirements for this role, select them from the list.
  5. To add a requirement not already listed, click Add other requirement and enter the requirement in the text box.
  6. In the Role Visibility section, select whether the role is public or private. If a role is public, potential volunteers can see and express interest in this role. If the role is private, only users who have permission or team leaders can assign this role to a volunteer.
  7. Click Save.

Set Up Teams for VBS

Now that you have your volunteer roles set up, you can create teams for each area of VBS you need volunteers to serve for. For example, you can create a VBS Music Worship team and add all of the roles you created earlier to it. You can assign a leader to that team who can assist with team communication and even scheduling if you choose to give team leaders those permissions.

Adding volunteers to a team not only organizes your volunteers for a serving area, but it also gives volunteers access to communicating with each other through your newsfeed and chat. Team leaders can also send team-wide messages through the inbox.

Teams are also the foundation of volunteer schedules. Once you've added roles to your team and recruited volunteers to fill those roles, you can create a VBS schedule for that team - or have a team leader create one and manage volunteer assignments.

Add a Team

You can create a new team and associate roles with that team.

  • Only available to administrators and users who have the Manage Volunteer Teams/Serving Roles permission.

Creating a team provides a place for volunteers who serve in specific roles to connect with each other. You can assign one or more team leaders to manage the volunteers on the roster and oversee team communication. You can add existing roles to the team, or create new roles for the team. A team must have at least one role before you can add volunteers to the roster.
Writing Assistant

When you start typing in a text box, and this icon displays next to it, you can click the icon to open the writing assistant. Using this assistant you can check your spelling and grammar or rephrase what you've written in a friendly, formal, or inviting tone. You can also generate written content from keywords that you provide.
  1. In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Volunteers > Serving Teams.
  2. Click Add Serving Team.
  3. Enter the team's name and description.
    1. Optional: After you've entered information into the Description text box, you can click the writing assistant to use the writing assistant.
  4. Enter one or more team leaders.
  5. Add additional individuals who will receive team activity notifications. Individuals who appear in this list are users who have volunteer management permissions. They will receive team notifications but not appear on the roster.
  6. Select whether you want to make this team public or private. When a team is set as public, potential volunteers can view team details and express interest in available roles.
  7. In the Communication Settings section, select who can create posts, who can post photos and whether team chat is enabled.
  8. If you want to mark attendance for volunteers on this team, turn Enable Attendance on. Select a time frame to calculate attendance metrics and enter how many declines and absences define low participation.
  9. Click Next.
  10. To add a role that already exists, click Search existing roles, select the role from the drop-down and click Add. Add a new role by clicking Create New Role and entering the role's information.
  11. Make additional changes to roles on the team:
    • If you need to modify a role you've added to your team, click the ellipsis icon next to the role and select Edit Role. Make any necessary changes, then click Save.
    • If you need to remove a role you've added to your team, click the ellipsis icon next to the role and select Remove.
  12. Click Save Serving Team.
  13. Optional: Recruit volunteers for your team.
    • To create a recruitment post in the church group newsfeed, enter your recruitment post title and message, select the roles you're recruiting for, and then click Post.
    • To create a printed handout, enter the recruitment information, select the roles you're recruiting for, then click Preview & Print.
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Last updated: July 11, 2023