How to administratively add volunteers to a volunteer list

A staff user of volunteer.legal can administratively add volunteers to a volunteer list. This bypasses the list's sign up form and allows staff members to add volunteers without the volunteer needing to do anything.

You can add volunteers one by one, or add volunteers in bulk from a spreadsheet file (Microsoft Excel file [.xls, .xlsx], Comma Seperated Value file [.csv], Open Document Spreadsheet file [.ods]).

### **To use either method, start with the following steps:**

1. Navigate to the "Volunteers" tab in the left hand navigation menu
2. Hover over the volunteer list you wish to add volunteers to, notice the "View" button that appears to the right of the name. Click it to navigate to the volunteer list's profile page.
3. On the volunteer list's profile page, click the "Add Volunteers" button in the bottom toolbar.

#### **Then, to add volunteers one by one the simple way:**

1. Fill out the short form to add a volunteer to the list
	1. Enter the volunteer's first name (optional)
	2. Enter the volunteer's last name (optional)
	3. Enter the volunteer's email address (required)
2. When complete, click "Add".
	1. If the volunteer is new to volunteer.legal and has never been added by any organization before or signed up for any events, the volunteer should appear below as a pending volunteer.
	2. If the volunteer is already in volunteer.legal's database, then the volunteer record as it already exists will be returned as a pending volunteer.
		1. volunteer.legal uses the volunteer's email address to search the database. If a volunteer with the same email address already exists in the system, that volunteer record will be returned and the first name and last name associated with that volunteer record will be used. Importantly, the first name and last name you just entered will be ignored.
		2. After adding the volunteer to the list, you can edit the volunteer's profile to update their information, if needed (aka, you cannot use the add new volunteer form to edit an existing volunteer's profile).
	3. If you entered any invalid information, the pending volunteer will show up below highlighted in red indicating that there are errors. You can hover over the record for more information.
	4. If the volunteer is already on this volunteer list, the pending volunteer record will show up highlighted in yellow indicating that they are a duplicate. You can hover over the record for more information.
3. At this point, the volunteer you have added is pending and has not been added to the list. If there are no errors, you can click "confirm" in the bottom toolbar below and all pending volunteers will be added to the list.
4. You can repeat these steps to add more volunteers before clicking confirm.
5. You can remove a pending volunteer by hovering the mouse over them, and noticing the "remove" button that appears to the right of their name.
6. *Note, volunteers you add this way will NOT receive a confirmation email saying they've been added to this list. Unless you tell them, they will not know you've added them to this volunteer list.*

#### **Then, to add volunteers in bulk from a spreadsheet file:**

1. Click the "Import From File" button in the bottom toolbar.
2. Follow the instructions in the popup window that appears
	1. Click the "Download this .CSV template" link to download a .CSV spreadsheet template that you will need to use for uploading new volunteers.
	2. Open the template you just downloaded in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel.
	3. Add the volunteers you wish to upload to the template. Make sure not to change any of the default information found in the template and also make sure to follow the instructions found in the template. Save the template when you are finished adding your volunteer information.
		1. IMPORTANT: When adding new volunteers to volunteer.legal, you can use this upload spreadsheet to also flesh out their volunteer profile with language skills, professional skills, etc. When the new volunteer is added to volunteer.legal's database, then their profile will also be updated with the relevant information.
		2. HOWEVER: You cannot use the mass uploading template to edit existing volunteer's profiles. If a volunteer already exists in volunteer.legal, then when you upload the spreadsheet they will be found (by matching the email addresses) and the currently existing volunteer's profile will be used, unchanged (any new or changed information you included in the upload template will be ignored).
		3. Having added your volunteer information to the upload template and saved the file, go back to the volunteer.legal app in Google Chrome and continue following the instructions in the popup window
	4. Click the "Choose File" button in the popup window and find and choose the upload template you edited.
	5. Click the "Upload" button in the popup window of volunteer.legal. It may take a few moments to upload.
		1. If you click the Upload button and wait a few moments and determine that nothing has happened (and you try adding the file again and uploading it to make sure), its probable that there is an error in the file that is causing the upload to fail. Likely causes of such an error are:
			1. If you are using an old version of the upload template or you accidently changed any of the default information found in the template, the upload might fail.
			2. If you accidently didn't follow the instructions in the upload template for one of the volunteer records, its possible you've found a bug thats causing the upload to fail.
				1. Obviously, the upload shouldn't fail simply because one volunteer line is messed up (that line should just be ignored), but again, its possible this mistake has triggered an unknown bug. This is something I'd like to know about and fix, but in the meantime you can get around this problem by finding the specific volunteer row that's entered incorrectly and correcting it.
			3. If a volunteer row has invalid information, its possible you've triggered an unknown bug that has caused the volunteer upload to fail.
				1. Obviously, the upload shouldn't fail simply because one volunteer line is messed up (that line should just be ignored), but again, its possible this mistake has triggered an unknown bug. This is something I'd like to know about and fix, but in the meantime you can get around this problem by finding the specific volunteer row that's entered incorrectly and correcting it.
	6. If the file uploads successfully, the popup window will disappear and all the volunteers from the spreadsheet will be added as pending volunteers. At this point, the volunteer have not been added to the list. Here, you are given the opportunity to review the volunteer information to make sure nothing went wrong with the upload, before adding the volunteers to the list.
		1. If a pending volunteer is highlighted in red, it means something about the volunteer is invalid and they will not be added to the list. Hover your mouse over the volunteer in question to learn more.
		2. If a pending volunteer is highlighted in yellow, it means that the volunteer is already signed up for the list and will not be added again. Hover your mouse over the volunteer in question for to learn more.
	7. To remove a pending volunteer, over your mouse over them and notice the "Remove" button that appears to the right of the volunteer's entry. Click it.
	8. *Note, volunteers you add this way will NOT receive a confirmation email saying they've been added to this list. Unless you tell them, they will not know you've added them to this volunteer list.*
	9. When you are satisfied that this is the volunteer information you'd like to add to the list, click the "Confirm" button in the bottom toolbar.