Setting your availability
Blackouts, recurring conflicts, and notes.
What the scheduler uses
The quarterly scheduler only assigns you to Sundays you’re actually around for. Availability comes from three sources, all editable at /me/availability:
- Blackout date ranges — “I’m out of town April 12–April 26.” Covers vacations, business trips, family events.
- Recurring weekly unavailability — rare, but useful if (say) you’re on a second-Sunday rotation with another church family duty.
- Free-text notes — anything you want an admin to know that doesn’t fit the above. Admins see these when reviewing the draft; the scheduler itself ignores them.
When to update it
- Before each quarter is drafted — the deacons typically build the next quarter’s draft two or three weeks before it starts. Block out known travel by then.
- Any time after publish if plans change — if a conflict comes up after the quarter is already published, your assignment won’t automatically move. Use Request coverage or Propose a swap instead.
What “published” means
A quarter moves through two states:
- Draft — admins generate, edit, review. Availability changes here are free; the scheduler just re-runs.
- Published — assignments are real and weekly reminder emails start going out. Availability changes at this point affect future quarter drafts but don’t retroactively move your current assignments.