Volunteer Management Suggestions

We are just beginning to utilize Tessitura more for volunteer management, but I do remember  having a discussion with our volunteer usher coordinator about giving volunteers access to scheduling on the web. 

She was concerned about it because there are certain people that she does not want to work together (ex-spouses, etc).  She also likes to mix up her experienced volunteers with newer folks, to keep each show moving smoothly.  Even though letting volunteers book their own shifts would save her a lot of time in the scheduling process, the cost at performance time could be too much.

This doesn't mean that it wouldn't work for your organization though.  Just something to keep in mind when you are setting it up...

Thats an important point.  Maybe there could be some type of flag on the customer's record to designate conflicts with other volunteers.  So that when they go in to sign themseleves up it can chack against this.

Thats an important point.  Maybe there could be some type of flag on the customer's record to designate conflicts with other volunteers.  So that when they go in to sign themseleves up it can chack against this.

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Jon,

I would be very interested to have a look at whatever you come up with.  We've built a separate season in Tess mirroring our regular season and allow our ushers to sign up online.  They access the 'performances' via a MOS shift and essentially 'purchase' a ticket via the web.  We include them in our patron reminder emails and print and scan their tickets on arrival for their shift.   Of course this is likely only a workable solution for ushers.  Very likely our admin voluteers are tracked only in Excel and would be great to be able to send out an email with a link encouraging them to sign up with us.

Warren 

Nicole,

       Our organization just signed on to Tessitura.  We have a custom software system that handles our volunteers.  I would be interested how other organizations have implemented Tessitura while manitaining a robust volunteer scheduling, managing and tracking system.

Hi Daniel,

Before you dig in to one of the homebrew Tessitura volunteer tracking systems you might want to investigate the Resource Scheduling tool that will appear in version 14, especially since it sounds like you have a functional system for the immediate future:

http://www.tessituranetwork.com/network/Learning/Documentation/v14/Whats%20New%20in%20v14.aspx

Which is not to say you shouldn't review the customizations and processes out there: there will likely still be tips and clues about managing things in Tessitura that will be helpful.

Hi Gawain,

    Thanks. I will look into this. We have been told by other organizations using Tessitura, that we should try out Tessitura first, before getting all crazy with the custom built stuff. Thank you for repyling.

Daniel

Hi Nicole,

    The email best to reach me at is danielz@zoosociety.org.  Thank you for responding so quickly.

Daniel

I am no expert of volunteers here, but the database we use is called Samaritan, and it allows our volunteers to sign up for timeslots and training online.