Case Study

What is Salem Free Clinics?

Salem Free Clinics offers medical, dental, and counseling services. It all began in 2005 as an outreach of West Salem Foursquare Church, operating out of a local middle school gym, providing free medical care to community members who lacked health insurance. From those humble beginnings, it has grown to handle some 6,000 appointments annually.

What was scheduling like at Salem before switching to Volunteer Scheduler Pro?

When Renay Barnes, Salem's former volunteer coordinator came on board, the clinic used scheduling software that was "outdated and cumbersome," as she described it. "I had to learn the old system first," Renay recalled. "We have 400-plus volunteers, and I would keep little notes about their preferences…. I can't remember all that! Just sending the weekly reminders alone took hours and hours."

How has Volunteer Scheduler Pro changed your volunteer scheduling process?

When Salem transitioned to Volunteer Scheduler Pro, Renay was thrilled with the difference it made.

"Volunteer Scheduler Pro made it so much easier than it used to be," she said. "It let me accomplish a lot more in my role because it saved so many hours – not just the scheduling, but also not having to take all these calls from people. Instead, they could schedule themselves, and then I could access those changes at my convenience."

She also liked that she could now do her scheduling remotely from home or while away from the office. "I could do all the scheduling on my computer. I had it on my phone, too. So when someone asked me, "Am I on Thursday?" I could just look at my phone and say, "Yes, you are!"

She also enjoyed the ability to personalize emails, using the volunteers' first names instead of a generic salutation. Quickly creating templates to instruct new volunteers how to log in and navigate the VSP app was really helpful. "We used Announcements for a poll to ask how many of our providers were vaccinated" during the recent pandemic, Renay said, "and then used custom fields to track the date of their second COVID shot."

Volunteers found VSP to be very user-friendly. "They could see where the needs are, add themselves, or cancel if a conflict has come up," she said. "They could also take care of getting a replacement before the day arrives." And Renay liked that VSP reminded her when she had Web Forms to process so she could double-check every change a volunteer made.

VSP "is very well thought out," she affirmed. "And the customer service was top-notch and personal!"

How has Volunteer Scheduler Pro changed scheduling for your volunteers and staff?

Renay recently moved on to another position elsewhere, leaving a void at Salem Free Clinics. Hired to succeed her in February 2022 was Trevor Morgan, who had never used VSP and who had never previously handled scheduling for more than 20 volunteers at a time. How would he adapt to Salem and VSP? For Trevor, it was a piece of cake.

"VSP was pretty intuitive to get the hang of," he said. "My predecessor had really detailed notes about how to add new volunteers and how to create schedules."
So quickly did Trevor catch on to VSP that he found himself training his trainer. "When I was being trained, I actually taught my trainer how to search for specific volunteers rather than scrolling through the database trying to find names," he recalled.
In the few months, he's been at the helm as Salem's volunteer scheduler, Trevor has discovered new tricks and shortcuts that VSP has to offer, such as its Repeat function.
"I figured out that I don't have to individually add our consistent volunteers to each day of the month that they are here," he pointed out. "The Repeat function on VSP is great for adding multiple days a month for the same volunteer, and it saves me a ton of time."
What he appreciates most is the automatic email function. "I love the automatic email that is sent to scheduled volunteers so that I don't have to send out reminder emails," Trevor said. "I also really like how I can click on names of volunteers and see the different days that they are going to be here."
So it's smooth sailing for Trevor and VSP as he helps Salem Free Clinics maintain the volunteer staff levels necessary to serve the health care needs of the poor within the local community.
But he's eager to learn tips and tricks from other VSP schedulers. "I would love to hear how other organizations are utilizing the program!" he said.