Do you have a number of inactive volunteers that have moved away or you are confident will not be returning?
There are a few steps you can take to save old schedules and run reports in order to safely remove those volunteers. This way, you can ensure that you are only paying for the number of volunteers you are truly scheduling.
Step 1: Find inactive volunteers
There is not a way to see how long a volunteer has been inactive, however you can use other fields in the Rosterizer such as "Last date used in a schedule" and then run that report to determine who has not been used in the software for a very long time.
- First go to the Rosterizer in MSP, choose "Included Ministries" and set this to "Include all ministries"
- Make sure "Included Volunteers" is set to "Include all volunteers" and that the option at the bottom to "Omit inactive volunteers" is not checked.
- Then in "Included Fields," under the "Available fields:" column uncheck the box that says "Show common fields only." Then you can locate the "Last date used in a schedule" field and move that over to the "Fields to include" column. If there is any additional information you want to keep on files about the volunteers, include these fields as well.
- In "List Arrangement" I recommend choosing the first option to group volunteers into one long list, as well as checking the "List (included) inactive volunteers separately at end of list" option, so you can clearly see who is inactive.
- In "Document Settings" specify if you would like a Word or Excel document, and then use the "Generate Roster" button to save this on your computer.
Step 2: Export any additional scheduling data you need for these volunteers
If you want to preserve previous assignments during which the inactive volunteers may have served, export the schedules and save them as a document.
Step 3: Remove inactive volunteers
Note: Once you delete a volunteer from the system, no information about that volunteer or their previous service will be available. Because of this, it is very important that you export any information you need as a Word or Excel document BEFORE you delete the volunteer!
Once you decide which of these inactive volunteers could be removed from your database, simply go back to the Volunteer list, select their name, and then delete the volunteer.
