Help

For branch Poppy Appeal organisers: setting up where and when you collect, and seeing who’s coming.

Becoming an organiser

1. Sign up and choose A branch organiser at the top of the form, then pick your branch.
2. The site administrator checks your request. You’ll get an email once you’re approved; until then you can book shifts like any volunteer.
3. Log in again. You’ll go straight to the Admin area, and there’s an Admin link at the top of every page.

You can only see and manage your own branch. You can still book shifts for yourself from Book a shift. Already signed up as a volunteer? Ask the site administrator, or another organiser in your branch, to make you an organiser.

Step 1: Add your locations

A location is somewhere your branch collects: a supermarket, the railway station, the market square.

1. Go to Admin, then the Locations tab.
2. Enter the name volunteers will recognise (e.g. Tesco Kingsbridge), the address and postcode.
3. Add a note if it helps, such as Table by the main entrance. Collect the tin from customer services. Volunteers see this when they book.
4. Click Add location.

Not collecting somewhere this year? Click Hide. Its shifts disappear for volunteers, and you can show it again next year.

Step 2: Create shifts

You don’t need to add shifts one by one. Tell the site the hours a location is covered and how long each shift is, and it builds them all.

1. Go to the Shifts tab and open Create shifts.
2. Choose the location, the first and last day, and tick the days of the week you collect.
3. Set Cover from and Cover until, the length of each shift, and how many people per shift.
4. Click Create shifts.

• Want 2, 4 and 6-hour options at the same place? Run Create shifts once for each length.
• Running it again for the same dates won’t make duplicates; existing shifts are skipped.
• You can create up to 9 weeks at a time.

Already have a rota in Excel?

On the Shifts tab, click Import a rota spreadsheet and upload it. The site reads the locations, dates and times (and any names already filled in), shows you a preview to check, and creates everything when you press Import. It needs headings like DAY, DATE, TIME and NAME, with the location’s name just above them. It also spots dates where the month has been typed wrongly, by checking them against the day of the week.

Changing or removing shifts

• Edit a shift on the Shifts tab to change its date, times, number of people or note. You can’t set the number of people below how many have already booked.
• If you change the time of a shift people have booked, let them know yourself; the site doesn’t email them about edits.
• To delete shifts, tick them (or tick Select all) and click Delete ticked shifts. Anyone booked on them gets one email listing the shifts that were cancelled.
• To clear out a lot at once, set the Location, From and To filters, and tick Only shifts nobody has booked if you want to keep the booked ones, then use Delete every shift matching these filters at the bottom. It tells you how many shifts and booked places that is before anything is deleted.

Step 3: Watch the rota fill up

The Overview tab shows how many places are filled and lists the next shifts that still need people.

The Rota tab shows who’s coming for the whole of this year, day by day, with names, group, numbers, phone and email. From here you can:

• Download Excel rota for a formatted spreadsheet: one day after another, gaps in red, and a summary sheet of how full each location is. It prints neatly on A4.
• Wall chart view shows the whole rota as a grid, the same page volunteers see under Who’s collecting. Print it for the collecting point or the branch noticeboard.
• Tick Only shifts that need people to see your gaps.
• Add someone by hand who booked by phone or on a paper sheet. They don’t need an account.
• Remove someone who can’t make it, which frees their place for others.

Volunteers can cancel online up to 24 hours before a shift. Closer than that, they’ll contact you, so check the rota the evening before.

Your volunteers

Each time someone signs up as a volunteer with your branch, you’ll get an email with their name, phone number and any group they’re with.

The Volunteers tab lists everyone registered with your branch, with their contact details and how many shifts they’ve booked. Click Edit next to someone to:

• correct their name, email, phone or group,
• make them a Branch organiser so they can help you run the rota, or back to a volunteer,
• email them a link to set a new password, or
• suspend an account that shouldn’t be there. Only the site administrator can delete accounts.

Inviting new volunteers

The Invite tab makes a ready-to-send invitation with your branch’s sign-up link. Change the wording if you like, then either Copy the designed email and paste it into a new email in Gmail or Outlook (in Outlook, choose Keep Source Formatting when you paste, or the design is lost), or press Open in my email app. You can also share it on WhatsApp or copy it for Facebook or a newsletter. Anyone who uses the link goes straight to sign-up with your branch already chosen. Invitations are sent from your own email, so they don’t count towards the branch’s yearly emails. Put addresses in Bcc when sending to a group.

Emailing your volunteers

The Emails tab lets you email everyone in your branch, or just those booked (or not yet booked) this year. Each branch can send 5 a year, so save them for the ones that matter. There are ready-made starting points: a few slots left, well done everyone, how much was raised, and see you next year. Fill in the parts in [square brackets], press Send me a test first to check it, then Send to volunteers. Each person gets their own copy addressed to them by name, and replies come straight to you. Tests don’t count towards the limit.

Tips for a full rota

• Put your shifts up early, ideally by mid-October, so people can plan.
• Share the site’s address in your branch newsletter, on local Facebook groups and with Brownie, Scout and Guide leaders, sports clubs, schools and the local fire station.
• Two-hour shifts fill fastest. Use longer shifts for the people who ask for them.
• Check the Overview each week and give the gaps a push.
• Your branch’s contact email is shown to volunteers. To change it, ask the site administrator.