Version: 2.18.1

Public release date: November 4, 2019

The newest version of Get Connected is the first in what we're calling "Get Connected 2020," a celebration of our company's 10th birthday. Over the next several releases, we will make significant upgrades to features that our clients frequently use and care about the most. 

In this version, 2.18.1, we focused on waivers and qualifications, which are of special interest to Get Connected Community clients. In short, we greatly improved the user experience for managers and volunteers, and we made sure that agency managers got a few things too.

Changes to how qualifications work for Volunteers

What Site Managers Do

Waivers can appear on registration

Site managers can now put their waivers on the qualifications step of user registrations. This is especially handy if you want to keep users who don't sign the waiver from seeing any needs on the site.

Control over which qualifications appear on registration

Site Managers can also control which qualifications appear. One waiver can be in the registration process while another is not. Some of a site's qualifications can be on the registration while the other qualifications are not. It's up to each site manager to decide which ones are the right ones to put in front of every user who registers.

What Volunteers See

Waivers mixed in with other qualifications

Previously, user's profiles showed a block of waivers and a block of all other qualifications. Now we show all of them in one block so that they are no longer confused by seeing two different categories.

Qualifications can be answered on the spot

Volunteers will see a qualification within the software at the point where they need to answer. For example, if a particular need requires a qualification, volunteers will see an overlay that allows them to provide an answer when they click on that need. If they must provide an answer to a qualification to see any needs, they will be prompted with an overlay when they attempt to view needs. In all cases, they will see an overlay that makes it easy to respond. Answers will still need regular approvals. But volunteers no longer have to navigate away and get lost in a list of qualifications that don't affect them.

Better display of qualification answer status

Anywhere a user could submit an answer to a qualification as well as on the need page itself, we will display the user’s status for those qualifications. This will help users know what they can or cannot do and why.

Email when qualified for a need

If a user submits qualifications from a need page, and all of their answers are approved, we'll email them and invite them to return to the site and respond. This will keep volunteers engaged so that they don’t try to respond and get stonewalled, and then leave never to return.

Option to store birthdays when signing waivers

Some sites have special rules around storing user's birthdays. The user can choose to save their birthday or not before they sign a waiver. (We have to know if the person is 18-years-old in order to present them with the correct waiver.)

Changes to how qualifications work for site managers

Better UX when adding qualification

The tabs in the manager's qualifications area and the fields on the qualifications form have been reorganized in order to improve the flow of creating a qualification. Also, managers will be invited to create waivers if they need to do so when creating a qualification.

Better UX when adding waiver

Speaking of UX, waivers are now added on one page that does not require refreshing. Additionally, site managers will be invited to add the waiver to a qualification when they're finished.

Minors only waivers

If you want to have minors sign a waiver, but you don't want adults to sign the waiver, you can now set up a waiver to do that. If an adult tries to do something that requires them to interact with the waiver - for example, if they click a need that has a minor waiver attached - they will be moved forward with minimal interruption.

Changes to how qualifications work for agency managers

Control over which agencies can see each qualification

To date, giving an agency access to qualifications was an all-or-nothing matter. Now, you can be much more detailed. If you want to make a qualification available to only one agency or a select group of agencies, you can do that.  Or you can make it available to everyone. An agency’s relationship to qualifications is now more similar to initiatives.

Qualification answers shown to agencies

Agencies can now see answers to relevant qualifications when they look at responses. They can use this feature to see what people have answered as they are getting ready for shifts.

Bonus: features for managers who enter a lot of data

"Quick Add" for Hours

A new form for adding users, responses, hours, and even user group membership after they volunteer for you is now available. It's designed to be fast, and it's designed to be filled out for multiple users in quick succession. Use it after a colleague hands you a sign-in sheet from a shift.

Updates to back end add user form

When adding a user on the back of the site, managers can now choose to not set a password, and/or they can choose to send them an email inviting them to complete their profile. This will speed things up, and it will help with adding users after certain types of events.