While the Opportunities Types in EZVolunteer are one way to target volunteers based on their interests, they represent district-wide standards. Sometimes you’d like to be able to find which volunteers are willing or at least interested in specific activities at your school - like a Halloween Carnival, School Ground Clean-up, etc. That is where Newsgroups can be an valuable tool.

With newsgroups you can create those interest areas that only apply at your school and either assign volunteers to those groups, if you know they really are interested, or let your volunteers subscribe to Newsgroups on their own.

Here’s how you can use newsgroups. First, you will need to set-up a group and subscriber options for your school. Second, you need to let your volunteers know they can sign-up. Third, you can send out targeted requests to subscribers in your newsgroup when you have an opportunity for which they can sign-up.

Setting Up Newsgroups

To set-up a newsgroup, go to Settings  > EZCommunicator and click the More button at the bottom. This will display a long list of settings options, from which you should choose Newsgroups.  You will see a page which may have other school newsgroups already

Start by using the Add Group button to set-up your School Volunteer Activities. Call the group your school name (eg - Demo ES) and SAVE your group. Next, click the Add Option button and type an option name (like Halloween Carnival) and make it Public and make sure it’s assigned to your school,  so your volunteers can see it when they sign-in. Repeat with adding more options until you have listed all you need.