Blog / September 29th, 2021
Managing Enquiries on GO
As managing waiting lists are becoming more important, we’re creating a series of updates to help you through the process on GO. This month, we’re looking at Young Member enquiries and moving them through the enquiry process.
Managing waiting lists is important for good GDPR practice, for ensuring others could easily take over if needed, and in allowing the data to be analysed at higher levels to inform strategic work.
This series will also highlight the answers to some of the common questions we get to the member support team at the Anglia region office. More detailed information on all these processes is available in the Help Zone on your volunteer login on GO and you can always contact the Anglia team using the Contact Us form if you can’t find the answer to your question.
Received an enquiry for a space in your unit?
The unit’s main contact will receive an automated notification email about an enquiry for the unit. Log on to GO and navigate to your relevant unit.
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Click on the ‘Young Member Enquiries’ tab. This shows all new enquiries including those transferring and those brand new to guiding. Leave the enquiry status at ‘New Enquiry’ only until any action is taken, changing the status lets your commissioner know it’s being actioned.
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Email or phone the parent of the new enquiry to either offer a start date, a trial visit or inform them of your waiting list. Change the status to ‘Contacted’ and ‘Add a note’ to the enquiries record by selecting the ‘Edit Contact’ option.
By adding a note it means if the parent misses your message and contacts region office, county office or your commissioner they can see your action and point the parent in the right direction.
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Not heard anything back? The general rule to follow is that if you’ve tried twice, ideally by two different methods, and you’ve not heard anything in 28 days since trying, make a note using the ‘Edit Contact’ action and then select ‘Decided not to join’.
This removes them from your list. If the enquirer was a previous member (i.e transferring or transitioning) and then gets in contact the record can always be reinstated.
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Need to add to a waiting list due to unit numbers or age of enquirer? Before you move the record from ‘Contacted’ to ‘Waiting List’ make sure you’ve had confirmation from the parent (if not follow the not heard back point above).
Ensure the enquirer knows how long they can expect to wait and when they can expect to hear from you again. Use the ‘Edit Contact’ action to record this as a note before selecting the ‘Add to Waiting List’ option.
If the enquirer comes back and asks to transfer to another unit you can use the ‘Refer to Another Unit’ action to then select the relevant unit or ask your commissioner to assist as they can view waiting lists and unit capacities in a much larger area. Enquirers can also log in themselves and update their unit choices.
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You have space and they’ve contacted you back? Once you’ve organised the date of their first meeting, select the action ‘Meeting Arranged’, this will prompt you to add the date of the meeting.
You can then send out the starter form for them to bring with them on the first night.
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Following the meeting you can select ‘Decided not to join’ if it wasn’t for them, select ‘Refer to Another Unit’ if they’d prefer to try somewhere else or ‘Confirm Role’ to add them to your Young Member Roles.
You can then update their details from the new starter form and they’ll appear in your downloadable register and your downloadable emergency contact list.
We’ll have another topic on managing GO next month. If you have a request for a topic or would like some individual support please contact the member support team at the Anglia region office.