Volunteer Registration

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Should you delete your clinic registration before the trip down, and have paid for the bus online, we will record the need for issuing a refund, and you will be contacted by Thousand Smiles.
Should you delete your clinic registration before the trip down, and have paid for the bus online, we will record the need for issuing a refund, and you will be contacted by Thousand Smiles.
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== Hotel Deposits ==
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Starting in August of 2014, we will be accepting online deposits for hotel reservations. We are doing this to try and reduce the number of people who request a hotel but then do not show up or make use of the reservation. We suspect that some of this is due to volunteers who pre-registered for the clinic using the recurring registration feature, and the subsequent year no longer are attending the clinic, or they are attending but not actually planning to use the hotel reservation specified in the recurring registration. Regardless, we expect that the deposit requests will help us better get to the truth of who needs a hotel, and who does not.
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When you register for a clinic (or are automatically registered via a recurring clinic registration), and you have requested hotel accomodations, you will be sent an e-mail with instructions on how to pay a $50 deposit online. Reminders to pay will be sent weekly until the day of the clinic.
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The e-mail will contain a link that allows you to complete the transaction with a credit card. Click on the link and you will be sent to our website, and a form will be displayed that contains your name and the total due. Verify the information in this form, and then submit. You will
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then be taken to our merchant banking site where you will be able to enter your credit card information and complete the payment.
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The result of the payment will be displayed in the web browser. On success, you will also be e-mailed with information about the transaction. Print out that e-mail and bring it with you to the clinic as a receipt.
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We will work with the hotel to transfer deposits for use against your hotel total.  You are responsible for paying the hotel bill, minus the deposit, at checkout time. Please bring your e-mail confirmation printout to help in the case of disputes. While we don't anticipate problems, should there be miscommunication between Thousand Smiles and the hotel insists that you pay the entire hotel bill, please go ahead and pay the bill and then contact us, and we will work with you to refund you the deposit amount as promptly as possible.
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Note that the payment page is a third party site and is protected by HTTPS. Thousand Smiles does not know what your credit card information is, and does not store this information.
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Should you delete your clinic registration before the trip down, and have paid for the hotel deposit online, we will record the need for issuing a refund, and you will be contacted by Thousand Smiles.
== Changing your registration ==
== Changing your registration ==

Revision as of 05:57, 16 June 2014

Contents

Getting help and reporting issues

Help may be obtained via e-mail. Please send mail to thousand-smiles-registrations@googlegroups.com to report bugs, request features, or ask questions not answered by the wiki.

Terms of Service

As a volunteer, you are required to register for clinics online in order to participate. By registering, you help us better coordinate our volunteers, and make accurate transportation and hotel arrangements for our volunteers, as necessary. We also use the site to obtain vital information, such as an emergency contact should the need arise.

The first time you login to the volunteer site, or anytime the terms of service agreement is changed, you will be given an opportunity to view the terms of service and either disagree, or agree. If you agree, you will be allowed to register for clinics. If you decline, you will be logged off the system. If you decline, your account won't be deleted. Rather, you will be asked to accept the terms of service each time you try to login, and you will only be allowed to login once you accept. Once you accept, you won't be asked again.

The terms of service are subject to change at any time. When they change, we will attempt to notify you by e-mail, and provide a link that allows you to view and accept or reject the new terms.

The following link details the current terms of service. You can access these terms from the volunteer site as well by clicking on a link at the top of the page once logged in.

Click here Volunteer Terms of Service to view the latest terms of service.

Privacy Policy

Our privacy policy is simple.

  • We will not share, disclose, lease, or sell contact information with anyone, unless required by law
  • We will not ask you for, or store, financial information. When needed, payment for services will be handled by third-party sites who we believe have reasonable measures in place to protect your privacy, but we do not warrant this and cannot be held liable for any issues that occur with your use of that third party site
  • We will not ask you for your social security number
  • Except for use in organizing or running the clinic, we will not publicize the fact that you will be attending a clinic
  • Please use a secure password. A combination of random letters or numbers are best, do not use pet names, spouse names, or words that might be found in a dictionary. Do not use passwords that you are using on other sites, such as your e-mail account or banking account. Use a password that is reasonably easy to remember, but hard to guess. If you forget your password, you can use the "Forgot Password?" feature on the site to obtain a new one.

Video Tutorials

Where Do I Sign Up and Register For Clinics?

Visit http://www.thousandsmiles.org/new-registration

The remaining documentation on this page describes the volunteer system in more detail.

Accounts

Creating a new account

There are 3 steps to creating an account:

  • You will need to sign up. Part of the registration process will prompt for a valid username, e-mail and a password. You do that by clicking on the "Sign up" link on the top of the page.
  • Once you are signed up, the system will display a screen telling you an e-mail has been sent to you so that you can activate the account. You must read that e-mail, and click on the link to activate the account. You have seven days to activate the account. If you activate the account, then click on the activation link again, the system will display an error message indicating the account is already active. If you do not activate within seven days, you will need to return to the site and start over.
  • Once activated, you can login using the password you entered in step one. When you login the first time, you will be asked for profile information (name, contact info). Once filled in, you can access the rest of the site.

If not obvious already, you only need to create an account once. Subsequent visits to the site only require you to login.

You can reset the password at any time on an account by clicking the reset password link when not logged in. You can change the password using the change password link when logged in.

If you do not receive an e-mail when registering, be sure to enable thousandsmiles.org in your spam filters.

Registering For Clinics

Registering for a clinic

  • Log in using the username and password you used to create your account with. If you forgot your password, use the Reset password link to generate a new one.
  • Click on the "Clinic Registrations" link.
  • Click on "Register for an upcoming clinic"
  • Select the clinic you want to register for from the menu, then click Register.
  • Fill out the form that displays. Then click Register.

Your registration will be confirmed by an e-mail sent to your e-mail account.

Bus Payments

Starting in February of 2014, we will be accepting online payments for bus travel to and from the clinic.

Pre-paid seats (those paid for online before the day of use) are given priority. You may pay in cash on the bus the day of the clinic, but seating on the bus will not be guaranteed if you do, as priority will be given to those who pre-pay online.

When you register for a clinic (or are automatically registered via a recurring clinic registration), and you have selected bus travel, you will be sent an e-mail with instructions on how to pay online. Reminders to pay will be sent weekly until the day of the clinic.

The e-mail will contain a link that allows you to complete the transaction with a credit card. Click on the link and you will be sent to our website, and a form will be displayed that contains your name and the total due. Verify the information in this form, and then submit. You will then be taken to our merchant banking site where you will be able to enter your credit card information and complete the payment.

The result of the payment will be displayed in the web browser. On success, you will also be e-mailed with information about the transaction. Print out that e-mail and bring it with you to the bus as a receipt.

Note that the payment page is a third party site and is protected by HTTPS. Thousand Smiles does not know what your credit card information is, and does not store this information.

Should you delete your clinic registration before the trip down, and have paid for the bus online, we will record the need for issuing a refund, and you will be contacted by Thousand Smiles.

Hotel Deposits

Starting in August of 2014, we will be accepting online deposits for hotel reservations. We are doing this to try and reduce the number of people who request a hotel but then do not show up or make use of the reservation. We suspect that some of this is due to volunteers who pre-registered for the clinic using the recurring registration feature, and the subsequent year no longer are attending the clinic, or they are attending but not actually planning to use the hotel reservation specified in the recurring registration. Regardless, we expect that the deposit requests will help us better get to the truth of who needs a hotel, and who does not.

When you register for a clinic (or are automatically registered via a recurring clinic registration), and you have requested hotel accomodations, you will be sent an e-mail with instructions on how to pay a $50 deposit online. Reminders to pay will be sent weekly until the day of the clinic.

The e-mail will contain a link that allows you to complete the transaction with a credit card. Click on the link and you will be sent to our website, and a form will be displayed that contains your name and the total due. Verify the information in this form, and then submit. You will then be taken to our merchant banking site where you will be able to enter your credit card information and complete the payment.

The result of the payment will be displayed in the web browser. On success, you will also be e-mailed with information about the transaction. Print out that e-mail and bring it with you to the clinic as a receipt.

We will work with the hotel to transfer deposits for use against your hotel total. You are responsible for paying the hotel bill, minus the deposit, at checkout time. Please bring your e-mail confirmation printout to help in the case of disputes. While we don't anticipate problems, should there be miscommunication between Thousand Smiles and the hotel insists that you pay the entire hotel bill, please go ahead and pay the bill and then contact us, and we will work with you to refund you the deposit amount as promptly as possible.

Note that the payment page is a third party site and is protected by HTTPS. Thousand Smiles does not know what your credit card information is, and does not store this information.

Should you delete your clinic registration before the trip down, and have paid for the hotel deposit online, we will record the need for issuing a refund, and you will be contacted by Thousand Smiles.

Changing your registration

If you need to change anything about a registration for an upcoming clinic, follow these steps.

  • Log in using the username and password you used to create your account with.
  • Click on the clinic registrations link.
  • Find your registration, and click Edit
  • Make your changes, then click on the Register button.

Your changes will be saved. An e-mail will be sent to you to announce that changes to your reservation were made.

Unregistering for a clinic

If you have registered for a clinic but need to cancel for whatever reason, we asked that you login to the site and delete the registration.

  • Log in using the username and password you used to create your account with.
  • Click on the clinic registrations link.
  • Find your registration, and click Delete

Your registration will be deleted for the specified clinic. An e-mail will be sent to you to announce that your registration for the specified clinic was deleted.

Registration Changes made By Thousand Smiles on your behalf

Thousand Smiles has the ability to modify, delete, or add a registration on your behalf for any upcoming clinic. In the event this happens, you will receive e-mail notification that a change was made.

Automatic Registration (Recurring Registration)

A recurring clinic is a clinic that is regularly held at the same time each year, for the same number of dates. Most of Thousand Smiles clinics are recurring, and occur the first Friday in the months of February, May, August, and November. Each of these clinics is two days in length.

Most volunteers, but not all, return yearly for one or more clinics. If this is you, you will want to register for a recurring clinic.

Recurring Clinic Registration

A recurring clinic is not defined for a specific calendar date (e.g., 5/1/2014). Rather it is defined as in the following example "First Friday in the month of February, lasting 2 days". The administrators of the system will predefine recurring clinics in the system, just like all of the other clinics are defined.

Approximately a month before a recurring clinic, a new clinic is created and made available for registration for the specific date of the recurring clinic. You can register for this clinic by following the directions in Registering for a clinic, above. ic.

How To Set Up Automatic Clinic Registration

If you would like to automatically be registered for a recurring clinic each year, you must register for the specific recurring clinic. Once you sign up for the recurring clinic, you no longer need to register for the clinic, as the system will automatically register you for the clinic and send you an e-mail to tell you that you've been registered automatically. Once again, this will happen about 1 month before the clinic date.

What Happens if I am Automatically Registered, But I Can't Attend This Clinic?

Let's say you get an e-mail indicating you were automatically registered, but you are unable to attend. You can sign on and delete the registration as detailed above in Unregistering for a clinic. Your recurring clinic registration will still exist, and you be re-registered around the same time next year.

How Do I Permanently Remove a Recurring Registration?

If you want the system to stop automatically registering you for a recurring clinic, you must delete the recurring clinic registration.

Deactivating your account

You can deactivate your account at any time. Doing so will not cause any recurring registrations you have made to be deleted. However, you will no longer be automatically registered or sent any e-mails until you reactivate the account.

You might want to deactivate your account if you 1) no longer want to participate with Thousand Smiles as a volunteer or 2) you want to take some time off for a period of time.

How to Deactivate

To deactivate, you must first sign in. Then, click on the "deactivate account" link.

How to Reactivate

Click on the "reactivate account" link. You will be asked for either the user name of the account, or your e-mail address. Enter one of these, and click on "Search".

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