Progress on volunteers has been slower than I thought it would be. It turns out that jobs, which is how I refer to the various roles that volunteers take on within wp-SwimTeam, is harder than I thought it would be.
The underlying data is fairly easy to manage but how to present the jobs, associate them with a season or swim meet, and then assign people to fill them has been a challenge. I think the reason I am struggling with this is I am not happy with the terminology I am using. There are three aspects to the Jobs functionality:
- Definition of jobs: Titles, descriptions, duration, etc.
- Allocation of jobs: Jobs are allocated to either a season or a swim meet or multiple meets. The number of positions for each job will vary. For example, the number of timers needed is dependent on the number of lanes the host pool has. You might need four timers one week and then three the next.
- Assignment of jobs: Connecting a name to a particular job. The Lane 2 timer at meet XYZ will be Betty Jones. The Announcer at meet ABC will be Tom Burns.
I am ok with the “Definition” of jobs and the “Assignment” of jobs but I don’t like the term “Allocation” but I can’t think of anything better. If you have a suggestion, drop me a comment!