Need to Make Sense of Hundreds of Volunteers? BOC Did Just That

Lineup Teams helped BOC organize and harness its vast volunteer database by centralizing applications, tracking and capturing updated volunteer information, and running reports based on desired data and demographics. Customizing reports to specific details gave them a better understanding of the dedicated individuals who make up their volunteer pool. 

With improved volunteer visibility, tracking, and reporting thanks to the Lineup’s centralized platform, BOC has become more effective in aligning roles and assignments to meet volunteer goals.

Meet BOC — and Its Mystery Number of Volunteers

The Board of Certification for the Athletic Trainer (BOC) administers the only accredited exam for certifying athletic trainers in the country. They set the standard for credentialing in the athletic training space, and with only a small number of employees, they rely heavily on a dedicated network of volunteers to help. While BOC has access to many volunteers to fill its open committee roles, this abundance presented a new challenge: with so many individuals involved, BOC lacked a clear, real-time view of how many volunteers were actually engaged at any given time.

The organization was using a cluster of different spreadsheets to manage its various teams, which meant that valuable information about the entire volunteer pool was getting lost in the shuffle. 

Miranda Newell, Volunteer Programs Manager for BOC, said: “We only have 24 employees, so the bulk of the credentialing work is on volunteers. The staff lead of each volunteer group had their own way of keeping track of who was on their team, but there was no centralized place to keep everything.”

This disjointed process created some challenges:

• There was no single source of up-to-date volunteer data to reference.

• It was uncertain which volunteers had applied for which roles.

• Knowing which volunteers had provided updated information each year was difficult.

• Recognizing specific volunteers for accolades and awards was challenging.

BOC needed a system that could finally solve the volunteer puzzle.

Enter Lineup Teams

BOC started using Lineup Teams in 2022 and immediately noticed a difference. For the first time, they could ditch the spreadsheets and get an accurate picture of their volunteer pool by collecting and updating all information in one place. 

“Having a centralized location for all our volunteer applications to run through is incredible,” Miranda said. “The forms process is fantastic because we have a way for them to fill out their commitment to serve annually. We can track and make sure those compliance notices have been signed every year by the people who are doing important work for us.” 

Outcomes that Made a Difference for BOC

• Better volunteer visibility: Standardize, store, and update comprehensive volunteer profiles across all teams and committees in a single location.

• Targeted reporting: Run reports based on specific demographic and performance data for targeted communication and surveys.

• Improved compliance: Identify which volunteers are up to date on their consent forms (and which need nudging). 

• Better alignment with volunteer goals: Use customized forms and teams to identify individual interests and assign roles that better fit with volunteers’ current and future needs.

• User-friendly platform: Rely on an intuitive user interface, responsive support, and resources for self-learning.

“The reports are huge for us,” Miranda added. “If we want to recognize our volunteers, pull addresses of anyone active, or if there’s a specific team we want to honor, we can get down to specific details. It’s really helpful.” 

Feature Spotlight: Teams

BOC’s goal is to grow its volunteer engagement and outreach program as it moves forward. To do that, they’re leaning into Teams and strategically using this feature to identify volunteers with potential.

“Engagement for us is making sure they know they’re appreciated and that the work they’re doing is important — making it about them, not us,” Miranda said.

In early 2025, BOC started building out pathways that could help facilitate effective engagement — namely, getting volunteers into desirable roles where they could thrive. 

“We created a team in the platform called ‘high-potential volunteer,’” Miranda explained. “So, when we have a staff liaison working with a volunteer who’s expressed interest in doing more things — they’ve been very responsive, attended meetings, are really engaged with the work they’re doing — we have a form we can use that places them on this high-potential volunteer team.” 

When bigger roles like committee chair positions open up, BOC can refer to this special team in Lineup. They can pull information from volunteer profiles and see what their historical volunteerism looks like, including what’s on their resume and whether they filled out a feedback survey that specified their goals. BOC can then figure out how to fit the right volunteer into the right opening. 

“My goal is to define volunteer engagement, grow it, and make it make sense each step of the way,” Miranda said. “Lineup has been huge in that because it takes care of so many of the processes we must do on our end. There’s no reason for me to look elsewhere.”