Volunteer (and Host) Creating a Task

Can a Volunteer or Host create a task? TL:DR; - it’s complicated.

Why do we have these requirements? Because there are bad actors out there who would happily create problematic tasks that span the gamut from just creating so many, the useful ones can’t be found to creating ones like “Nazis for Dave” that would cause bad press.

So all of this is trying to strike a balance between enabling motivated supporters with the ability to create tasks and blocking nefarious actors.

Remember, if you are an Admin for the campaign Dave 4 Dogcatcher, you are still a Volunteer in respect to every other campaign.

There are three major requirements for Volunteers and Hosts to create a task. First, your Email and Phone Number must be verified. And your Address must be valid. If any of these are not valid, trying to create an task will take you to the Welcome page where it explains what you need to validate, and how.

Second, you must be following an organization to create a task for it. (Or be assigned a Manager claim to the organization.) When you go to create an task, it will show you the calendar for all the organizations you are following. And once you’ve created a task, you will only be able to edit that task if you continue to follow the organization.

Third, each organization determines if it allows Volunteers to create tasks. If it does not, request they give you a Host claim on the organization and then you can create tasks. If you follow an organization that does not allow Volunteers to create tasks, it will tell you that when you enter the Create an event page.

If an organization does allow creating tasks, for both Volunteers and Hosts, it then has a setting that determines the initial visibility of the task. This can be Private or Public (if you set it to Private when creating it - it will be Private). Upon creation, an organization Admin will review the task and may change the Public/Private setting, or task delete the task.

Fourth, a Volunteer can only create a task if it has been at least 5 (number subject to change) days since they last created a task. The date of the task has no bearing on this restriction, it is the date that you created it. A Host does not have this limit.

Task Creator vs. Owner

Every task has an Owner. The task does not track who created it. When you first create an task as a Volunteer, you are set as the task Owner. Normally you will remain the task Owner. However, the organization Admin may assign a different user as the Owner. If that occurs, it is no longer your task. (You can of course appeal to the Admin and they may assign you back.)

The below issues are issues for the task Owner. So for you, the Volunteer, if you remain the Owner. But only if you remain the Owner.

Updating the task

You can update any properties in the task except you cannot change the visibility from Private to Public. You also cannot disable or delete the task. If there is a problem where you think it should be disabled or deleted, mark it private and then contact the organization.

Closing the Task

After the task completes, in the overnight processing, the task will be closed. (An Admin can also close it early, but as a Volunteer, you cannot do that.) Once it is closed, you need to rate the task and the volunteers who worked at the task.

This is very important. The AI engine the program uses these ratings to help optimize what future tasks it suggests to which volunteers. The more accurate the rating, the more accurate the suggestions.