Events

Events represent the services and activities your organization holds — Sunday services, Bible studies, outreach events, and more. Each event can have ministry staffing requirements that define how many volunteers are needed.

Who Can Access This

• Owners and Administrators can create, edit, and manage events.

Events List

The events page starts with a Next Up panel showing the next scheduled event instance. It includes the event name, date, time, location when available, staffing needs, and a quick Open Next Date button.

Below that panel, use the tabs to switch between:

• Recurring Events — repeating event series.
• One-Time Events — single scheduled events.
• Deactivated Events — events hidden from scheduling until restored.

Use search to find an event by name. Open Filters to show all events, grouped events, or ungrouped events.

Inside each tab, events are shown in folders. Events linked to an Event Group appear together, and events without a group appear in an ungrouped folder.

Each event row shows:

• Event Name — the name of the event.
• Recurrence — whether the event is one-time or recurring, and its pattern.
• Requirements — a summary of ministry requirements.
• Next Occurrence — when the event next takes place.
• Open Next Date — opens the next scheduled calendar date for that event.

Creating an Event

1. Click the Add Event button.
2. Fill in the Event Details:
   • Name (required) — e.g., "Sunday 9AM Service."
   • Description (optional) — additional details.
   • Location (optional) — where the event takes place.
   • Start Date & Time (required) — when the event begins.
   • End Date & Time (optional) — defaults to 1 hour after start.

Recurrence

Enable the Recurring toggle if the event repeats. Configure:

• Frequency — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly.
• Interval — how many periods between occurrences (e.g., 2 with Weekly = every 2 weeks).
• Days of Week (Weekly only) — select which days.
• Ends — Never, after N occurrences, or on a specific date.

Event Groups

Use an Event Group when two or more events count as the same scheduling obligation. For example, you can group services that happen across the same weekend so volunteers are not automatically assigned to more than one of them.

Choose an existing group, select No event group, or create a new group from the event form. New groups need a name, such as "Weekend Services," and an anchor day. You can also add an optional description to explain which related events belong in the group. The anchor day is the weekday the scheduler uses to treat related services as one shared occurrence.

Events in a group are shown together in the events list. To create or manage groups outside the event form, open Event Groups from the button near Add Event on the events page. Each group appears as an expandable card with its anchor day, linked event count, description, and linked events. From there, you can edit group names, descriptions, anchor days, linked events, or delete a group without deleting its events. When choosing linked events, use search to quickly find the right event if your organization has a long event list.

Ministry Requirements

Define how many volunteers from each ministry are needed:

1. Click Add Requirement.
2. For each requirement:
   • Ministry — select the ministry.
   • Needed — how many volunteers are required (minimum 1).
   • Optional — enable if the position is nice-to-have but won't affect staffing status when unfilled.
   • Reduce need when present — select other ministries whose presence reduces the count for this ministry. For example, if a Deacon is present, you might need one fewer Usher.

Optional needs still appear on event pages so teams can fill them when extra volunteers are available. Coverage counts on the dashboard and schedule pages use the reduced need after these assignments are considered.

3. Click Create Event to save.

Managing Events

From the events list:

Edit

Click the event name or pencil icon to update any details, recurrence settings, or requirements.

Standing Assignments

For recurring events, you can assign volunteers as standing assignments. These volunteers are automatically included in every occurrence without needing to be scheduled each time. This is ideal for volunteers who serve every week in the same role. Standing assignments can only be created for ministries that are part of the event's normal requirements, and the volunteer must be qualified for that ministry.

One-Time Event Changes

From a specific calendar occurrence, owners and administrators can update that date without changing the whole recurring series.

You can change the event name, description, location, date, start time, end time, and ministry requirements for one occurrence. If you move one occurrence to another day, it appears on the new calendar day while keeping its existing assignments and links.

You can also cancel one occurrence of a recurring event. A canceled occurrence is hidden from normal volunteer schedules, the scheduler, and the calendar by default. Any assigned volunteers are removed and notified. Owners and administrators can use the calendar Filters menu to show canceled events when they need to review or restore one.

Requirement changes still apply to that occurrence only. You can change counts, mark a ministry optional, remove a ministry from that occurrence, or add another ministry for just that date. If a ministry is removed from one occurrence, any volunteers assigned to that ministry for that occurrence are removed and notified. Volunteers can only sign up for ministries that are active on that occurrence.

Deactivate

Click Deactivate to remove an event from scheduling while preserving historical data. Deactivated events appear in the Deactivated Events folder. Click Restore to make a deactivated event active again.

How Events Connect to Other Features

• Ministries — events define requirements based on ministries. You must create ministries before adding requirements.
• Scheduler — the scheduler generates volunteer assignments for event occurrences.
• Calendar — published schedules appear on the calendar for all team members.
• Availability — volunteers can set preferences for specific events.
• Announcements — announcements can be targeted to specific events.
• Reports — reports show staffing levels for upcoming event occurrences.