Roles describe what a volunteer is qualified or trained to do — Driver, First Aid Officer, Team Leader, Kitchen Hand. Each role carries a badge that appears against the volunteer's name, and roles can be used to target tasks, restrict activities and sessions, segment communications and filter your database.
Roles are managed from Admin Console > Activities & Rosters > Roles. The list shows every role you have created, its badge, and how many volunteers currently hold it.
Please note: roles are not permission levels. A role says what someone is qualified to do; a permission level says what they can see and change in Volaby. For permission levels, see Volaby Permissions.
Creating a Role
Select Add New Role from the Roles page and complete the following:
Badge - choose an icon from the picker. This becomes the role's badge wherever the role appears.
Role Title - the name volunteers and managers will see.
Description - a rich text explanation of the duties, expectations or qualifications attached to the role. Volunteers see this when they view or apply for the role.
Users Can Apply - turn this on if volunteers should be able to apply for the role themselves. Leave it off for roles you assign manually.
Roles are organisation-wide. They are not tied to a program or activity, so the same role can be used across everything you run.
Letting Volunteers Apply
When Users Can Apply is turned on, an Application Settings section appears. Choose an Approval Method that controls how a volunteer moves from applying to holding the role:
Auto Approval - the volunteer is granted the role immediately on application. Best for self-declared roles where no checking is needed.
Complete Tasks - the volunteer completes the role's tasks and the role is granted automatically once they are done. Best for training or induction requirements.
Tasks & Review - the volunteer completes the role's tasks, then a manager reviews and approves. Best where you need to sight a certificate or check the work.
Review, Tasks & Approval - a manager screens the application first, the volunteer then completes the tasks, and the manager gives final approval. Best for restricted or high-trust roles.
Allow re-applications after rejection controls whether a volunteer whose application was rejected can apply again. Leave it off if a rejection should be final.
There are two places a volunteer can apply, each controlled by its own setting:
On the application form - new applicants can indicate role preferences as part of onboarding. Turn this on under Admin Console > General > Onboarding in the Roles section.
From the Roles tab - existing volunteers can browse and apply for roles at any time. Turn on Allow General Role Applications at the bottom of the Roles page. The Roles tab only appears for volunteers when this setting is on.
From the Roles tab a volunteer sees the roles available to them, the roles they already hold, and any application in progress. They can open a role to read its description, work through its tasks, and withdraw an application if they change their mind.
Reviewing Role Applications
Applications waiting on a manager appear under Volunteers > Role Applications. From here you can review an application and either approve or reject it, and you can action several applications at once.
When rejecting, you can record a reason. Volunteers are emailed at each stage of the process, so they know when their application has been received, when tasks are waiting on them, and when a decision has been made.
Which applications you see depends on your permission level - Admins see all role applications, while Program Managers see applications from volunteers in the programs they manage.
Assigning Roles Directly
You do not have to wait for volunteers to apply. Roles can be assigned by a manager in several places:
From a volunteer's profile - use the Volunteer Roles field in the profile's personal details to add or remove roles.
In bulk from the database - turn on the Actions toggle in your volunteer database, select the volunteers you need, and use the Enrol action to add them to one or more roles at once.
From an incoming volunteer - while reviewing an applicant you can add them to additional activities and roles directly from their profile. See Tracking Incoming Volunteers.
Tip: assigning a role directly grants it straight away. It does not run the approval method or require the role's tasks to be completed first.
Role Tasks and Badges
Tasks can be targeted at a role, so only volunteers holding that role are asked to complete them. This is how you attach a police check to your Driver role, or a food handling certificate to your Kitchen Hand role.
Set this up when building the task - see Task Segmentation for how to target tasks by program, activity, role and permission level.
Once a volunteer holds a role they carry its badge. When they have also completed the role's tasks, the badge is marked as complete - a quick visual signal that the volunteer is not just assigned to the role but qualified for it.
Restricting Activities and Sessions
Roles can be used to control who sees and joins your work.
Activity level
When creating or editing an activity, the Privacy, Joining & Team step includes a Restrict by role option. Choose one or more roles and only volunteers holding at least one of them can see and interact with the activity. Leaving it empty places no restriction. See Creating an Activity.
Session level
Individual sessions can carry their own Required Roles. Only volunteers holding at least one of the selected roles can indicate availability for that session. This is useful where an activity is open to everyone but one shift needs a qualified person - a driver for the transport run, or a first aid officer on the gate.
On the roster
When a roster contains sessions with required roles, a Roles button appears in the roster header. Switching it on replaces the usual availability statuses with each volunteer's qualification for that session:
Qualified - the volunteer holds a required role and has completed its tasks.
Missing Tasks - the volunteer holds a required role but has outstanding tasks for it.
Not Qualified - the volunteer does not hold any of the required roles.
Sessions with no required roles show a dash. You can still roster from this view exactly as you would normally - see How to Roster.
Where Else Roles Appear
Once your roles are set up they show up across Volaby:
Volunteer database - filter and export your volunteers by the roles they hold.
Communications - target bulletins, resources, emails and SMS at particular roles rather than everyone. See Curating Bulletins and Sending Ad-Hoc Communications.
Chat - auto-channels can be created for each role, so everyone holding a role has a channel to talk in. See Volaby Chat.
Application funnels - funnels can point applicants at a specific role. See Designing Your Volunteer Application.
Editing and Deleting Roles
Use the menu on any role in the Roles list to edit or delete it. Editing a role updates it everywhere - the badge, description and application settings change for every volunteer who holds it.
Deleting a role removes it from the volunteers who hold it and from anywhere it is being used, including activity and session restrictions and task targeting. If you no longer want volunteers applying for a role but want to keep its history, turn off Users Can Apply instead of deleting it.
Getting Started
If you are setting up roles for the first time, a good order is:
Create a role for each qualification, skill or position you need to track, with a clear badge and description.
Attach any required tasks to each role so holders are prompted to complete them.
Decide which roles volunteers can apply for themselves, and pick an approval method for each.
Turn on Allow General Role Applications if you want existing volunteers to be able to apply, and the onboarding Roles setting if you want new applicants to indicate preferences.
Assign roles to your existing volunteers from the database in bulk.
Add role restrictions to the activities and sessions that need them.