Add Registration Closed Date to Ongoing, Custom & Recurring Shifts

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.


28 people like this idea

Eli, yes, option 2 would be a workable solution. Thank you.

Hello everyone! I am happy to see that this thread is so active, and I wanted to let everyone know that we appreciate your feedback, and we hear your concerns.

I believe that I am understanding your ideas clearly, but I want to repeat it back here to make sure I am capturing it all correctly: as a volunteer manager, you all need to be able to solidify your plans for a given shift ahead of time so that you can make the necessary preparations, and the fact that people can sign up last minute can cause issues because it prevents you from doing so.

As with any solution that may involve updating multiple things at once, or establishing a blanket rule, we want to make sure that we implement something like this in a way that is going to be useful to as many of our clients as possible. For this reason, a large part of this thread has been devoted to gathering feedback on how our site managers would like a feature like this to work in an ideal world, so that we can make informed decisions on the best way to build something that has broad implications for creating needs and shifts.

So far, there have been a couple of solutions suggested here:
- An option to set the registration closed date for each individual shift. This makes sense for custom shifts shifts, but could be extremely time-consuming for recurring shifts.

- A blanket rule that applies to all shifts in a need, for example "close registration 2 days out". This would be the most efficient way of setting up a registration close date, but would be a bit less flexible in that you would have the same rule apply to all custom shifts in a a need.

From what I am seeing in this thread, it seems like the second solution (a blanket rule for all shifts) would work well for most people who are requesting this feature, but please let me know if there is anything I am missing about this.

I have made sure to consolidate everyone's feedback about this into a single enhancement request in our list, and will be sure to bring this up in our next enhancement planning meeting. Thank you all for your ideas we strive to make shifts (and all of our other features) as accessible as possible to our clients!


2 people like this

Emily,


Thanks for the feedback! Sorry to see that you are still struggling with the same issue 2+ years later. I am new to Galaxy Digital but noticed immediately that I was unable to add a registration cutoff time. At first I thought I just needed to learn the system but unfortunately that is not the case.


Angela

Angela,

I agree with you COMPLETELY! Thanks for adding your voice to this thread. Because this continues to be an issue that has not been addressed it makes me think the product team doesn't really understand the needs of volunteer managers...


-Emily

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


1 person likes this

Hi - Thanks for asking...we would rather have option to specify a date that the registration is closed for each shift.  A bigger issue is the ability of volunteers to check-in and out multiple times for the same "Recurring" and "Custom" shifts.  Makes sense that they can do it for "On-going" shifts but not for other types...it causes all sorts of issues for our organization.  Anything you can do about limited the ability to check in and out multiple times for these shifts?

Thanks, Terri

I would say that it would be best if a date could be specified to allow for each agency to determine what works best for them. 


Unless we'd have to manually add a date for each recurring shift, because that would be a lot of work so in that instance I would say being able to choose X days prior would be best. I'm available to chat over the phone if that would be easier to talk out how this process might best work.


Thank you,

Emily

Hi Terri,


Thank you for reaching out about this enhancement! There have been a few suggestions here around how best to support this request and I want to make sure we're capturing exactly what you're looking for.


Would it be preferable to specify a date that registration is closed for every shift or to instead prevent volunteers from registering for any shift less than 'X' days prior? 


I look forward to hearing more!


1 person likes this
Any update on this? It really is an issue for our organization and sounds like many others. Please advise on status of providing option to close signups for shifts? Can’t you provide space for a date that shift closes, when setting up shifts? Thanks, Terri

2 people like this

Hi Yvonne, 


Thank you for adding your support! I will make sure your support is noted. 


I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Autum

This is something that my organization also needs.   I am sad to see that this has been consistently requested for so long.  I am hoping by adding my support this will finally get prioritized.


2 people like this

Hi Amanda,


Thanks so much for sharing this feedback with us! I will add your voice to the chorus of support for a registration closed date on shift-based needs and will include your feedback about the impact of not having this feature on your volunteer experience. Keep up the great work!


All the best,

Caitlin Lowe


1 person likes this

Hello,


I would also agree, that having some kind of registration close date for shifts would be very beneficial for our volunteer needs. This way if a shift was not full someone could not register the night or morning before a shift. For what we do, we need to be able to confirm volunteers before a shift as well as assign them a "job" or position" if we have people showing up that we are not prepared for. It puts us in a bad position and does not allow for an easy volunteer experience due to the security protocols we have at the stadium.  


2 people like this

Hi Emily,


Thank you so much for sharing the disclaimer that you are using to try and mitigate some of the issues with last minute responses. We appreciate your voice and will continue to advocate for changes to be made that will work for all of our organizations.


We have made sure that your voice is added to the enhancement request, and our entire team will continue to push for a change to be made. Have a great day!


Warmly,

Jacqui

For those of you who would also like this change but are looking for a temporary "solution", I have started pasting the following statement in my Needs Descriptions:


"**YOU MUST REGISTER AT LEAST 3 BUSINESS DAYS IN ADVANCE OF YOUR DESIRED VOLUNTEER SHIFT**"


If you are a Volunteer Manager then you probably realize that this statement will not be read, or if it is read, it will not be applied. I am simply using it as a disclaimer for when people do register for a need last minute and then don't understand why they did not receive confirmation and details from me about their volunteer shift.

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