Next year, you do not start from scratch

A festival, a race, a village fair: it is the same event coming round again, with the same teams, the same positions, roughly the same people. Yet with most tools the second year costs as much as the first: everything is rebuilt, the same hourly needs are typed in again, and volunteers are asked for an address they have already given.

One event, several editions

Your event is not a database wiped every January. It holds its editions, 2025's and 2026's, and each one keeps its volunteers, its schedules and its log. You open the next one without touching the previous one, which stays readable among your past events for as long as you keep it.

What copies itself over

When the new edition is created, everything that depends on nothing else is carried over without your asking: locations, tasks, volunteer groups, perks and their rules, the automatic emails you had rewritten, the availability slots you offer, the badges with their layout, and the documents attached to the event itself.

Files are duplicated, not shared: reworking this year's badge leaves last year's alone. And the copy can be replayed safely, an item already present is never created twice.

The teams, on the new dates

Teams and their positions come over next, and that is where the one real difficulty of the exercise lies: the dates have moved. The festival was on 12 and 13 July, it is now on the 11th and 12th.

So you give each team its new start date, and everything inside it shifts by the same amount: the positions, their hourly needs, how many volunteers each slot calls for. The times do not move, only the days do. The bar that opened on Saturday from 2 pm to 6 pm opens on Saturday from 2 pm to 6 pm.

Whatever hung off a team or a position follows: its documents, its badges, its partner group, matched by name among the copies already made.

Volunteers are invited, not enrolled

This is the distinction that matters. Copying three hundred people into a new edition would produce a list that is simply wrong: a quarter have moved, two have had a baby, one has fallen out with you. So volunteers from the previous edition are invited, one at a time or all at once, and answer for themselves.

Three possible answers, which the list tells apart: coming, away this year, or no answer yet. So at any moment you know how many certain people you have, which a copied list would never have told you.

Whoever comes back signs in with their own account, finds their information already filled in, and only has to confirm when they are free. They do not give their address, their date of birth or their T-shirt size again.

A path, not a shopping list

Opening an edition follows four steps: the event's own details, the teams, inviting the volunteers, and that is it. The event remembers where you stopped, which counts for a task done once a year, usually in two or three sittings, and rarely alone.

Why it matters

In year one an organiser compares feature lists. In year two they compare how long it took to rebuild everything. Year two is what decides whether they stay, and it is the year most tools treat exactly like the first.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to rebuild everything each year?

No. A new edition carries over the previous one's setup: locations, tasks, groups, perks, badges, email templates, documents, then the teams and positions with their hourly needs.

Last year's hours no longer fall on the same days.

You give each team its new start date, and every position inside it shifts by the same amount while keeping its time of day. Last year's Saturday becomes this year's Saturday, still 2 pm to 6 pm.

Are last year's volunteers signed up automatically?

No, deliberately. They are invited and answer for themselves: coming, away this year, or no answer yet. Three hundred names copied over without their say-so is not a volunteer list.

Can I still look at the previous edition?

Yes. Each edition keeps its volunteers, its schedules and its log, and is listed among your past events. You delete it the day you no longer want it.

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