On your hub, there is a 'Join Us' button. This button is linked to the 'General Sign Up' form (green form under the Collect tab). Think of this as your main call to action for people who are interested in volunteering with your organization.
Benefits of the Join Us button on your hub:
You will always hear from interested volunteers, even when they do not see public opportunities. They can enter your interested volunteer pipeline right away (by clicking Join Us and signing the General Sign Up form).
It allows you to create a central entry point for all new volunteers, where they will complete the same form information as part of an application process. You can set permissions, so people are not linked to your organization or added to your Community Directory until you've approved them.
By using 'Organization Members Only' permissions within your Opportunities, this means you can control who can sign up for events, schedules, or apply for assignments.
Let's show you how this works step by step.
Set up your General Sign up Form
Go to the Collect tab and click on General Signup. If you have just joined Timecounts, it will be the default form available.
When you click Edit to open up the form, you'll notice Name and Email fields are there (as these are fixed and part of the Timecount login). We've added two other optional fields to get you started. Feel free to click on anything and edit, delete and build your form as you wish.
While it is tempting to create a very detailed General Sign up Form - remember that every question you add to the form may turn off potential volunteers. Try to keep this form as short as possible. If you are on the Premium Plan, utilize your Unlimited Forms, to request additional information at different stages of your onboarding process or attach them to specific events or applications.
Check out adding tags to forms - this will make it super easy to sort and organize your incoming volunteers based on their interests.
Set your Membership Preferences
Go to Settings (click the user switcher bottom left corner) and find the Membership Tab.
Membership Management will let you control the permission settings for new signups via the Join Us button on your hub. You can choose to Automatically approve applications or Let me review all applications.
All new signups will already have a Timecounts account - which means they've verified that their email is correct. This avoids spam from entering your database.
Once you accept someone into your Community via the Join Us membership flow, they will receive a Welcome Message from your organization. You can customize this message or uncheck to disable the message from sending.
This is a great way to provide volunteers a direct link to your hub where they can go to find opportunities. You may also wish to share information about what to expect next in your volunteer onboarding or training. Set the tone for your organization. It's important that volunteers hear from you within the first 24 hours of their application, or they may lose interest. This is an automated way to do that if you receive a lot of applications.
New Members Pipeline
In the Community tab, there is a section called 'New Members'. This is where you will find the signups that come in via the Join Us button on your hub. If you have set your Membership permissions to review, you will see them appear in the Pending tab. If you chose to have them automatically accepted, they will go directly to your Directory and bypass this New Members tab.
Anyone that you chose to Ignore will remain in the Ignore tab. If you wish to have them join your community in future, just remember to go back in and restart their application.
Interested in seeing Timecounts from a volunteer perspective?