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.

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 under Crew.

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."
- 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.

Inviting someone by email to a specific shift, without them needing an account first, is planned but not available yet.

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.

Setting deadlines and reminders

This guide is for approved Event Partners