How to limit the number of volunteers that can sign up for an event

Any staff user of volunteer.legal which has access to an event can limit the number of volunteers that can sign up for that event by assigning a maximum volunteer capacity to the event (or to each shift of the event). There are three different ways to accomplish this, but both have the same effect on the event and on volunteers attempting to sign up for the event.

1. For the easiest method of temporarily preventing new volunteers from signing up for an event, see How to temporarily stop sign ups for an event. This method is simple and rather obvious. If you'd instead like to set a maximum number of volunteers that can sign up for each shift of your event, read on.
2. The second easiest method of setting an event's volunteer capacity: You can assign a maximum volunteer capacity to each shift of the event. When volunteer.legal determines that the number of volunteers in the room during a shift is reached, that shift will close and new volunteers will not be able to sign up for it.
3. Finally, the advanced method for setting an event's volunteer capacity: you may find it easier to set a volunteer capacity for each volunteer role associated with the event. If you choose this route, then volunteer.legal will ignore any volunteer capacity settings associated with the event, and will instead add up the volunteer capacities of each volunteer role to determine the volunteer capacity of the event.

If you're new to volunteer.legal, you'll want to read through the entirety of this article to learn how to work with volunteer capacity.

### **How to set an event's volunteer capacity by assigning a volunteer capacity to each shift of the event:**

1. Navigate to the "Events" tab in the left hand menu
2. Select the event you wish to assign a volunteer capacity to
3. On the event's profile page, navigate to the edit page by clicking the "Edit" button in the bottom toolbar.
4. Scroll down and find the "Volunteer Capacity of Event" section.
	1. If the event only has 1 (*all day*) volunteer shift:
		1. You'll see an entry field to specify the maximum number of volunteers that can sign up for the all day shift (the only shift).
		2. When this number of volunteers sign up for the event, volunteer.legal will mark the event as full and any new volunteers attempting to sign up for the event will see a notification that the event has reached capacity. These volunteers will be invited to add themselves to the volunteer list associated with the event, if they are not already on it, to learn about future volunteer opportunities.
	2. If the event has 3 (*all day,* *am*, and *pm*) volunteer shifts:
		1. You'll see an entry field to specify the maximum number of volunteers *that can be in the room* during any given shift.
			1. **IMPORTANT:** more people can be in the room during the morning shift then actually signed up for the morning shift. *This is because the number of people in the room during the morning shift is the sum of the number of volunteers signed up for the morning shift and the number of volunteers signed up for the all day shift.*
		2. When volunteer.legal determines that the number of volunteers in the room for a given shift reaches the number you specify here, volunteer.legal will mark that shift as full and any new volunteers attempting to sign up for the event will not be able to sign up for that shift. If every shift of the event is determined to be full, new volunteers attempting to sign up for the event will receive a notification that the event has reached capacity. These volunteers will be invited to add themselves to the volunteer list associated with the event, if they are not already on it, to learn about future volunteer opportunities.
			1. **EXAMPLE:** Say you edit your event so that the all day shift has a volunteer capacity of 100, the morning shift has a volunteer capacity of 75, and the afternoon shift has a volunteer capacity of 50.
				1. When 50 people sign up for the all day shift, the afternoon shift will close but the all day and morning shifts will remain open. This is because volunteer.legal knows that if 50 people have signed up to be there all day, there will be 50 people there in the afternoon.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. 50 people are determined to be in the room all day so it is open.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 75. 50 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is open.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 50. 50 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is closed.
				2. When 75 people sign up for the all day shift, the morning shift will also close (the afternoon shift will still be closed) and the all day shift will remain open. This is because volunteer.legal knows that if 75 people have signed up to be there all day, there will be 75 people there in both the morning and the afternoon.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. A maximum of 75 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is open.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 75. 75 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 50. 75 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is closed.
				3. When 100 people sign up for the all day shift, the all day shift will also close and the event will be considered "at capacity" and will no longer accept new volunteers. This is because volunteer.legal knows that if 100 people have signed up to be there all day, there will be 100 people there in the morning and afternoons as well.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. A maximum of 100 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is closed.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 75. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 50. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is closed.
				4. If 50 people sign up for the morning shift, and 50 people sign up for the all day shift, then the morning shift will close but the all day and afternoon shifts will remain open. This is because volunteer.legal knows that 75 people will be there in the morning (50 morning shift volunteers + 25 all day shift volunteers), but only 25 people will be there in the afternoon shift (25 afternoon shift volunteers + 0 all day shift volunteers) and a maximum of 75 people will be there all day (75 people will there in the morning, 25 people will be there in the afternoon, so the all day shift has a peak of 75 volunteers. The volunteer peak is used for closing the all day shift).
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. A maximum of 75 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is open.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 75. 75 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 50. 25 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is open.
				5. If 50 people sign up for the morning shift, and 50 people sign up for the afternoon shift, then the afternoon shift will close but the all day and morning shift will remain open. This is because volunteer.legal knows that 50 people will be there in the afternoon (50 afternoon shift volunteers + 0 all day shift volunteers), but only 50 people will be there in the morning (50 morning volunteers + 0 all day shift volunteers) and a maximum of 50 people will be there all day (both the morning and afternoon shift will have 50 volunteers in the room).
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. A maximum of 50 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is open.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 75. 50 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is opened.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 50. 50 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is closed.
			2. **EXAMPLE:** Say you edit your event so that the all day shift has a volunteer capacity of 75, the morning shift has a volunteer capacity of 100, and the afternoon shift has a volunteer capacity of 100.
				1. If 50 people sign up for the all day shift, 50 people sign up for the morning shift, and 25 people sign up for the afternoon shift, then the all day and morning shifts will close and the afternoon shift will remain open.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 50. A maximum of 100 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is closed.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 100. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 100. 75 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is open.
				2. If 100 people sign up for the morning shift and 100 people sign up for the afternoon shift, then the all day, morning, and afternoon shifts will all be closed, the event will be "at capacity", and new volunteers will not be allowed to sign up.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 50. A maximum of 100 people are determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is closed.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 100. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 100. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
			3. **EXAMPLE:** Say you edit your event so that the all day shift has a volunteer capacity of 100, the morning shift has a volunteer capacity of 100, and the afternoon shift has a volunteer capacity of 0. In this scenario, the afternoon shift is closed from the start and new volunteers can only sign up for the all day or morning shifts.
				1. If 50 people sign up for the all day shift and 50 people sign up for the morning shift, then the all day, morning, and afternoon shifts will all be closed, the event will be "at capacity", and new volunteers will not be allowed to sign up.
					1. The all day shift has a capacity of 100. A maximum of 100 people ware determined to be in the room over the course of the day so it is closed.
					2. The morning shift has a capacity of 100. 100 people are determined to be in the room in the morning so it is closed.
					3. The afternoon shift has a capacity of 0. 50 people are determined to be in the room in the afternoon so it is closed.
5. **ADVANCED OPTION:** You can tell volunteer.legal to ignore volunteers assigned to a specific role when determining how many volunteers have signed up for an event. This option may prove helpful if, for example, you'd like volunteer.legal to ignore volunteers assigned to administrative roles when determining how many more volunteers can sign up for the event.
	1. To do this, edit the volunteer role(s) you'd like volunteer.legal to start ignoring and check the "Ignore volunteers assigned to this volunteer role (optional)" box. Then any volunteers assigned to this volunteer role will be ignored when volunteer.legal calculates how many volunteers are signed up for the shifts of this event.

### **How to set an event's volunteer capacity by assigning a volunteer capacity to the volunteer roles associated with the event:**

When creating a volunteer role for an event, or editing an existing volunteer role, you can specify a volunteer capacity for that volunteer role. When you do this for one volunteer role, volunteer.legal decides that you are now specifying the event's volunteer capacity on a role by role basis, and it starts ignoring any volunteer capacity settings you specified directly on the event. Instead, volunteer.legal will now determine the events volunteer capacity by adding up the volunteer capacity of each role of the event to achieve an overall volunteer capacity number for the event. You may find that its easier for you to think about and set an event's volunteer capacity on a role by role basis.

1. Navigate to the "Events" tab in the left hand menu
2. Select the event you wish to assign a volunteer capacity to
3. On the event's profile page, navigate to the coordinate page by clicking the "Coordinate" button in the bottom toolbar.
4. On the event's coordinate page
	1. If volunteer roles already exist for this event:
		1. Edit the volunteer roles to specify a volunteer capacity for each. See How to edit a volunteer role for information on editing volunteer roles.
			1. Note, you can also specify a volunteer capacity for the "unassigned" volunteer role.
	2. If you haven't yet made volunteer roles for this event:
		1. Create a new volunteer role for this event and specify a volunteer capacity for it. See How to create a volunteer role for information on creating volunteer roles.
			1. Note, you can also specify a volunteer capacity for the "unassigned" volunteer role by editing it.
	3. If a volunteer role has a maximum volunteer capacity, then when viewing the volunteer role on the event's coordinate page you'll see that volunteer capacity to the right of the total number of volunteers that have been assigned to that role.
		1. If the event has one volunteer shift then it will be in the form "(all day capacity)".
		2. If the event has 3 volunteer shifts then it will be in the form "(all day capacity)(morning capacity)(afternoon capacity)".
		3. The infinity sign "(∞)" means any number of volunteers can sign up for that shift. If you leave the volunteer capacity of a volunteer shift blank, then it is assumed that any number of volunteers can sign up for it.
5. Once you have specified a volunteer capacity for at least one volunteer role, volunteer.legal will start determining the events volunteer capacity based solely off of the capacity of the event's volunteer roles.
	1. If the event only has one volunteer shift, then the capacity of each volunteer role associated with the event will be added together to determine the volunteer capacity of the event.
		1. **EXAMPLE:** If an event has 4 volunteer roles, an "unassigned" volunteer role with no volunteer capacity specified, a "N-400 Form Filler" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 15, an "Interpreter" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 3, and a "Screener" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 5, then volunteer.legal will determine that the volunteer capacity for the event is 23 (15 + 3 + 5). 23 volunteers will be allowed to sign up for the event before it is determined to be "at capacity" and automatically closed.
			1. Note, volunteer role capacities are ONLY used for determining the volunteer capacity of the event. You can choose to assign any number of volunteers to an individual volunteer role, no matter what the capacity of the volunteer role set to.
	2. If the event has 3 volunteer shifts: then the capacity of the all day shift of each volunteer role will be added together to determine the event's all day shift volunteer capacity; the capacity of the morning shift of each volunteer role will be added together to determine the event's morning shift volunteer capacity; the capacity of the afternoon shift of each volunteer role will be addd together to determine the event's afternoon shift volunteer capacity.
		1. **EXAMPLE:** an event has 4 volunteer roles: an "unassigned" volunteer role with no volunteer capacity specified; a "N-400 Form Filler" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 15 for the all day shift, 15 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift; an "Interpreter" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 3 for the all day shift, 3 for the morning shift, and 3 for the afternoon shift; and a "Screener" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 0 for the all day shift, 5 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift. Volunteer.legal will determine that the volunteer capacity for the event is 18 for the all day shift (15 + 3 + 0), 23 for the morning shift (15 + 3 + 5), and 3 for the afternoon shift (0 + 3 + 0).
			1. Note, the examples and description in the "How to set an event's volunteer capacity by assigning a volunteer capacity to each shift of the event" section above explains more for how volunteer.legal interprets the volunteer capacities of each shift. Read through that section if you don't already know.
			2. Note, volunteer role capacities are ONLY used for determining the volunteer capacity of the event. You can choose to assign any number of volunteers to an individual volunteer role, no matter what the capacity of the volunteer role set to.
		2. **EXAMPLE:** an event has 4 volunteer roles: an "unassigned" volunteer role with no volunteer capacity specified; a "N-400 Form Filler" volunteer role without any volunteer capacity specified for the all day shift (so its left blank), 15 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift; an "Interpreter" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 3 for the all day shift, 3 for the morning shift, and 3 for the afternoon shift; and a "Screener" volunteer role with a volunteer capacity of 0 for the all day shift, 5 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift. Volunteer.legal will determine that the volunteer capacity for the event is 3 for the all day shift (any + 3 + 0 [when you 'add' any to an integer, volunteer.legal treats 'any' as 0]), 23 for the morning shift (15 + 3 + 5), and 3 for the afternoon shift (0 + 3 + 0).
		3. **EXAMPLE:** an event has 4 volunteer roles: an "unassigned" volunteer role with no volunteer capacity specified; a "N-400 Form Filler" volunteer role without any volunteer capacity specified for the all day shift (so its left blank), 15 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift; an "Interpreter" volunteer role without any volunteer capacity specified for the all day shift, 3 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift; and a "Screener" volunteer role without any volunteer capacity specified for the all day shift, 5 for the morning shift, and 0 for the afternoon shift. Volunteer.legal will determine that the volunteer capacity for the event is any number of volunteers for the all day shift (any + any + any), 23 for the morning shift (15 + 3 + 5), and 0 for the afternoon shift (0 + 0 + 0).
6. **ADVANCED OPTION:** You can tell volunteer.legal to ignore volunteers assigned to a specific role when determining how many volunteers have signed up for an event. This option may prove helpful if, for example, you'd like volunteer.legal to ignore volunteers assigned to administrative roles when determining how many more volunteers can sign up for the event.
	1. To do this, edit the volunteer role(s) you'd like volunteer.legal to start ignoring and check the "Ignore volunteers assigned to this volunteer role (optional)" box. Then any volunteers assigned to this volunteer role will be ignored when volunteer.legal calculates how many volunteers are signed up for the shifts of this event.