Created on 24 Apr 2026

Related teams

When organising volunteers, some teams are closely connected — for example, Gate, Greeters, and Traffic all involve front-of-house duties. A volunteer who prefers one of these teams is likely a good fit for the others too. The related teams feature lets you link teams together so that volunteers are automatically considered for shifts in related teams, without needing to update their preferences.

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How it works

When you mark two teams as related, volunteers who have preferenced one team will also appear as eligible for shifts in the other. These are called shadow preferences — the volunteer hasn't directly chosen that team, but their preference for a related team makes them a candidate.

Shadow preferences always rank below direct preferences. A volunteer who has specifically chosen a team will always score higher than one who matched through a related team.

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Setting up related teams

1. Navigate to Volunteers → Teams & roles
2. Click Edit on the team you want to configure
3. In the Related teams field, select one or more teams
4. Click Save

The relationship is bidirectional — if you link Gate to Greeters, then Greeters is automatically linked back to Gate. You only need to set it up from one side.

You can link as many teams as you like. For example, you could link Gate, Greeters, and Traffic to each other so that a volunteer who prefers any one of them is considered for all three.

Note: The related teams field only appears when editing an existing team, not when creating a new one.

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Where related teams take effect

Related teams influence several parts of the system:

Area	Effect
Assigning volunteers to a shift	Volunteers with a related team preference appear in the eligible list
Assigning shifts to a volunteer	Shifts from related teams appear in the eligible list
Shift offers (notifications)	Volunteers with a related team preference are included when sending shift offers
Volunteer portal roster	Shifts from related teams appear in the volunteer's filtered roster view

In all cases, shadow-matched volunteers and shifts are clearly labelled with a coloured badge showing "via [Team name]", so you can see at a glance which team the volunteer actually preferenced.

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How scoring works

The assignment system uses a three-tier model to rank volunteers:

Tier	Description	Score impact
Direct preference	Volunteer has preferenced this exact team	Full score
Shadow preference	Volunteer has preferenced a related team	Reduced score (approximately 65%)
No preference	Volunteer has not preferenced this team or any related team	Only shown when "include all" is enabled; lowest score

Within each tier, volunteers are further ranked by their preference order (1st choice scores highest), experience level, and position type — the same factors used for direct preferences.

This means that when you're assigning volunteers to a shift, you'll see direct-preference volunteers listed first, followed by shadow-preference volunteers, each clearly labelled.

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Example

Suppose you have three teams:

• Gate — Entry point management
• Greeters — Welcoming guests
• Traffic — Directing vehicles and pedestrians

You link all three as related teams. A volunteer named Alex has preferenced Greeters as their first choice.

When you go to assign volunteers to a Gate shift, Alex will appear in the eligible list with a badge showing "via Greeters" in the Greeters team colour. Alex's score will be lower than volunteers who directly preferenced Gate, but higher than volunteers with no relevant preference at all.

Alex didn't need to update their preferences — the system automatically recognised the connection.

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Volunteer portal roster

In the volunteer's portal roster, they will be able to see and sign up for shifts from shadow teams

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Tips

• Link teams that share similar skills — If volunteers from one team could reasonably fill shifts in another, link them
• Don't over-link — Linking too many unrelated teams dilutes the usefulness of preferences. Keep links meaningful
• Check the badges — When assigning volunteers, look for the "via" badges to understand why someone appears in the list
• Use with shift offers — Related teams are especially useful when sending shift offer notifications, as they widen the pool of eligible volunteers without including everyone
• No preference changes needed — Volunteers don't need to update their registrations; the system handles it automatically based on your team configuration