Group sessions on the phone

A group session is one session covering several animals at once, such as a playgroup or a group walk. Sessions are scheduled on the web, on the Group activities page. The phone shows them, and staff and administrators can start and end them from the phone, for example out in the yard.

Where sessions show

• Calendar: sessions at your shelter that are running now, or set for today or later, show next to the shelter's events, under their day. The Calendar shows the next 50 entries, events and sessions together, soonest first. Each says Group session, its time, its place and how many animals are on it. A running one also says Running, and one you are on also says You're on it.
• Home: a session you are on shows there on its day, and for as long as it runs: its time (or Running since and the time it started), its place and its animals.

Tap a session to open it. A session that was cancelled or has ended isn't listed, and nor is one the phone can't read. If the phone can't read a session you open, it says Couldn't read this session. Pull down to try again.

A session

A session shows its title and type, whether it is Scheduled, Running or Ended, when it is set for, when it started and ended, and its place. If you are on it, it says so and gives your role, for example You're on this session: Lead.

Who is on a session is one rule, for that line and for the people list: someone assigned to it and not taken off it. Once a session has ended, that is everyone who was still on it when it ended.

• Animals: each animal on the session. While the session runs, an animal on it says In activity, and one taken off it says Taken off the session. Once the session has ended, each says how it did, for example Success, and that it is Available again.
• People: the people on the session and their roles (Lead, Assistant, Observer or Volunteer). The phone lists them to the people on the session and to staff and administrators. This is only what the phone shows: the web's Group activities page lists the people on every session to anyone who can see sessions.

Pull down to see the session as it is now.

Start a session

Start session shows to staff and administrators, on a scheduled session. A volunteer or foster sees the session without it; ShelterSync refuses a start from anyone else, whatever the phone shows.

1. Open the session and tap Start session.
2. Depends on your shelter: if any animal on the session needs a cleared handler, one pop-up lists each of them, with its handling tier, its handling note and a statement to tick. Tick each one, then tap Confirm and start. Each confirmation is recorded on its own, with your name and the time. Tap Not now instead and the session doesn't start; on the first pop-up, nothing is recorded.
3. The phone says Session started. The session says Running, and each animal on it says In activity.

The pop-up can come back after you confirm, and says why:

• A handling requirement changed while you were reading it. Please read it again. An animal's tier or handling note changed while the pop-up was open. Only the animals whose requirement changed are shown again.
• ShelterSync didn't find an unused confirmation from you for an animal you confirmed, for example because another start used it. Please confirm again.
• Another animal on the session now needs a cleared handler.

By then the confirmations you gave are recorded. Not now on a pop-up that came back leaves them recorded, unused: a later start of this session by you can use them, while the animals' handling stays as it was. If ShelterSync keeps asking, the phone stops after four pop-ups and says The session didn't start: ShelterSync asked for handling confirmations again after the ones you gave. Try Start session again.

If the session can't start, the reason shows above the button, with the animals named, for example Animals must be available before starting: Rex (in activity)., and the session shows as it is now: Running, for example, if someone started it somewhere else. Someone whose role can't start sessions sees Only staff and admins can start a group session. Someone signed in with restricted access sees You're signed in with restricted access, so you can't start a group session.

End a session

End session shows to staff and administrators, on a running session.

1. Open the session and tap End session. The phone reads the session again first, so the form has its animals as they are then, even if you opened the session hours ago: an animal added on the web since then is asked about, and one taken off isn't offered an outcome. If the session has already ended, the phone says This session isn't running any more, so there is nothing to end. and shows it ended.
2. Under How did each animal do?, choose each animal's Outcome: Success, Needs break, Escalated, Removed or No show. It starts at Success for an animal that started the session, and at No show for one that didn't. Add a note under Notes (optional) if you like. An animal taken off the session before you tap End session keeps its outcome, and the phone shows it without a choice, for example Removed: taken off at 10:20 AM. Ending keeps this. You can still write a note for it. One taken off while the form is open keeps its outcome too, whatever you choose for it.
3. Tap End session. The phone says Session ended. The session says Ended, and each animal shows its outcome and that it is available again, unless something else changed that while the session ran.

Tap Keep it running to go back without ending it. Going back after changing an outcome or writing a note asks Discard your changes? first. If ShelterSync refuses the end because the session has already ended or been cancelled somewhere else (for example Only in-progress group activities can be ended.), the phone goes back to the session, says why, and shows the session as it is now. If it refuses for another reason, the form stays and says why, keeping the notes you entered. The phone also reads the session again. If it can, the form shows each animal as it is then: one still on the session keeps the outcome you chose, and one taken off the session since you opened the form stays in it, shown as taken off with its outcome, Removed, and no choice, so the outcome you chose for it isn't sent. If the phone can't read the session again, the form stays exactly as you left it. If the phone gets no answer to the end, the form also stays as you left it, so you can try again.

What starting and ending a session does to the animals, and where they go, is the same as on the web: see Run a session.