Using the N/C Scheduler

A viewer's guide to the schedule and availability tools. The Scheduler shows who's running each upcoming net (Primary and Backup) and lets you respond to your own assignments.

TL;DR

There are two panes:

N/C Schedule — confirm, decline, or swap a specific scheduled date.
N/C Availability — flag whether you can take the proposed rotation, by role, before an editor generates it.

Silence means yes — every duty defaults to Available. You only need to act when something changes.

Reading the N/C Schedule

The Schedule lists upcoming Mondays. Each row shows the date, the assigned Primary and Backup operators, any notes, and a status pill per role.

Status pills

Pill	Meaning	Who acts
Available (default)	The op hasn't said otherwise — assume they'll be there.	No action needed.
Confirmed	The op has explicitly locked in for that date.	None — informational.
Unavailable	The op can't make it. A reason may be attached.	Editor finds a substitute or arranges a swap.
Swap requested	The op proposed trading dates with someone else.	Matched op sees an Incoming Swap banner with Accept / Decline.

Banners to watch for

Gap warning (red) — appears at the top of the page when a Primary or Backup slot is empty so editors can fill it in.
Incoming Swap (blue) — sits on your row when another op proposed trading their date for yours. Click Accept or Decline.
Outgoing — sits on your own row while a swap you requested is still pending; cancel it from there if plans change.

Acting on your own schedule row

You can only update your own row. Editors, Co-Managers, and the Net Manager can update on behalf of any op. Three buttons appear on each of your upcoming rows:

Confirm — flips your status to Confirmed so editors know you're locked in.
Can't make it — marks Unavailable. You'll be prompted for an optional reason (illness, travel, etc.).
Request swap — pick another upcoming slot (Primary or Backup; cross-role allowed) and propose a trade. The other op gets an Accept / Decline banner; on accept both rows update atomically and any stale confirmations reset to Available.

Swap walkthrough

Find your row and click Request swap.
Pick the date and role (Primary or Backup) you want to trade into.
Add an optional note — context helps the other op decide quickly.
Wait for them to Accept or Decline. You'll see the result on your row.
Need to back out before they respond? Click Cancel on the Outgoing banner.

The Availability pane (pre-rotation)

Below the Schedule is the N/C Availability pane. This is where ops flag willingness to take the proposed rotation — before an editor clicks Generate Rotation. It only lists operators that appear in the current rotation preview.

Each op has two duty rows — Primary and Backup — listing the dates they'd be assigned.
Both default to Available (green). If you can cover them, do nothing.
Click Unavailable on a row you can't cover and add a short note (e.g. "out of town that month") so the editor doesn't have to chase you.
Primary and Backup are independent — flag one without affecting the other.
Changed your mind? Click Available to flip back.

Schedule vs. Availability — at a glance

Pane	Used for	When
N/C Availability	Willingness to take the proposed rotation, by role (Primary / Backup).	Before an editor generates the next rotation.
N/C Schedule	Confirm, decline, or swap a specific scheduled date.	After generation, week-to-week.

The public schedule page (no login)

A read-only mirror of the upcoming rotation lives at /public/schedule. It's safe to share anywhere — Groups.io weekly reminders, club bulletins, an email signature — because it shows only the schedule (date, primary, backup, notes, one-time overrides) and nothing else from the console. The page is set to noindex so search engines won't crawl it.

Next Net banner — the top of the page highlights the next scheduled date (with friendly "Tonight" / "Tomorrow" labels), the primary and backup operators, and any per-night note.
Download PDF — same printable export as the in-app Schedule page.
Add to my calendar (.ics) — downloads a calendar file you can import into Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook. Optionally enter your call sign to filter the file down to just the shifts where you're listed as primary or backup. Each event includes a 30-minute pre-net reminder.
Confirm-availability reminder — a blue panel below the table reminds N/Cs to sign in and review both the Upcoming and N/C Availability panes so the published rotation stays accurate.

Tip: replace the hand-maintained schedule table in the weekly Groups.io reminder with a single link to /public/schedule — it always shows the current rotation, including last-minute swaps and one-time overrides.

Other things worth knowing

Export PDF — the button at the top of Upcoming downloads a printable copy of the next several weeks. Handy for bulletins or email.
One-time substitutes appear like any other entry but are flagged so the rotation generator won't shift the pattern around them.
Reminders — turn on in-app reminders in Settings so you get a nudge before nets you're scheduled for.