Can a substitute request be resent?

The Substitute Finder works well when adorers respond to substitute invitations.

However, you might encounter a scenario where all substitutes were invited, and nobody claimed the substitute request.

Resending a Substitute Request

Admins and captains can resend a substitute request, which sends one more invitation to everyone at once instead of one at a time.

View any open substitute request.
Click the Resend button.
Review who will be contacted, then click Send Invitations.

Resending contacts two groups of adorers:

Substitutes who were invited but never answered are asked again.
Eligible substitutes who haven't been invited yet receive a normal first invitation. If the Substitute Finder is still working through the list one at a time, resending skips ahead and invites everyone at once.

Resending is meant to be a nudge, not a nuisance, so a few limits apply:

Substitutes who already declined are not contacted again.
Invitations are only sent during daytime hours.
Each substitute request can only be resent once.

Please use this feature sparingly. The Substitute Finder works best when adorers trust that an invitation means they are genuinely needed. If every request is resent, adorers learn that they can safely ignore the first ask, and response rates fall for everyone.

Save the resend for the hours that truly need it, such as a date coming up soon with no substitute found, and give the Substitute Finder time to work through the list on its own first.

Restarting a Substitute Request

While it is possible to restart the substitute request (e.g., cancel it and request another substitute for the same date), we discourage this.

Here's why:

If an adorer ignores or doesn't respond to substitute invitations, resending an invitation is unlikely to change their behavior.
Aside from the one-time resend described above, the Substitute Finder will only send a single invitation to an adorer for each date (more on this below).

The better solution is to encourage adorers to respond to substitute invitations, even if they must decline.

This approach gradually improves the overall effectiveness of the Substitute Finder.

And when it fails to find a substitute for you automatically, you'll have a nice long list of adorers you know can't help, narrowing your focus on who to invite personally.

Invitations Are Only Sent Once (Automatically)

Apart from a resend, the Substitute Finder will only send a single substitute invitation to an adorer for each date.

For example:

Adorer A requests a substitute for tomorrow at 3 PM.
Adorer B receives a substitute invitation.
Adorer C then requests a substitute for tomorrow at 3 PM.

In this example, Adorer B will receive a single invitation, regardless of whether or not they accept, decline, or don't answer it.

We don't want the system to be pesky and annoying. From an adorer's perspective, it's not ideal to get asked the same question multiple times.

Thus, if you restart the substitute request, adorers won't receive an additional invitation.

Sending a Message to Unanswered Subs

Another approach is to send a custom message to your unanswered substitutes, to ask them if they still want to be on the substitute list, and to remind them of the importance of responding to invitations.

View any open substitute request.
Set the Status field to Sent.
Click the Message Adorers button.

Or, skip the bulk message and contact your adorers individually.

Resending a Single Invitation

You can also resend an invitation to one substitute at a time. For example, an adorer might ask you to resend the invitation because they lost or deleted it.

View any open substitute request.
Click the Update button next to their name.
Click Send text message, Send email, or Call now.