Your staff portal
This page is for you if you work events — judging, running the stage, announcing, shooting photos, driving the truck. It is not for the office. It covers everything on your side of Herding Cats, which mostly lives on your phone.
Your portal has one job: tell you where you are going and what is expected of you, and let you tell your coordinator when you cannot make it.
Signing in
Go to the log-in page. It is headed Welcome back.
There are two tabs, Password and Email code. If you have never set a password, use Email code:
The portal works in your phone’s browser. Once you have signed in, use your browser’s Add to Home Screen option so it opens like an app.
If you see a message saying your account is not attached to a company yet, ask your coordinator to send you an invitation. Your access comes from them, not from us.
What is on the menu
Down the side (or behind the menu button on a phone) you will find:
- My Events — your home page.
- Availability — where you tell them when you cannot work.
- My Profile — your details.
- Settings — how and when we contact you.
If your company uses the surveys add-on, you will also see Debriefs and Feedback.
At the top there is a bell for notifications and your picture, which opens Account settings and Sign out. There is also a floating chat button — the Herding Cats assistant — which can answer questions about your own events.
My Events
Your home page has three things on it, top to bottom.
Your time off. A card at the very top. If you have not marked anything it reads Going to miss any weekends? with a note explaining that you are assumed available. Tap it to go and mark your dates.
My tasks. This card only appears when a coordinator has actually given you something to do. Tap the circle at the left of a row to tick a task off. If you tick one by mistake, press Undo.
My Events. Every event you have been assigned to. Each card shows the event name, your role, the airport code, how you are getting there, the venue name and address, and the dates. Tap a card to open it.
Only confirmed assignments show here. If your coordinator has you pencilled in but not confirmed, it will not appear yet. Ask them.
One event’s page
Tap any event to open it. At the top is your role, the event name, the dates, and a badge telling you where it is in time — Today, In 12d, Live, or Completed. The All events link takes you back.
Underneath, in cards:
| Card | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Venue | Where the event is, with the address and the airport code |
| Hotel | The hotel name and address. Once rooms are set, your room, who you are Sharing with (or that You have the room to yourself), and your Confirmation # |
| Schedule | Load in: and Load out: times |
| On-site contact | Who to call when you arrive — tap the number to dial it |
| Travel | How you are getting there, and a Rental car badge if one is assigned to you |
| Travel crew | A group chat with the people travelling with you |
A card shows Not yet assigned or a dash when that detail has not been decided yet. That is normal early on — check back closer to the date.
Flight numbers and times are handled by your coordinator and are not shown in the portal today. Your Travel card tells you the method of travel. For your actual flight times, check the itinerary your coordinator sends you, or ask them.
Messages are peer-to-peer — no AI or coordinator in this chat. It is for sorting out who is sharing the ride from the airport, not for reporting a problem. For that, message your coordinator or use the assistant button.
Telling them when you cannot work
This is the most important thing you do in the portal.
Go to Availability. The page is headed My Availability and it says: You’re assumed available every weekend. Mark the ones you can’t (or would rather not) work.
Read that twice. Saying nothing means yes. If you do not mark a weekend, you can be booked on it.
There are three ways to enter it, chosen with the List, Calendar, and Time off buttons.
Marking a single weekend
- Find the weekend
Use the List or Calendar view.
- Tap it
Each tap moves it to the next state. The order is Available → Not available → Prefer not → back to Available.
- Add a note if it helps
Tap the small note button on the row and type something short, like family birthday, then press Save. Your coordinator sees it.
Every tap saves by itself, straight away. When you have marked what you need to, just leave the page.
Marking a longer stretch
Use the Time off view for anything that is not a neat weekend — a holiday, exams, a busy fortnight.
Tap the first day you are away, then tap the last day. Tapping the same day twice marks just that one day. Everything you mark appears in a list headed Marked time off.
Tap any marked range to edit it. You get two choices: Can’t work or Prefer not to (Schedule me only if you’re stuck). You can add a note, or press Remove to take it off.
Prefer not is not the same as Not available. It means: I would rather not, but I will if you are stuck. Coordinators can see the difference and it genuinely affects who gets picked. Use it honestly instead of blocking out weekends you could actually work.
My Profile
The My Profile page shows your Name, Email, and Home Airport, plus your Positions and whether you are marked as a Local Driver.
You cannot change the first three directly. Each has a Request Change button. Press it, type the New value, and press Submit for Approval. Your coordinator gets the request and approves it. You will hear back once they have.
There is also an Availability card here with an Edit availability button, as a shortcut.
Your first name, last name, and phone number live under Account settings — the menu behind your picture at the top right. Those you can edit yourself and save with Save changes.
Your email address cannot be changed there. Ask an admin.
Choosing how we contact you
Go to Settings. It says Manage how and when you hear from Herding Cats.
The first card is Contact. Put your number in Mobile phone (for SMS notifications) and press Save. Leave it empty if you do not want texts at all.
The second card is Notifications. It is a grid: each row is a kind of message, each column is a way of reaching you — In-app, Email, SMS, Slack, Teams.
Pick from the dropdown in each box:
- Instant — as it happens.
- Daily digest — one email a day with everything in it. Email only.
- Weekly digest — one email a week. Email only.
- Off — do not tell me this way.
Changes save as you make them. There is no save button.
Under Assignments you will find Assignment created, Assignment updated, and Assignment cancelled. Leave those on Instant for at least one method you actually check. They are how you find out you have been put on an event, or taken off one.
Under Alerts, Urgent broadcast is the one your coordinator uses when something is genuinely on fire.
The bell at the top of the screen keeps the same messages in the app. Open it to read them, or press Mark all read to clear them.
Debriefs and Feedback
These two pages are part of the Surveys & Debriefs add-on. If your company does not use it, you will not see them at all.
Debriefs is where you tell them how an event went. The page lists what is waiting under To do, each with a due date. Open one, answer the questions — the ones with a red star are required — and press Submit. Answered ones move to Submitted.
Feedback goes the other way. It is Anonymized feedback tagged to your role on events you worked — what your colleagues said about the work, with names removed. You cannot reply to it; it is there to read.
Quick answers
Do not just mark yourself unavailable — you are already assigned, so that will not remove you. Tell your coordinator directly, as early as you can. They will find a replacement and sort out your flight and room.
Rooms usually get sorted a few weeks out, sometimes closer. It is not an oversight. If the event is nearly here and it is still blank, ask.
You get a different portal built for the cab of a truck, not this one. It opens automatically when you sign in.