NEW - Master Application

We are excited to have released a new feature on ServiceReef - the Master Application.  This is a great way to allow for your trip participants to apply only once to serve with your organization, if you would so choose.  Additionally, it makes supporting your applications easier in the future.  

We thought the best way to unpack this would be to answer some general questions for how this works:

Quick Overview: What is the Master Application?

To this point in time, ServiceReef only offered an application on each Event.  When you cloned a trip, it cloned your application as well (saving you tons of time).  However, there were two areas that we wanted to improve.  First, if you ever needed to change a question, you would have needed to change it on each trip/event application.  Second, if you have a participant serving multiple times, that user would need to fill out the application each time he/she applied with your organization.

With this new enhancement, you now have two participant applications to help manage your participants - the Master Application  and the Event Application.  The Master Application can handle the general questions that are asked for each participant that serves with your organization.  The Event Application (or Trip Application) will allow you to ask specific questions for this event, location, skill sets needed, etc.   

How does the Master Application work?

You can access the Master Application through your organization’s administrative page (not an event page).  You will now see a left navigation tab titled “Master Application”.  The same style of question builder is provided for you here as you are familiar with from the event application.  

Once you have completed building your Master application, you can determine which events should start using the Master Application.  To save time, we recommend rolling out the new application functionality in phases, leaving the current events alone... although you are welcome to go "all out".  For ease of transition, just start using the new Master Application with each new trip you post and within a month (or three), you'll now have this new feature used on all of your trips.  Here's how:

Go to the event and click on the Application tab and choose "Yes" on "Do you want to use the master application questions from the organization?"  Once turned ON, each participant registering for that event with your organization will be prompted to complete this series of questions first, then prompted to fill out the trip specific questions in the Event Application.  

How do the Master Application & Event Application work together?

Simple answer… you can use both, either, or neither.  Here’s how.  

If you have a standard set of questions that are required for someone serving with any of your opportunities then it’s probably best to build these questions in the Master Application. 

If you have only event specific questions then it’s best to build these in your Event Application.  

If you have both event and organization questions then we recommend using both.

If no questions are required to serve with your organization, then you can leave both blank.

What’s the participant’s experience like with this new functionality?

If you have enabled the Master Application and someone applies for an event they will simply click apply (as they had previously) and then be guided through a series of questions (as they had previously).  They will have one series of questions presented to them that include both the Master Application & Event Application questions.  The different questions will be titled respectfully but the user will complete all questions at the point of applying.  

I am starting to see "incomplete" statuses on my applications.  Why?

One of the benefits of looking across many organizations is that we see the majority of applications are rather lengthy, which makes sense if you are "meeting" this applicant for the first time.  However, some users were complaining that they would get an error and then have to fill out the application again.  To alleviate this, we created a "page" system in the application to break up your questions.  Instead of one long list, the user can now flow through in a way that makes sense to them (e.g. User Information, Spiritual Formation, etc).  Additionally, this allowed for the Master Application to be saved periodically (when the user moves to another page).  

If a user shows in your application data as a status of "incomplete", don't worry.  That's just a user that started the application, but needs to come back and fill out the rest of the questions later.  

What happens when someone has already completed the Master Application already?

For example, someone may complete the Master Application for event one and then a few months later apply for event two.  In that case the user would sign into their ServiceReef account to register for the event.  Once they click on the Apply button they would be prompted through all the Master Application & Event Application questions BUT the previously entered answers to the Master Application questions are pre-populated so the user doesn’t have to enter those fields again.  The user is able to update/edit their previous questions at this point if they would like to do so.

How do we, as the organization, access this information? 

Organization and event admins can access all the question fields (answers) for both the Master & Event Applications through the Participants navigation tab inside an event.  Once you select a participant, you will be viewing their full application.  Please note, the data presented to you on this screen is what was updated by the user at the point to THIS application.  The information is essentially time stamped at the point when they clicked Submit (for this event).  This is helpful in the case where you were to access someone’s application from an event a year ago - that event would keep the previous data while the current event would now have updated data from the participant. 

What happens if we add or delete a Master Application question?

You can add or delete questions form the Master Application at any point.  Here’s what happens…

If you ADD a question then it will populate in your Master Application immediately and all new applicants will be prompted to complete that question.  If someone had already completed the Master Application for an event prior to you adding this question and then they apply for a second event, they will be prompted to answer this question upon their next event application.  

If you DELETE a question that question will be removed from your Master Application immediately.  For any previous events that included that question, the field (answer) is still shown in previous events before that question was removed.   

What if we have events that didn’t use the Master Application previously and now we turn this feature on?

No problem at all!  You have access to all events and the previous events will not be affected by this new change.  All future events (from the time you implement the Master Application) will be affected.  

Do we have to use the Master Application?

No, this is up to you.  There are advantages to using the Master Application but you make the decision for whether to use this or not.  

If you have any additional questions please let me know.  I believe you will find this new enhancement quite easy to navigate and use. 

Thanks for being part of the ServiceReef community… we are constantly working to build a better platform for you so that you may draw more people into missional living.