Manage volunteers

With Charms, you can easily manage volunteers for any event.

What do you want to do?

• Request volunteers
• Create volunteer areas
• Sign up volunteers
• Email volunteers
• Add and view scheduled reminders
• View volunteers
• Enter volunteer hours
• Create miscellaneous volunteer activities
• Report on volunteer hours

Request volunteers

You can request volunteers as you are creating an event in Charms, or after the event is created. It is just a matter of selecting the Need Volunteers option on the Event Controls tab of the calendar event. 

1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click the event.
2. On the Calendar Event page, click the Event Controls tab, and then select Need Volunteers.
3. Click .

Create volunteer areas

Before your volunteers can sign up, you need to create the different areas of help you want them signing up for.

1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click Volunteers.
2. On the Volunteer Sign Up page, select the event, and then click .

Notice the event information is listed: event, time, location, details, direct link. You can copy and paste the direct link into an email and give potential volunteers a quick way to access the sign up sheet.

3. If you want to designate one or more person(s) be notified when a volunteer signs up, for Sign-Up Notifications to Be Sent To, enter the person(s) email. For multiple people, separate the email addresses with a semicolon.  Click .
4.  Click .

NOTE: If you set up some volunteer areas already, instead of the Add Volunteer Areas button, you will see the Add button in its place( ). Click this to add additional areas.

5. For Volunteer Area, type the name of the area. For example, Event setup, clean up, etc.
6. Enter the number of volunteers you need for this area.
7. Click .

The volunteer area is added and is listed at the bottom of the Event Added dialog box. To add additional areas, repeat steps 4 through 6. 

8. Now you can add scheduled reminders, or return to the calendar.

Sign up volunteers

Prerequisite: You must have volunteer areas set up.

Volunteers can sign up on the public calendar or via the calendar on the Student/Parent/Member portal. Keep in mind that the event will only show on those calendars if you selected those options on the Event Controls tab of the event itself (for information on the event controls tab, see Create a calendar event.)

To sign up volunteers yourself, follow these steps:

1. Access the Volunteer Sign Up page.
   • On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click Volunteers.
2. Select the event and then click .
3. In the applicable area, enter the volunteer's name
4. If the volunteer is one of your students, enter their Student ID.
5. If you have the cell phone and email information, enter that in the corresponding fields.
6. Click .

To make changes to the volunteer information, click , to delete the volunteer, click .

Email volunteers

1. Access the Volunteer Sign Up page.
   • On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click Volunteers.
2. Select the event and then click .
3. Click the envelope to open an email.

4. Compose and send the email.

Charms sends the email to all the event's volunteers that have provided an email address.

Add and view scheduled reminders

You can schedule automated reminders for your events. If the event is deleted, all reminders scheduled for that event are also deleted.

Prerequisite: You must have volunteer areas set up for reminders to be active.

Add scheduled reminder

1. Access the Volunteer Reminders page. 
   • On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, click Volunteers, and then click Schedule Reminders.
2. Select the event and click .
3. Fill in the reminder information.
   1. You can leave the Subject and Body Text as they are or update them to fit your needs.
   2. For Send, select the number of days prior to the event you want the reminder sent.
   3. For Between, select the time range you want the message sent within. Note that these times are in the Central time zone.
4. Click .

The reminder is displayed on the page. To delete a reminder, click .

View scheduled reminders

1. Access the Volunteer Reminders page. 
   • On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, click Volunteers, and then click Schedule Reminders.
2. Select the event.

All reminders are displayed on the page. To delete a reminder, click .

TIP: An alternative way to add or view scheduled reminders is from the Volunteer Sign Up page. Go to Calendar > Volunteers, select the event, click , and then click the calendar. 

View volunteers

1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click Volunteers.
2. Select the event and then click .

Enter volunteer hours

You enter your volunteers' hours by checking them in and out of the event. Charms provides an easy way to do this using a scanner and barcodes. Charms automatically assigns all volunteers barcodes. If you don't use a scanner, you can select the volunteer from a list in Charms and check them in and out that way.

NOTE: Any Non-Parent Volunteers registered for events must be added as a contact in Charms and must have the "Track Vol Hours ?" option checked in order to track their volunteer hours. 

NOTE: If you are unable to enter volunteer hours during the event, you can enter them later in Charms and adjust the in and out times manually.

Enter hours using barcode scanner

The first step is to print volunteer barcodes. You can print barcodes on standard copy paper or select one of the label options. Then you can scan the barcode when the volunteer checks in and out.

1. Print the barcodes.
   1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, click Volunteers, and then click Barcode.
   2. Chose a print option - standard paper or one of the PDF label files.
2. Go to the Volunteer Sign Up page. Calendar > Volunteers.
3. Select the event and click .
4. Click the clock to enter volunteer hours.
5. Scan the barcode of each volunteer to initiate their check-in time. Charms adds their Name and Check-In Time into the displayed table. The next time you scan the barcode, Charms considers this the check-out time and adds that information in the Check-Out Time column.

NOTE: You can scan or check volunteers out and in multiple times during an event.

If you need to make edits to the check-in or check-out times, click , make your updates, and then click .

Enter hours without a barcode scanner

1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, and then click Volunteers.
2. Select the event and click .
3. Click the clock to enter volunteer hours.
4. Select Adults & Contacts if you are checking in only adults and contacts. If you have student volunteers, select Students.
5. In the Select Volunteer list, select your volunteer. Charms automatically checks them in upon selection.
6. When you are ready to check the volunteer out, click .

NOTE: If you are entering volunteer time after the event is over, after you check-in and check-out your volunteers you can edit each volunteer's time by clicking , and updating the start and end time to accurately reflect their hours. 

Create miscellaneous volunteer activities

Miscellaneous volunteer activities are items that you don't want on the calendar, but you have volunteers working and you want to capture their hours. This could be any number of miscellaneous items, for example copying papers, or altering uniforms.

NOTE:  Miscellaneous volunteer activities are separate from an existing Charms volunteer event and designed such that volunteers enter their own hours. 

To create miscellaneous volunteer activities:

1. On the Main Sections menu, click Calendar, click Volunteers, and then click Misc. Activities. 
2. Enter the Activity Name and click .

The activity is now listed under Selected Activities in the Volunteer area of the Student/Parent/Member portal. 

You can edit the activity name by clicking  and you can delete an activity by clicking .

A volunteer can track their time on the Student/Parent/Member portal. They must have a login to this portal as the public area does not allow them to enter volunteer hours. 

Here are the steps a volunteer should follow to enter hours for a miscellaneous volunteer activity:

1. Log in to the Student/Parent/Member portal.
2. On the Volunteers tab, select Enter Hours.
3. Select the activity from the Select Activity list.
4. Fill in the remaining fields and click .

Report on volunteer hours

Charms has three volunteer reports:

• Hourly Report: Shows volunteer hours by event. You can filter this report for specific time ranges as well as print and export the information.
• Hour Summary Report: Shows the total volunteer hours for each volunteer. You can filter this report for specific time ranges as well as print and export the information.
• Export Report: You have 3 export options with this selection.
  • Volunteers with entered hours: Shows just the volunteers who have entered hours.
  • Volunteers signed up for events: Shows all the events that have volunteers assigned, also shows the volunteer's contact information.
  • Volunteers signed up for events (with blanks): Shows all the events that have volunteers assigned and the volunteer contact information, as well as events that do not have volunteers signed up.