Volunteer management system Archives - Page 30 of 34

Tag: Volunteer management system Page 30 of 34

This is one in a series of posts where I will be discussing the new features and changes built into version 6 of our volunteer management software TeamKinetic.

It’s always important the Volunteers get the right information at the right time. Whilst version 5 enabled administrators to customise some emails, such as the new registration emails, TeamKinetic Version 6 extends this ability to more email types and improves the structure of the emails allowing key information to always be merged into the emails whilst still allowing the administrators to customise the main portion of the email.

We achieve this by splitting the email into fixed prefix and suffix areas with a customisable content section.

For instance, the session signup email that is sent to a volunteer when they initially join an opportunity will contain helpful information regarding the opportunity they have signed up for in the prefix and the session list they are currently signed up for in the suffix, which obviously changes every time the email is sent.

The main content section is then editable by the admin via a WYSIWYG* text editor and can contain any combination of font sizes and colours they wish.

*what you see is what you get – This means how you lay out the text on the screen is how it will look to the end user.

We believe you will find this is a big improvement over the previous system where if you choose to customise the email you would lose the specific tags that were replaced when the email was actually created.

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic Version 6 – Age Restricted Registration

By Rolf Herbert

On 4th March 2015

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

This is one in a series of posts where I will be discussing the new features and changes we have built in to version 6 of our volunteer management software TeamKinetic.

Although we have always provided the ability to block access to opportunities based on age, there was never any restriction on registering; a new volunteer could be any age.

We wanted to maintain easy access to the opportunities for younger volunteers but also give the administrators some control over what happens to younger volunteers and how they are registered.

In TeamKinetic Version 6, administrators can set the age at which registrations must be verified. If a volunteer registers who is equal to or younger than this age then they will be taken to the age verification screen. Here they are asked to provide the email address of their parent or guardian.

The parent or guardian will receive an email asking them to follow a link to confirm that they give permission for the young person to join the site and access all suitable opportunities.

Until the volunteer has been verified they will not be able to join any opportunities, though they will still be able to search and browse the current opportunities and hopefully be enthused enough to ensure their parent or guardian verifies them as soon as possible!

If you have questions or issues around age verification please feel free to get in touch.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic Version 6 – Session Calendar and Schedule

By Rolf Herbert

On 3rd March 2015

In TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

This is one in a series of posts where I will be discussing the new features and changes we have built into version 6 of our volunteer management software TeamKinetic.

In TeamKinetic Version 6 there is a volunteer calendar that is available to both the volunteer and the admin. This shows all the volunteer’s sessions in blue and all available sessions in grey. This is a great way of quickly checking out what sessions you have coming up and also deciding if you can attend sessions on other opportunities.

In addition, there is a printable list of the volunteer’s sessions underneath the calendar which can be ordered by date or opportunity.

We’ve found that the calendar feature is especially helpful for those volunteers who are attending multiple roles at an event. These volunteers can plan their day more effectively with a visual representation of when and where their sessions are.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic Version 6 – Applying for Opportunties

By Rolf Herbert

On 2nd March 2015

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

This is one in a series of posts where I will be discussing the new features and changes we have built into TeamKinetic Version 6 – a volunteer management system that will make your life easier.

As the size of the events TeamKinetic is being used for have increased, so have the complexities involved in making sure there are enough volunteers for all roles and that they are suitably qualified.

We have introduced a number of new features to aid administrators and providers in choosing their volunteers, such as:

a new experience field for each opportunity
the recording of a volunteer’s movements in and out of sessions on an opportunity.

we have also introduced an entirely new sort of opportunity.

Previously it was always assumed that when a volunteer joined a session they were accepted on that session unless they were told otherwise. For large events, this led to an over-subscription to certain sessions as volunteers could not indicate which sessions they were able to do but were joining the sessions they wanted to do. Now administrators have the ability to set an opportunity to be an application opportunity.

When a volunteer looks at an opportunity that is set to in “application” mode they are informed that they should indicate all the sessions they are able to do. Once the administrator has organised volunteers into each session they can mark that opportunity as confirmed.

At this point, all the volunteers are informed which sessions they have been allocated to. If a volunteer is unable to attend a session the administrator has the history of that session available and can quickly select a volunteer that indicated they could do that session but was not allocated to that session in the first draft.

This is a major new feature that will aid immensely in improving communication between the administrators and the volunteers and reducing the time it takes to even out the available volunteers across an entire event or opportunity.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Volunteer Opportunity of a Lifetime….a trip to Mars! One way!

By Chris Martin

On 18th February 2015

In News & Views

The launch date is still a decade away but preparations are underway for the first human expedition to Mars. Here we explain about the mission, Mars spacecrafts and selecting volunteers to establish a colony on the planet.

From more than 200,000 people who hoped to leave Earth and die on Mars, only 660 remain in the running. They now face a more stringent astronaut selection process. Those who make the final cut earn a seat on the Mars One mission, the first human expedition to Mars – a one-way trip to the red planet.

How will the astronauts be selected?

The next round involves more filmed interviews and group challenges to see how well people work together. The final selection round will follow the candidates as they cope with living in harsh, remote mocked-up Mars habitats. At the end of the process, Mars One wants six groups of four astronauts to train for the mission.

How will Mars One pay for the mission?

The Dutch not-for-profit organisation is raising money any way it can. That means broadcasting rights, sponsorship deals, crowd-funding, donations from philanthropists, and licensing intellectual property rights from inventions made along the way. The first mission, costing $6bn (£4bn), aims to send a spacecraft carrying two men and two women to the planet.

What do they need to do?

It’s all quite complicated. The first humans are not scheduled to blast off for Mars until 2024. But plenty of missions are planned beforehand to do vital groundwork. In 2018, a lander would be sent to the planet as a trial run for technologies that the real mission will need. That will be accompanied by a communications satellite to beam messages back and forth.

In 2020, an “intelligent” rover is sent to Mars, along with a trailer. The rover’s job is to scope out a good landing site, far enough north for the soil to contain a good amount of water, but equatorial enough to get plenty of sunlight. Two years after that, in 2022, six cargo missions head off for Mars. They include another rover, two living units and two life support units. These land near the first rover, which tows them into position and sets up solar panels to power the units. The life support unit is meant to produce a breathable atmosphere in the habitat, 3,000 litres of water, and 120kg of oxygen kept in storage.

How will the astronauts get to Mars?

Mars One will contract a rocket manufacturer to build them a rocket. That could be Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, or another company. In 2024, they will blast the crew’s landing module and their main living quarters for the voyage into Earth’s orbit and dock them together. The crew then launch into Earth orbit themselves, climb into the waiting Mars spacecraft, and head off for their destination.

How do they land?

The Mars lander module detaches from the spacecraft and descends to the surface. Once down, the crew in their Mars suits are picked up by one of the rovers and taken to the habitat. It will take them a good while to acclimatise to the gravity on Mars. Their first tasks are to deploy more solar panels and start their efforts to grow food on Mars.

When do they get fresh company?

Being part of the first human expedition to Mars might be exciting, but soon you’ll want to welcome others. The second Mars One crew is planned for take off in 2026, for arrival the following year. Their own habitats and life-support units are meant to land within weeks of the first crew arriving. To protect the astronauts from the harsh radiation on Mars, the rovers will pile Martian soil on top of the habitats.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

The public sector needs to realise the voluntary sector does not mean free

By Chris Martin

On 11th February 2015

In News & Views, Policy and Operations

The original article can be found at

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2015/feb/08/public-sector-realise-voluntary-sector-not-mean-free?CMP=share_btn_tw

Volunteers are helping to support hospitals during this time of increased demand. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Last month the NHS crisis made headlines and it wasn’t a last-minute surprise to some of us in the charity sector. In December I received an email from the local clinical commissioning group, asking for urgent assistance to find volunteers to support the local hospital.

Among other things, they were looking for help to relieve pressure on the hospital being caused by increased demand for services and problems with the delayed discharging of patients. Volunteers were needed not just for “home from hospital” services and transport, but also for directly supporting nursing staff on the hospital’s wards.

Everyone knows that it’s a tough time for the voluntary and community sector. To be honest, it’s a pretty tough time for most people. By running a third-sector infrastructure support organisation, I see the issues every day and many smaller agencies are struggling to keep their show on the road. Although a great deal of important work is delivered across the public sector by volunteers, there are also many paid, highly-skilled specialists in the sector who provide the highest quality services, often in very specialised organisations. Even when volunteers are used to provide support there is still a cost for the organisations they work with.

Volunteers must be properly supported with supervision, management and training, not to mention other overheads such as insurance and safeguarding checks. All the things that go to make up a professional quality service that our communities deserve.

There continues to be a lack of understanding among those in government and service commissioning around the real cost of things when the voluntary sector comes to the rescue when things are difficult. It feels like some see it as a bit of a cut-price Black Friday approach to propping things up.

Four years of reduced funding have had a huge impact on everyone, but our sector has been hit particularly hard. Matters have been made worse by commissioners designing public service contracts in such a way which often prevent smaller, specialist organisations from being able to tender at all. There is now a very real danger that these same organisations that bring so much social value to the wider community may disappear altogether. Depressingly, it is often these same commissioners that are now requesting additional support from our sector to help stem the current NHS crisis.

Of course, the voluntary sector is always there to support the community – that’s the reason why we are so passionate about it and why we are working in it in the first place. But, it is long overdue for the sector to be taken more seriously. Rather than being seen as a merely supplementary amateur resource, there needs to be a recognition of the expert professionalism that exists, the level of activity that is delivered and a realistic understanding of how much it can cost to do what we do.

Safer Internet Day and Volunteer Kinetic

By Chris Martin

On 10th February 2015

In News & Views, Policy and Operations, Security and GDPR

TeamKinetic are proud to be part of Safer Internet Day. Safer Internet Day takes place in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology.

With just under a 1/3 of people aged 11 – 16 saying they have experienced cruel behaviour online we wanted to take this opportunity to offer this advice when using TeamKinetic.

1. Never meet anyone you speak to on the internet on your own, without being very sure they are who they say they are. If you are unsure contact the administrator and they can check for you.

2. Don’t share extra personal information. All the information the Opportunity provider needs is provided by the system.

3. If you feel threatened or unsafe at any time using the Volunteer site, attending an opportunity or about any feedback left about your time Volunteering, contact the administrator immediately, it is confidential and they will listen to your concerns.

4. Always make sure someone knows where you have gone to Volunteer.

If you follow these simple rules we think you should be safe and have a great Volunteer experience, but if you don’t, please tell and we can see what we can do.

Share your support with #Up2Us or #SID2015 this Safer Internet Day.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamKinetic to become the volunteer platform for Greater Manchester.

By Rolf Herbert

On 9th February 2015

In News & Views, Press Releases

It is with great pleasure that TeamKinetic can announce they are now the volunteer platform for Greater Sport. Working with the County Sports Partnership to extend our hugely successful work with Manchester City Council. Greater Sport requested a volunteer service that offered the people of Greater Manchester more choice whilst allowing the Local Authorities a level of local administration and control.

As a County Sports Partnership, Greater Sport had identified how successful Manchester City Council had been in recruiting and deploying Volunteers both for their clubs and their major events program. They identified how as a CSP area volunteers could benefit from seamless sharing of volunteer opportunities across the Local Authorities whilst also providing the level of local insight demanded by the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester.

This did pose a number of major technical challenges, as each Local Authority had different requirements and were able to offer significantly different levels of support to their volunteers. TeamKinetic worked closely with GreaterSport to develop a workable solution and we are proud to announce our Pilot volunteer platform project is up and running with plans for a much wider rollout early into the new year.

It is ours and Greater Sport’s belief, that this new volunteer platform will allow the generous and sports-mad people of Greater Manchester to access some of the finest events and clubs the UK has to offer.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

A review of the EC directive for SMS marketing and use in TeamKinetic

By Chris Martin

On 9th February 2015

In News & Views, Policy and Operations

SMS marketing is considered an electronic form of communication. That means its use is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations. It may sound scary, but it really isn’t that hard to understand. However, I thought it worthwhile to go over the basics of the EC Directive to help you better understand what you can and can’t do with your SMS marketing.

In the warnings issued by the ICO, several key paragraphs from the EC Directive are quoted. They basically say that no one can send unsolicited messages to any individual without prior consent. It then goes on to state three criteria used to determine what consent means (from Regulation 22):

“A person may send or instigate the sending of electronic mail for the purposes of direct marketing where –

(a) that person has obtained the contact details of the recipient of that electronic mail in the course of the sale or negotiations for the sale of a product or service to that recipient;

(b) the direct marketing is in respect of that person’s similar products and services only; and

(c) the recipient has been given a simple means of refusing (free of charge except for the costs of the transmission of the refusal) the use of his contact details for the purposes of such direct marketing, at the time that the details were initially collected, and where he did not initially refuse the use of details, at the time of each subsequent communication.”

That is honestly a mouthful of words, but very important ones. Here’s a simple interpretation you can take when dealing with your Volunteers.

As long as you ask for consent when signing a Volunteer up to the TeamKinetic system, which you do as part of the terms and conditions. you can send that Volunteer text messages that are related to the service the volunteer undertakes. For example, other voluntary opportunities and non-voluntary information that is similar to the Volunteering the person has undertaken. This could be a training course that is suitably matched to the volunteer’s area of voluntary experience, or other services as long as they are related to the Volunteering.

You can not send SMS messages about unrelated services or products. For example, the opportunity to buy a holiday or book cinema tickets unless that was specifically related to the voluntary opportunity the volunteer signed up to.

Part c is important, as you must make it simple for the Volunteer to opt out of any future communications if they wish.

Following these rules will keep you inside the law and hopefully will keep your Volunteers happy. If you have any stories of good/bad practice examples of how to use SMS messaging to increase Volunteer retention and recruitment please feel free to send them to us.

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Volunteer Health and Safety for beginners

By Chris Martin

On 3rd February 2015

In Policy and Operations

Health and Safety, those dreaded words. The reason to stop, an excuse not to do something. I’m sure anyone who reads this blog gets that same sinking feeling when someone uses health and safety as an excuse to make sure something does not take place. I hope to share some of the useful Volunteer Health and Safety information that has been shared with us at TeamKinetic.

I must make it very clear from the very start; I am not a health and safety expert and any advice I offer is either from other sources who I will aim to credit or my own experience. I also want to open this debate to other Volunteer Managers or those who have real Volunteer Health and Safety experience. Please share your knowledge and best practise with our audience. No advice will be ignored and all will be welcome.

Anyone who wishes to correct any mistakes or offer further clarification can always e-mail me at info@teamkinetic.co.uk and just put Volunteer Health and Safety in the subject field and I will happily add to this post.

Volunteering by its very nature involves people undertaking roles and responsibilities that often lack clear description, they are not employed and as we have found, people have the most amazing ability to do the craziest things! All this means you can take nothing for granted.

So what have we learnt whilst operating TeamKinetic?

From the point of view of a technology provider who talks on a very regular basis with those that work at the coal face with volunteers and opportunity providers day to day, its never dull!

We must first establish some key distinctions so it is clear who is responsible or has a duty of care during the volunteer process (I will try and keep to a minimum the Health and Safety terminology). I must also state that although this advice might be applicable to most volunteer situations it is written based on the volunteers being deployed via a VolunteerKinetic powered opportunity.

From the point of view of a volunteer manager who is brokering opportunities that are often provided by others, we think there are some important issues to consider.

Volunteers and opportunity providers must take all reasonable responsibility for their own health and safety.

This should be made clear in any code of conduct you create.

Although you are acting as a broker of opportunities, the responsibility (duty of care) for ensuring safety at a venue, location or during an activity is that of the opportunity provider. They should have a risk assessment for the activity, public liability insurance to protect volunteers and the people they may come into contact with through the role, and policies and procedures in place that they make you aware of; such as fire evacuation procedures. These basic responsibilities should not just extend to volunteers but all potential people who may be affected by the normal operation of the organisation and opportunity.

This does not fully exclude the broker from any responsibility, and in our opinion, best practice on behalf of the programme administrator is to provide opportunity providers with guidelines. These should offer a set of operating standards an opportunity provider should meet.

University of Manchester Athletic Union have kindly offered to share their Health and Safety Checklist and Public Liability letter. You can use or adapt these to your personal needs. We also suggest a provider code of conduct. This covers the more soft policies around effective volunteer management, and may include some of the following points:

Ensure someone is available to welcome volunteers, to offer a basic site induction and to be a point of contact whilst the volunteer is on site.
Make sure volunteers are aware of “comfort facilities” such as staff rooms, toilets and areas to get food or drink.
Try to speak to a volunteer before they leave, ask for feedback on their experience, and offer a thank you where appropriate for their help.

This is just a couple of ideas, that will hopefully ensure your volunteers stay safe and happy whilst working with your providers.

The End User Licence Agreement (EULA) that all volunteers agree to when they volunteer as part of a TeamKinetic system makes the following clear.

Do not arrange to meet strangers in strange places alone. Ensure you check out who they are and you are happy to attend an opportunity. If you are not sure contact the Administrator.

As people are notoriously bad at reading Terms and Conditions we suggest to volunteer managers to make this point clear to all volunteers, that to arrange to meet a stranger through the internet, even through this service, carries some risk and volunteers should do everything they can to ensure they know where and who they are meeting.

Similar advice should be given regarding what information people offer to share via the internet. VolunteerKinetic is designed to help manage volunteer-to-provider connections. Connections made outside the system can be dangerous and as a manager, impossible to track. So we suggest that volunteers and providers use only the system to communicate.

If a volunteer or provider act in a way that is inappropriate or dangerous, do you as an administrator have a policy and procedures in place to manage complaints, respond to allegations and deal with incidents?

From an organisation’s perspective, the volunteers are considered the same as any other person. Do you have up-to-date policies and procedures, including Safeguarding and Health and Safety and do you have a way to ensure volunteers follow these procedures whilst they are under your management?

Many of these situations are extremely rare and a little forward planning and support from the system administrator can make it easy to share good practice amongst providers. Ensuring that the providers and volunteers follow the advice can be more difficult, but having open channels of communication means that problems are easily reported and dealt with. Encouraging feedback from all participants we think offers a great way to keep on top of potential issues.

Source Material

Volunteer Health and Safety is fraught with potential difficulty and is somewhat open to interpretation. It is with this in mind that I would like to share the following links that I have found useful whilst writing this article. If I can leave you with any advice it’s that good procedures around setting up new opportunity providers and volunteers will ensure many issues can be identified early. Secondly, talking to your providers and volunteers regularly, using the feedback tools available through VolunteerKinetic will offer additional insight and help identify potential issues before they become serious.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/voluntary/further-advice.htm

http://www.hse.gov.uk/voluntary/when-it-applies.htm

http://www.hse.gov.uk/voluntary/manage-low-risk.htm

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/charities.htm

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/component/gpb/whatpaperworkdoineed&qh=YToyOntpOjA7czo2OiJoZWFsdGgiO2k6MTtzOjY6InNhZmV0eSI7fQ==

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/component/gpb/handbooksorpolicies&qh=YToyOntpOjA7czo2OiJoZWFsdGgiO2k6MTtzOjY6InNhZmV0eSI7fQ==

http://www.volunteering.org.uk/component/gpb/riskassessment&qh=YToyOntpOjA7czo2OiJoZWFsdGgiO2k6MTtzOjY6InNhZmV0eSI7fQ==