Hello,
I wanted to get an idea of what folks are using for volunteer management. Also is your system available through the web.
We currently track our volunteers through tesssitura using associations, and use attributes to indicate what areas they have been trained and are ready to work in. We also make use of a custom tab on the constituent record to track the activities they worked in. I was thinking of just extending this functionality to the web still using the tessitura functionality we have. This would give them access to a volunteer portal and allow them to manage their own schedules.
Any thoughts/suggestions greatly appreciated.
Jon
We're looking at Resource Scheduling for this sort of thing too. I appreciate that the functionality isn't fully confirmed yet (or even available in the sandbox to play with) but it'll be interesting to get my hands on this new functionality. I'm sure that to make it work for volunteers there'll be some custom work required - but the ability to do such custom work is what (for some of us) makes Tess such an attractive piece of software!
There's a part of me that gets a little bit (too) excited at the idea that the resource calendar could be exposed to the web so that people identified as being a resource will be able to log into the website and pull up their calendar.
Martin
Hello all,
It’s great to see the excitement building for the Resource Scheduling functionality coming in v14. As Dot suggested earlier in this thread, the What’s New in v14 document is the best resource for starting to learn about the capabilities of the Resource Scheduling functionality. Right now you’ll find an overview of the resource scheduling functionality in the doc, though in the next few weeks I’ll be adding more details and use cases to help flesh out how you might be able to put Resource Scheduling to use at your organization. You can also look forward to a Resource Scheduling webinar in the coming months (date still TBD) and a Resource Scheduling session at TLCC. In the meantime, I wanted to clarify a few issues specifically referenced in this thread.
The Resource Scheduling functionality can definitely be used for volunteer management. Whether or not it will be the right solution for a particular organization, though, will depend on the kind of assignments you’d like to give your volunteers. In this first phase of Resource Scheduling, resources are scheduled through bookings on behalf of constituents. For example, you can assign volunteer docents or tour guides to a group visiting a zoo or museum, or assign artists to an arts outreach program scheduled to do a performance at a school. The kind of assignments that the Resource Scheduling functionality isn’t designed to manage in this first release are those on behalf of events, such as ushers for performances or volunteers for a gala. Event based bookings are definitely on the list of future enhancements to Resource Scheduling, but they won’t be there in the first release.
If your organization uses volunteers for constituent based bookings, then you have two options for making availability entry and assignment schedules available on the web. The standard, out-of-the-box option is through Tessitura on the Go. You would set up Tessitura logins for your volunteers (or any paid resources, like teachers or actors, for whom you want to provide remote access) and then you can set the security rights for their user group so that all they can do is add availability and view their assignments. If you’d rather set up something through your customer facing website, you could build a custom volunteer path for your website using the REST API. Worker resources are managed through constituent records you create for your volunteers and staff, and all the new Resource Scheduling functionality is backed by the REST service, so it would be possible to build a custom web interface where volunteers use their web login to access their constituent record so they can add availability and view their assignment schedule.
Kevin Sheehan
Senior Technical Writer & Consultant
Tessitura Network
+1 888 643 5778 x 329
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com
Nicole,
Could I get a copy of your powerpoint, as well? twilliams@cincinnatisymphony.org
semi-OT: This is what I really can't wrap my head around as a possible user of Resource scheduling.
Why the reliance on Ticket Orders at all? We have a lot of development staff and production staff that wouldn't know the first thing about ticket orders. Then there is batch requirements for ticket orders which is sure to cause even more confusion.I can see the benefit in tying a "Booking" with a ticket order; but then having to create and track a ticket order just to use the bookings would just lead to overbooked areas due to the overhead of needing to know, train, and track a semi-unreleated item.
Great for items/areas/staff only utilized by customers but the usefulness kind of falls flat once any crossover is added unless I'm missing something completely.