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Rostering & sessions

How open sessions, the roster and shift-time permissions work.

Sessions

A session is a staffed opening — the times your library is open for loans and returns. You create sessions on the roster, with the volunteers each one needs.

The roster

Volunteers sign themselves up for sessions (or a coordinator assigns them). Anyone with the Volunteer role and up can roster on; pure members can't, and aren't asked to cover shifts. A session can require a minimum number of confirmed volunteers and warn when it's short.

Members signing up to volunteer

A member can offer to help straight from their account page ("Volunteer with us"). That registers them as a volunteer — but they don't go onto the roster immediately: they're awaiting approval until the library has screened them. Once they're approved to volunteer, open shifts appear in their account to claim or withdraw from.

Two different "verifications" — keep them apart.

• "Member checked in" — a member's household was confirmed in person, so they can borrow. (This is the household's verification.)
• "Approved to volunteer" — a volunteer has been screened (Working with Children Check / Code of Conduct) and can be put on a shift. (This is the volunteer's verification.)

They're independent. Someone can be a checked-in member who isn't an approved volunteer, an approved volunteer with no membership at all, or both at once. A self-signed-up volunteer is awaiting approval until a coordinator clears them — they can't be rostered before then.

Shift-time permissions (floor, not ceiling)

A Volunteer's standing permissions are deliberately minimal — log in, see the roster, browse inventory. The operational powers for a shift (loans, returns, stocktake) are handed over by the session leader as a small bundle, for that shift only. So volunteers don't carry permissions they need only occasionally. See Roles, members & volunteers for the bundles.

Leaders & induction

A session leader confirms who actually attended, hands out the shift bundles, and inducts a brand-new volunteer on their first shift — so a first-time helper gets set up on the day, without an admin provisioning them in advance.