Volunteers

The Volunteers page is where administrators manage the people who serve in your organization's ministries and events.

Who Can Access This

• Owners and Administrators have full access to the volunteers page.
• Ministry Leads can view and export a scoped roster for the ministries they lead. They also manage volunteers from their assigned ministry pages and event assignment pages.

Volunteer Types

There are two types of volunteers in Ministry Steward:

Team Members

These are people who have been invited to your organization and have their own login. When someone accepts a team invitation, they automatically appear in the volunteers list. Team members can manage their own availability, view their schedule, and interact with the app directly.

If a team member uploads a profile picture, that picture appears in roster, assignment, announcement, ministry, and grouping views where their volunteer avatar is shown. If they have not uploaded a picture, Ministry Steward shows their initials instead.

Managed Accounts

Managed accounts are for volunteers who do not need their own login — typically children or dependents. A parent or guardian who is already a team member manages their schedule and availability. Managed accounts can be scheduled for events just like team members.

Volunteers Table

The volunteers table shows all volunteers with key information and helps you find the right person quickly. You can search by name, email, ministry, or family group. Use the status buttons to switch between all, active, and inactive volunteers. Use Filters to narrow the roster by ministry, auto-schedule setting, or family group.

The roster is sorted by last name and shows up to 15 volunteers per page. Use the page controls at the bottom of the roster to move through longer lists.

• Name — the volunteer's display name, or their account name when no display name is set.
• Status — whether the volunteer is active or inactive.
• Ministries — badges showing which ministries the volunteer is qualified for.
• Family Group — the family group connected to the volunteer, if any.
• Auto-Schedule — whether the volunteer is included in automatic scheduling.

Click a volunteer row to review their profile summary and scheduling settings in the preview panel. From the preview panel, owners and administrators can change the volunteer's active and auto-schedule settings. Click View Profile to open the full volunteer detail page.

Exporting Volunteers

Click Export to download the current volunteers roster as a CSV file. If you have searched or filtered the table, the export uses those same filters.

Volunteer Detail Page

Open a volunteer's full profile from the preview panel. From here you can:

Edit Profile

Update the volunteer's display name, phone number, notification email, and administrative notes. Administrative notes are visible only to organization owners and administrators.

Active Toggle

Controls whether this volunteer can be scheduled. Turn this off to temporarily remove them from scheduling without deleting their record. Inactive volunteers will not appear in the scheduler.

Auto-Schedule Toggle

Controls whether this volunteer is included in automatic scheduling. Turn this off if you prefer to assign them manually through the scheduler's preview interface.

View Ministries

See which ministries this volunteer is qualified for. Ministry qualifications are managed from the Ministries page.

View Availability and Preferences

Owners and administrators can see a volunteer's upcoming unavailable dates and event preferences from the detail page. Events without a chosen preference are shown as No Preference selected, so it is clear which preferences the volunteer has and has not set.

Adding a Managed Account

1. Click the Add Managed Account button.
2. Fill in the form:
   • Name (required) — the volunteer's display name.
   • Phone (optional) — a contact phone number.
   • Notification Email (optional) — the address that should receive this volunteer's email reminders.
   • Guardian (optional) — select a parent or guardian from existing team members.
   • Relationship — choose from Parent, Legal Guardian, Grandparent, Sibling, or Other.
   • Administrative Notes (optional) — private information for owners and administrators.
3. Click Add Managed Account.

The new managed account opens after it is created so you can finish setting it up. When a guardian is linked, the system automatically creates a Family Group connecting them. The guardian can then manage the dependent's availability and view their schedule from the Family page. You can add more than one guardian. The first existing family group is kept when another guardian is added.

Use Notification Email on the managed account when reminders should go to a specific address. If it is blank, email reminders use the account email of the guardian marked Primary notification guardian. Ministry Steward never silently sends a reminder to a different guardian. A warning appears when the managed account has neither a notification email nor a reachable primary guardian.

Owners and administrators can change the primary guardian from the Guardians card by selecting Make primary beside another guardian. If the primary guardian is removed, the oldest remaining guardian becomes primary automatically.

Managed Account Privacy

Managed accounts separate information according to how it is used:

• Display name — visible to organization members wherever rosters, schedules, assignments, and family groups need to identify the volunteer.
• Contact information and preferences — visible to the volunteer, linked guardians, owners and administrators, and qualified ministry leads. A ministry lead sees read-only contact information only for volunteers who are qualified in a ministry they lead.
• Administrative notes — visible only to owners and administrators. They are never included in guardian or ministry-lead views.

Removing or Deactivating a Managed Account

Set a managed account to Inactive when the volunteer is taking a break. This keeps their history while preventing future scheduling.

Removing a managed account is permanent. The confirmation explains that its guardian links, availability, preferences, qualifications, assignments, and attendance history will also be removed. Use this only when the record should no longer be kept.

How Volunteers Connect to Other Features

• Ministries — volunteers are qualified for specific ministries, which determines what events they can be scheduled for.
• Scheduler — the scheduler assigns volunteers to events based on their qualifications, availability, and preferences.
• Availability — volunteers (or their guardians) set when they're unavailable and their event preferences.
• Family — guardians manage dependent volunteers through the family page.
• Groupings — volunteers can be organized into family groups for easier management.