Availability, monthly caps, and blackout dates

The scheduler is only as good as what it knows about people's availability. Each minister can record the Mass they prefer, a limit on how often they serve, and the dates they cannot.

Where it lives

Ministries → Availability & Reminders holds three sub-tabs, because asking about a season and reminding people about it belong beside the answers themselves:

• Availability — the per-person record described below.
• Request availability — the note inviting everyone to update their dates before the rota is built, plus the census of who has answered and a Draft a nudge for the quiet ones.
• Reminders — the personalized service reminders for the fortnight ahead, and the "Mass changed" notice for a Mass you have moved.

Both of those last two used to be buttons on the schedule toolbar. Nothing sends from any of them by itself: Vianney drafts, you read it, you confirm once.

Find the person

The Availability sub-tab is one tight line per person who serves: their ministries, then a summary of whatever is set — "cap 2/mo", "away Nov 3–Nov 10", "prefers sun 10:30", or "no limits set".

• Type in the search box to narrow the list by name or by ministry. Somebody not on any roster yet still turns up, as a chip under Not on a roster yet — click it to open them anyway.
• Use the sort dropdown for Name A–Z, Most ministries, or Away soonest.
• Click a line to open that person underneath; click it again to fold them away.

What you can set for one person

• Max times per month — the most they want to serve in a month. Leave it blank for no limit, or click No cap to clear one.
• Preferred Mass — one for each ministry they belong to, because a lector may want a different Mass than a cantor does. Auto-fill leans toward it; it never forces it.
• Can't-serve dates — under Add an exclusion, give a From date, an optional To date, whether it applies to all ministries or just one, and a reason if you want. Dates a parishioner entered themselves are marked from portal.

Availability is opt-out: Vianney assumes a person is available unless a date is marked. There is nothing for anyone to accept or confirm.

Limits that reach wider than one person

Some limits are not about an individual. Under Setup → Limits you can say, for the whole parish or for one ministry, things like "at most one liturgy per weekend", "no more than two assignments in a week", or "at least twelve hours between commitments". Where more than one applies, the strictest wins — and Vianney always names which setting won, so nobody has to work it out.

A household can carry its own away dates and its own ceiling, under Rosters → Households. Somebody counts as away if either they or their household is away.

Who sets it

• The office sets any of it from the Availability sub-tab.
• Parishioners can set their own monthly limit, their preferred Mass, and their can't-serve dates from the portal — each is its own switch in Settings, so you can enable as much or as little as you like. This is the cheapest way to keep the data fresh.

How the scheduler uses it

Auto-fill never places somebody on a day they are away, never takes anyone past a monthly cap or a serving limit, and prefers people at their preferred Mass. The hand-editing screen applies exactly the same rules and names the reason whenever somebody cannot serve, so the two never disagree.

Tips

• A monthly cap counts every live schedule, so someone capped at two will not be over-served by two overlapping seasons. An archived schedule stops counting altogether.
• Encourage ministers to keep their own availability current in the portal — it is the single biggest thing that makes auto-fill produce a clean first pass.
• Safe Environment clearance is a separate gate alongside dates and caps: being free and under-cap is not enough if the ministry requires clearance. See Setting up ministry rosters for how the gate works.