Open topic with navigation

Creating a Volunteer Application

Before the pipeline can be started, the volunteer application must be created. You will need to gather a few things before starting:

1. All volunteer jobs
2. Volunteer job descriptions
3. Ministry staff members responsible for each job (must have Fellowship One access)
4. A confirmation message.

Creating the volunteer application

Use the step by step procedures below to create a volunteer application. Here's an example application to get you started:

Volunteer Application Sample

Note: WebLink and Administrator access rights are required to create or edit volunteer applications.

To create a volunteer application

1. Click WebLink > Volunteer Application > Manage Forms. The Manage Volunteer Forms helper appears.
2. Click Create a new volunteer form.
3. Type a name for the volunteer form in the New volunteer form name field. This name should be unique and reflect the category of opportunities that appear on the form.
4. Click Continue. The Create a New Volunteer Opportunity form appears.
5. Type Usher (or whatever job name you would like) in the New opportunity name field.
6. Select the ministry that will be responsible for this job from the Associated ministry drop‐down list.
7. Type a job description in the Opportunity Description field. This information appears in WebLink's Volunteer Application. This step is optional, but is nice for the person using your form!
8. Click Continue. The Associate Opportunity with an Activity form appears. You can choose to associate the job with an activity if you would like. All activities within the associated ministry appear. Simply select Yes and choose the correct activity.
9. Click Continue. If you chose to associate the job with an activity, the Detail the Activity form appears. This form gives you the opportunity to tie the job to a particular assignment within Fellowship One. Select the activity room/location from the Group/Location drop-down list, the activity schedule, staff schedule, and corresponding job from the remaining drop-down lists. This step will not display if you selected No in step 8.
10. Click Continue. The Associate Users with Opportunities form appears.

Associating users with opportunities

Associated users are the ministry leaders responsible for scheduling the volunteer once the prospect has completed all requirements for this position. These ministry leaders must have a Fellowship One user name and the Ministry Write security access right to the associated ministry.

The recommendation is to add more than one ministry leader to the Associated Users list.

Tip! Add all of the potential ministry leaders that can follow up with this prospect. They can share responsibility even though only one Fellowship One user needs to follow up with the individual.

1. Select a Fellowship One user from the drop‐down list.
2. Click Add user. The individual’s name appears in the Associated Users table at the bottom of the page (as shown below).
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2. Make sure you select your user name and click Add user. This will be used during testing. You can delete it later if you are not the one responsible for this position.
4. Click Done. The Volunteer Opportunity Requirements form appears.

Assign Requirements to Job Opportunities

A requirement represents a qualification that must be met by a person in order to participate as a volunteer in the capacity for a specific job. For example, in cases where all children's care volunteers must have a background check, the background check is the requirement. Common requirements are:

• Background Check
• Reference Check
• Interview

These requirements are configured in Admin > People Setup > Individual Requirements, but can also be configured on the fly when you are creating your application.

Special requirements

When adding requirements you have three Requirement Type choices. 90% of your requirements are going to be specific to your church and will be “Standard Requirements”. These are requirements like “Audition”, “Interview with Pastor Bill”, “Membership Status”, etc. The other 10% of jobs will be the special types Reference Check and Background Check.

Fellowship One treats background checks and reference checks specially. It provides additional questions on the volunteer application requiring a social security number for background checks and fields to enter a reference's contact information for reference checks.

Additionally, you can choose to add automatic background check processing through one of the preferred background check companies that are configured to interface with Fellowship One. If you choose to do this, background checks are automatically requested the moment the prospect reaches the “Requirements” stage of the pipeline.

An automatic background check will not be requested if the following conditions are present:

• The prospect previously met the Background Check requirement and it was “Approved” less than 2 years ago.
• The prospect has a Background Check more than two years old AND an “Active” staffing assignment.

If you are interested in this service, please you are interested in signing up for automated processing please create a Support case. Note in the subject and message boxes that you are interested in automatic background check processing. See Creating a case for more information.

Next, you will add all requirements that could be associated with any volunteer job, and any other requirements that you want the volunteer coordinator to check before the new volunteer can receive an assignment.

Tip! Add all requirements to this opportunity that must be fulfilled before the person can be assigned to the job you have created in your ministry. For example, if you have a Greeter job that requires the user to have an Interview, a Statement of Faith, and a Background Check. All three of these requirements should be added to the Greeter opportunity on your Volunteer Application.

Adding requirements

When creating your volunteer application, you have the ability to add requirements as you are adding your job opportunities.

To add a requirement

1. Click New requirement.
2. Type a requirement name (such as Interview) in the New requirement name field.
3. Select the particular requirement type from the Requirement type drop‐down list.
4. Click Save new requirement. The new requirement’s check box is selected by default.

If you are creating a Reference Check type requirement, use the following procedure.

1. Type the name of the reference check followed by the number of references you will be checking in the Requirement name field. For example, Children’s Reference Check (2).
2. Select Reference Check from the Requirement type drop‐down list. A new field appears as shown below.
3. Enter the number of references that are required in the Number of reference checks field.
4. Click Save new requirement.

When you are finished adding requirements, click Done with requirements. If you selected a Reference Check requirement, the Reference Questions form appears.

Working with Reference Checks

When you select a Reference Check type requirement for a volunteer opportunity, you will need to configure questions for use when interviewing the person who will act as a reference for the prospective volunteer.

The ability to create reference questions will only appear if you have selected a requirement that is has been defined with the Reference Check requirement type.

Some example questions might be:

• How long have you known [[FNAME]]?
• Would you recommend [[FNAME]] as a volunteer in our children's ministry?
• Do you trust [[FNAME]] with your children?

Notice the [[FNAME]] in the questions above. If you use this dynamic text within your question, it will automatically replace with the prospective volunteer's first name at the time the Volunteer Coordinator is conducting the reference check interview.

To create a reference question

1. Click New question at the bottom of the Reference Questions form.
2. Type the question in the Question to ask field. Remember that you can insert the dynamic text [[FNAME]] and [[LNAME]] within the question.
3. Select the type of answer you are expecting from the Answer type drop‐down list. The choices are as follows:
   • Text Box‐provides a text box area where the person conducting the reference interview can type notes about the answer.
   • Drop Down List‐provides a drop‐down list where the person conducting the reference interview can make a single selection from a list of pre‐defined choices (for example, Yes or No).
   • Checkbox List‐provides a list of pre‐defined choices where the person conducting the interview can select one or more options (for example, a list of characteristics).
4. Click Save new question. The question appears in the list of reference questions and is already selected.
5. Repeat this procedure to add a few questions for your reference.

When you have finished creating questions, click Done with questions. The Form Summary appears. Continue adding volunteer opportunities to the application until you have all the opportunities created for this particular form. Click Continue.

Create a Confirmation Message for your prospective volunteers

You must always create a confirmation message if you plan on allowing people to complete this application online from your church website. Consider adding a thank you message and information about what the user can expect to happen. For example, “Thank you for your interest in serving at Dynamic Church. We will be contacting you soon with information about the jobs you are interested in. In the meantime, you may also contact Jill Cannon at 469‐442‐0100 if you have any questions.”

Note: You must have a Confirmation Message if you want to allow people to complete the volunteer application via your church website.

To configure the confirmation message

1. Select Yes to Show a confirmation message.
2. Type a Confirmation message.
3. Click Continue. The Volunteer Application Complete confirmation appears.
4. Click Start using this form.