Program Leader Guide

AidOrbit AI For Program Leaders

AidOrbit AI helps Program Leaders prioritize assigned-program work. Launch AI Assist provides basic Needs Attention guidance, Mission setup tips, message draft help, requirement explanations, basic report summaries, and the base AI Copilot workspace. Countdown has no AI features. Orbit AI Intelligence adds Copilot Suggested next actions, Mission risk badges, Mission Readiness Meter, volunteer matching suggestions, smart approval queues, eligibility bottlenecks, communication checks, report narratives, and portal quality review.

Galaxy AI Coordinator can prepare staffing plans, readiness follow-up plans, communication campaigns, and post-Mission cleanup plans for review. AI only uses authorized program data and does not send messages, reject volunteers, waive requirements, approve hours, or export sensitive reports without human approval.

On the Program Leader dashboard, use the Galaxy AI Coordinator for this program panel when you need AidOrbit to prepare a staffing, readiness follow-up, or reporting plan. Review every step, approve the plan only when it matches your program scope, then stage approved steps into the responsible AidOrbit workflow.

On Attendance & Check-ins, use AI Check-in Intelligence when it appears to review no-arrival, missing-checkout, check-in anomaly, and unusual-hours signals before finalizing attendance or approving hours. AidOrbit hides the panel when there are no AI flags to review. The panel highlights records for human review only; it does not mark no-shows, adjust hours, or approve attendance automatically.

Purpose

Program leaders use AidOrbit to own the health of assigned programs: applicant flow, volunteer readiness, schedule coverage, mission setup, communications, portal accuracy, and program reporting. Use this guide when you need to decide what needs attention, delegate work to program staff, and confirm the program is ready for volunteers.

Default Persona Access

Default access is based on the user's assigned persona and scope. A user can have more than one persona, and narrower location, program, Mission, shift, group, or team scopes can further limit what they see.

Persona	Default scope	Default access	Not included by default
Organization Leader	Whole organization	Organization profile and readiness, staff access, billing portal, volunteer hubs, organization communications, organization insights, and organization settings.	Program persona pages such as Missions & Events, program operations, volunteers, tasks, and reports unless the user also has program permissions; AidOrbit platform, support, and billing operations.
Organization Staff	Whole organization operations	Organization operations, volunteer hubs, organization profile and staff views, organization communications, organization insights, and organization settings.	Program persona pages such as Missions & Events, program operations, volunteers, tasks, and reports unless the user also has program permissions; billing management unless the user also has Billing Representative access; platform or support administration.
Billing Representative	Own organization billing	Customer billing portal, plan and usage review, invoices, payment methods, checkout, and billing support materials.	Program operations, volunteer management, Mission management, staff administration, and platform billing administration.
Program Leader	Assigned programs	Program readiness, applicants and training, requirements, program settings, program GoodNearby page, Missions & Events, assigned-program volunteers, communications, incidents, reports, and program staff coordination.	Organization-wide settings, billing, staff administration outside assigned scope, and unrelated programs.
Program Staff	Assigned programs, Missions, shifts, groups, or teams	Day-of attendance, assigned-program rosters, limited volunteer support, requirements view, communications, task queues, incidents, and scoped Mission support.	Program configuration, organization settings, billing, broad reports, and unrelated programs unless separately granted.
Volunteer	Own profile and approved volunteer relationships	Profile, applications, approved programs, eligible Missions, schedule, tasks and forms, credentials, teams, hours, impact, and recognition.	Staff workspaces, other volunteer records, program administration, billing, and organization settings.
Guardian	Linked minor or household context	Guardian consent, required forms, household profile updates, quiet hours, transport notes, and minor-related approvals where configured.	Staff operations, program administration, billing, and unrelated volunteer records.
Donor	Donation and impact context when enabled	Donor-facing impact updates and giving context for supported programs when donor features are enabled.	Donor workspace access is disabled by default in this phase; no staff, volunteer management, billing admin, or platform access.

Daily Program Review

Outcome: know whether your assigned program is ready for the next active mission.

1. Use the global program selector in the left navigation when you need to change program scope.
2. Open the Program Leader dashboard or your assigned program workspace.
3. Review the Program model priorities strip. It uses the selected Program model and focus areas to put the most relevant Mission, readiness, coverage, communication, and reporting work first.
4. Review readiness, upcoming missions, staffing gaps, open applicants, and unresolved tasks.
5. Open Programs > Schedule to check upcoming shifts and coverage.
6. Open Programs > Applicants & Training to review applicants and requirement blockers.
7. Open Programs > Communications when volunteers or applicants need a clear next step.
8. Assign every blocker to yourself or a program staff member.
9. Open Attendance & Check-ins during or after active Missions and review AI Check-in Intelligence when it appears before assigning no-show, checkout, or hours cleanup work.
10. Confirm the relevant mission, volunteer profile, task, or message thread shows the current status.

Use AI Copilot For Program Operations

Outcome: get help for the selected program without giving Copilot authority to act outside your plan, role, or assigned-program scope.

1. Open AI Copilot and keep the assigned program selected.
2. Open the Prompt Library and choose an outcome for schedule coverage, outreach, risks, reports, or Mission drafting. Copilot shows only prompts backed by your active persona, assigned Program scope, available plan features, and permissions.
3. Review schedule coverage and conflict answers as read-only guidance. Copilot queries only the active authorized scope.
4. Review a drafted outreach message, report/export, or Mission import before confirming it. A preview identifies the affected records, exceptions, notification effect, required permissions, and audit behavior.
5. Confirm only after the preview is correct. AidOrbit requires your explicit approval and rechecks your active role and program assignment before executing a confirmed action; it does not create a draft Mission, publish a Mission, send outreach, or export data merely because Copilot drafted it.
6. Use Copilot preferences to adjust response detail and suggestion frequency. These preferences personalize the guidance but cannot expand your assigned-Program access or approve an action.

Review Applicant Decisions

Outcome: move applicants forward with the right decision and clear next step.

1. Open Programs > Applicants & Training.
2. Select the assigned program and applicant queue.
3. Review application answers, eligibility, required forms, training, credentials, and staff notes.
4. Choose the decision that matches the program rules: approve, request information, waitlist, or decline.
5. Send a message that explains what changed and what the applicant should do next.
6. Confirm the applicant status changed and the program roster reflects approved volunteers.

Manage Program Readiness

Outcome: keep the program ready for current and upcoming missions.

1. Open the assigned program workspace.
2. Review schedule health, staffing alerts, applicant blockers, credential gaps, training status, and communication needs.
3. Check training modules for external course links, embedded content links, completion evidence, expiration dates, and renewal timing.
4. Check certification requirements for required document type, expiration rules, and whether missing or expired proof should block Mission signup.
5. In Program Settings profile fields, mark program custom fields as required only when a missing answer should block Mission shift signup. Use staff-only or volunteer read-only for answers your team must maintain, and keep those values current from the Volunteer profile.
6. Open Programs > Settings to confirm the program still has an active owner, the right volunteer-facing visibility, a useful operating model, and no staff-owned work waiting for attention.
7. In Programs > Settings > Badges, create or edit Program badge templates when your role allows it. On Galaxy plans, use AI Build From Picture to upload a reference badge photo and rebuild the active front or back side as an editable template draft; review it before saving or publishing.
8. From Programs > Settings > Program model, choose the operating model and focus areas that make templates, workspace links, dashboard guidance, public-page guidance, and reports fit this program.
9. For Food Bank / Pantry Programs, review pantry, warehouse, distribution, mobile pantry, delivery route, group day, community meal, safety, and food handling templates before creating Missions or requirement drafts.
10. Return to the Program Leader dashboard after changing the Program model. The dashboard updates its priorities and quick-action order for the selected model without automatically applying templates, publishing portal changes, sending messages, or changing requirements.
11. Open Programs > GoodNearby Site to review the GoodNearby page for missing public description, featured Mission readiness, contact readiness, and volunteer-facing clarity gaps.
12. Open Missions, use AI Status filters for AI flagged, underfill risk, capacity risk, and ready Missions, then edit each Mission's GoodNearby visibility from the Mission editor when public site, marketplace, search, sharing, location, or signup settings need changes.
13. Update GoodNearby public copy, contact details, FAQs, and the program logo when needed. Program leaders do not control hub or program site colors; organization branding controls the background, primary color, and accent color.
14. Open Programs > GoodNearby Site to preview the volunteer-facing portal, review pending publishing requests, and confirm the live public state matches the current program status.
15. Check that program settings, portal content, and Mission requirements match real operations.
16. Assign program staff to follow-up work when a blocker does not need leader review.
17. Recheck the dashboard or readiness panel after updates.

Configure Mission Operations

Outcome: publish or adjust a Mission without surprising volunteers or losing the audit trail.

1. Open Programs > Schedule, then create or edit the Mission.
2. When creating a new Mission, use Start faster with a Mission template at the top of the builder to prefill saved requirements, contacts, participation rules, and volunteer-facing settings for the selected program.
3. Use Edit templates beside the Mission template picker, or open Programs > Template Builder, when saved templates need to be created, copied from starters, updated, or deleted.
4. In the Template Builder, review the template coverage score and fill missing high-value fields when possible so the next Mission starts 70-90% complete.
5. Use AI Assist setup tips to check whether the Mission draft has clear description, arrival details, capacity, roles, and requirements.
6. Use Mission Operations to set scheduled publish timing, define registration and cancellation windows, and confirm the volunteer-facing contact card.
7. Keep Auto-promote waitlist enabled only when a newly opened confirmed spot should immediately advance the oldest waitlisted volunteer.
8. When updating a published or scheduled Mission, run Preview impact before saving so you can review registration, reminder, eligibility, capacity, report impact, and AI Intelligence edit guidance.
9. Review the AI edit guidance for affected volunteers, pending or waitlisted records, risk level, and suggested notification steps. AidOrbit does not notify volunteers or change requirements from this preview.
10. On the Mission detail page, use Find AI volunteer matches when Orbit flags an underfill risk. Review each match and the source summary before starting outreach.
11. From Calendar, open a Mission shift preview and use Assign volunteers when you need to manually place approved program volunteers into a shift. AidOrbit records the staff-assisted registration and blocks capacity, requirement, and schedule-conflict problems unless an allowed staff override path is used.
12. From Calendar, open an Event preview and use Assign volunteers when staff need to manually RSVP approved program volunteers to the Event instead of waiting for self-service RSVP.
13. For Galaxy plans, use Prepare Plan in the dashboard AI Coordinator panel, approve the plan after review, then stage approved steps through the owning communications, reporting, readiness, or staffing workflow.
14. Confirm any capacity warnings before saving if the proposed shift capacity would drop below current confirmed registrations.
15. Review the recent Mission audit entries when you need to verify who changed the Mission, what areas changed, and whether volunteer-facing follow-up is needed.
16. Use the saved share link or calendar link only after the current Mission changes are confirmed.

Coordinate Program Staff

Outcome: make sure program staff have focused work and the right context.

1. Open the program workspace or Program Staff.
2. Review who is assigned to the program and what work they own.
3. Use tasks, notes, or communications to hand off applicant review, shift coverage, day-of attendance, or volunteer follow-up.
4. Keep sensitive or organization-wide work with the correct organization role.
5. When the last governance owner is changing roles or leaving the program, assign the replacement first so approvals, portal publishing, reports, and queued communications do not become orphaned.
6. Confirm the staff member can see the assigned program, location/site, Mission, shift, group, or team before relying on the handoff.
7. Use the narrowest scope that matches the job:
   • Program scope for ongoing program operations, program GoodNearby page edits, reports, exports, and communications.
   • Location/site or department scope for multi-program work inside a specific site or service line.
   • Mission or shift scope for day-of check-in, roster, kiosk, and attendance help.
   • Group or team scope for group roster, team response, group communications, and group impact reporting.

Delegate a Mission-day Check-In Lead

From the Mission day-of roster, open the ICS 203 Organization Assignment List and choose a confirmed Mission participant under Delegate Mission-day duties. A Check-In Lead can view only that Mission's minimum day-of roster. The delegation does not grant access to sibling Missions, other Programs, Organization settings, reports, exports, Mission editing, or Volunteer assignments. Revoke the duty from the same list when the handoff ends.

Send Program Communications

Outcome: send one clear program-scoped message.

1. Open Tasks > Messages > Send Updates.
2. Choose the assigned program and saved segment.
3. Apply a template or write what changed, who is affected, when it matters, and what recipients should do. Disaster Response / Emergency Management Programs may include deployment assignment, safety update, and demobilization templates when that Program profile is enabled.
4. Use AI Assist Draft for a short reviewed message, or AI Assist Check to review Mission terminology, timing, location, and broad-audience risk.
5. Review included and excluded recipients, channel coverage, guardian-consent blockers, and recent sent messages before continuing.
6. If AidOrbit flags a duplicate operational send, confirm it only when the same scoped audience truly needs the repeat.
7. Send now or schedule the message. Scheduled sends re-check live Mission status, cancellations, and recipient eligibility before delivery.
8. Monitor delivery status, skipped recipients, Mission replies, and resend only when the same scoped audience should receive the update again.

Check Program Reporting

Outcome: understand program performance without exposing unrelated organization-wide operations.

1. Open Reports or the assigned program analytics surface.
2. Filter to the assigned program and reporting period.
3. Review applications, roster health, attendance, hours, cancellations, readiness, and mission outcomes.
4. For Disaster Response / Emergency Management Programs, keep spontaneous intake notes, credential claims, readiness follow-up, and deployment assignments tied to the same assigned program before approving Mission access or assigning a volunteer to a Mission shift.
5. For Disaster Response / Emergency Management Programs with after-action reporting enabled, use incident summary and after-action reports to review Program-scoped Mission, assignment, attendance, approved-hour, and incident counts before closeout.
6. Use the Program Leader Mission Performance Google Data Studio report when you need fill rate, attendance, incidents, and service hours by Mission.
7. Use the Program Leader Service Hours Google Data Studio report when you need hour totals by month, program, and review status.
8. Use Basic report summary when you need a short Launch AI Assist summary of already-computed metrics.
9. Use Orbit narrative when you need a reviewed trend narrative from the same authorized report metrics.
10. Narrow the report to the assigned location/site, department, Mission, shift, group, or team when the report is not meant to be program-wide.
11. Investigate unusual changes before sharing results.
12. Export, download, or schedule reports only when the scope, audience, and your export permission are correct.

Manage Recognition Workflows

Outcome: recognize verified Mission impact with approval and privacy controls.

1. Open Volunteers > Hours & Recognition.
2. Review active milestone rules, Program Staff recommendations, pending recognition approvals, and the privacy-aware leaderboard preview.
3. Run Check rules after hours approvals or post-Mission closeout to create approval-ready recognition items.
4. Approve badge awards and thank-you messages only when they match verified hours or Mission participation.
5. Respect recognition, thank-you, and leaderboard opt-outs; skipped recipients should remain excluded from messages and public rankings.
6. Use Annual export for recognition planning and appreciation events, not verified certificates, transcripts, service PDFs, or QR verification.

Review Or Capture Incidents

Outcome: keep safety and compliance reports tied to the right Mission.

1. Open Missions > Mission Command, Programs > Schedule, or the affected Mission detail page.
2. Use Report incident or Report Safety Issue when staff need to capture a safety event, injury, hazard, equipment issue, conduct concern, or near-miss.
3. Set severity, incident type, restricted visibility, escalation path, location, actions taken, and photos when available.
4. Ask volunteers to report from My Schedule when they have first-hand shift context, photos, or witness details.
5. Review incident reporting from Reports when you need trends, severity counts, or follow-up lists by Mission.
6. For Disaster Response / Emergency Management Programs running Incident Mode, open Programs > Incident Mode to manage active incident records and operational periods.
7. Assign follow-up to program staff or organization leadership based on severity and scope.
8. Review submitted Mission Photos from Programs > GoodNearby Site > Media Library and publish only photos that should be visible on the portal and to other volunteers.
9. Confirm the Mission record, communications, and after-action notes reflect any required next steps.

Common Problems

I cannot see a program

Ask an organization leader to confirm your program assignment and role. Program Leader access should be tied to assigned programs, not every organization workspace.

A volunteer is blocked from a mission

Open the mission and volunteer profile. Check program membership, application status, required credentials, training, certifications, expiration dates, shift capacity, signup window, and schedule conflicts before changing anything. Use a staff override only when your role allows it and you can enter the reason for the audit trail.

A volunteer needs manual hours recorded

Open the volunteer profile from the roster or global search, then choose Record hours in the profile header. Enter the service date, hours, assigned program, notes, and any proof files. Program-scoped users can only record hours for volunteers in their assigned programs.

A volunteer has moved away

Open the volunteer profile from the roster or global search. Use More > Archive volunteer or Edit program info, set the program status to Archived, and enter the reason. AidOrbit records the reason in the volunteer's program-specific notes. If the volunteer returns, open the same profile, set the program status back to Active, and enter the reactivation reason.