Activities are how you organise volunteering or engagement opportunities in Volaby. Whether it's a recurring weekly outreach, a one-off workshop, or a multi-day festival, the activity creation flow walks you through everything you need to set up.
Getting Started
Navigate to Activity Management and select Create Activity.
You can create activities using either the Steps view (a guided wizard that walks you through each section) or the List view (a traditional single-page form). Switch between them using the toggle in the toolbar. Both views share the same data, so you can switch at any time without losing your progress.
Who can create activities: Admins can create activities for any program. Program Managers can only create activities for programs they manage.
Activity Type
The first step is choosing what kind of activity you're creating. This determines how dates, rosters, and people enrolments work.
Regular
Activities that run on a recurring schedule. You set a start date and frequency (daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, yearly, or custom), and Volaby generates roster dates automatically. Best for: weekly outreach services, monthly meetings, regular shifts.
Once-Off
A single-date activity that runs once and doesn't repeat. You set the date and sessions, and that's it. Best for: standalone workshops, one-time events, single training days.
Flexible
Activities with no set frequency. Rosters are created manually as needed, giving you full control over when the activity runs. Best for: corporate volunteering, ad-hoc warehouse shifts, irregular engagements.
Event
An activity that runs over one or more specific days, with sessions that volunteers can select when they join. Event dates are chosen during creation and roster templates are generated for each date. Best for: festivals, conferences, fundraisers, multi-day training programs.
Details
Fill in the basic details of your activity:
Name
Give your activity a unique, memorable name. This is the primary title volunteers will see when browsing activities and managing their availability.
Program
Select the program this activity belongs to. Only volunteers and managers of this program will be able to see, join, and interact with the activity. Admins can select any program; Program Managers can only select programs they manage.
Description (optional)
Add additional context, instructions, or general information. This is visible to all volunteers who can view the activity.
Location
Set a physical address by searching and selecting from the dropdown, or choose Remote and provide a link, phone number, or other details. You must click on one of the dropdown suggestions when entering a physical address.
Tags (optional)
Activity tags help you sort and categorise activities by location, type, or any other dimension. Select from existing tags or create new ones from the Admin Console.
Attachments (optional)
Upload files up to 10MB in any format. These will be visible to all volunteers with access to the activity.
Schedule & Sessions
This section varies depending on your activity type:
Regular activities
Set a Start Date (required) and optionally an End Date
Choose a Frequency: once off, daily, weekly, weekdays, weekends, fortnightly, monthly (by date or day of week), yearly, or custom
If you choose Custom, you can define a detailed recurrence pattern
Once-Off activities
Set the date for the activity
No frequency options are shown
Flexible activities
Start and end dates are optional
Rosters are created manually from the roster management screen as needed
Event activities
Select your event dates using either Date Range (set start and end dates to generate all dates in between) or Pick Dates (select individual dates from a calendar)
A roster template is created for each selected date
Once created, event dates are managed from the Rosters page
Sessions
Every activity requires at least one session. Sessions represent different shifts, time slots, or roles within an activity - for example, "Morning Shift" and "Afternoon Shift", or "Setup", "Main Event", and "Pack Down".
For each session you can set:
Session name
Description (optional)
Start and end times (optional)
Minimum and maximum volunteer numbers
Report type - choose from your existing report types, or select No Report Required (No Impact) or No Report Required (Impact Tracked)
Alternative location (optional) - overrides the activity location for this session only
Required roles (optional) - restrict availability to volunteers with specific roles
For Event activities, sessions are available on every event date. Volunteers choose which sessions they want to attend on each day.
Tip: For Regular, Flexible and Event activities, you can create one-off sessions and customise rosters for individual dates from the roster management screen after creating the activity.
Privacy, Joining & Team
Configure how volunteers discover and join your activity:
Joining policy
Require approval - Volunteers must apply and be approved by a manager before joining. Useful for activities that require certain skills, background checks, or vetting.
Open activity - Any volunteer can join the team instantly without waiting for approval.
Roster type
Managed - Volunteers indicate their availability, and managers or activity leaders select the team and publish the roster.
Open - Volunteers can add and remove themselves from the roster freely.
Visibility
Keep this activity hidden from volunteers who aren't on the team. The activity remains visible to managers.
Maximum team size
Set a limit on the number of volunteers who can join. Once reached, new volunteers are added to the waitlist instead.
Event activities default to Open joining policy and Open roster type. Other activity types default to Require approval and Managed roster.
Add Team
You can add volunteers to the activity team during creation. Search for volunteers by name and add them to the team. You can toggle any volunteer as an Activity Leader by clicking the star icon.
Volunteers added here will be enrolled and receive an enrolment notification email when the activity is created.
You can also add team members later from the activity management screen.
Advanced & Review
Advanced configuration options are available to Admins and Program Managers. In the Steps view, these appear in the Review & Create step. In the List view, they appear as a collapsible section.
Event Mode
Toggle Event Mode on or off to control how volunteers are rostered when they join. When enabled:
For activities with a single session and single date, volunteers are automatically rostered (open roster) or marked as available (managed roster) when they join.
For activities with multiple sessions or dates, volunteers are prompted to select their preferred dates and sessions after joining.
Event Mode is enabled by default for Event activity types. It can also be enabled for Regular, Once-Off, or Flexible activities. The behaviour adapts based on your Roster type and Joining policy settings. See the Event Mode guide for full details.
Require approval for flexible rosters
When enabled, ad-hoc rosters added by Activity Leaders must be approved by a manager before they become visible to volunteers. This is useful when you want to maintain oversight of roster changes made by team leaders in the field.
Roster Comments
Control whether volunteers can leave comments on rosters for this activity.
Inherit - use your organisation-level default setting
Allow - enable roster comments regardless of the organisation setting
Prevent - disable roster comments regardless of the organisation setting
Check In / Check Out
Control whether volunteers can check in and out of their sessions.
Inherit - use your organisation or program-level default
Allow - enable check-in/check-out regardless of other settings
Prevent - disable check-in/check-out; volunteer hours and attendance are recorded by setting start and end times instead
Individual Shift Times
Allow setting individual start and end times for each volunteer on a roster. This is useful when different volunteers work slightly different hours within the same session.
No - all volunteers use the session's default times
Inherit - use the organisation-level setting
Yes - enable individual shift times for this activity
Address Hiding
Control how and when the activity's physical address is visible to volunteers.
Exempt from address hiding - when enabled, the address is always visible to volunteers regardless of your organisation-wide address hiding settings.
Time window override - if not exempt, you can override your organisation's default reveal and hide windows. Set the number of days before the activity to reveal the address, and the number of days after to hide it again. Leave empty to use the organisation default.
Saving
In the Steps view, click Create Activity on the final step. In the List view, click Save Activity in the top toolbar.
For Event activities, roster templates will be generated for each event date, and any team members you added will be enrolled automatically.