Volunteers declaring availability from the app

The Rota tab of the members’ app now carries When you can help: the next fortnight, with a tick and a cross against each day. One tap says yes, one says no, and tapping the same answer again takes it back.

Until 9.99.237 this could only be done on the website. A volunteer with the app on their phone had to go and find a browser to say they could not do next Tuesday — which is a fair part of why so many rows on the club’s availability screen read Nothing declared.

There is no Save button, on purpose. A tap is the change. Anything with a Save button on a phone gets half filled in and abandoned, and a rota secretary would rather have four days answered than fourteen left blank.

Common questions

Can we change how far ahead it asks?

Yes — Settings → System → Devices & Apps, under the Rota feature, sets how many days ahead the list runs. Two weeks by default, and anything from one week to four months. A club that builds its rota a fortnight out wants a fortnight; one planning a season of match duties in one go will want longer. Worth remembering that a list long enough to scroll for a minute is one people give up on, which is why the default is short rather than generous.

I tapped the wrong day.

Tap the same answer again and it goes back to nothing said. That is the only route back from a mistaken tap, which is why the button toggles rather than just setting.

Does this replace declaring it on the website?

No. Both write to the same place, so whichever a volunteer uses shows on the club’s availability screen and in the same figures. The website still offers per-session declarations; the app deals in whole days.

The card is not on my Rota tab.

It appears for volunteers only. If you are not on the rota as a volunteer there is nothing to declare, so it is left off rather than shown empty.