During March and April, we released a handful of features not included in our usual release cycle. These features were a direct response to feedback we received from clients who were responding to urgent COVID-19 needs in their community. During this period, we focused on features that we could release quickly, would benefit clients without frustrating known COVID-19 responses, and had unambiguous use cases.

Additionally, we had a planned feature release during the period we were adding these COVID-19 related features.

As volunteerism adjusts to social distancing, many volunteer need require work to be done offsite. If you have a need that someone can do from home, you can mark the need as a "virtual need," so that you don't have to enter location information. Additionally, volunteers can search for virtual needs on the needs search.

Some questions on the need form had restrictive options, such as the "yes/no" answers for the family friendly question. We've added "N/a" to several questions so that you can remove answers to those questions.

You can now add a link to your site's banner. If you upload an image that directs people toward a page about your COVID-19 response or virtual needs, for instance, users can click on the image to go to the page you specify. Use this to funnel important traffic toward important topics.

Alerts in the site manager's area will be more obvious. If there is an unread alert, it will be very clear. Additionally, the alerts area has more inbox-style features including the ability to "star" an alert, search, and mark alerts as read in bulk. This will let us do an even better job of communicating important updates to you.

The number of available slots for a need used to appear on the top right of the need cards. We removed them because some volunteers saw a "100" on the need card as "there are already 100 people showing up," and they would not respond because of social distancing concerns. It was inhibiting sign ups, so we removed it.

The "notice of pending items" email we send you each morning when something on your site is pending will now tell you if you have any pending qualifications. This can help you be more responsive to volunteers attempting to sign up for important needs.

During March and April, we released a handful of features not included in our usual release cycle. These features were a direct response to feedback we received from clients who were responding to urgent COVID-19 needs in their community. During this period, we focused on features that we could release quickly, would benefit clients without frustrating known COVID-19 responses, and had unambiguous use cases.

Additionally, we had a planned feature release during the period we were adding these COVID-19 related features.

Version 2.18.2

Public release date: Apr 6, 2020

In this release, we focused on teams and user groups, which are widely used by all segments of our clients. Our focus was on making teams work the way site managers want them to work so that they could be even more effective at their jobs when using our software.

Additionally, we have added some helpful elements to the Calendar view for both volunteers and Site Managers.

The infrastructure for teams has been reorganized. Here are a few of the highlights you need to know about.

We created a new workflow for volunteers and managers to follow to create teams. This process is a more obvious user experience than the previous workflow, which had questions that didn’t immediately make sense and features that were out of place on the page. We have more of a step by step process now that more closely follows peoples’ intuitive expectations. The workflow also includes a number of improvements such as a way to see if your team will fit the available shifts.

Volunteers can keep a roster for teams they have created, and track the responses and hours for those teams over time. Previously, the feature for cloning teams was challenging. So we dropped the clone feature and replaced it with a way to "reuse" a previous team. Now team leaders and members can grab a roster of people they volunteered with previously and easily volunteer together again. We'll track that team as an entity over time with reports and resumes, as well as allow team leaders to manage certain aspects of the team and the team’s responses.

Because teams can persist over time, site managers need new tools for working with teams. From the site manager view, a team will exist as a single entity with a roster and a history of team responses. Site managers are now able to

Site managers will also have the ability to create teams using the same improved workflow that volunteers use.

Site managers can create anonymous teams more easily. The feature is baked into the new workflow, so managers only have to learn one mechanism. It will significantly improve use of the software when a corporate partner tells the site manager that they are bringing a number of people but are unable or unwilling to say who those individual volunteers may be. Site Managers will be able to simply create a team and add reserved slots.

There are a few things in this build that don't quite rise to the level of the other items listed above, but they smooth the edges of what used to be a tough process to navigate.

This is a significant change to the power site managers can delegate to others. By giving leadership status to a user group member, site managers can allow the UG leader to

Our clients with SLM user groups are affected by this, too. Now they can designate leaders of the SLM user groups and the regular user groups on their site.

Volunteers (and site managers) can now view needs and events in a calendar format in addition to a card, list, and map format. The calendar view will help volunteers clearly see when shifts take place, so they can better line up their availability.

The filters available for needs can now be applied to that calendar view, making it even more powerful. And we added the need filters to the site managers' calendar view as well, so scheduling will be even easier.

A few other details have been added to the calendar view. Now a counter shows how many volunteer spots are available for a shift. And tabs at the top enable volunteers to quickly focus on the information they want.

We are tracking a response ID when users add hours, so that we can better track who showed up to shifts, and so that we can track team hours over time. It's not a splashy feature change, but it will pay dividends for reporting down the line.

Volunteers and site managers can now search by capacity. This means that a user with a team of 5 people can quickly find needs and shifts that will accommodate them. This also has implications for Get Connected Community clients who handle their users scheduling and frequently work with corporate partners.

A volunteer who is creating a team will be able to provide answers for all team members for Response Questions and Initiative Questions. This is especially helpful when a question is required for a team member to be part of a response.

Version 2.18.3

Public release date: Aug 12, 2020

In this release, we focused on scheduling and calendar-based use cases. These features will predominantly benefit Community Connect clients, but there are plenty of uses that will benefit Get Connected and Campus Connect sites as well. Additionally, we updated the way recurring needs work so that shifts can be extended into the future much more easily.

First, the Schedule feature is easier to find now that it is in the left navigation of your site. Also, it's easy to find shifts on the calendar and take action on them. There are lots of places in the back end of the site that will now help a site manager jump to the new scheduling tool. The same is true for volunteers who have responded to a need. It is easy to find them and take action for them. This will save site managers time and help them take action without navigating away.

It is now easier than ever to schedule one volunteer for multiple shifts, multiple volunteers for a shift, or multiple volunteers for multiple shifts. Find the shifts you need, filter for users, and create responses all at once. This will speed up scheduling tasks that site managers and agency managers have had to perform one at a time until now.

Site managers have always had a lot of power, and the scheduling tool makes sure they continue to have that power and are able to make informed choices about how they use it. The scheduling tool will inform managers of missing qualifications, scheduling conflicts, availability conflicts, and missing answers to required questions while still letting them create responses in those situations.

If this sounds like a tool you want your agency managers to have, you can give it to them. Sharing this tool with agency managers is a great way to distribute work and empower others to help manage the site. They'll be able to schedule users just like a site manager, except they won't be able to double book a user if they have a response that would prevent them from working on a shift. Agency managers will only have access to volunteers who have previously worked with them.

Our calendars used to have some differences for the various user types that use our sites, but it was limited. Each user type will now see information and features that will help them in their unique use case. This will speed up responses by volunteers, help agencies manage their time, and help site managers with accountability, planning, and management.

In the calendar, managers will now see "contextual menus" that let them access a number of features across the site. For example, by clicking on a volunteer opportunity on the calendar you will see a dropdown with actions appropriate to that opportunity. This will speed up your ability to perform basic tasks like editing responses or canceling shifts. For some site managers, this will make the calendar a sort of home base of daily management.

Site managers can export a printable roster of the volunteers who will be coming in on any given day. This will create easy references for front desk staff and volunteer managers in the field who are not able to access their computers.

Icons that appear on calendars have all been updated to provide quickly digestible information relevant to the viewer. Managers will see the most sophisticated icons, including a capacity gauge so they know how full shifts are, as well as icons showing that hours have been submitted for past shifts. Information in the calendars will now be more eye-catching and easier to read quickly.

You can now get more detail of what's happening on any given day in the calendar with the daily view popup. This view will be the default on mobile, and it will help us display details that would not fit on a month view.

Because we have a daily view, we now have a way to display "ongoing" and "runs until" needs to volunteers as they browse the calendar. This will give the most accurate picture of what a volunteer can do on a given day.

Until now, a recurring need could not have shifts added once it was created. After a reorganization of how shifts are displayed to site managers and agency managers, you are now able to create additional shifts for a need at any time. Use this feature to maintain and update your recurring needs as they evolve. You can also edit shifts more easily.

The availability question that appears on user registration and user profiles can be marked required. This will help sites obtain better information about who is free during the week, and that will help them schedule users with our new features. Filters for users' availability have been updated as well so that you can find users who have not answered this important question. Knowing a volunteer's availability is best, but site managers will have the ability to schedule volunteers if they have not completed the availability part of their profile.

Agency managers can see the notes added when responses are created. This will let them get important messages from volunteers and important messages added by site managers when they use our new scheduling tool.

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