Some needs offer the option to respond as a team. You can use the need filter to find which volunteer opportunities accept team responses.
This article covers the following topics:
- Establishing a Team and Reserving Spots
- Providing Team-Member Information
- Signing Up a Team When You Don't Yet Know Who's On It
- Managing Your Team
- Other Team Information (FAQs)
Note: The sign-up process described here is for needs posted as part of an advanced event such as Day of Caring, MLK Day, or Make a Difference Day. The process for regular needs differs slightly. If these instructions don't appear to match your experience, you might be trying to sign up for a regular need. For information on responding as a team to regular needs, click here.
Establishing a Team and Reserving Spots
To sign up a team:
- Click the Respond as Team button to respond to a need as a team leader.
Note: The color of the button is determined by your site manager and may not match the color shown here.
You're taken to a page the provides your team information, along with fields for creating your team. - Complete the fields provided.
Team Name (required) Enter the name of your team. Team Description Provide a brief description of your team. Will you be attending ... ? Indicate whether you'll personally be responding to the need as part of your team. Number of team members Indicate the number of people (besides you, if attending) will be volunteering as part of your team \ Note: Depending on your site's settings, you may not be asked to provide a number. You will instead be able to begin entering team members once you've submitted the need response.
- If there are additional volunteer questions, a waiver to agree to or both, complete these fields for yourself.
- Click Submit Need Response.
Note: When you specify the Number of team members, you essentially reserve spots for that number of individuals.
Providing Team-Member Information
Now that you've reserved spaces for your team, you'll see a listing of the spaces, along with the space you reserved for yourself, if you're planning to attend as a volunteer. Note that the blank spaces indicate reserved spots. Your next step is to provide details for each of those reserved spots.
Note: If you created the team and are attending, you will automatically be designated as a team leader. If are not attending, you'll need to assign a team leader. A team leader is someone who can access the team management area and serves as the team contact person, should someone from the agency need to reach out to them.
To provide volunteer information for a reserved spot:
- Click the Edit icon (located in the Options column) to add information for the first reserved spot.
- Complete the fields provided.
Field Description Member Email Type the email address of the team member. If they already have an account, you'll be asked to confirm that person's first and last name. Note: If they don't have an account, a new one will be created for them. We strongly recommend providing email addresses, which will enable team members to log in later, learn more about the need, and find future opportunities.
Member First Name Type the team member's first name (if it wasn't auto-filled). Member Last Name Type the team member's last name (if it wasn't auto-filled). - If there are additional volunteer questions, a waiver to agree to, or both, you will need to complete these fields for each team member.
- Click Submit Member.
As you add team members, they will be listed in the Team Members table.
In the image above, the team creator has filled four of the five slots that were reserved.
Team creators and team leaders can also access this list from the team management area in My Teams. See below for details on managing a team.
Signing Up a Team When You Don't Yet Know Who's On It
If your site does not require email addresses of team members, it's best to simply reserve your team spots without providing placeholder names. If you provide any name (even if that name is something like "Placeholder 1" or "First TeamMember"), your Connect site interprets that as a real person and creates an account for them. Because a team member cannot edit the account profile of another "user," the system will not allow you to update the email address later on.
If you don't provide names or email addresses for your reserved slots, you'll be able to go back later and update the slots with the names and email addresses of your volunteers.
If your site does require email addresses, you should not sign up a team for an advanced event until you have the email addresses of your team members. As described previously, if you use bogus information in the name and email fields, you will not be able to update them later.
Managing A Team
If you are a team creator or a team leader, your Get Connected profile will include a My Teams area. To access it:
- Log into Get Connected.
- Click the dropdown area next to your initials or your photo in the utility bar at the top of the screen.
- Click My Teams. You're taken to the My Teams area of your profile.
Note: You can also access the team-management area by clicking the link in the email you receive after signing up the team, or by going to the need in Get Connected and clicking the Manage Team icon.
Editing Team Information
From your My Teams area, you can make the following changes:
- To make someone else a team leader, check the Leader column box for that person.
Note: Multiple team leaders are allowed.
- To remove a member from the team, click the X in the row of their name.
- To edit answers to any volunteer questions (such as t-shirt size) that were answered during registration, click the Edit icon, located in the Options column.
Important: You cannot edit or add a team member's email address once the member has been submitted as part of a team. If you did not provide an email address previously but want to add one now, you must delete the team member and re-add them with the email address.
Note: If you have reserved slots for a team but want to delete a reserved slot, you can do so by going to your team-management area and clicking the X for the reserved slot. If that slot is already taken by a team member, clicking the X will remove the team member but not the slot. In that case, you'll need to click the X a second time to remove the slot completely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions we receive from time to time regarding teams:
Can I sign up my team without attaching it to a particular need?
No, you can sign up a team only in response to a need.
How do I sign up for a need as a team member (rather than as a team leader)?
You don't need to sign up if someone has already signed you up. Only a team leader can sign up team members.