Adding a Volunteer

Volunteers are the people who get scheduled to serve at your events. There are two ways to bring volunteers into Ministry Steward.

Option 1: Invite as a Volunteer

This is the primary way to add volunteers. When someone is invited to your organization and accepts the invitation, they automatically appear in the Volunteers list with their own login.

1. Go to Settings in the left sidebar, then open the Members section.
2. Invite the person by email.
3. Once they accept the invitation and join, they will appear on the Volunteers page.

Option 2: Add a Managed Account

Managed accounts are for volunteers who do not need their own login — typically children or dependents managed by a parent or guardian who is already a team member.

1. Open the Volunteers page from the left sidebar.
2. Click the Add Managed Account button in the top-right corner.
3. 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 the list of existing team members. When a guardian is linked, the system automatically creates a Family Group connecting them.
   • Relationship — appears when a guardian is selected. Choose from Parent, Legal Guardian, Grandparent, Sibling, or Other.
   • Administrative Notes (optional) — private information visible only to owners and administrators.
4. Click Add Managed Account.

The managed account opens as soon as it is created. Use that profile to add ministry qualifications, review availability, change scheduling settings, or link another guardian. You can also create the account without a guardian and link one later.

Configuring a Volunteer

After a volunteer exists in the system, click View in the volunteers table to open their detail page. From there you can:

• Edit Profile — update their display name, phone, notification email, and administrative notes.
• Active toggle — controls whether this volunteer can be scheduled. Turn this off to temporarily remove them from scheduling without deleting their record.
• Auto-Schedule toggle — controls whether this volunteer is included in automatic scheduling. Turn this off if you prefer to assign them manually.
• Ministries — view which ministries this volunteer is qualified for. Ministry qualifications are managed from the Ministries page (see Adding a Ministry).
• Guardians — add or remove the team members who can manage this volunteer. Adding another guardian does not move the volunteer out of their existing family group.

The guardian marked Primary notification guardian receives email reminders when the managed account's Notification Email is blank. Owners and administrators can choose Make primary beside another guardian to change this. A Notification Email always takes priority, and reminders are never sent automatically to a non-primary guardian. If the primary guardian is removed, the oldest remaining guardian becomes primary automatically.

When removing a guardian, confirm the change in the dialog. If another guardian remains, the managed account stays connected to that guardian's family group. If no guardians remain, an owner or administrator can link a new guardian later.

Display names remain visible to organization members for rosters, schedules, and assignments. Contact information is limited to the volunteer, linked guardians, owners and administrators, and qualified ministry leads who need it for a ministry they lead. Ministry-lead contact access is read-only. Administrative notes remain visible only to owners and administrators.

Next Steps

• Add ministries and assign this volunteer as qualified.
• Schedule an event where this volunteer can serve.