title: “Calendar, for member artists”

Calendar, for member artists

This one is written for member artists, not for gallery staff. It covers the Calendar page you see after signing in to your gallery’s member area — the page that shows what your gallery has coming up, and where you take a turn on the desk.

The page used to be called Shifts, and before that Volunteer. Same page, same web address — if you bookmarked it, your bookmark still works.

Staff planning the shifts want The gallery rota instead.

New here? Start with Signing in.

The calendar-only screen (Calendar Login)

If your gallery’s website has a Calendar Login link at the bottom, it opens a simpler screen that shows only the shift calendar. You sign in the same way as always — your own email address and a 6-digit code, never a shared password.

The screen reads from top to bottom:

1. My shifts — every shift you are working from today onward. Each one has a button, I can’t make it.
2. The calendar — the month, written the way the gallery’s calendar always has been: the start time and last name, like 11am Smith, and a blank line (11am ______) for a place nobody has taken yet. Tap a day to see its shifts.
3. On a day, each shift that still needs somebody has a big Take this shift button.

Everything takes two presses: the button, then Yes on a sentence that names the day, date and time.

• Take this shift, then Yes, it’s mine. It appears under My shifts straight away.
• I can’t make it on a shift that is coming up soon (this month, or the first few days of next month): choose the member who is covering for you from the list (type part of their name to find them), then Yes. We email them and the Calendar Manager. The shift shows as theirs with your name beside it.
• I can’t make it on a shift further ahead: Yes, give it up, and someone else can take it. If a member has agreed to cover it instead, choose A member is covering for me — choose them.

If something can’t be done, the screen says why in one sentence, and gives the Calendar Manager’s email address. You can always email the Calendar Manager instead and they will sign you up or change a shift for you.

Member area at the bottom takes you to the rest of the member portal, and Sign out signs you out — always sign out on a shared or public computer.

What the page is for

Your gallery puts three sorts of thing on this calendar, all on one month:

• the shifts you can claim — a Saturday on the desk, an afternoon at an opening;
• the meetings you may want to turn up to (an online meeting says Online and shows its meeting details, with any web address as a link that opens in a new tab);
• the exhibitions and events the gallery has on.

You pick a date on the month, and everything on that date is listed in a panel beside it, with the buttons to sign up or cancel.

Everything here is scoped to your galleries, and nothing on this page can sign you up or cancel you without you pressing something.

Finding and taking a shift

The Calendar is a month, on a computer, a tablet and a phone alike. There is no List view any more, and nothing to switch between.

In the member portal, open Calendar. From the top down:

1. My upcoming shifts — a strip of every shift of yours from today onward, across all months: the ones you are on, the ones you have asked for, and the ones somebody picked for you. Each shows the date, the time and the place. Press one and the calendar moves to that month and picks that date. If you have none, it says You have no shifts coming up. Pick a date below to find one.
2. The steps. Just above the calendar, in three steps. On a very wide screen (1280 pixels and up): 1. Click a date. 2. That day’s shifts show on the right. 3. Press Sign up on an open shift. On anything narrower: 1. Tap a date. 2. That day’s shifts show below. 3. Press Sign up on an open shift.
3. Click (or tap) a date. Click anywhere in the day’s box, its date number or one of its entries. The date is outlined, and its panel lists that day’s shifts, then its classes, then its other entries (meetings, receptions and exhibitions). On a very wide screen (1280 pixels and up) the panel sits to the right of the month and stays in view as you scroll. On anything narrower (a smaller laptop, a tablet or a phone) it sits below the full-width month, and the page scrolls down to it when you tap.
4. Press Sign up on a shift with room (or Request this shift, if your gallery asks you to request). Cancel, Withdraw, Name a stand-in and Pick for them are in the same panel, beside the shifts they belong to.

Today is picked when the page opens, so the panel already shows today. A day with nothing on says Nothing on this day. Moving to another month with ← or → clears the pick, and the panel says Pick a date on the calendar to see its shifts here. until you pick one.

An entry that runs for several days, like a three-day show, is on every day it runs, in the month and in the panel.

The month reads the same way as the gallery’s public calendar:

• Days the gallery is closed are shaded, from the gallery’s posted opening hours. Nothing to come in for on a shaded day.
• Each place on a shift is colored on its own. A place that still needs somebody is red and shows a blank line, like 2:30pm ______. A place somebody has taken shows their name and is not red. A full shift has no red at all, and a meeting or a show is never red — red means the desk is uncovered.
• Your own place is highlighted and marked with a tick — only your line, not the whole shift. If you are on a two-person shift and the other place is still free, you see your name highlighted and, under it, the other place in red with a blank line, so you can tell at a glance that it still needs somebody.
• Each gallery shift in a day shows one line per place: the start time and the last name of whoever is on it, like 11am Smith. A member covering for another reads 11am Smith (Jones), the same way the roster shows it. A place nobody has taken is the start time and a blank line, 2:30pm ______, so a two-person shift with one person on it reads 11am Smith and 11am ______. A shift with more places than fit in the day ends with a line like +3 more · 2 open, red when any of the hidden places is open.
• The day panel lists the same shift one line per person, with your own line ticked and highlighted, and the free places on a red line of their own, like 2:30pm–6pm · 1 open. If your gallery shows surnames only, the day panel reads the same way, and two people with one surname on a shift get an initial, 11am G. Smith. You only ever see the names of members of your own gallery.
• Meetings, receptions and shows are in the same day, by name.
• The end time and full names are in the panel: it shows the full times and names and lets you sign up or cancel from there. If your gallery shows start times only, the panel shows the start time, 11am, instead of 11am–3pm. On a phone a long name is cut short in the day; the panel shows it in full.

Use the ← and → buttons to move between months. A short legend above the month explains the markings.

Entries that need no shifts

The gallery can mark any entry No shifts required. Such an entry has no rota by design: it still shows on its days, by name, and in the panel with its place and description, but with no sign-up buttons and nothing said about shifts.

Going fast, Help needed, Popular

When the gallery has turned on engagement signals for an entry, its shifts can carry a badge: Going fast (three quarters or more taken), Help needed (a quarter or less taken, within three weeks) or Popular (the open shift most people have picked). When you pick a date, a short line under that day’s shifts in the panel says how sign-ups are going. Only the gallery’s members and calendar managers see these; the public sign-up page does not.

”Only shifts that need somebody”

A checkbox above the month. It is off when the page opens. Tick it and every day with no shift that still needs somebody fades, so the days you can help on stand out.

• It hides nothing. A faded day still shows its shifts, meetings and shows, and you can still pick it.
• Days with your own shift stay bright, even when the shift is full. You will always see what you are committed to.
• Untick it to bring every day back to full strength.

Who is on a shift

Each shift says who has claimed it, not just how many people:

When two or more people are on a shift, each one is a line of their own, with the time, and one more line says how many places are still open. In the day panel, nobody is hidden behind a count. A shift with one person, or nobody, reads as the table below.

Names are shown for gallery shifts. For a community volunteer event — the kind the public can sign up to through a link — you see how full it is but not who is on it, because those sign-ups can be members of the public and their names are the gallery’s to hold, not everyone’s to read.

The gallery’s shift rules

Your gallery can ask every member to read its shift rules before they take a shift. If it does, the first time you open Calendar you see the rules instead of the calendar, with one checkbox: I have read the gallery’s shift rules and agree to follow them. Tick it and press Continue, and the calendar opens. You only do this once. The gallery keeps a record that you accepted, which version of the rules you were shown, and when.

Until you tick it you cannot sign up for a shift, name a stand-in, or let another member pick shifts for you. The server refuses all three, not only the page, and says: Read and accept the gallery’s shift rules on the Calendar first. A member you name as your stand-in must have accepted the rules too.

If the gallery changes its rules and asks everyone to accept again, the rules come back the next time you open Calendar, with the new wording. Your earlier acceptance is kept as the record of what you agreed then. If the rules change while you are reading them, pressing Continue says so; read the new ones and tick the box again.

Sending feedback to the gallery

Feedback (the speech bubble at the top of every portal page) sends a message to your gallery’s owner and administrators. Write what you want to say and press Send; you are told Thank you. Your feedback has gone to the gallery. It records who you are, which page you sent it from, and when. Only your own gallery’s owner and administrators read it: other members never see it, and neither does anyone at another gallery.

Signing up and cancelling

Pick the date, then press Sign up on a shift with room in the panel. Once you are on it, your place in the panel is ticked and highlighted, and the shift offers Cancel.

• A shift shows a greyed Full button when it has no places left, and a greyed Closed button when the gallery has stopped taking sign-ups — those are different things.
• A shift that has already ended says This shift has ended instead of Sign up (or Request this shift), and its open places are no longer shown in red: there is nothing left to cover. “Ended” means its end time has passed by your gallery’s own clock, so a shift later today can still be taken until it finishes.
• A place the gallery is keeping for somebody counts as taken, so a shift can read Full with fewer names on it than places. You are not told who it is being kept for. If the gallery told you a shift was yours and you cannot take it, ask them to confirm you onto it — that is one press on their side.
• You can only ever cancel your own place. The page does not offer, and the server does not accept, cancelling anybody else’s.
• If you are leaving the gallery, shifts dated in any month after your membership’s end month show Sign up (or Request this shift) greyed out, with “Your membership ends in month year*, so you cannot sign up for shifts after that.”* Shifts in your end month are unaffected, and you can still Cancel a place you already have. The gallery cannot put you on those shifts from the roster either. See My Membership.

Signing up family with you

You can bring up to 3 more people (4 in total) onto the same shift, for example your daughter. In the panel, press + Add family beside Sign up, and enter each person’s Name (required). Email and Phone are optional, so you can add a child or someone without email; a phone reads (xxx) xxx-xxxx. Press + Add another person for each extra person, or Remove to take one off. The button then reads, for example, Sign up (3 people).

• Each person takes one place. If the shift does not have a place for everyone, the panel says so (for example “Only 2 spots left, not enough for all 3 of you”) and nobody is signed up: a group goes on together or not at all.
• Someone who is already on the shift (same email), or the same person added twice, is refused by name.
• The people you bring are your guests. They do not count toward your monthly limit, and the gallery’s rules about stand-ins and picking shifts for other members are about you, not them. You cannot add people when you pick a shift for another member.
• You get one email listing everyone; anyone you added who gave an email gets their own, with a link that cancels only their place.
• Your guests show under My upcoming shifts (“with their names”) and in the day panel, each marked (signed up by you) with its own Cancel button. Cancelling your own place leaves your guests on the shift; cancel them too if they are not coming.
• The Calendar Login screen does not have + Add family; use the Calendar page for that.

How far ahead you can sign up

Your gallery opens its calendar a set number of months ahead, two unless it has chosen otherwise: on 1 October, December opens. A shift in a month that is not open yet has no Sign up; the row says, for example, “Sign-up is open through November 2026. December 2026 opens for sign-up on October 1, 2026.” You can still see the shift, and who is on it.

How many shifts you can take in a month

When the gallery makes a month’s shifts it can set the most shifts one member may take that month. Once you hold that many, Sign up on the rest of the month is greyed out and the row says how many you hold and what the limit is, for example “You hold 2 shifts in October 2026 and the gallery’s limit is 2, so you cannot take another.” You still see every open shift. Ask the Calendar Manager if you need more: they can put you on one past the limit.

• A shift somebody picked for you (see below) counts toward your limit.
• A shift you gave to a stand-in still counts toward yours. A shift you work as somebody’s stand-in does not count toward yours.

When a shift is too close to drop

A gallery shift in the current month has no Cancel. In its place the row says “This shift is too close to drop. If you cannot work it, name a stand-in.” and offers Name a stand-in. A shift in a later month can be dropped freely: press Cancel, the place is open again at once, and the gallery is not told. Near the end of a month the next month’s first few days count as this month: from the gallery’s last two open days of a month, a shift on the first three open days of the next month is too close to drop as well. Days the gallery is closed are not counted. Your gallery can switch this off or change the two numbers. Meetings and other events you signed up for are not affected.

Naming a stand-in

If you cannot make a shift you hold and another member has agreed to cover it, go to Calendar in the member portal, press Name a stand-in beside the shift, choose them from the list, and press Ask them. The button stays greyed until you have chosen somebody, and Keep it closes the list without changing anything.

• They must accept first. Naming somebody sends them a request; the shift stays yours until they accept it. They are emailed, and the request waits for them in their own portal. Beside your shift you see Waiting for Ben Okafor to accept, with the time the request runs out.
• When they accept, the shift comes off your calendar and onto theirs. The roster and the calendar show their name with yours in parentheses, for example Ben Okafor (Ada Kessler), the way the paper calendar reads. You are both emailed, and the Calendar Manager is copied on the same message.
• When they decline, the shift stays yours and you are emailed. You can name somebody else.
• If nobody answers within 48 hours, or by the time the shift starts if that is sooner, the request runs out. The shift stays yours, and you and the Calendar Manager are both emailed, so you can name somebody else or arrange cover.
• Changed your mind? Press Withdraw beside the shift while you are waiting. The shift was always yours. Giving up the shift with Cancel withdraws the request too.
• One request at a time. While one member is deciding, you cannot ask a second one for the same shift; withdraw the first request.
• Who is on the list. Only current members of your own gallery who have a member portal login (they answer the request there). You are not on it, nor is anybody who is already on that shift, nobody whose membership has ended or ends before the shift, and nobody from another gallery. The server refuses anybody else too, not just the list.
• A stand-in can name a stand-in. The parentheses keep showing the first member, and the gallery’s record keeps the whole chain.
• No money. CartonCrew records a name and nothing else. If you pay your stand-in, that is between the two of you.

When somebody asks you to stand in

When another member names you as their stand-in, you are emailed, and the request appears at the top of Calendar in the member portal under Shifts offered to you. It names the member, the shift and the time by which to answer.

• Press Accept and the shift is yours: it moves onto your calendar, and you, the member who asked and the Calendar Manager are emailed.
• Press Decline and the shift stays with the member who asked. They are emailed.
• If you do nothing, the request runs out after 48 hours, or when the shift starts if that is sooner, and the shift stays with them.

Only you can answer a request made to you. If you use the shift calendar from the gallery website’s Calendar Login, the same requests appear there under Members asking you to cover, with Yes, I’ll work it and No, I can’t.

If your gallery asks you to request a shift

Some galleries decide who takes each shift rather than letting the first press win. If yours does, the button on a gallery shift reads Request this shift instead of Sign up. Nothing else about the page changes.