Shifts

Shifts are the time slots you sign up for to contribute at an event. Each shift has a type, a location, a start and end time, and a capacity. Once you are signed up, the shift appears in your personal dashboard.

Browsing the shift plan

HoMeeSuite shows the same shifts on two different surfaces:

Public shift plan — at /events/[slug]/plan, publicly accessible so anyone can browse without logging in. It's read-only: it lets people discover what shifts exist before deciding to sign up.
In-app "Shift Plan" tab — at /events/[slug]/shifts, the authenticated shift browser inside the app. This is where enrolled volunteers actually sign up once logged in.

To sign up you must be enrolled in the event and logged in — use the in-app "Shift Plan" tab, not the public plan.

Each shift card shows:

Shift name and type (e.g. "Security – Evening")
Start and end time
Location
Current sign-up count and total capacity

Fully booked shifts are shown but marked as unavailable.

Filtering shifts

The filter bar above the schedule lets you narrow down shifts:

Date and time range — set a day range and start / end times to focus on a specific part of the event; the day range covers the event's full buildup-to-teardown window when those dates are configured, not just the event start/end days
Location — pick one or more locations from the dropdown
Volunteer type — show only shifts for specific roles
Urgent only — shows shifts that are below their minimum staffing level and urgently need more helpers
Low fill only — shows shifts filled below 50% of total capacity; independent of Urgent only, so you can combine both filters
Hide full — hides shifts that have reached capacity

Active filters appear as chips below the filter bar. Click × on a chip to remove one filter, or Clear filters to reset all at once.

The filter state is saved in the URL — you can bookmark or share a filtered view (for example, all urgent Saturday morning shifts).

By default the plan shows the full day, starting at 00:00, so early-morning and overnight shifts are visible without adjusting the From time. The time filter is a daily time-of-day window: a shift is shown when its hours overlap that window on any day it runs, so shifts that cross midnight are included or excluded the same way as any other shift instead of always being shown. If your active filters hide some shifts while others remain visible, a small notice appears above the schedule telling you how many are hidden, with a one-click reset.

Urgent shifts

A shift marked Urgent is below its minimum required staffing level and still has open spots. These are the shifts that need your help most. Use the Urgent only filter to focus on them.

Understanding the colour legend

The shift plan uses colour-coded blocks to show which volunteer types are needed for each shift. A small legend above the grid maps each colour to its volunteer type name. If an event has only one volunteer type, the legend is hidden.

In compact view (very short time slots), each block shows the shift title and a filled / capacity count (for example 2 / 5) so you can quickly spot under-staffed shifts without having to open them.

Finding a location on the event map

If the organizer has uploaded a venue map, you can see every location pinned on it from the event's page — scroll to Event map, or use the legend list to highlight one or more locations at once; the pins you didn't pick fade so the ones you selected stand out. Only locations that have been placed on the map appear in the legend; a location without a pin yet is left off the list entirely rather than shown greyed out. Locations that have a photo also show a small camera button in the legend — tap it to see the photo full size; it won't change which pins you have highlighted. The Event map section only appears on the event's page when the organizer has uploaded a venue map; if none has been uploaded, the section is simply not shown. When you open a shift's details, the same map zooms straight to that shift's location — but if the event has no uploaded map, the map area isn't shown at all; the location's description, a photo if one was added, and a Get directions link if the organizer set one still show as normal. From My Shifts, tapping a shift's location name opens the same pop-up right there, pre-filtered to that location with its description, photo, and Get directions link, without leaving the page — and it opens even when the organizer hasn't uploaded a map or hasn't placed that location's pin yet, showing a short note instead of the map. On the Shift plan tab, the View event map button in the toolbar opens the whole venue map with its location list in a pop-up without leaving the page, and if you have a location filter active, those locations start out highlighted; this button only appears once the organizer has uploaded a map.

Tapping a pin on the map now highlights that location's row in the list, the same way tapping a row highlights its pin — both directions toggle the same selection, so you can build up a set of highlighted locations from either side, and the list scrolls to the row you just picked.

An expand button beside the Locations heading opens the map and its list at a much larger size, useful for a dense venue plan on a desktop screen; the locations you have highlighted stay highlighted when you expand and when you close it again. In the Shift plan tab's map pop-up, the same button grows that pop-up rather than opening a second one.

Organizers can also keep certain locations off the map entirely — staff-only, back-of-house, or not-yet-announced places you won't see in the legend or on the map canvas. If a location connected to a shift you're signed up for is one of these, it stays visible to you there even though it's hidden from everyone else.

Signing up

Click a shift to open its detail view. Read the description and any requirements, then click Sign up.

Compliance items: if the shift type has acknowledgements attached (e.g. a safety briefing confirmation or age requirement), you must check off each one before the sign-up is accepted.

You will receive an in-app notification and, if you have email notifications enabled, a confirmation email. The shift appears immediately in your dashboard at /events/[slug]/dashboard.

If you visit the public shift plan without an account, you'll be prompted to sign in or create an account before you can join a role or sign up for a shift.

Having an account is not enough on its own: you also need to be enrolled in that specific event before you can request access to a volunteer type or sign up for a shift. If you're logged in but not yet enrolled, the public plan shows a notice and a link to the event page instead of the join or sign-up buttons — follow that link to enrol first.

Seeing who else is on your shift

When you open a shift you can see who has already signed up for it, before you sign up yourself — so you can choose a shift alongside people you know. Once you're signed up, the same list stays visible under an "Others on this shift" heading; while you're still deciding, it shows as "Already signed up". Either way, the list only shows display names (never full name, email, or phone number), it never lists you, and people signed up under a volunteer role you don't have access to are not listed. The same list also appears on your own schedule page ("My shifts") next to each shift you're signed up for, showing display names only.

Cancelling a registration

Open the shift detail page or your dashboard and click Cancel registration.

Cancellation is blocked once the event's cancellation cutoff has passed. For example, if the cutoff is 4 hours, you cannot cancel within 4 hours of the shift start. After the cutoff, contact a coordinator to cancel for you.

Volunteer types

Some events ask you to declare your skills or interests via volunteer types — categories like "Security", "Technical Crew", or "Stage". Go to My Volunteer Types within the event to select which types apply to you.

Only types that are open to volunteers are listed here. Some events have internal staff roles that are not visible to general volunteers — this is intentional and not a bug.

Some types are marked 18+ and cannot be joined until your account is verified as an adult. If you see this badge and can't join, check your profile's age verification status — once your account is confirmed as an adult, joining and signing up for that type's shifts works normally. On an event's public page, each volunteer role shows its own labelled badges (18+, requires approval, assigned by staff), with a help icon next to the ones that need more explanation.

Coordinators use this information when manually filling shifts that need specific skills. Keeping your types up to date helps you get assigned to shifts that suit you.

If you no longer want to be part of a volunteer type, open My Volunteer Types and click Leave on that type. Leaving is blocked while you still have upcoming shift signups for that type — cancel those shifts first, then leave the type.

Exporting your shifts to a calendar

Open the My Shifts tab inside an event and click Export to Calendar. Your browser downloads a .ics file containing all the shifts you are signed up for.

iPhone / macOS: Tap the file — it opens in Calendar automatically.
Android / Google Calendar: Open the .ics file with Google Calendar or import it via calendar.google.com → Settings → Import.
Other apps: Any app that supports iCalendar (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) can import the file.

The file is a one-time snapshot. If you sign up for more shifts later, download it again to get the updated list.

Tracked hours and goodies

After a shift ends, a coordinator marks it as completed. Completed shifts contribute to your tracked hours, which appear in your dashboard.

If the event uses goodies, your tracked hours determine your tier eligibility. Shifts with a goodie multiplier credit more hours per real-time hour worked — a 2-hour shift with a 1.5× multiplier credits 3 goodie hours.

When you reach a tier's threshold, a coordinator will physically hand over the goodie and record the sign-off. You can see which tiers have been signed off in your dashboard.

Your main dashboard's goodie score tile shows two figures side by side. The large number is what you've already earned this calendar year from completed shifts and logged hours. The smaller number next to it is what your currently booked shifts would add once you've worked them, bonus multipliers included. Goodie tier progress is measured against the earned figure only, so the upcoming number is a forecast of what you're on track to earn, not credit you already have.

On an event's shifts page, the goodie progress block now lists every tier the event has configured as a row of chips below the progress bar — so you can see the whole ladder ahead of you, not just your current and next tier. Tiers you've already reached are marked as earned, the next tier is highlighted with how many points remain, and later tiers are shown greyed out with just their name and threshold. On a narrow phone screen the row scrolls sideways so it always fits; hovering over a tier shows its description if the organizer wrote one.