For anyone serving on a team – managing your own details and emails
Richhill Methodist Church · Covers plugin version 5.85.5
The rota is at: https://richhill.glenmeth.church
This guide is for people who serve on a rota team. It covers the rota itself, and – if you’d like them – the optional emails that tell you when you’ve been put on or taken off.
Note: You don’t need a website login for any of this. Everything here works from a personal link sent to you by email.
1. Seeing when you’re serving
The rota lives on the church website and is open to everyone. You can search for yourself – your initials, or your full name once those are showing – filter to your area, and print or subscribe to a calendar feed.
The “Viewing the Rota” guide covers all of that in more detail – it applies to you too.
2. Your preferences page
If you have given your email address to a rota administrator or your team manager, you’ll be sent a link to your own preferences page. That link is personal to you, so treat it like a password and don’t forward it – anyone with it can change your notification settings.
Note: If a link is ever seen by someone it was not meant for, your rota administrator can reset it. A new one is issued straight away and handed to you directly; the old link stops working and simply says it has been reset. Nothing about your own details changes.
From that page you can do everything below. It’s the only place you can manage your own details – there’s nothing to log into.
It also tells you which initials represent you on the public rota, so you can find yourself when full names aren’t shown.
Note: You do not need an email address to have a preferences page – your team manager or rota administrator can create your personal link and hand it to you directly. Without an email address you cannot receive reminder emails, but everything else on the page still works, including your calendars and telling us when you are away. Give them your address if you would like the emails too.
Telling us when you are away
Under “When you are away” on your preferences page, give the first and last day you are not available, and optionally why. Whole days only – for a single day, put the same date in both boxes. Press “Add these dates”. Anything you have already recorded is listed above the form with a Remove button, and past dates fade out rather than disappearing. A single stretch cannot be longer than a year – if you need more, add it in two goes.
- Whoever fills the rota sees it while they are working, and the fill-by-rule tool leaves your slots empty rather than putting you in them.
- You are NOT taken off anything you are already on. If you are already down for one of those dates, your team manager is shown the clash and will sort it out with you.
- It never appears on the public rota, and nobody is told the reason unless you give one.
Note: You do not have to use this – telling your team manager still works, and they can record it for you.
Your rota in your calendar
Your preferences page offers two kinds of calendar subscription, and both keep themselves up to date once added:
- Your rota in your calendar – only the services you are on, across every area you serve in. Add it once and it covers everything.
- Your team calendars – one for each rostered area your teams cover, showing everyone on in that area, not just you. These show full names so you can see who you are on with. Text-only columns such as Service Notes have no calendar of their own.
Press “Add to my calendar”, or copy the address into your calendar app by hand if that does not work.
Note: Treat these addresses like your personal link: anyone who has one can see when people are serving. If one ever needs replacing, ask your rota administrator.
Note: If your rota administrator has given you access to see the whole rota – someone like a minister, say – your preferences page shows a third card, “The whole rota”, offering that as an extra calendar alongside your usual one. It is a shared address, the same one the rota administrator can also see, not something minted just for you, so keep it to yourself the same way. Whether it includes Service Notes is the rota administrator’s own choice, the same for everyone who holds that link.
Note: How quickly a change reaches your calendar is up to your calendar app, not the church website. Apple and Outlook are usually quick; Google can take many hours. The rota on the website is always current – your calendar is a copy of whenever it last looked.
3. Email reminders (optional)
Everything above – telling us when you’re away, and adding the rota to your calendar – works whether or not the church has an email address for you. Everything in this section is about the optional email reminders, which do need one. If you haven’t given an email address to your team manager or rota administrator, none of this applies to you – skip ahead to “4. How teams and areas fit together”.
Getting emails when you’re rostered
Turn this on and you’ll be emailed when you are added to, or removed from, the rota – so you’re not relying on remembering to check.
- Open your preferences page from the link you were sent.
- Choose Subscribe.
- If you were invited by email, press Confirm on your preferences page to complete the opt-in. (That button is for the address already held for you. If you have just asked to CHANGE your address, it will say so and point you to the link in the confirmation email instead.)
Your status will show as Not subscribed, Awaiting confirmation, or Subscribed, so you can always see where you stand.
Changing your email address
Enter the new address on your preferences page. A confirmation email is sent to that address, and your emails pause until you <strong>open the link in it</strong> – that is what proves the address reaches you, so a mistyped one can never start receiving your rota emails. The Confirm button on the page will not do it: it tells you which address to check instead. If the email does not arrive, enter your address again to get a fresh link.
Stopping the emails
Press Unsubscribe at any time. You stay on the rota exactly as before – you just stop getting the emails. You can re-subscribe whenever you like.
Removing your contact details altogether
Choose Remove my details to delete your email address and all notification settings.
- Your name stays on the rota so the teams still work.
- No further emails of any kind will be sent to you.
- Your personal link stops working. (An administrator can also reset your link on its own at any time, which has the same effect on the old one but changes nothing else.)
- Your personal calendar link is switched off too, and the rota entries it added disappear from your calendar the next time it refreshes. Nothing is left quietly syncing to your phone.
Note: This only removes your contact details. To have your name taken off the rota entirely, contact your team manager or rota administrator – your preferences page will show you who to ask.
4. How teams and areas fit together
It’s worth knowing how this works, because it explains why you appear where you do:
People → Teams → Areas
- You are added to one or more teams (for example the Sound Team).
- Each team covers one or more areas – the columns on the rota.
- Being in a team is what makes you selectable for that team’s areas.
So if you’re not appearing as an option for an area you help with, it’s usually because you’re not in a team that covers it. Ask your team manager or rota administrator to add you.
5. Common questions
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| I can’t serve on a date I’m listed for | Contact your team manager as early as you can – you can’t change the rota yourself. |
| I’m not getting the emails | Check your junk or spam folder first, then check your preferences page shows “Subscribed” rather than “Awaiting confirmation”. |
| I’ve lost my personal link | If the rota page shows the “send yourself your settings link” form, use that – you will need your name as it appears on the rota and the address held for you. Otherwise ask your team manager or rota administrator, who can create one and give it to you directly, even if you have no email address on file. |
| My link says it has been reset | That is deliberate, and nothing is wrong with your details. A link is reset when it may have been seen by someone it was not meant for. Ask your team manager or rota administrator for the new one. |
| Why do I only see initials? | The public rota shows initials for privacy. Sign in to the website with the account linked to your name on the rota, or use the reveal password if the church has set one. Signing in with an account that is not linked to anyone on the rota will not show names. Note that search matches what’s displayed, so you can only search initials until full names are showing. |
| My name is spelled wrong | Ask your rota administrator – names are managed centrally so a change updates the whole rota at once. |
| Can I see the rota in my calendar? | Yes – your preferences page lists the links, both your own dates and the areas your teams cover. See “Your rota in your calendar” above. |
| What does “Event” mean on the rota? | A one-off occasion outside the usual morning and evening pattern – it shows its own start and finish time and can fall on any day. |
| Why does it say “All Prayer Team”? | When everyone in a team is on together the rota says so, rather than listing every name. Anyone helping in addition is shown alongside. |
| Why does a service say “No Service”? | That whole service isn’t happening – a cancelled or one-off skipped date. Nothing is missing or broken. |
6. Your privacy
- Your email address is only used to send you the rota emails you opted in to.
- Nothing is sent unless you have confirmed – an invitation on its own doesn’t subscribe you.
- You can unsubscribe or erase your details yourself, at any time, without asking anyone. Unsubscribing is remembered as a decision – you will not be included in a later round of invitations.
- Email addresses are never shown on the public rota.