Volunteering a group of people with one sign up has gotten easier in ivolunteer. This post has been updated to reflect new functionality. Now a participant can sign up a group and later adjust the number of people later from their My Commitments portal.
The Problem: One Person Wants to Sign Up a Group for Multiple Slots
In many cases, you may need to allow one participant to sign up a group of people. Suppose you’re setting up an event where you have or need a finite number of resources. You need to sign up participants to either consume or provide more than one of those resources each, but you want to count each person against the limit.
Real-World Examples:
- You have limited seating at an event, and you want to allow people to bring friends with them.
- You only need 10 casseroles at the potluck, but you have some really motivated volunteers who want to bring 2 or 3 each.
- You have 20 t-shirts left over, and you want to let people claim them for themselves and their family members.
The Solution: Use Block of Slots to Sign Up a Group with One Signup
Normally when someone signs up for a slot position in ivolunteer.com, they occupy 1 slot: 1 signup = 1 slot taken. But there is a way to let your participants sign up a group.
By using Block of Slots, you can let a sign up occupy more than just one slot: 1 signup = 1 or more slots taken (a.k.a. Block of Slots)
How It Works:
To create a block of slots, you will add a custom prompt to your event of type NUMBER or DROPDOWN. Custom prompts can be added from Event Details & Actions > Prompts > Add Prompt.
Option #1: Number Prompt
Note: When you check Block of Slots, the prompt will become required.
Select the Type “NUMBER”, check the Block of Slots box, and optionally set the minimum and maximum numbers.
In the example below, when John Doe signs up, he can enter the number of people coming including himself.
After John signs up, he will have taken 3 slots.
Option #2: Dropdown Prompt
A DROPDOWN prompt works the same way except the number comes from the position in the list.
Note: For a DROPDOWN you will want to make your descriptions correspond to the actual item numbers as we did here. ‘Just me’ has the value 1, ‘Me and one other’ has the value 2, etc.
When John signs up he will see a descriptive list like the one below to choose from. The position of the item will decide how many slots he is signing up for.
In the past when the group size changed–someone new wanted to join in, or a group member had to cancel–adjusting it was a multi-step process. The volunteer would need to cancel their signup and then sign up again with the correct number.
Now, the volunteer can adjust the group size through their My Commitments portal, provided the desired number of slots is still available. An administrator also can change the number via the Manage tab in their administration portal.