Create a volunteer opportunity

A well-built opportunity fills itself: clear shifts, obvious expectations, and check-in that takes care of the hours. Here’s the setup, end to end.

Create the opportunity

1. Open Volunteering and choose New opportunity.
2. Describe it the way a busy parent skims: what, when, where, and anything they must know before claiming a spot (lifting? standing? bring gloves?).
3. Add the shifts — each a specific time window with a number of spots. Granular shifts fill faster than vague ones: “Saturday 9–11, 4 spots” beats “Saturday, lots of help needed.”
4. Set how many hours each shift is worth.
5. Publish. It’s now browsable, and you can link it from an announcement for reach.

Choose how attendance turns into credit

Decide per event, before the day:

• QR check-in — print the event’s QR code and post it at the check-in table. Volunteers scan on arrival; attendance and credit happen by themselves. Best for anything with more than a handful of people. See the parent-facing Check in with the QR code.
• Manual credit — you (or the coordinator) record who showed and enter hours afterward. Fine for small, known crews; it relies on your notes being right.

Even with QR, expect a stray manual credit — the parent whose phone died, the helper who stayed two extra hours. Enter those promptly; parents check their tallies more often than you’d think.

Watch it fill — and manage the day

Sign-ups update live, so you always know where you stand. Spots releasing when someone cancels reopen automatically. If a shift is struggling, a targeted announcement to the relevant grade or committee channel works better than a school-wide plea.

Afterward

Reconcile within a few days: check the attendance against reality, enter any manual credits, and correct mistakes (corrections supersede the original entry — the history stays clean). Parents watch for their credit to land; a same-week turnaround saves everyone the “did my hours count?” emails.