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VicNet With Volgistics, your volunteer tracking system is no longer bound by the constraints of your office computer or network. You can now involve volunteers and others in a variety of activities online. VicNet is the optional Volgistics module volunteers themselves can use to…
In addition to giving volunteers a way to interact, you can also use VicNet to give Coordinators (assignment level supervisors) access. With VicNet, coordinators can:
You can use VicNet to give access to both volunteers and coordinators, only to volunteers, or only to coordinators; depending on your needs. VicNet is an optional module. When you use Volgistics, you don’t have to use VicNet unless it makes sense for your organization. VicNet is a great tool for organizations that have volunteers who serve on an ongoing basis; and for organizations that want assignment level supervisors to be able to manage the volunteer schedule for their areas. VicNet is accessible only by volunteers and coordinators you track in Volgistics. VicNet uses the same level of Internet security as Volgistics, and only volunteers and coordinators you authorize to use VicNet have access. Volunteers and coordinators login to VicNet using a login name and password, and they can see only their own information. Like Volgistics, the VicNet module is a hosted application, so there’s no software to install or maintain on your own computer or network. How VicNet works Volunteers get to VicNet online through your organization’s own web site. To make this happen, you add a simple HTML link to one or more of your web pages. Help Topic 2153 explains how to create a link to VicNet. Your link can be located anywhere you’d like on your web site (even in multiple locations). It can be a simple text link (with any text you choose) like this:  Or a graphic link, like this:  There’s no software to install on your web server, and no other changes are required to your web site. Having volunteers access VicNet through your own web site makes lots of sense: Volunteers don’t have to remember any web address other than your own, and it brings more visitors to your site. While it appears to visitors that VicNet is part of your own web site (see the ‘Branding’ sidebar), the VicNet pages are actually powered by the Volgistics system, so there’s no additional bandwidth usage or overhead on your web server. When volunteers or coordinators click the VicNet link on your web site, they’ll see a login page similar to this one where they enter their login name and password (you’ll learn more about assigning VicNet login names and passwords later). 
A Home tab like the one shown below appears once a volunteer logs-in. You can customize your Home tab to include the latest volunteer News, links to other web pages, volunteer program statistics, and – if you choose – even ads (see the Advertising side bar).  VicNet for Volunteers There’s more about customizing VicNet later, for now let’s look at some of the VicNet features available to volunteers. From the Home tab, volunteers can choose any of tabs that appear near the top of the page. Note that you can choose which of these tabs volunteers see and which they do not. This is one way you can tailor VicNet to suit your needs. For example, if you don’t want volunteers to post their service online you can remove the Time Sheet tab.  In addition to regular Internet email, Volgistics also lets you communicate with volunteers through VicNet. Volgistics system operators can send message to individual volunteers, specific groups of volunteers (such all volunteers who have a specific assignment, who are scheduled on a specific date, or who are in a specific Set), or all volunteers through VicNet. The Mail tab in VicNet is where volunteers see these messages. New messages appear on top; and a list of read messages appear on the bottom so volunteers can re-read a message if they choose. Help topic 2195 explains how to send messages through VicNet.  You can use the VicNet Profile tab to let volunteers see – and optionally update – their volunteer record. For example, volunteers can keep their own email address, interests, skills, and availability up-to-date. Before VicNet, keeping these kinds of records current meant having to collect the new information and then manually updating the records yourself; a time consuming task. With VicNet, volunteers can do this themselves as soon as there’s a change in their information. Volgistics gives you lots of control over the way the Profile tab works. For each field, you can choose to hide the field all-together so volunteers never see it; display a field’s content in a read-only mode so volunteers can see it but not change it; or display it in a read-write mode so volunteers can see and update the field content. You can also tailor the headings and instructions that appear for each section of the tab.  If you use Volgistics to schedule volunteers, volunteers can click the Schedule tab in VicNet to see or print their schedule. You can also optionally give volunteers the ability to add or remove themselves from schedules.  If volunteers remove themselves from a date on the schedule you can receive an alert in your Volgistics mailbox. The opening a volunteer creates when they remove themselves appears immediately on the schedule so that others can sign-up to serve in their place. If you choose, volunteers can schedule themselves for service through VicNet. Scheduling works dynamically in real-time, so volunteers will only see openings on the schedule while they exist. Once a schedule is filled, no one else can add themselves to that schedule (unless an opening becomes available).   You can configure the VicNet self-scheduling feature to use a calendar format or a list format. The calendar format is best for organizations that have ongoing volunteer participation, while the list format is well suited to special events that have volunteer needs for a fixed number of days. Both formats are pictured above.  If you track volunteer service in Volgistics, volunteers can select the ‘My service history’ tab in VicNet to see their volunteer service history. You can show volunteers just their service totals, or all their service history since they began volunteering. Volunteers can create printable views of their service records if they want a printed service report for themselves (for their tax records, for example). If volunteers have mandated service (a certain number of hours they must perform by a given date), they see where they stand in terms of fulfilling their service requirement, complete with a progress chart.  If you’d like volunteers to post their own volunteer service records online, they can do this using the VicNet ‘Time Sheet’ tab. You can customize the time sheet to suit a variety of service recordkeeping needs. For example, you can limit the time period for which service is posted; collect service on a daily or monthly basis; and even add fields to collecting additional service measures (for example, the number of ‘miles driven’ or ‘meals delivered’). You can optionally audit the time sheet entries that volunteers make. Help Topic 1072 explains how to audit service entries.  Volunteers can change their VicNet passwords on the VicNet ‘Account tab.’ VicNet for Coordinators If you use Volgistics to track assignment level supervisors as Coordinators, you can give these coordinators access to VicNet. Coordinators use VicNet a bit differently than volunteers. Since coordinators are people who manage or supervise specific volunteer assignments, they use VicNet to perform certain coordination functions (these are listed at the beginning of this chapter). Coordinators do not need to be Volgistics system operators, and there’s no limit to the number of coordinators you can track in Volgistics. As with volunteers, you can send mail messages to coordinators through VicNet; and coordinators receive your messages on a ‘Mail’ tab that works the same way as the Mail tab for volunteers. Currently there is not a way for coordinators to send messages, however this could change in a future update to Volgistics. Coordinators can have a ‘Volunteers tab’ where they see a list of ‘their’ volunteers (that is, a list of the volunteers who have the assignment or assignments they coordinate). Coordinators can click on a volunteers name to see more detailed information for the selected volunteer. As with the VicNet ‘Profile tab,’ you can customize the Volunteers tab to give coordinators different degrees of access to individual fields on this tab. You can make individual fields hidden, read-only, or read-write; depending on how much access you want coordinators to have to the information. Coordinators can use the Volunteers tab to look-up information about their volunteers, or to keep it up-to-date. Coordinators can view, print, and manage the schedules for the assignment (or assignments) they supervise on the ‘My Schedule’ tab in VicNet. Schedule management includes being able to add and remove volunteers from schedule openings, change the times volunteers serve, and changing the frequency for regular volunteers; all in real time. In particular, coordinators can manage the schedules of their volunteers who meet the scheduling criteria on each Assignment's Openings tab. For example, if an Assignment's Openings tab is configured to allow only volunteers with an 'Active' status and the Role of 'Assigned' to be scheduled in a certain Assignment, then coordinators will be able to manage this Assignment's schedule for their volunteers who are Active and have the Role of Assigned in the Assignment. One thing Coordinators cannot do in the current version of Volgistics is add or remove schedule openings (adding or changing is currently something that only Volgistics system operators can do from within Volgistics). As with volunteers, coordinators can change their VicNet passwords on the VicNet ‘Account tab.’ Controlling access to VicNet To keep everything secure and to ensure that visitors see only their information, volunteers and coordinators must enter a login name and a password to access VicNet. VicNet login names are always email addresses. A Volunteer’s VicNet login name is the email address that appears in the Email field on the Core tab in the volunteer’s record. A coordinator’s VicNet login name is always the email address that appears on the Coordinator tab in the coordinator’s record. A volunteer or coordinator must have an email address in order to use VicNet. This is usually not an issue because one also needs Internet access to use VicNet, and generally anyone who has Internet access also has an email address. VicNet passwords can be assigned automatically by Volgistics, assigned by you, or selected by the volunteer. If you use online volunteer application forms, you can ask volunteers to choose a VicNet password as part of their application process. Help topic 2161 explains how to control who can access VicNet, and how to assign login names and passwords. Previewing VicNet If you’re new to Volgistics you might like to see what VicNet looks like. You can do this by previewing VicNet for any volunteer in your database. You must have at least one volunteer in your database to do this. If you haven’t entered any volunteers yet, back-up and enter a volunteer record first. You can preview VicNet for selected volunteer before you create a link to VicNet from your web site. To preview VicNet from a volunteer’s perspective: 1. Choose Volunteers from the menu. 2. Select a volunteer. You can choose any volunteer you’d like. You’ll preview VicNet from the perspective of the volunteer you choose. 3. Click on the VIC tab for the selected volunteer. If the Preview button on the VIC tab appears disabled, the selected volunteer does not currently have access to VicNet. The VIC tab will tell you why. In this case, select a different volunteer (one who does have access to VicNet), or adjust the selected volunteer’s record so they can access VicNet. 4. Click the Preview button. Note that previewing VicNet for a selected volunteer is also a handy way to answer questions a volunteer might have about something they see when they visit VicNet. When you preview VicNet for a selected volunteer, you’ll see the same thing they do.
Related Help Help Topic 2161 - Who can access VicNet? Help Topic 2153 - Creating Links to VicNet Help Topic 2288 - Advertising on VicNet Help Topic 2233 - Sending All Volunteers Their VicNet Passwords in One Step Help Topic 2159 - Previewing VicNet Help Topic 1072 - Auditing VIC Time Sheet Entries Help Topic 2162 - What To Do if a Volunteer Reports That They Can’t Login to VIC Help Topic 1076 - Using the VIC Tab Help Topic 2166 - How do I change the service level on my account? Help Topic 1175 - Getting Started with VicNet Help Topic 2534 - VicNet and VicTouch Trials |
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Printable view Help topic 3020 Added or revised 04-66-2009 |