Groups

A groupA named, colour-coded set of shifts within an event, such as Ops, Registration, or Bar. Groups are how the roster is divided up: each one becomes a lane on the roster calendar, and you can set a planning status across a whole group at once. is an area of work, such as Ops, Registration, or Bar. Every shiftA block of time that needs to be staffed, with a label, an optional location, and a start and end. A shift belongs to one group and holds one or more positions. Shifts are capped at 24 hours and must fall within a week either side of the event dates, which leaves room for setup and teardown. belongs to exactly one group, so groups are the first thing to set up.

Groups do more than tidy the list. Each one is a colour-coded lane on the roster calendar, which is what makes a busy day readable at a glance.

Go to Roster in the sidebar for your event, then Groups.

Roster → Groups

Each row shows the group’s colour and name, its planning status, an inline control for changing that status, and the row actions.

Create a group

Choose New group and fill in:

• Label: the group name, shown on the calendar lane.
• Description: optional detail about the area of work.
• Order: a number setting where the group sits in the list and on the calendar. Lower numbers come first.
• Status: the planning status, covered below. New groups start as Draft.
• Background colour and Text colour: the lane colours. Pick a text colour with enough contrast against the background that shift labels stay readable.

Planning status

Groups and shifts both carry a planning status: Draft, Tentative, or Confirmed. You can move between them freely in any direction.

Use the Set status control on a group row to change it. Switching on Cascade to shifts writes the new status to every shift in that group at once, which is the quick way to move a whole area from tentative to confirmed once your plan settles.

A new shift inherits its group’s status unless you pick a different one.

Note

Planning status is a label for your own use, and it works independently of assignments. A Draft shift still shows on assigned volunteers’ agendas and still sends reminders, so if you want to plan privately, hold off on assigning people rather than using Draft for that.

Publish a group

The Publish row action publishes every assignment across every shift in the group in one go, which is the usual way to release a finished roster to your volunteers.

Publishing works on assignments, not on the group itself. There is no published or unpublished state on a group, so you can publish the same group again later after adding more people, and it will pick up the new assignments.

For what publishing does to an individual assignment, see Assigning people.

Delete a group

Deleting an empty group is immediate. If the group still has shifts, you are asked to confirm, and the count of affected shifts is shown.

Caution

Confirming deletes the shifts, their positions, and the assignments on them, and those shifts come off assigned volunteers’ agendas. If you are tidying up your group list rather than dropping the work, move the shifts to another group first.