Creating a popup

A popup is a place and time where supporters can come and pick up a free lawn sign. When you create one, it appears on the public Forever Canadian website, so supporters can find it, reserve a sign, and come by.

Any volunteer can create and manage a popup.

Start a popup

1. In the sidebar, open Popups.
2. Click Create a popup. You'll find this button on your My popups page and on the All popups page.

Depending on the current rollout, this opens either the one-page popup editor or the four-step popup wizard. Both handle the popup's location, schedule, and instructions. The one-page editor keeps Location, Schedule, Instructions, and optional Volunteer times together. The wizard uses Location, Dates, Details, and Review steps.

In the one-page editor, an unfinished draft is kept in this browser and restored when you return. In the wizard, choosing Create a popup starts an empty form; moving Back and forward keeps what you already entered.

Use the one-page editor

Location

Use Search for the popup address to choose the address. Then check or enter the Popup name, City, and Postal code.

Schedule

Each row has a Date, Opens, and Closes time. Use Add another date for another day. Set Signs available when creating the popup. After creation, that field is read-only in the editor; use Adjust signs available on the popup management page instead.

Admins can also set Unity Bus pickup.

Instructions

The two instruction zones are deliberately separate:

• Public note for all dates (optional) can appear to supporters on Forever Canadian.
• Team-only note for all dates (optional) stays inside the team app.

Turn on Set different instructions for individual dates only when a date needs different directions. This opens Public instructions by date and Team-only instructions by date. A blank date-specific field uses its matching all-dates note.

Volunteer times

When volunteer-time editing is available, use Add volunteer time under Volunteer times. Each time has a Label, Starts, Ends, and optional Capacity and Volunteer instructions (optional).

Save

Click Create popup. If something needs attention, Check the highlighted information appears at the top with links to the affected fields. Your draft stays available while you fix it.

The action area reports Unsaved changes, Saving…, or All changes saved. If you follow another link with unsaved work, choose Stay to keep editing or Discard and leave to continue without the draft. Refreshing or closing the browser may show the browser's own unsaved-changes warning.

If the popup is created but its volunteer times cannot be saved, the page says that the popup exists and the volunteer times still need saving. Correct the problem and click Create popup; the retry saves the volunteer times without creating the popup again.

Use the four-step wizard

Step 1 — Location

On Where is the popup?, type the address or the name of the place in the Search for the address or place box, then pick the right one from the list. You can also drop a pin on the map. The address and city fill in for you.

Then set the Popup name — the name supporters will see, for example "Mission Community Hall".

Click Next: Dates to continue, or Cancel to leave without saving.

Step 2 — Dates

On When is the popup open?, add a row for each day the popup is open. Each row has a Date, an Opens time, and a Closes time. All dates and times are in Mountain Time (Alberta). Use Add another date for more days (a popup can have up to 60).

Set Signs available — the number of signs you're starting with. You can change this later.

Click Next: Details.

Step 3 — Details

There are two note fields here, and they go to different places:

• Public note (optional) — supporters will see this on the website. Use it for things like "Side door, ring the bell."
• Volunteer-Only Notes — this stays inside the team app. Supporters never see it. It sits in its own box with a small lock, so you can't mix it up with the public note.

Both are optional. Click Next: Review.

When date-specific instructions are available, the two fields are named Public note for all dates (optional) and Team-only note for all dates (optional). Start with those all-dates notes. If one or more dates need different instructions, turn on Set different instructions for individual dates. The page then shows Public instructions by date and Team-only instructions by date.

Leave an individual-date field blank to use its all-dates note. When public date-specific display is available on Forever Canadian, a nonblank public instruction follows the date a supporter selects. Until that display is available, Forever Canadian keeps showing the popup-level public note instead. Team-only instructions remain inside the team app and are never sent to Forever Canadian.

Step 4 — Review

Check everything looks right and confirm the address details under Verify location details. When you're happy, click Confirm & create popup.

After you create it

You land on the popup's page. A status banner tells you whether it reached Forever Canadian:

• Live on Forever Canadian — it's published. You'll see the public page link and a Poster code you can print.
• Publishing… — it's on its way; this usually takes a minute or two.
• Couldn’t publish yet — Forever Canadian couldn't be reached. It keeps trying on its own, and you can also click Retry.

When local popup announcements are available, the team app queues one regular email announcement for the popup after it is created. It does not send one email for every date. The message uses the earliest upcoming date and goes only to eligible supporters whose saved city matches the popup and who have not turned off New events in my city email notifications.

A newly created Unity Bus popup uses a separate volunteer email. It goes to onboarded volunteers who have a saved address in the popup city or whose saved postal code has the same first three characters (the same FSA). Volunteers who have turned off Unity Bus popup opportunities are excluded. The message includes the popup's full address and asks the volunteer to reply to the email. Replies go to the Unity Bus team for human follow-up; replying does not automatically sign the volunteer up in the portal.

The popup's public note may appear in either message; Volunteer-Only Notes never do.

Announcement delivery happens in the background. It can retry unfinished messages without sending another copy to supporters whose delivery is already complete.

Share your popup

If creator sharing emails are enabled and your account has a valid email, you may also receive ready-to-share material by email. The on-page sharing tools below are the reliable place to find your popup links and code.

Once the popup is live on Forever Canadian, its page shows a Share your popup box with everything you need to point supporters to it:

• A Poster code — the short code printed on the poster.
• The Public page and Poster page links, which open your popup on Forever Canadian where supporters reserve a sign.
• A QR code. Show it to people at your popup — they scan it to reserve a sign on Forever Canadian, then you hand them one.

Changing a popup later

Closed the tab? Find your popup again from the sidebar: open Popups, then My popups, expand the popup you want, and click Manage Popup to open its management page.

On the popup's page, click Edit popup. Depending on the rollout, this opens either the one-page editor or the same four-step wizard, already filled in. Change the name, time, dates, instructions, or volunteer times, then click Save changes. In the wizard, Save changes is on the Review step.

If public-facing changes may affect reservation holders, saving first checks the supporter impact. When the check finds an affected audience, it opens Review supporter impact. Choose Go back to keep editing or Save and notify to confirm the listed changes. A zero-audience change saves without that confirmation. The one-page editor stays open after a successful edit and reports the saved state. Editing keeps the existing public page and printed poster links working. See Editing a popup for more detail.

Older single-date one-off popups open the single-event form instead of the multi-date wizard, and they do not have an Add another date option.

To change the number of signs, use Adjust signs available on the popup's page instead: enter a number in Set signs available to and click Update. That's the only place that changes the count, so reservations stay safe.

To take a popup down completely, use Cancel popup.