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FCAP Intern Scheduling Guide

How to create your scheduling account, submit availability, request time off, and stay in good standing with the scheduling team. This is the one place you should need to look for anything related to your schedule.

Open the FCAP Scheduling Site ↗ Start with account setup

Audience: All FCAP interns Owner: Scheduling team (Marc, Jenny, Taylor) Time to read: ~10 min Last updated: May 2026

Creating your scheduling account

Create your account

Go to the FCAP Scheduling Site ↗ and sign up on the front page.

Message SHW admin

Let the SHW admin team know your account exists. They'll assign your clinic locations and your scheduling role.

Confirm what was assigned

Your home page will show:

Your two FCAP clinic locations — the "primary" vs. "secondary" label doesn't matter; you cover both.
Your role, matching your official position in the FCAP pay structure.

If anything looks wrong, message admin so it gets corrected before you start submitting availability.

Submitting your availability

Open the Availability tab on the left side of the scheduling site. You'll see each week within the current scheduling period (e.g., September and October).

Switch between clinic locations

Each clinic has its own availability page. Use the dropdown menu at the top-left of the calendar to switch between them. You must submit availability for BOTH locations.

Enter your availability

Click and drag on the calendar to highlight your available times (they'll turn blue).
Repeat for each day of the week.
Use the arrows above the calendar to move to the next week.

(Optional) Use the default template

If your schedule is mostly consistent week-to-week:

Open Manage Default Template.
Fill in your standard weekly availability.
Save it as your default and upload it to the current scheduling period.

Add notes for special circumstances

Use the Notes box below the calendar for anything the scheduling team should know — vacation dates, exam weeks, class conflicts, shadowing opportunities, etc.

Submit

Click the blue Save Availability button in the top-right. You may see one of these instead:

Submit for Review (Low Hours) — you're below the minimum hours expectation; admin needs to approve.
Submit for Review (Late Submission) — past the deadline; needs manual approval.

You can monitor the status of your submission from the home page.

Admin will never deny availability without communication. If your request is denied and you haven't heard anything, reach out to the scheduling team so it can be resolved.

Summer availability — modified process

Because intern availability changes so much during the summer, FCAP uses a different process from the regular semester flow.

Submit one "default week" of expected availability through the designated Google Sheet (not the scheduling site).
Include all known vacation dates and time-off requests at the time of submission.
If anything changes — classes, shadowing, work, travel, other commitments — message the scheduling team ASAP so they can adjust.

The goal is to give the scheduling team a realistic picture of coverage during a season when fewer interns are in town.

Availability expectations

Minimum: 10 hours of availability per week. This is required to maintain employee status. If you can't hit it, leadership will meet with you to figure out whether an accommodation makes sense.

A few things to understand about how hours actually get assigned:

More availability ≠ more hours. Intern hours depend heavily on weekly client volume — slow weeks just happen.
Volume fluctuates through the semester. The scheduling team distributes hours as fairly as possible given the load.
Priority factors include experience level, reliability, overall availability, and clinic-specific staffing needs. More experienced interns may be scheduled first for certain appointments; broader availability is generally easier to schedule consistently.

Requesting time off

Submit time-off requests at least TWO WEEKS in advance via the designated scheduling form. The earlier the better — late requests are much harder to accommodate.

Changing your availability or canceling a shift

You can change your availability up to 2 weeks in advance by messaging Jenny and Taylor and adding the information to the request-off document.

Canceling inside the 2-week window is highly discouraged — especially within 1–3 days of a scheduled shift. If you absolutely must, follow all three steps below.

Try to find coverage first. Do what you can to problem-solve, and indicate that effort in your message.
Slack message leadership:
- Crozet changes → Caroline, Marc, Taylor, and Jenny
- SHW changes → Keila, Nick, Jenny, and Taylor
Send a text to Jenny and Taylor.

Example messages

To Keila, Nick, Jenny (SHW) on the Tuesday of that week:
"I can't come in on Friday for my shift, but I only had two clients and Ari agreed to take my 9am and Harmony agreed to take my 10am."

To Caroline, Marc, Taylor (Crozet) on the Monday of that week:
"I am sick and worried I won't be able to cover my shift tomorrow. I asked Lathom if he could take my shift and he said he could cover the AM, so if someone could take the 1:30pm and 3pm blocks, then the day should be covered otherwise."

What "late" means in practice

We'll do our best with late requests, but repeated late requests create real scheduling friction and may require a leadership conversation.
Illness and family emergencies are understandable. In those cases: give as much notice as possible, communicate directly with the scheduling team, and help with coverage when you can.

If you request off after the schedule is released

Your appointment may be reassigned to another intern who originally had unscheduled availability in that block. For example: if you were available Monday 3:00–5:00 PM but weren't initially scheduled, you might be asked to cover.

Don't make conflicting plans during availability blocks that remain open after the schedule releases — unless leadership tells you otherwise. Those blocks are how we cover late requests.

Attendance & punctuality

Arrive 15–30 minutes before your scheduled appointments. Use that time to:

Review client information
Prepare equipment
Organize the clinic space
Check in with supervising staff if needed

Repeated lateness or missed appointments is not acceptable. If you anticipate being late:

Immediately message all schedulers for that clinic.
Provide an estimated arrival time.
Share anything else that might affect the appointment.

Early communication lets the clinic team adjust coverage and minimize disruption to client care.

Scheduling best practices

The habits below make scheduling easier for everyone — you, the scheduling team, and your fellow interns:

Keep your default availability template updated throughout the semester.
Submit availability as early as possible.
Clearly communicate vacations, exams, shadowing, and other major conflicts.
Avoid extremely fragmented availability when you can.
Double-check that availability is entered for BOTH clinic locations.
Review your schedule regularly after release.
Keep unused availability open unless leadership tells you otherwise.
Respond promptly to scheduler messages and coverage requests.
If you want more hours, broader and more consistent availability is more helpful than isolated time blocks.
Communicate concerns early — don't wait for problems to build up.

Concerns or questions about your schedule

If you're unhappy with your schedule or hours, talk to the leadership team. The scheduling team often doesn't know about issues with someone's schedule — they're not slighting you on purpose.

Leadership will loop in the scheduling team to make sure your preferences are heard.
If you want to expand your availability, message the scheduling team with the additional time you want to add.

Questions about anything on this page? Message Marc (scheduling lead) or message the scheduling team channel.