> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.rescueconsole.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Volunteer roles and rules > Settings for volunteering: the roles volunteers sign up for, who needs approval, and the rules that limit how volunteers sign themselves up. Two settings pages decide how volunteering works at your rescue. Both are under **Settings → Team & volunteers**: * **Volunteer roles**: the jobs volunteers sign up for, and whether each needs approval. * **Volunteer rules**: limits on how far ahead, how often and how late volunteers can sign up, and when giving a shift up needs a coordinator's agreement. Only an Organization admin can use these pages. Anybody else who opens one sees *You don't have access to organization settings with your current role.* ## Volunteer roles Open **Settings → Team & volunteers → Volunteer roles**. A role is a job a volunteer does, such as Dog walker or Transport driver. A role has to exist here before a shift can ask for it (see [Shifts](/shifts/shifts)). ### Adding a role | Field | What it means | | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Role** | Required. The name volunteers and coordinators see, such as *Dog walker*. | | **Description (optional)** | What the job is. It shows under the role's name on this page. | | **Needs approval before signing up** | Off: anybody can sign up for this role. On: only people a coordinator has approved for it can. Leave it off for jobs anyone can turn up and do. You can change it later. | | **Approved separately at each location** | On (the default): an approval names one location and covers only shifts there, because being trained on the dogs downtown does not cover the farm. Off: one approval covers the role anywhere, as for transport driving. It matters only when the role needs approval. | Press **Add role**. **Approved separately at each location** cannot be changed once the role exists, because every approval the role holds either names a place or does not. To change it, add a new role. A role's name and description cannot be changed on this page once it is added. ### The list of roles Each role shows its name, its description, and: * **Needs approval**, when it needs approval; * **Approved per location** or **Approved once, anywhere**; * **Not scheduled**, when it has been stopped (the row is also faded); * in gray, the role's key, which is made from its name when it is added and never changes. Beside each role: | Control | What it does | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Needs approval** | Tick or untick to turn approval on or off. It applies to sign-ups from then on; sign-ups already made are not touched. | | **Stop scheduling** | Stops using the role without losing it. It is no longer offered when opening a shift, when approving somebody, or in the **Doing what** and **Doing** filters. Shifts that already ask for it stay, but nobody can sign up for that role on them: volunteers see *Dog walker is not being scheduled at the moment.* Sign-ups, hours and approvals already recorded stay as they are. **Schedule again** brings it back. | | **Delete** | Removes the role for good. The page asks first. | A role can only be deleted when nothing uses it: no shift asks for it, nobody has ever been approved for it (expired and withdrawn approvals count), and no volunteer rule names it. Shifts that were deleted still count. Otherwise deleting is refused and the page says how many of each use it, for example *This role is on 2 shifts and 3 approvals. Retire it instead, or take it off them first.* Under the message are links to **The shifts asking for it** (the [Shifts](/shifts/shifts) list, filtered to this role) and **The rules scoped to it**. Approvals are on each volunteer's own record (see [Volunteers](/shifts/volunteers)). In most cases **Stop scheduling** is what you want. ## Volunteer rules Open **Settings → Team & volunteers → Volunteer rules**. A rule is a limit on how volunteers sign themselves up. Leave a rule unset and it does not apply: with no rules at all, volunteers can sign up for anything they are approved for, as far ahead as they like, and give shifts up whenever they like. ### The six rules | Rule | The number | What it changes for volunteers | | ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Most hours in one day** | Hours, in quarter hours if you like. | A sign-up is refused if it would take the volunteer's hours that day past this. Every shift they are on counts, whatever the role, including ones where they came along with somebody else. They see, for example, *That would be more than 4 hours in one day, which is the most this role allows.* | | **Most hours in one week** | Hours, in quarter hours if you like. | The same across a week, Monday to Sunday. | | **Most sign-ups in one day** | How many. | A sign-up is refused if the volunteer already has this many that day. | | **How far ahead sign-ups open** | Days. | A shift starting further ahead than this cannot be signed up for yet: *Sign-ups open 14 days ahead. This one is further out than that.* | | **Sign-ups close this long before the start** | Whole hours. | Once a shift is this close to starting, new sign-ups are refused: *Sign-ups for this closed 24 hours before it starts. Ask a coordinator.* | | **Cancelling needs approval inside this window** | Whole hours. | Giving up a shift this close to its start does not happen at once. It becomes a request that a coordinator answers on [Cancellation requests](/shifts/cancellations), and the volunteer stays on the shift until then. | The first five are checked when somebody presses **Sign up** on [Sign up](/shifts/sign-up), after every other check, and a refusal is shown to them in the rule's own words. The **Sign up** button shows either way, so a volunteer finds out about a rule only when they try. The last rule is checked when somebody gives a shift up. The rules apply to everybody who signs up there, staff included. ### Setting a rule | Field | What it means | | ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Rule** | Which of the six. | | **Hours**, **Days** or **How many** | The number. The box is named for the rule you chose. | | **Applies** | **Everywhere**, **Only for one role** or **Only at one location**. | | **Role** | For **Only for one role**: which role. | | **Location** | For **Only at one location**: which site. The rule applies to shifts at that location. | Before you save, the form says how the rule will read. Press **Set rule**. Setting a rule that already exists for the same role, location or organization changes its number (and turns it back on if it was off), rather than adding a second one. ### Which rule applies Only one rule of each kind applies to a sign-up, and it is the most specific one: a rule for the shift's role beats a rule for the shift's location, which beats a rule for **Everywhere**. The most specific rule wins even when it is looser. So you can say "two hours a day everywhere, but four on a transport run" by setting **Most hours in one day** to 2 for **Everywhere** and to 4 **Only for** the transport role. ### The list of rules Each rule shows its name, its number in words (*2 hours in one day*, *14 days ahead*, *24 hours before it starts*), and where it applies: **Everywhere**, **Only for** a role, or **Only at** a location. | Control | What it does | | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Turn off** | Stops the rule applying without losing it. It stays on the list, faded. **Turn on** brings it back. | | **Remove** | Deletes the rule at once, with no second question. | ### What actually applies The **What actually applies** box answers which rules are in force for a role once several overlap. Choose a role under **Show rules for**. Each rule that applies is listed with where it came from: *from the organization-wide rule* or *from the role rule*. A role with none says *Nothing limits this role.* The box takes a role only, so a rule set **Only at one location** does not show in it, even though it applies to shifts at that location.