Staff Assistant
Last updated 8 February 2020
You can't run a big event without staff to help you. Traditionally, this is done with a spreadsheet passed down through generations and a whole lot of email.
AlumnIQ has a better way.
The Process
You set up the 'events' you need help with. These may be events that already exist in the registration system, but also generally include stuff like 'staff for the registration area' and 'greeters at the satellite parking lot'.
Then you set a switch to enable selection
Then you send an all-staff email to invite your colleagues in.
They select the shifts they're willing to work. This, as you know, may take some...encouragement.
After you've had enough of that, you'll set that switch to disable selection.
Then you'll assign staff members to shifts. See, what they've been doing is indicating interest - but you have the final say-so over who works what/when.
Then you'll set a switch to enable viewing.
Your beloved colleagues will then return to the system to see where you expect them to be.
{time passes}
20 minutes before each shift, we'll send a text reminder to the affected staff reminding them to show up.
At pretty much any point along the way you can pull reports to see how covered you are for each shift, who's volunteered, and adjust the config as needed.
Setup
The Hierarchy / The Dictionary
A Master Event has one or more Events An Event has one or more Jobs A Job has one or more Shifts
What your Colleagues are signing up for are Shifts -- which tells us the job and event they'll be working.
You'll be setting up events, jobs, and shifts. This allows you to maximize clarity and flexibility for scheduling as needed.
The system will also automatically block your colleagues from selecting concurrent shifts. Double booking is in nobody's best interest.
General Configuration
is open to selection - colleagues can opt in to and out of shifts
is open to view - colleagues can see the shifts you've confirmed them to work
hard cap - if you say you need 2 people for a shift, should we allow only 2 people (hard cap) or allow oversubscription 18 people (so you can pick and choose)
You're impatient - here's your quick proof of concept.
Create an event.
Create a job.
Create a shift.
Hop on over to the public side (/staff) in another tab.
Request a login using your email address.
Click the link in the email.
Observe the one shift you have to select from. Add it to your stash.
Now for the more fun stuff
On the admin side, you'll have a top level view of how well you're filling your slots all the time:
Public Side
And once selected, they have options to print or export their selections to their Outlook or Google calendar. The little group icon? A way for them to see who else is working that shift, since community is important even when working.
Access Control
Colleagues can access the selection side of the system via a fairly simple magic link-based process.
Colleague visits the login screen (/staff)
Colleague inputs their email address
Colleague recieves email (if they're a valid user)
Colleague clicks magic link in email
The magic link is good for 7 days.
Who can be a colleague?
AlumnIQ can be configured to auto-create profiles based on a domain whitelist. For example, any individual requesting access from an @valpo.edu email address would be permitted to log in but @gmail.com would not. This is much, much easier than having you provision everybody before you let them in (though that reamins an option).
You can always create profiles for individuals outside the whitelist if you need them. Use the Colleague Add/Edit link in the admin to create them.
If you'd like to alter your whitelist, pop the request in a ticket.
Impersonation
Who doesn't want to become someone else every now and then? You can impersonate any of your colleagues as/when needed to revise their selections or simply 'see what they see' to address a question.
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