We are thrilled to be introducing a new portal for our volunteers this year, which will revolutionise how Butterfly Conservation supports you as a volunteer, whether as part of a Branch or by volunteering more directly with staff. We have chosen to use Assemble as our volunteer portal because it is the market leader and boasts an impressive user base, including the RSPB, Ramblers and the NHS. It’s secure, easy to use and has been developed to support best practice in volunteering.

Log into Assemble here!

Frequently Asked Questions

About Assemble

Using Assemble

What is Assemble?

Assemble is a website where you can easily view and update your personal details, manage your tasks and events and even let us know about a skill you would like to share with us. It will help us recruit new volunteers, manage training, easily share information like news articles or documents and allow volunteers to chat to each other, too, through a forum.

How will I access Assemble?

Log into Assemble here!

Assemble will be a part of the Butterfly Conservation website which is just for you, our volunteers. You will be able to set up your own login details and reset your password if you have any difficulties getting into it. When it is time for you to register with Assemble, a member of staff or fellow volunteer will send you a specific link to the system (sometimes called an "onboarding link" or "onboarding code"), which will ensure you get added to the correct volunteer team. Guidance on how the onboarding process works is available to help you with this.

There’s also a mobile app to make it as easy as possible to access when you’re out and about. This can be downloaded from the Google Play or Apple Stores. Just search for "BC Volunteering" in Google Play or "Butterfly Conservation" in the Apple Store.

Why should I register with Butterfly Conservation through Assemble?

Assemble brings many benefits to volunteers:

Access all your volunteering information from one place
Easily connect with other volunteers or staff through messaging and a secure forum
Manage your tasks, events and volunteer hours
Access the training resources and documents you need
Be invited to special events for our volunteers
See what other volunteering opportunities are available
Have confidence that your data is being managed securely
Means you are covered by Butterfly Conservations’ insurance, provided you follow the training and guidance for your role.

When will I be able to use it?

We are currently working on Assemble behind the scenes, to make sure we are happy that it’s set up correctly for you. We ran a pilot with staff and volunteers in Scotland in October 2023. People who volunteer directly with staff were invited to register in December 2023. Next, we’ll invite volunteers who record butterflies and moths and finally we’ll fully roll it out to Branch volunteers by the end of April 2024.

How do I find out more about it?

You can watch a demo of Assemble, which shares some of the features we think will help you in your volunteering.

Will my data be safe in Assemble?

Yes, this is very important to us. Assemble is fully compliant with UK Data Protection Legislation and you will be able to manage your own data through the portal. Assemble holds ISO 27001:2013 certification and complies with Cyber Essentials, a Government backed scheme which helps organisations protect themselves from cyber attacks. The Assemble website gives further details.

Do I have to register in order to volunteer with Butterfly Conservation?

We hope you will register with Assemble to enjoy all of the benefits outlined here, but it’s also a very important part of us safeguarding our staff and volunteers. We have generous insurance cover for our volunteers, but a condition of our insurance is that our volunteers are registered with us. In future, if you were not registered in Assemble and you had an accident while volunteering with us, Butterfly Conservation insurance would not be available to you. This is clearly a circumstance we must avoid, not least of all as we take our duty of care towards everyone who works with Butterfly Conservation extremely seriously.

Going forward, Assemble will be our only volunteer register, because it allows us to manage your data much more safely. Having data in multiple places makes it difficult for us to ensure it’s being kept securely and in line with GDPR. We don’t want to take any risks with your data, so are moving everything to Assemble, which holds ISO 27001:2013 certification and complies with Cyber Essentials, a Government backed scheme which helps organisations protect themselves against cyber attacks. The Assemble website gives further details on this. Assemble also helps us to comply with safeguarding and health and safety law in the most efficient way, meaning we are not spending funds intended for conservation on administration instead.

For these reasons, we require that all volunteers register with Assemble, following a transition period while we add everyone to the system. You should receive your invitation between December 2023 and April 2024.

There are many benefits to you as a volunteer in registering with Assemble, in addition to an increased confidence that you are being safeguarded and your data handled appropriately. Assemble allows you to access all your volunteering information from one place, easily connect with other volunteers through messaging and a secure forum, access news, training and resources and much more, so we hope there’s lots of reasons to use it, regardless of whether it’s optional or not. We have lots of support in place to help people move on to Assemble, such as user guides and drop-in sessions and have involved volunteers in every step of the project, including running a pilot with volunteers in Scotland in October 2023.

Using Assemble

Registering for the first time

When Assemble is rolled out in your area, a member of staff or volunteer will contact you with a link which will allow you to quickly and easily register on Assemble. Once we have confirmed your registration, you'll be able to log in using the user name and password you set up when you registered. We have written some guidance to help you register, but you can also email [email protected] if you get stuck.

If you support us with more than one type of activity, you may receive the registration link more than once. Don't worry, you only need to register once and if you tell us about all the roles or activities you support us with then we will make sure you're properly set up in the system.

Where can I go if I need help?

We understand that it can be a bit daunting to have to learn a new system, so we’re providing as much support as possible to help you get onto Assemble.

We have some guidance to explain how you can get help with your role or with using Assemble. If you need help getting onto Assemble, or resetting your password then we have guidance for that, too - or you can email [email protected]. Some of the other ways you can get help:

We have prepared a demo of Assemble which will help you to familiarise yourself with the system.
During it’s rollout, we will run regular drop in Q&A sessions for all volunteers to answer any questions you have about using Assemble.
We have produced lots of guidance to help you, and we will keep adding to this in response to questions being asked by volunteers. This can all be found in the Document Hub in Assemble; a member of staff can help you to find this for the first time if need be.
Your staff Key Contact is ready to support you with any questions you have, as are the Volunteering Team. You can contact them by using the "Talk To Us" link in Assemble.

I don't have an email address - can I still register?

Yes, you can still register on Assemble by providing us with alternative contact details. Please get in touch with the member of staff you usually volunteer with, or phone 01929 400 209 and we will register you over the phone.

I don't have a laptop or computer. Can I still use Assemble?

Yes, you can access Assemble via any web browser, smartphone or tablet. There's also an app you can download if you prefer to use that. It can be found in the Google Play or Apple Stores by searching for "BC Volunteering" in Google Play or "Butterfly Conservation" in the Apple Store.

If you don't have access to any of these and don't have an email address either, you can still register with us as a volunteer - see above for details.

I've lost or haven’t received my email invitation to the system

Assemble is being rolled out in stages, so it may be that we are currently rolling it out to another team. We hope to have invited all volunteers to join by the end of April 2024. If you think you should have received an email invitation and haven't, please check with a member of staff or your Branch committee in the first instance. If you should have received an invitation and haven't:

Please check your spam/junk/focused/other folders.
If you still can’t find the email, please ask your staff contact to check if we have the correct email address for you on Assemble.
If your email address on Assemble is incorrect, please ask your staff contact to update your email address. They can then re-send the link to you.
If your staff contact confirms that we do have the correct email address for you on Assemble, they will need to raise the issue via the “Talk to us” function on Assemble.

If you have lost your invitation, please contact the person who originally sent you the email link and they can re-send it. If you can't remember who that was, please contact @email.

What should I do if I’ve forgotten my password or username/email?

If you have forgotten your password, the is the quickest and easiest solution is for you to reset your password in Assemble yourself. If you need help with that, or with finding out what your user name is, please get in touch with your staff contact, who will be able to help.

To make it as easy as possible for you to support our activities, in 2024 we will be aligning our login systems for Assemble, the Big Butterfly Count, Wild Spaces and any new systems which require a login in the future, so you’ll only need one user name and password to access them all.

How do I know if I have a message or notification in Assemble?

In Assemble, you can choose what you are sent notifications about, how you are sent them (e.g. email, SMS etc.) and how often you receive them. There is also an app you can use, if you find it easier to log on or check messages that way. The app will notify you if there's something you need to do in Assemble in the same way as other apps like WhatsApp do.