Shift Captain Coordinator Guide

As an organizer of organizers, this guide will provide best practices to help you fulfill your responsibilities of coordinating with Shift Captains.

Table of Contents

Onboarding

Scheduling

Maintaining Engagement

Supplies & Resources

Onboarding

If someone expresses interest in taking on additional responsibilities within the campaign as an organizer, you’ll need to help them get situated in their new role.

• Send them the Shift Captain Guide to review at their own pace. Ask them to reach out once they’ve finished looking it through, and you can set up an onboarding call.

• Schedule an onboarding call with the new organizer.

  • Discuss the role and what it entails – primary responsibilities, expectations, what it will look like on a weekly basis, etc.

  • Ask them if any questions came up while reading through the Shift Captain Guide, or if they have any questions or concerns about the role in general.

  • See if they are able to commit to a regular shift where a shift captain is needed (same time and location each week).

• Discuss next steps in getting them started.

  • Let them know you’ll be sending them the organizer agreement to sign, and provide a brief overview of what it is and why it’s needed.

  • Ask them to start signing up for shifts that they will be hosting.

• Send them the organizer agreement to sign.

• Add them to your organizer-specific Slack channel.

Scheduling

As the Shift Captain Coordinator, part of your role is to get shifts scheduled, and to ensure that each shift will be hosted by a shift captain.

• Add shifts to the Volunteer Signup sheet each week, planning out about a month or so.

  • Beyond the regularly scheduled shifts, it's good practice to add additional shifts to focus on (e.g. weekdays, different locations and events) in order to make sure we’re not oversaturating certain events, and to attract volunteers with differing availability.

• Encourage organizers to add their own shifts to the signup sheet, or to share ideas to a list such as this one.

  • Message your organizers’ Slack channel with this request.

• As you plan out shifts for the month, coordinate with existing shift captains to confirm their availability for their regular shift(s) as well as any others they want to take on.

  • Ask if they have any upcoming unavailability. If so, ask them to send a message in Slack to see if someone else can cover the shift.

  • Ensure these shifts either get filled or canceled if there is no one to host. Try reaching out to consistently involved shift captains to see if they can cover.

• Each week, review upcoming shifts to ensure there is a shift captain signed up.

• If any shifts are missing a host, coordinate with the shift captains to fill it.

  • Message your organizers Slack channel with the shifts that need to be filled.

  • Reach out to shift captains individually as needed.

Maintaining Engagement

While organizers are responsible for helping to keep volunteers engaged with the campaign, part of your role is keeping the organizers engaged in their leadership role and holding them accountable.

• Check in with newer shift captains to see how they are doing in the leadership role, and if there is any support you can provide.

• Check in with shift captains who haven’t hosted any recent shifts (last ~2 weeks or so).

  • See if they’re still comfortable with their level of involvement.

  • Confirm if there are other shifts that would work better for them, or if there are potential new shifts that may work for them to host.

  • Ask them if they’re available to host an upcoming shift.

• Message all other shift captains every few weeks to check in.

  • Confirm they are providing orientation to new volunteers.

  • Ask if they are still doing a briefing and de-brief at the beginning and end of their shifts.

  • If needed, remind them to take group photos during their shifts to share on Slack!

  • See how they're doing and how you can support. We want to be careful to avoid burnout!

Supplies & Resources

It’s important to ensure that shift captains are equipped with all the resources they need to host their shifts.

• Check in with shift captains who have upcoming shifts, but haven’t reached out for supplies in a while (~2-3 weeks) to ensure they have everything they need.

  • It may be helpful to keep a document to track outreach and who you provide supplies to.

• Review the Shift Checklist to make sure you are supplying all necessary materials for a successful shift.