Meet The Need has built the first known collaborative Scheduling System for charity drives. It helps prevent double-booking of families for the same drive at different distribution sites because each organization’s Key Contact can see that family is already scheduled elsewhere.
As a Key Contact, you can book families to come back at a later date to receive items on particular dates as follows:
Create Schedule
- To create the overall schedule and parameters for scheduling families for the drive, click on Add/View Families, then select the Scheduled Visit Management tab
- Based on the number of volunteers and items available at each distribution site, the drive administrator can set up a calendar specifying for each site:
- Dates available to give out items
- Times available
- How many families can be seen (checked in) each hour
Schedule Families
- Authorized leaders or volunteers from various schools, agencies, churches, etc. participating in the drive can book a family into an available time slot by:
- For Administrators – For a new family, click Search Network/Add Family, run the search for that family in the system, fill out the details about the family, submit that form, and then click Schedule Future Visit. For a family already in your database, go to Add/View Families on your Dashboard and click the Details button to the right of the family’s name, then select the Visits tab and click on the Schedule Future Visit (Watch Instructional Video)
- For Volunteers (who can’t access your Shared Case Management Dashboard) – Call 813/527-0222 or email support@meettheneed.org to request logins for your volunteers. Then, pull up http://www.meettheneed.org/scheduler/ on the device they are using to schedule families, select the distribution site from the drop down list in the top right corner, and have them click Add New Family or type in the individual’s name or other identifying information in the text search box. (Watch Instructional Video)
- Before booking a family, each volunteer must search for the family requesting to be scheduled to see if they are already booked at another distribution site. This prevents double or triple booking families at various locations. Searches may be done by any criteria provided by the family, including name, Social Security Number, Driver’s License, address, etc. If the family does not appear in the search, the volunteer may add the new family and enter their details for that family, including household members.
- Then the volunteer can search for available days and times available to book the families at locations where they are authorized to do so and indicate the types and quantity of items they should be given.
Check in Families
- On the final screen for scheduling families, users print a bar-coded confirmation for the family to take with them and bring back the day of their appointment. This is the family’s reminder of where and when to return and what items/services they will receive. This will also help ensure an accurate record of what items/services are to be provided the day of the appointment.
- On the date the family returns for their visit, volunteers at the distribution site scan the bar-coded sheet that was provided to the family, which will automatically pull up the family’s information and their scheduled visit(s). If the family forgot to bring or lost the bar coded sheet, the volunteer can search for them by name, SSN#, driver’s license, address, etc. using the Family Search box. Then they Check In the family next to appropriate appointment and confirm the items the family is receiving that day.