How rosters work

Service Rosters are put together by the Roster Coordinator for Sunday Services and positions are allocated two months at a time.  Once you have been rostered on it is you are asked to confirm or decline the position as soon as possible.  If you need to change for some reason you will need to find your own replacement, but please let the Roster Coordinator know.

A reminder will be emailed to you in the week leading up to the service that you are rostered on but you shouldn't leave it till then to change your mind.

If you have any questions, you should speak to the Roster Coordinator.

We use Elvanto to manage the rosters and you can use it to find out when you are rostered for a service, indicate your unavailability or Swap or Replace with someone else.

 

When am I rostered?

When rosters are finalised, you will be sent an e-mail to let you know the roster has been uploaded onto Elvanto. 

You can then use the ChMS (either via a browser or an App on your device) to see when you are rostered and who else is taking part.  Using the ChMS is the best way to find out the latest on rosters as this can change from when the roster is first put together.  

First you need to apply for a login so you can access the ChMS.

 

Using the Browser

When you log in to ChMS using a browser, you will see a Menu item called "Services" and a sub menu "Roster". Click on "Roster" and you will see the services that you are scheduled on in the left hand panel.  (If you would like to see more services, just click on "Change" and select all "Upcoming Services" or "All Services").

The right hand panel shows the Service that has been selected in the left hand panel with the "Volunteers" tab selected showing all the volunteers for that service.  Your name should be highlighted with a white cross on a red square background next to it, but more about what this means is explained in the "How do I swap or find a replacement with someone?" section below. 

 

Subscribe to your roster Calendar

You can subscribe to your roster calendar so that is appears in your Google Calendar or Outlook Calender.

Click on the "Subscribe" green button near the top on the right hand side. Select the Calendar of your choice. 

 

Using the App

Your rosters will appear when you open up the App or you can select "Roster" from the Menu which is the 3 parallel lines in the top left hand corner (which is sometimes called a hamburger menu). You can select "Change View" (white button near the top right hand corner) to show rosters for your Family or All Services.

A green tick means that you can Swap or Replace this position with someone, see below.

 

Tell us when you are unavailable

So you are going on holidays for a couple of weeks. How do you let us know that you are unavailable for this period?

As mentioned before rosters are put together 3 months ahead of time so it is really helpful if you can tell us your unavailability before the end of the current roster.  If you do this after that then your position may not be filled until the week before so if for some reason you find that you cannot make your rostered position it is best to try the Swap or Replace option below. 

You can indicate your unavailability using the browser here https://stcolumbs.elvanto.com.au/profile/unavailability/  (Login to the ChMS, select My Profile and then under the Volunteering group on the left hand side, click on Unavailabilty.)

Scheduling Preferences

https://stcolumbs.elvanto.com.au/profile/volunteering/

You can specify how frequently you are happy to be rostered on using these preferences generally and for Departments (e.g. 10am services) and Sub-Departments (e.g. Guitar at 10am services).  This acts as a guide to the person doing the rostering but is functionality we are not exploiting at St Columb's just yet.  Best to speak to the person doing the rostering to make sure they know your availability.

You can find out more from the Tithe.ly ChMS help.

 

How do I swap or find a replacement with someone

It may be possible to swap or find a replacement with someone else for a particular service that you are rostered on. A green tick will appear next to the position that you are rostered if you can perform a swap.

Swap allows you to swap your current rostered position with another person who is rostered for the same type of service and for the same position. So you will be able to swap with someone else doing "Prayer" for the 10am Service but you can't swap with someone doing "Prayer" for 6pm.

Replace allows you to replace your current rostered position with someone else but you don't end up doing their rostered position on another day. For this reason you should first try to swap with someone. Again you can only find a replacement if they also volunteer for the same position and for the same type of service.

You can Swap or Replace by clicking on the red "X" next to your rostered position from the App. You will be asked whether you wish to Swap or Replace and then you will see a list of who is available for you to swap with. The person with whom you are Swapping or Replacing will be sent an email and they have to agree with this before the change is completed. When the person being asked agrees, another email is sent to the person requesting the change letting them know that the request has been agreed with, the roster is updated and the Roster Coordinator will get another email saying that the roster has been updated.

You cannot Swap or Replace if the service is within 2 days. Any outstanding requests will also cancel within 2 days of the service.

You can read more about this from the help section on the Tithe.ly ChMS web site.