A tournament runs on its volunteers. From your tournament's workspace you can build the roles you need into shifts and fill them.
Create shifts
In the Volunteer shifts section, add a shift with:
- a name (e.g. "Head Referee"),
- a start and end time,
- how many volunteers it needs,
- a required role (optional),
- and whether it's remote (for example, pre-event notebook judging).
Head Referee and Judge Advisor shifts ask for that role. They're meant for people who hold the role on their account. For now, someone without it can still sign up or be assigned, because volunteers often finish the certification just before the event.
- A volunteer without the role sees a note on the shift asking them to request it before the event.
- When you assign someone who doesn't hold it, the assignment goes through and tells you they don't hold the role yet.
- In the shift's roster, anyone without the role is marked Role not yet approved until it's added to their account, so you can follow up before event day.
gainingSTEAM may later require the role before signup. Then those signups and assignments are turned away instead. Admins can place anyone either way. Every other required role (Judge, Queuing, and so on) is just a label on the shift and does not limit who can take it.
You can also scaffold shifts straight from your agenda: turn scheduled agenda items into shifts in one step.
Fill shifts two ways
- Open sign-up: volunteers sign themselves up.
- You assign: add volunteers to a shift yourself, entering them by email address (you can add several at once). You can assign people from your own approved organizations, this event's primary host organization once it is approved, and anyone already volunteering or on the crew at your event. An email outside those groups comes back as not found. An admin can assign anyone.
Share sign-up links
Send people a link and let them sign themselves up.
- The whole event: the Volunteer sign-up page at the top of the shifts section has a Copy link button. It opens your event's sign-up page with every open shift.
- One shift: on an open shift, choose More, then Copy sign-up link. The link opens the sign-up page at that shift. Someone who isn't signed in lands on its Log in to sign up button, and after signing in (or creating an account) they come back to the same shift, ready to press Sign up.
Links work for open shifts only. A shift you assign yourself isn't on the public sign-up page, so it has no link.
Invite people by email
When you know who you want on a shift, send them an invitation. They don't need an account first.
- In the shift's roster, choose Invite by email.
- Enter up to 25 email addresses, one per line, and choose Send invitations.
- Each person gets an email with a link. They sign in (or create an account), choose Accept and sign up, and they're on the shift. If they sign in with a different email address than the one you invited, the page shows the address you invited (partly hidden) and the one they're signed in with, and asks them to confirm. If they do, they're signed up with the account they're using, so the roster shows that account rather than the address you invited.
Good to know:
- Invitations work on open and assigned shifts. Use one for a shift you fill yourself, or to point someone at an open one.
- An invitation doesn't hold a place. If more people are invited than the shift has room for, you'll see a warning. Once the shift is full, anyone who accepts is told so, and their invitation stays waiting in case a place opens.
- The event must be published before invitations can go out.
- An invitation runs out after 14 days, or when the shift starts, whichever comes first.
- Keep track under Invitations waiting. Each invitation shows when it was sent and whether the email went out. Choose Send again to resend one, or Cancel to withdraw it. Each invitation link works once, so after someone accepts it, it can't be used again. If someone asks you to send it to another address, cancel the first invitation and invite the new address.
Find the right people
Use the Directory to search for volunteers who've opted in, filtered by role or area, so you can staff specialized shifts like judging and refereeing. A Directory volunteer gets an invite, not a direct assignment; they sign themselves up once they accept.
Event day
The Event Day area of your tournament workspace is the board for the running day. It shows each shift, who signed up, and who is here, and you tap Check in as people arrive.
- Print check-in sheet prints one alphabetical list of that day's volunteers for the check-in table. Each line has the person's name, shift, the shift's role, its time and their phone, plus a box to tick and a space to write the time they arrived. A volunteer on two shifts gets a line for each. Anyone already checked in on the app prints with the box ticked and their check-in time.
- Copy board link copies the board's address, so you can send it to whoever is running check-in. They need crew access to open it; add them on the Event team page.
- Send link to crew emails the board link to everyone on the crew who can already open it, so the people running check-in have it on their phones. You'll see how many people it will go to before you send. The email says it's from you, and replies come to you. Anyone whose crew access has ended doesn't get it, and anyone with no usable email address on file is named so you can send it another way. You need to be able to manage the crew to send it.
Sometimes someone shows up ready to help who isn't on your shift list yet.
- They already have an account, or there's no time to check.
- Keep one shift open for sign-up (an "Open" fill mode) with a generic name like "Walk-in" or "Day-of help."
- Send them that shift's sign-up link (More, then Copy sign-up link), or point them to the event's sign-up page. Self-signup has no reach limit, so they can add themselves on the spot. A walk-in on a Head Referee or Judge Advisor shift who doesn't hold that role shows as Role not yet approved in the roster.
- There's no open shift, or they aren't someone you can assign directly.
- An admin can add anyone to a shift directly, even outside your usual reach.
- Ask gainingSTEAM staff for help placing them.
Reminders
Volunteers signed up to a shift get reminders as the event approaches, so you're not the only one keeping track.
Tip: set your role requirements on the tournament first. That tells everyone how many volunteers each role needs and helps recruit for your event.