Crew Manager Support Forum

Crew Manager was developed using an "open visibility" model where Crew may set their availability and see everyone's availability for events. One boat proposed a different philosophy to setup Crew for various events. Rather than setting a schedule and blasting an email out to the Crew to sign up, they prefer to invite different sailor groups to certain events. They would like to keep the Crew list hidden so the various groups may not see who is scheduled on events.

Crew Manager now incorporates a "closed visibility" feature that was released in September 2019 with software version 2.6. A separate Supplement to the Skipper's manual was created to cover this Crew Manager update. The Skipper Manual Version 2.6.1 includes information in the supplement

Summary

• Skipper develops a schedule
• Crew members are contacted individually by the Skipper to determine availability for specific events. Different people are asked to crew for various events on the boat schedule.
• Crew Members respond directly to the Skipper indicating their availability for events they were contacted about, or the Skipper may allow the Crew to set their availability directly on the boat website.
• The Skipper desires to keep the crew lists for each event private, so people are not able to see who is on the crew for other events. The Skipper may designate certain people as "visible" so they may be seen on Crew lists by everyone.
• Other Crew Manager features operate normally such as automated event notification where the reminder email will contain a full list of everyone schedule for the event.

Crew Manager has been updated with settings to accommodate "closed visibility". There is no change required should an existing or future Skipper want to maintain the “open visibility” approach as it is the default setting. The following summarizes changes to settings screens and menu items to enable the “closed visibility”approach.

• Crew Manager Modify Settings located in the WordPress Admin panel includes two pairs of new checkboxes. The first pair allows the Skipper to hide or show Crew on the Calendar, Crew Availability and Crew Assignments lists. The second enables or prevents Crew from setting availability online. If prevented, the Skipper must enter availability for each Crew member.
• Crew Manager Manage Groups located in the WordPress Admin panel includes a new group called Show Crew. This group allows selected users to be always visible on the Calendar, Crew Availability and Crew Assignments lists when the Hide Crew option is selected in Crew Manager Modify Settings. The Skipper may want to check their own Show Crew setting so they are always seen on Crew lists.
• Calendar events with the associated Crew lists are modified by WordPress Admin panel settings to hide or display Crew, and allow or deny Crew the ability to set their availability online. Crew members added to the group Show Crew will always display on the Calendar crew lists. A Skipper or Admin who is logged in will see all Crew members, while others only see those that the Skipper has added to the Show Crew group.
• Crew Availability displays a logged in Crew member’s availability for all events if prevent updates is checked in the WordPress Admin panel If the Skipper allows updates in the WordPress Admin panel, the availability dropdown will be displayed and availability may be changed and submitted.
• Crew Assignments for all events will display crew marked with Show Crew, and the logged in Crew member’s availability if prevent updates is checked in the WordPress Admin panel If the Skipper sets allow updates in the WordPress Admin panel, the availability dropdown will be displayed and the Crew member may change and submit their own availability.