Volunteer availability & block-outs
Volunteers tell their church which dates they can't serve, and the auto-scheduler skips those dates without anyone having to chase. Here's how it works.
For volunteers: add a block-out
Open My availability
From the ChurchLinker app or member portal, tap Profile, then My availability. The page shows your upcoming block-outs at a glance.
Add a single day or a date range
Pick a From and To date. They can be the same day for a one-day block-out, or different days for a holiday window. Add an optional reason (Holiday, Work trip, At a wedding…). The reason helps your scheduler understand what's happening if they need to follow up.
What happens next
The next time staff build a rota that touches any of your blocked dates, the auto-scheduler skips you automatically. If you were already on a rota for one of those dates before you blocked it, the coordinator sees a warning when they open the rota, so you don't need to message them separately.
Editing or removing a block-out
Plans changed? Tap the bin icon next to any block-out to remove it. You can also delete one and add a corrected version. There's no edit-in-place yet, but the operation is instant.
For staff: reading rota conflicts
The amber conflict banner
Open the rota from inside the group (Dashboard → Groups → [group] → leader area), or for cross-team rotas use Sunday Ops → Cross-team rotas. If an already-assigned volunteer has a block-out that overlaps one of their slots, you'll see an amber banner at the top of the rota detail page listing each conflict (person, date range, reason). The banner is informational, not a hard block. Sometimes a scheduler needs to override.
When a volunteer phones in
If a volunteer rings on Sunday to say they can't make a date, the quickest path today is to ask them to add the block-out themselves in the app while you're still on the call. A dedicated staff-side form for recording on a member's behalf is on the roadmap.
How the auto-scheduler uses block-outs
Default is 'available'
We deliberately model unavailability rather than availability. The reason is practical: most church volunteers have far more 'I can serve' days than 'I can't', so blocking out specific exceptions is less effort than maintaining a full availability calendar. Default state is: ask me, I'll say yes.
Both recurring patterns and block-outs are respected
If a volunteer has also set a recurring weekly availability pattern (e.g. 'available Sunday mornings'), the auto-scheduler checks both. They need to be available for that day of the week AND not blocked out for the specific date.
Dates outside any rota are unaffected
A block-out only matters if someone tries to schedule you during it. If your church doesn't run a rota that touches your blocked dates, nothing changes: no notification, no email, just no clash.
Still stuck?
Email hello@churchlinker.com and a real person will help.