This page outlines how rotas and availability works in ChurchSuite for people serving in rotas.
You will only see the My Rotas section if you have future serving dates on a published rota, if there are rotas published that you can sign up for, or if you are an overseer for an active ministry.
Video Introduction
A short video introducing the My Rotas functionality described below.
How do I use My Rotas?
The Rotas tab provides a list of all the Rotas you and your linked family members are set to serve on, or that you oversee.
ℹ️ “Unavailability” is different approach to Churchbox
In ChurchSuite, just enter any “unavailability” you are aware of in the future – any time you are away or unable to serve. Also, let your ministry leader know what services you typically are available to serve at.
Sunday rotas are setup for each of the ministries for the 3 services; 09:30, 11:30 and 18:00. You can be on one, two or all of these rotas. This way you don’t need to mark unavailability for a particular service – only periods when you’re away.
Example
If you only want to serve at 09:30 and 18:00 – you would ask the ministry leader to put you only on the 09:30 and 18:00 rotas. This way you don’t need to mark unavailability for 11:30 service for every Sunday.
Availability
You can easily block out dates of unavailability for yourself and linked family members from the Unavailability section.
Adding unavailability means unavailable for any rotas in the range of unavailable dates/times. (It’s not possible to be available for one ministry, but unavailable for others). We would be really grateful if you could keep your known unavailability up to date, this will mean that rota organisers can more easily plan and manage their rotas, identify gaps and needs, and better ensure people are not over-serving.
If applicable, once your family is setup and linked together you can set unavailability for family members of your whole family (i.e. if you are going away on holiday together).
Viewing Rotas
Clashes
Rota names listed in red indicate a clash, where you’re set to serve on more than one rota on the same date/time. It’s of course perfectly possible to serve on multiple rota dates at the same time, but some clashes may require you to organise a swap. Red strikethrough styling is used to distinguish dates where unavailability has been added. You’ll continue to see declined and unavailable servings listed until your ministry overseer either replaces or removes you from the rota; or you may be required to organise and process a swap – explained below.
How do I organise a swap?
One of the most popular rota features is the swap functionality enabling rota members to process a swap and optionally return a swap for those occasions where they’re unable to serve an assigned rota duty.
The functionality works on a trust basis and is not intended to be used as a mechanism to ‘inflict’ a swap on someone unsuspecting – and neither is there an ‘approval’ workflow whereby swap recipients accept or decline a swap. Typically a rota member who needs to organise a swap will first reach out to fellow rota members and agree with someone who is available to swap with them.
Rota swaps can only be processed for future rota dates. Processing a swap will send a swap confirmation email to the person adding the swap, the recipient person being swapped with, and the ministry’s overseer(s).
Selecting Organise swap enables you to process details of the person with whom you have already relationally made arrangements to swap with. You can only process swaps with an available rota member who is not already serving on the rota on that date. It is not currently possible to process swaps with children. Select the person’s name from the Swap with drop-down list, and optionally select details of any Return swap you may have agreed to. Saving the changes will update the rota immediately, adding the swapped people to the rota dates with an Accepted status. After processing a rota swap, an email will be sent to you confirming you are no longer serving on that date, and also to the ‘ Swap with’ person confirming that they are now serving on that date and the role/s they are serving on that date. A further notification is sent to the ministry overseers advising them of the swap transaction.
Note that rota members can’t edit their roles – this is an overseer-only task. When swapping, the swapee will inherit the original roles of the swapper. If in doubt, contact your rota overseer to advise them what is happening, and if necessary they can update the rota for you, as they have further functionality that enables them to manage team member roles from within My ChurchSuite.
Calendar Feeds
ChurchSuite makes it easy for rota members to stay up-to-date with all of their rota commitments by enabling them to subscribe to a calendar feed that keeps their diary application up to date with their rota information. iCal feeds are supported by all modern calendar applications such as Calendar for iOS and Mac, Google Calendar and recent versions of Microsoft Outlook. Please click on this link for more information.
ℹ️ Swap is different from ChurchBox “Request Cover”
You will need to communicate with your rota team / ministry leader if you are unable to complete a rota. Working together you can ensure someone else covers, or the ministry leader can remove you from the rota slot.
There is not the ability to “request cover” as there was in ChurchBox, so please work with your ministry team if you find you are unable to serve on a rota.
You can communicate with your team via existing WhatsApp groups or click “Email Members” within the rota.
Unavailable without swapping
From the rota you can indicate you are unavailable for a duty you are assigned to as shown below, by adding unavailability. In this case the ministry leader will be emailed, but please don’t expect them to resolve this for you. Also note that this unavailability isn’t just this rota – it’s for all ministries.
After this is added, the unavailability will be shown to others like this:
Ministry Leaders
If you oversee a rota you’ll also see the Add rota option. Rotas with a ‘pencil’ icon represent rotas you oversee, and may also be serving on; those without a pencil icon are rotas for ministries that you belong to or have future serving dates. Once a rota expires, or your final serving date on a rota passes, that rota will cease to show in the list. You may also see follow-on rotas when an existing rota is expiring soon.
Under 18s on Rotas
For children under 18 who are on rotas, the parent will need to consider the following aspects on behalf of their child/children.
Name Visibility
To join a rota, the child’s name must be visible in ChurchSuite. If this is not done, ministry leaders will be unable to select their name to assign them to rota duties. Be assured that children will remain unsearchable withing the church directory (Search For Others) even if their name is set as visible.
Goto My Children, select the child, scroll to Privacy and click Edit.
Update Privacy settings to make child’s name visible and click Save.
Rota Reminders
To be aware of upcoming roles on rota through the email reminders, your child will need an email address on ChurchSuite. Optionally, you could consider adding your own e-mail address so you can be notified ahead of them serving.
Whilst you are managing your child in My ChurchSuite, we suggest you use the Communication section to:
- add an e-mail address (theirs’ or yours)
- enabling the “Receive rota reminder emails” option.
Child Access to My ChurchSuite
If you want your child to be able to manage their own details, availability and rotas via ChurchSuite and they have their own email address, please complete this form on their behalf.
Note, this is currently only available if they are over 16 years old.
