Time Slots or Only Use Ad Hoc¶

Time Slots

Time Slots organize the people on the Scheduler. Each Time Slot is a recurring day of the week and time, and it contains one or more Teams. Teams may be further divided into Sub-Groups, or you can use a Team with no Sub-Groups.

Note

Each Time Slot must have a unique day of the week and time.

Example: You cannot have two Time Slots for Sunday at 8:00 AM.

If an ad hoc meeting is already scheduled for a particular date and time, you can add a Time Slot for that day of the week and time once that ad hoc meeting has passed.

Example: You have an ad hoc meeting scheduled for Tuesday, 2/14/2023 at 10:00 AM. After that date and time have passed, you can create a Time Slot for Tuesdays at 10:00 AM, as long as no other ad hoc meetings are scheduled on a Tuesday.

Warning

When you save a new Time Slot, TouchPoint creates its meetings based on the Calendar Start and Calendar End dates or the Rolling Number of Weeks on the Settings > General tab. Changes you make to a Time Slot later (for example, its time, Teams, or Sub-Groups) apply only to meetings that have not been created yet. Meetings that already exist keep their original settings.

Example: With a Rolling Number of Weeks of 6, saving a Time Slot creates 6 weeks of meetings. If you then change the Time Slot, the change appears only on meetings created after those first 6 weeks. To change the meetings that already exist, edit each meeting individually from the Scheduler tab.

Deleting a Time Slot also deletes all of its meetings.

Only Use Ad Hoc

Check Only use ad hoc if your event does not repeat, such as a seasonal carnival. When this box is checked, you cannot add Time Slots; instead, you add each meeting manually with Add Single Meeting on the Scheduler tab.

Step 1

Click the green Add Time Slot button, or check Only use ad hoc. If you checked Only use ad hoc, click Save Changes; you are done with the Time Slots tab.

Step 2

Set the Day and Time. The default is Sunday at 8:00 AM.

Step 3

Enter the Team Name (50 characters or fewer). For example, if your Scheduler is for worship service volunteers, Team names might be “Ushers,” “Greeters,” and “Welcome Center.” Each Time Slot must have at least one Team.

Note

Teams appear in the order they are entered. There are no sort options, so keep that in mind when you build your Teams.

Step 4

Set the number of Lockout Days. Within this many days of a meeting, a person who wants to drop a commitment must use Sub Request to find a substitute instead of simply canceling. To always require a substitute, set this to 365.

Step 5

Check Subgroups if you want to further organize a Team. For example, Ushers might have Sub-Groups of Section A, Section B, and Section C, and Greeters might have Main Entrance, North Entrance, and South Entrance.

• After you check Subgroups, click Add Subgroup. In the pop-up, select an existing Sub-Group of this Involvement, or click Add New Subgroup to create one. Enter the name (200 characters or fewer) and click Save.

• For each Sub-Group, enter the # Needed, and check Require if people must already be members of that Sub-Group to sign up for it.

• Click Add Team to continue adding Teams until you have created them all.

Note

Sub-Groups appear in the order they are entered. There are no sort options, so keep that in mind as you build your Sub-Groups.

Step 6

After you finish the Teams and Sub-Groups for your first Time Slot, click Add Time Slot to add more Time Slots. For example, if you need Greeters for two Sunday morning services and one Wednesday evening service, add the second Sunday morning Time Slot and then the Wednesday evening Time Slot. Click Save Changes when you are finished.

Example

In the screenshot below, a church is building a Scheduler for worship services. It holds two worship services on Sunday morning and one on Wednesday evening.

For the early Sunday service, the church needs four Teams: Band, Greeters, Ushers, and Welcome Center. The Band, Greeters, and Ushers have Sub-Groups for each position or location, but only the Band requires registrants to be members of the Sub-Group. That way, only people the church has approved as a Guitarist, Drummer, or Keyboardist can sign up for those positions. The Welcome Center Team is not divided further; it simply needs two people.

The second Sunday service is similar, with slight changes to the number of volunteers needed for some Teams.

The Wednesday evening service needs fewer volunteers. It has only three Teams, and the Ushers are not assigned to sections (Sub-Groups) that night.

Communication¶

Use the Registration > Communication tab to configure the emails associated with your Scheduler. Click the blue i next to each option for more information.

Email From

Select the person or people to notify when someone signs up for a spot on the Scheduler. At least one person is required. To appear in the list, a person must have a user account with the Access role and an email address.

The confirmation and reminder emails come from the first person selected. Everyone selected receives a copy of each registration confirmation email.

Note

The default Template for each option below is selected automatically. Once you choose the Email From person or people, click Save.

Confirmation Email

Select the Template your registrants receive when they sign up for a spot. Only email templates limited to the SchedulerTemplates role appear in the Template lists on this tab.

Reminder Email 1

Select the Template your registrants receive before their commitment.

• Days Before - Enter the number of days before the meeting to send the email. If no Days Before value is entered, the reminder is not sent.

• Time - Select the time of day (in your church’s time zone) to send the email.

• Disabled - Check this box to turn off this reminder.

Note

By default, Reminder Email 1 is set to 10 days before and Reminder Email 2 to 2 days before, and both are Disabled. Uncheck Disabled to start sending a reminder.

Reminder Email 2

Optionally send a second reminder. It uses the same options as Reminder Email 1, and it must be scheduled to send after Reminder Email 1.

Sub Request

This Template loads when a registrant clicks Sub Request. The registrant can change the content of the email before sending it.

Sub Confirmation

This email is sent when another person clicks a link in the sub request email.

Request People

This email is sent when another person clicks a link in the request more people email.

Instructions¶

Use the Registration > Instructions tab to customize the on-screen messages that registrants see during registration.

Login Instructions

This message appears on the page where a person can log in to register.

Options Instructions

This message appears on the page where the registrant views the available slots.

Added role requirements, clarified how Time Slot changes and deletions affect existing meetings and when Meeting records are created, corrected the Email From requirements, and documented the default reminder settings.