There is no Registration Closed Date option for ongoing, custom or recurring shifts. My agency has a recurring shift, but I need to know at least a week in advance if someone has signed up so that I can find another volunteer if the need is unfilled. I cannot effectively communicate with new volunteers if they sign up on the day of a shift. Communicating with volunteers prior to when they are supposed to volunteer is essential in managing volunteers effectively and ensuring they have the best volunteer experience possible, while also making the best use of my time and my organization's resources.

As it is now, in order to create a need with a Registration Closed Date I will have to create multiple Happens On Needs for the same task that happens at the same time on the same day each week. 

If you think this feature would be helpful for your agency, please 'like' this post so that it gets upvoted for the development team to actually consider.

Thank you.

I'd love to throw in my own support for an option to close registration a certain amount of time before shifts begin! I print out the schedule on my way out each night because our warehouse crew comes in several hours before me in the mornings, and would love to be able to close registration when I leave so I know they have an accurate count of how many volunteers to expect in the morning before I arrive to make any corrections. 

It would be especially awesome if it was some sort of flexible option, like a numerical dropdown from 1-24 or 30, and then the option to select "hours before" or "days before" to get more precise with the cutoffs. 

Thanks!

This is my first opportunity that I need to close the registration for and just realized I can't....I stumbled upon this thread and agree that I need a way to make that happen, and option 2 seems to be the best. Thanks for considering this!

Please share more options! 

It would be helpful to close shifts a few days ahead of the event so coordinators may finalize their plans. I use customized shifts so confirmation messages are able to include shift times. Thanks! 

I am surprised to see that this has been something that has been discussed for 2+ years yet there is still a need for it. We also cannot take walk-ins on the day of and need to cut off the registration time by a certain time. That way, we have an accurate roster of who will be attending on the day of the shift. I understand you can create "Happens On" shifts to set a cutoff time but as the only person managing the volunteer program for two locations (with other responsibilities), there is no way I have the extra time to create a new shift for every day when we have volunteer shifts available two times a day, Monday - Friday at two locations.

Adding "must register by 5:00 pm the day before" to the description is also not the best solution as I have learned in my experience that most people unfortunately do not read the information provided. Really hoping a viable solution will be developed soon!

Thanks,

Angela

We would also like this feature incorporated.  Any update the status?

Hi Eli!

This is a helpful tip - I'd like to add a product suggestion to make this task easier/more streamlined.  We have some initiatives with 30-50 opportunities attached.  It's currently very time consuming to manually change the capacity for each opportunity.  My suggestion is that there would be a way to change the capacity in a bulk action - preferably at both the Agency/Program Manager level and Site Manager. Something like "Mark As Full." And of course an action to undo it when a mistake is made. :)

Thank you!

Cristy - National MS Society

I had a perfect example this week of why the registration close date for ongoing, custom and recurring shifts is needed.

A new volunteer registered for a need with a shift occurring on 5/15/19 at 11:30am. the volunteer registered at 5:38pm on 5/14/19, after I had left the office for the day. I was out of the office the morning of her shift start and could not respond with instructions on where to park, to wear closed toe shoes, etc. Without that prior communication it could mean a negative experience for the volunteer, and leave staff in a pinch to orient the volunteer in a timely manner if they are not expecting someone. Unfortunately as an agency manager I do not have the ability to craft an automatic reply message in Get Connected to send out when someone registers for a need so it is left up to me to send the details once I receive a notification that someone has signed up. Because I am not watching my email every minute, this means that there is a delay in when I can get critical information to a new volunteer.

I totally feel your pain Becki! This seems like a common sense feature for volunteer coordinators, and I think it would be the same for anyone who has ever hosted an event. You simply can't accommodate someone if they don't RSVP (or in this case, respond to a need) prior to the day of. 

I want to echo my support for having a registration close option for shift-based needs!

An option to set a specific number of hours before each shift begins would be great.