Archive Volunteer Records¶

Archiving Volunteers Overview

When and How to Archive Volunteers

Volgistics includes an archive for storing old volunteer records that you don't currently need in the database, but you don't want to delete altogether. For instance, you might choose to archive the record for a volunteer who has moved away. If the volunteer returns, you can easily restore their record.

If you do not mind accumulating records for volunteers who are no longer actively serving, then you do not need to archive volunteer records. However, in most cases it's a good practice to archive inactive volunteers so the records do not take up space, which could cause you to raise your account's service level to make room for new volunteers.

When you archive a volunteer record, Volgistics moves all information tied to the record into the archive. You may restore archived volunteer records at any time. When you restore a volunteer from the archive, all information except for the volunteer's schedule comes back. The schedule is not restored because the volunteer's former schedule has most likely been taken over by another volunteer.

When you archive a volunteer record it is, in effect, removed from the database and moved into a storage area. While the record is archived you cannot access or use the record the same way that you can use volunteer records you have not archived.

What Happens When a Record is Archived¶

Here are some of the things that occur when a record is archived.

When you archive a volunteer's record, their volunteer information will only be included in the reports listed in Include Archived Records.
When you archive a record, the volunteer is removed from any schedule she may be on.
Volunteers cannot use the VicNet portal or sign-in at the VicTouch time stations while their record is archived.
Volunteers cannot receive email, text or VicMail messages sent through Volgistics while their record is archived.
Birthdays for archived volunteers do not appear on the birthday list.
Volunteer records in the archives can only be combined with records that are not in the archived section.

You should not archive a volunteer record if you want to include that volunteer in any of the functions listed above. Archived Versus Non-Archived Records takes a closer look at how archived records differ from non-archived records.

When to Archive Volunteer Records¶

There is not a hard and fast rule for when you should archive volunteer records for inactive volunteers. Because Service Detail, Service Summary, and Statistics Settings reports can include service data from archived records, you do not have to wait until yearend service reports are complete to archive volunteer records. Keep in mind, however, that if there is still a possibility that past hour entries will need to be made for a newly inactive volunteer, you should not archive their record until those entries have been made. A good rule-of-thumb might be to archive inactive volunteer records quarterly or semi-annually. Inactivate Volunteers Without Recent Activity shows how you can find the volunteers who have not had any service entries recorded on their record recently.

If you are part of a network of volunteer coordinators, you may want to ask how long other organizations wait before archiving a volunteer record. Volgistics also hosted a Spring Cleaning webinar that has useful information on how to keep your account up-to-date. In the end, remember that archived volunteer records can be restored so records are still available if you find they were archived too soon.

How to Archive a Single Volunteer Record¶

Here is how you can archive one individual or group volunteer record:

Select Volunteers from the menu, and find the record you'd like to archive.
Open the record and be sure you are on the Core tab.
In Volgistics, the Status shows the volunteer's relationship with your organization. Volgistics does not automatically change a volunteer's Status when the record is archived so an archived record can have any Status. If you rely on Statuses to track volunteers, it is a good practice to change the Status on the record to Inactive (or a custom Status you've created to represent volunteers who no longer serve) before archiving the record.
Click the Save button if you changed the volunteer's Status in step 3.
Click the Archive button. See The Archived Button Is Missing or Disabled if the button is gone or does not work.
A system prompt appears to confirm that it is okay to archive the volunteer record. If you are certain you'd like to archive the record, click the OK button.

Volgistics moves the entire volunteer record into the archives--except for the volunteer's schedule, which is deleted.

How to Archive Multiple Volunteer Records¶

You can archive more than one volunteer record at once using the tags feature. However, there is not a way to delete groups of archived records using tags because the tag feature is one of the things that is not available for archived records. If your organization's policies require you to keep archived records for a certain amount of time before you can delete them, we recommend making a Flag (such as Archived May 2020) to identify the records first. This will give you the ability to add the Flag to the tagged records while you're archiving the records, and then delete all the records with the Flag later on.

Before you begin, select Tags from the menu and click the Clear all tags button to make sure your session does not have any records that are currently tagged. Doing this will prevent records from being archived by accident. If the Clear all tags button is disabled, there are not any tagged records to clear.
Tag the volunteer records that you want to archive. If you need help with this, see Tagging Records. If you're using a Set to identify the records you want to archive, see View Volunteers in a Set instead.
Select Tags from the menu.
In Volgistics, the volunteer Status shows the volunteer's relationship with your organization. Volgistics does not automatically change volunteer Statuses when records are archived so an archived record can have any Status. If you rely on Statuses to track volunteers, it is a good practice to change the Status on the records before archiving them. You can do this for all of the tagged records by selecting Inactive (or a custom Status you're created to represent volunteers who no longer serve) from the dropdown in the Change the Status of all tagged records to section and then click the Go button.
If you made a Flag to allow you to delete all the records currently tagged at a later date, select that Flag from the dropdown in the Add this Flag to all of the tagged volunteer records section and then click the Go button.
Click the Go button located next to Archive the tagged volunteer records section. See The Archived Button Is Missing or Disabled if you do not see a section to archive the tagged records, or the Go button is disabled.
A system prompt appears after you click the Go button to confirm that it is okay to archive the tagged volunteers. If you are certain you would like to archive the tagged records, click the OK button.

The system will make all the changes you performed for the tagged records so you can continue working instead of waiting on the Tags page.

How to View Archived Volunteer Records¶

Archived volunteer records do not appear with your regular volunteer records. You need to click the Advanced options button on the Volunteers page, and then check the Archived volunteers box to get to the archived records.

How to Restore Archived Volunteer Records¶

An archived volunteer record can be returned to the non-archived section of your account by locating the archived record and then clicking the Restore button on the Core Tab.

A System Operator who has access to Setup on the menu can also use the option in the Account management section to restore all archived volunteers at once. This can be useful if the organization is an annual event that reduces the account's service level during their off months to lower their monthly service fee.

If there is not enough room in the account's non-archived section to hold all of the records in the archived section, the account's service level will need to be increased to add more capacity before the action can be completed.

The Restore All Records at Once section of Restore Archived Records has step-by-step directions explaining how to restore all archived records.

How to Delete Archived Volunteer Records¶

As with restoring an archived record, a single archived volunteer can be deleted by locating the archived record and then clicking the Delete button on the Core tab.

There is also an option to delete groups of archived records at once in the Account management section under Setup on the menu.