Volunteers

Volunteer Scheduling System

System Description

The FSFB Volunteer Scheduling System is designed to easily handle the complex task of managing jobs and associating them with volunteers.  Volunteers sign up for jobs using a website or text messages, which are described in another document.  This document describes the administrative portion of the website that handles:

Note: This document describes the use of sub-jobs, which was a fine way to break up a large job into departments when all of the jobs started at the same time. That is no longer the case on Saturdays, as we have Donations starting at 8:30, Transport starting at 9:00, and Clients starting at 9:30. The major issue is that a volunteer is only allowed to sign up for 1 shift per job, and we often have volunteers signing up for both Donations and Clients.  As a result, we have 3 primary-jobs with no sub-jobs.  This manual has not been re-written to remove sub-jobs, but all of the concepts are the same.

Accessing the System

To access the administrator Volunteer Scheduling web page:

Alternately:

Sending e-mail or text messages to volunteers

One of the most common tasks is to message volunteers to see if they are available to work on a specific day.  Unfortunately, it feels like we’re always asking people to sign up, so we’ve made it as easy as possible to communicate our needs and for them to sign up.

If you click on a job title, you will be taken to a screen that shows all of the jobs associated with it.  I.E.  If you click on Saturday, it shows Store and Transport sub-jobs and the volunteer jobs associated with those 2 sub-jobs.  If you click on Store, it only shows jobs associated with the Store.

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Ignoring the top 1/3 of the page, it shows you job names, (the number of volunteers requested), and the volunteers who have signed up for the job. At the bottom of the page, it shows you volunteers who are available but haven’t signed up and then a list of volunteers who are not available. 

To send a message to volunteers, click on the Send Message button at the bottom of the screen.  You will then see a screen like this:

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The first set of checkboxes allows you to select who you want the message to go out to.  Volunteers can have 4 different statuses:

By default,  the Available and Unknown boxes are checked.  If you want the message to only go to people who have already signed up, clear the other boxes and check the Signed up box.

The next set of checkboxes indicates the groups to whom you want to send the message.  There are checked boxes next to every group who can sign up for a job.  Feel free to clear any check boxes to narrow down to whom your messages are going.  When you’re ready, click on the “Find Volunteers” button.  You will then see a screen that allows you to select specific volunteers and enter your message text.

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In this case, I cleared all of the groups other than Transport Assistant.  All of the volunteers who are part of the Transport Assistant group and were available or had an unknown availability are shown.  Clear individual check boxes if you know that someone isn’t available, or click on Clear All to clear them all.

Enter the subject of the e-mail message and then the body of the e-mail message below that.  Do not include a salutation, as “Hello [first_name] will be added to your text”.  Under the "Email Message" box, you will find 3 check boxes:

When you’re done, click on the Send Email button.

Similarly, enter the text that you want to send as an SMS text message in the “Text Message” box and click on Send Text Message to send the message.  

Signing-up or cancelling volunteers

If you want to directly sign-up or cancel volunteers for a specific job, click on that job’s name.  In the following example, I clicked on “Transport Assistant”.

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In this case, we want 2 volunteers (as shown in the Qty field) for this job and as a result, there are 2 pull-down boxes shown directly above this text.  Rafael is signed up for 1 slot, and the other is unassigned.  

Note that signing-up or canceling occurs immediately upon making a selection, and the volunteer will receive a message notifying them of the change.

Creating a Primary Job

A Primary Job is the top-level job that you see on the scheduling system.  Typically these are the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday jobs, but we may create them for special events.  To create a primary job, go into the scheduling system, and at the bottom of the page you’ll see a button labeled “Add a new job”.  Click on that and a job titled “New job” will appear at the top of the list of jobs.  It will have today’s date.  Click on that job and a page will display titled “New job – Job Details”.  Follow the procedure below to update it.

Client Appointment Slots

If you created a primary job with client appointment slots, you will see a display similar to the following:

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The buttons in the Action column allow you to:

Creating a Sub-job

Sub-jobs are jobs underneath of a Primary-Job which break functionality into groups.  For example, within the Tuesday master job, you’ll see Store and Transport sub-jobs.  By clicking on those sub-jobs, you can send messages to just people within that sub-job.  To create a sub-job:

Creating a Volunteer-Job

A Volunteer-job is a job that a volunteer can sign up for.  This is under a Primary-job or a Sub-job.  To create a Volunteer-job:

Deleting a Job

To delete a Primary/Sub/Volunteer-job:

Replicating a Job

On a monthly basis, we typically replicate the jobs from the previous month.  This involves selecting a single Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday job and copying it to the following month.  For example, if I want to copy a Saturday job, I would select one of the Saturday primary-jobs and then press Select dates to copy job to button.

A calendar then appears as shown to the right.  Click on the dates that you want to copy the job to.  The dates selected are listed above the calendar.  Press the Copy to other dates button to copy the job.

*** Note that something strange happens after you click on 2 dates in the next month.  The Calendar changes back to the current month.  I don’t know why, but you do need to be careful with what dates you pick ***.

New Volunteer Information Sheet

New Volunteer Information Sheet

Our Address: 16 Brent Drive, Hudson

Our Mission:

Fresh Start Furniture Bank helps restore hope, dignity, and stability in our community by recycling donated furniture and housewares for free to people in need.

About Fresh Start:
Fresh Start is a volunteer-based non-profit that collects donations of furniture and home goods from the public and distributes them for free, to people in need. To receive furniture, clients must obtain a referral from a social service agency. Clients then have 30 days to come in and select their furniture and housewares, and must take all of the items they selected on that date. We do not store items for later pick-up.

Our Clients:
Every one of our clients has a story, and we may never know how they ended up in need. They could be escaping domestic violence, moving out of a shelter, in recovery from physical or mental illness, Veterans, refugees, immigrants, recovering from addiction, or working low-wage jobs.

Our clients generally have a lot going on in their lives, so our volunteers need to be patient and calm, making sure that every interaction is treated with dignity and respect.

Our Volunteers:
Along with our Donors, our Volunteers are our biggest asset. If you have a special talent that you would like to share, please let us know!

Store Hours:

Monday 8:45-12:00

Tuesdays and Thursdays 8:45-12:00

Saturdays Donations: 8:15-10:30

Saturday Clients: 9:15-12:30

What to Wear:

Where to Park:

Volunteers should park on the left side. Parking spots close to the entrance are for clients and donors.

When you Arrive for a Shift:
Please plan to arrive 10-15 minutes before the shift.

Volunteers’ Donations:
Donations from volunteers have the same rules as any donors and will be inspected.

To Sign Up for a Volunteer Shift or to Cancel:

Social Media:
If you are on Facebook, watch for our posts and share them.

Please feel free to take pictures, but ask permission first of any clients or donors.

We use #FreshStartFurnitureBank when tagging photos.

We also post on Instagram.

Please join our private Facebook Fresh Start Furniture Bank Volunteer group!

Questions: Email: volunteers@freshstartfurniturebank.org

New Volunteer Process

New Volunteers Process

Tour Times

Tour with New Volunteers

Paperwork > Database

Tracking Dates

Questions: Contact Volunteers@FreshStartFurnitureBank.org

New Volunteer Tour

Our Address: 16 Brent Drive, Hudson

How Clients Set Up Appointment:

To receive furniture, clients must obtain a referral from a social service agency. Clients then have 30 days to come in and select their furniture and housewares. Clients can have up to 2 visits and must take all items selected during a visit.

When Clients Come to the Store:

The goal is to shop and pack in 1 hour. The steps are:

  1. Check in

    1. verify address, phone, family members,
    2. get vehicle size & license plate (for capacity purposes & to load into correct vehicle!)
    3. provide bags for bonus extra items (small items that we recycle into a new home!)
    4. get a shopper to work with client

  2. Shopper

    1. Reviews lists with client – mattress, furniture, kitchen, linens (outdoors)

    2. Distribute Household and Linens list to assigned volunteers for them to pack.

    3. Tablet – shops for items and “check in” items for client.

      **QR and movers locate item/number in clients

      **System provides packing % based on vehicle**

  3. Household & Linens

  4. QR – appliances, lamps, artwork

  5. Movers – load beds, furniture, rugs + soft good items (#3 & #4)

Volunteer areas:

  1. Donations In-take
  2. Cleaning furniture
  3. Cataloging Inventory
  4. Sorting - Linens
  5. Shop

Questions: Email: volunteer@freshstartfunriturebank.org