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Working with Tasks

4 min read

Creating a New Task

  1. Click on the Add Task button.
  2. Give the task an appropriate title. This is the title that will appear in the tab for this task on the signup sheet.
  3. Check the date of the task. The value in the Date field defaults to the start date of the event, but if your event spans multiple days, you can make each task represent a different day or create a task that spans many days. When you configure a Task to be over “more than one day,” you also need to tell the system on which axis the dates will be defined. Your choices are Column Headers or Row Headers.
  4. Add columns and rows to your new Task Signup Sheet.

Here is an example of a Task configured to happen on one day:
task one day

Here is an example of a Task configured to happen over many days:
task multi day

IMPORTANT: If you do not define a date in all of your Column Headers or Row Headers for a Task that spans more than one day, the Event Start Date will be used for that Column or Row.

Additional Task Options

After you create a task, you can customize it. To see all options for the selected task, click on the plus next to More Task Options.

  • Sub-Title: Optionally add a sub title for this task. This will show up above the Task Signup Sheet.
  • Short Description: Optionally enter a short description of this task. This will appear above the Task Signup Sheet but below the Sub-Title (if one is provided)
  • Task Instructions: Optional formatted instructions for the volunteer. Instructions will show up in the slot details for the volunteer on the volunteer’s page.
  • Task Date Option: Select whether your task is on one day, spans Event dates, or appears in column or row headers or in each Slot position. To change the task dates, click the Adjust Task Dates button.
  • Slot Description Format: This affects how a slot in the task will be displayed throughout the whole system. Select whether you want the column header (including times, if any) or the row header (including times, if any) to be used first to describe a particular slot in the task. E.g., Column 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM – Row or Row – Column 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.
  • Group Restrictions: Limit signups for this Task to participants already in your database or to members of selected groups.
  • Sign-Up Limit per Volunteer: Limit the number of slots that a participant can hold for this task or for individual slots. If a participant tries to schedule more slots than this number, she will see a message that she has reached her limit for this task. She will not be allowed to sign up for another slot unless she cancels another slot in this task first.
    Note: This value can be adjusted while the event is running as needs change. See Participant Slot Limit for Event in Settings to learn how to adjust this limit for the whole event.
  • Custom Prompts: This section is visible only if you have created custom prompts for your event. This section allows you to select prompts that only apply to this task. By default, all custom prompts are selected and would apply to the task. Here is a quick example of how you might use this option: Suppose you have hats and t-shirts to give out to volunteers. You want hats to go only to volunteers working with food and t-shirts to go to everyone else. You create two custom prompts for the event: one is “Hat Size” and the other is “T-Shirt Size”. For any of the tasks involving food, you would uncheck the “T-Shirt Size” field so that volunteers for food would not be asked their t-shirt size. Likewise, you could uncheck “Hat Size” for all other tasks so that volunteers for the other tasks would not be asked for their hat size. (Learn more about Custom Prompts here).

Copying a Task

  1. Select the task you wish to copy by clicking on the Task tab.
  2. Click on the Copy Task button.
  3. Follow the steps above to set the title, dates, and columns and rows of the Task Signup Sheet.

Removing a Task

  1. Select the task you wish to remove by clicking on the Task tab.
  2. Click on the Remove Task button.

Changing the Order of Tasks

  1. Select the Task you wish to move by clicking on the Task tab.
  2. Use the Move Task Previous or Move Task Next buttons to change the location of the task.