A team is initially created by an individual volunteer in response to a need. As part of that response, the volunteer either reserves spots (without assigning them to a specific person) or signs up volunteers by providing names and email addresses for each team member.

When a need is posted, an agency manager or site manager has the option of making the need available for team sign-ups. This article focuses on how site managers can use the team-management area to create new teams, reuse existing teams, create anonymous teams, work with qualifications, email team leaders and members, edit existing teams, and remove team responses.

Your Team-Management Area

From your site manager panel go to Volunteerism > Teams to access the team-management area.

You will see two tabs near the top. One is for Teams, and one is for Team Responses.

The Teams Tab

Here you will see information about the team as an entity over time. Because teams can repeatedly respond to needs as a team, the information on this page is cumulative.

Information includes the team ID, name, and creator, as well as the hours and responses that the team has submitted over the life of the team.

On this tab, the only information you are able to edit is the team name. The team ID remains the same so that information can be tracked even if the team name changes or the members on the team change.

You can go to detailed information about individual responses by

Clicking the Team Responses tab to see all team responses
Clicking a team name to see that team's responses.

The Team Responses Tab

If you go directly to the Team Responses tab, you will see all of the responses for all of the teams on your site. You can search and sort this information to find what you need. However, if you click on a team name from the Teams tab, you will only see responses for that team.

The Team Responses table displays the following information by default:

Team name and ID; click on a team name to view it.
Team leader's name and clickable email address
Team size (this is the number of registered members, plus any reserved/unoccupied slots)
Number of team members (i.e., occupied team slots)
Number of reserved, unoccupied slots
Need that the team responded to; click on a need to view it.

On this page, you have the following capabilities:

Sort teams by column - Click on column arrows to sort.
Filter teams by keyword - Type a keyword into the blank field in the Team Name, Leader Name, Leader Email, or Need Title column and press Enter.
Email leaders of selected teams - Mark the applicable check boxes and click the Email Leaders button above the table. For more details, click here.
Email members of selected teams - Mark the applicable check boxes and click the Email Members button above the table. For more details, click here.
Export selected teams to a spreadsheet - Mark the applicable check boxes and click the Export Teams button above the table.
Add a new team - See Creating a New Team Response, below.

Note: Teams listed here do not include AEM teams; these team-management features are only available for non-AEM need responses.

Creating a New Team Response

When adding a team from the site manager Teams or Team Responses pages, you will be given a chance to create a new team or reuse an existing team. If you want to create a new team, follow these steps. While this looks like a lot of steps, they are intuitive and mostly error-proof.

Click the Add a Team button.
You will be prompted to select a need from a dropdown. Then click Continue.
You will be given a chance to either create a new team or reuse an existing one. In this case, select Create a New Team. (We will cover reusing a team in the next section of this article.)
On the Team Information form that appears, enter a Team Name.
You have the option to add yourself to the team by clicking the Add Me button, but that situation is unlikely.
Click the Add Volunteer button to add your first team member.
Complete the email and name fields. If the email for the person is already in the system, you will be prompted to pick their name and it will prefill.
Click Add Team Member. You will also be able to able to add people to the team from any user groups on your site. If your site does not have any user groups, you will not see that button.
You will also be able to add reserved slots. Do that if you want to hold a spot for a volunteer to be named later. See creating anonymous teams below.
Optional: From your list, check the box to indicate a team leader.
When you have added all of the team members, click Continue.
You will now have the chance to select shifts or confirm the information for a need that happens on a certain date. In the case of shifts, you will be able to filter for day-of-the-week as well as respond to all shifts.
Click Finish to complete creating a team and signing up for a need.

Note: If there are response questions or initiative questions included on the response form, you will be able to answer for the team members. All team members receive an email confirming the sign-up.

Reusing One of Your Teams

You can reuse one of any existing teams to track that team's work and hours over time. Follow these steps.

Click the Add a Team button.
You will be prompted to select a need from a dropdown. Then click Continue.
Click the Use an Existing Team button to reuse a team.
From the dropdown, select which of team you want to use.
The roster of teammates will be shown, and those team members who volunteered most recently will be checked off. You can select or deselect members within the roster.
The remaining steps are the same as outlined above - including adding new people and selecting shifts.

Creating an Anonymous Team

There may be times when you want to create a team that has reserved slots for a need or shift, but does not have any volunteers identified. For example, if a corporate partner wants you to reserve a number of spots for them, but they do not have names and emails for you to enter. You can create an anonymous team.

Follow the steps to create a new team.
Do not enter any volunteer names or email addresses.
On the page for creating your team roster, simply select the number of Additional Reserved Slots you need. The number that appears in that dropdown corresponds to the largest available slots for that need or shift.
Click Continue and proceed with the team creation as shown in the steps above.

Note: The reserved slots option might not be available for your volunteers depending on your site's settings. Check your Main Settings page to see if you allow team members to be added without emails.

Signing Up for Needs with Qualifications

Some needs on your site may require that volunteers meet certain qualifications—such as showing that they've been through training, or signing a liability waiver—before responding.

When reusing one of an existing team, any team members who do not meet the qualification for the need will have a notification saying so. But you can still select them for that particular need, if you choose to.

When you try to add a team member who does not meet a qualification, you'll get a message saying they are not qualified and asking if you still want to add them.

If you do add them, they will get a message asking them to go to their profile and complete the qualification.

Emailing Teams

From your team-management area, you have the option of emailing both team leaders and team members.

Access your team-management area by going to Volunteerism > Teams in your site manager panel.
Select the teams you want to message by marking the box to the left of each team's name.
Click the Email Leaders or Email Members button, as applicable.
Note: Clicking Email Members will filter your email for both team members and team leaders. Clicking Team Leaders will filter the email for team leaders only.
In the email blast that appears, complete the applicable fields. Note that you do not need to run a filter, as the system has already done this for you.
Click Send Email Blast to send your message.

Editing an Existing Team Response

To view or edit an existing team response on your Connect site, go to Volunteerism > Teams and click on a team name to open its Team Response area. This area has three sections:

Team Members - Edit team member data, submit volunteer hours, and access other features described below.
Team Hours - View the status of submitted hours and edit them as needed; learn more here.
Team Information - View or edit the team name or description, as explained here.

Team Members

The Team Members section includes many capabilities for you as a site manager.

Use the Team Members section to:

Submit volunteer hours- Click the "hourglass" icon in the Options table to submit hours on behalf of a single team member.
To submit hours for multiple members, mark the check boxes to the left of the members' names, and then click the Add Default Hours button above the table.
Note: To select all team members, mark the check box in the table's heading row.
Email team members- Click on a team member's email address to open the email form, or mark the checkboxes for multiple team members and click the Email Members button above the table.
Both of these actions will open an email form. Complete the form and click Send Email.
Note: Team members will not be able to respond to you by clicking a Reply button in their email. If you want them to respond, be sure to include your email address in the body of the email.
Update the number of reserved slots - Add or remove reserved slots by using the dropdown to select the number of additional reserved slots you want for the selected Team Response.

Send a link to potential team members to join the team - In lieu of adding team members manually, you can send a "team join link" to potential team members. When they click the link, they'll be taken to a page where they can join the team. To copy the link to your clipboard, click the Copy Join Link button above the table.
View the team's resume - This PDF displays a team's hours and responses for the past six months in an attractive, easy-to-read format. Only a team creator, team leader, or site manager can access the resume initially, but the link can be emailed to anyone to view. To copy the link to your clipboard, click the Copy Resume Link button above the table.

Note: Some Connect sites may use a different term than "résumé." Your site may not reflect the exact wording shown in this article.

Edit a team member's response - Click the "pencil" icon in the Options column to access a team member's response for editing.
You cannot edit their name or email, but you can edit other fields, such as response questions and initiative questions.
Add or change team leaders - To add or change team leaders, mark or clear the applicable check boxes in the Leader column of the Team Members table.

Team Hours

While you can add hours for a volunteer in Team Members, you can use the Team Hours section to view and edit those hours.

To edit the Date and Hours for submitted volunteer hours, click the "pencil" icon in the Options column. Click Submit Hour Entry to save your changes.

Note: To approve (or decline) hours, you must go to Volunteerism > Hours. The X in the Options column is used to deactivate (delete) the hours altogether; it is not a tool for declining hours.

Team Information

The Team Information section of the Team Response area displays the team name and description in editable fields.

If you change the name or description, remember to click Update Team to save your changes.

Deleting a Team Response

When you delete a team, your Connect site will send an "Unregistration Confirmed" message (via email and in-app messaging) to all team members, including the team creator and team leader.

To remove a team response from your site:

Go to Volunteerism > Teams to access the table of active team responses on your site.
Click the X in the applicable row in the Options column.
Click Yes to confirm.

Once unregistered, a team (and its response) cannot be reactivated.

Managing Your Site's Volunteer Team Responses