Appointments & Feature Permissions

This guide explains how to use appointments to assign functional roles to members and how feature permissions control what each member can access and be notified about within StationOne.

Prerequisites

• Organisation admin access to create appointment types
• Brigade admin or higher to assign appointments to members
• An understanding of the difference between a member’s role and their appointment

Understanding Roles vs Appointments

StationOne separates two distinct concepts:

Role

A member’s role determines their platform access level — what they can administer. Roles include brigade_user, brigade_admin, group_admin, and so on. Roles are set once when granting platform access and change infrequently.

Appointment

An appointment is a functional position held within the brigade for a defined period — for example, Senior Driver, Stores Officer, or Training Officer. A member can hold multiple appointments at once, and appointments have a start and optional end date.

Appointments do two things:

1. Record the position officially against the member’s profile
2. Optionally grant feature permissions while the appointment is active

This means a brigade_user with no special standing can be appointed as a Stores Officer and automatically gain access to manage stock — without needing a permanent admin role.

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Understanding Feature Permissions

Feature permissions are granular access grants that sit below the role level. They control which areas of StationOne a brigade_user can access, create, and manage.

Permissions are organised by feature area:

Feature	Available Permissions
Vehicles	View vehicles & fleet; Create & edit vehicles
Events	View events; Create & edit events; Manage attendance
Bookings	View bookings; Create booking requests; Approve & reject bookings
Inspections	View inspections; Create & conduct inspections; Approve & review; Create & edit templates
Training & Skills	View training records; Create & edit records; Manage member skills
Breathing Apparatus	View BA equipment; Manage BA sets, cylinders & components
Hydrants	View hydrants; Create & edit hydrants
Hose Management	View hoses; Create & manage hoses; Manage testing, repairs & assignments
Pre-Plans	Create & edit pre-plans
Availability	View member availability; Manage own & others’ availability
Duty Crews	View duty crews; Manage duty crew assignments
Water Points	View water points; Create & edit water points
Stock Management	Create, restock & manage stock items
Equipment	Create & manage equipment

Feature permissions can be granted in two ways:

• Via appointment — permissions are active only while the appointment is current. When the appointment ends, access is automatically revoked.
• Directly on the member profile — permanent grants not tied to a specific appointment.

Members with admin roles (brigade_admin and above) always have full access and do not require feature permissions.

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Setting Up Appointment Types

Appointment types are defined at the organisation level. Once created, they are available to all brigades within the organisation.

1. Navigate to Appointment Types

1. Log in as an organisation admin
2. Go to Organisation Settings → Appointment Types
3. Click New Appointment Type

2. Configure the Appointment Type

Name — The position title, e.g. Maintenance Officer, Stores Officer, Communications Officer.

Role — The platform role associated with this appointment. This determines whether feature permissions are relevant:

• Selecting a user-level role (brigade_user, group_user, etc.) reveals the feature permissions panel
• Selecting an admin-level role (brigade_admin, group_admin, etc.) does not require feature permissions, as admins already have full access

Feature Permissions — Visible only for user-level roles. Select the permissions members holding this appointment should receive. For example, a Stores Officer appointment would typically include Stock Management: Create, restock & manage stock items.

3. Save the Appointment Type

Click Create Appointment Type. The type is now available across all brigades when assigning appointments to members.

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Assigning an Appointment to a Member

Brigade admins can assign appointments directly from a member’s profile.

1. Open the Member Profile

1. Navigate to Members in the sidebar
2. Click on the member’s name to open their profile
3. Scroll to the Appointments section

2. Add the Appointment

1. Click Add Appointment
2. Select the Appointment Type from the dropdown
3. Set the Start Date
4. Optionally set an End Date — leave blank for open-ended appointments
5. Click Save

The member immediately gains any feature permissions associated with the appointment type.

Automatic Platform Access

If the appointment type carries feature permissions and the member does not yet have platform access (no role assigned), StationOne will automatically:

• Promote the member to brigade_user
• Send them a login invitation (if they have an email address on record)

This removes the need to manually grant access before assigning a functional role.

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Ending an Appointment

When a member’s appointment concludes, their associated permissions should be removed.

To end an appointment

1. Open the member’s profile
2. Find the appointment in the Appointments section
3. Click End

The end date is set to today. Any feature permissions granted solely through this appointment are immediately revoked. If the member holds another active appointment or has directly-granted permissions covering the same features, those remain in effect.

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How Permissions Are Applied

Feature permissions from all of a member’s active appointments are combined. A member holding two concurrent appointments will have the union of permissions from both.

When an appointment ends:

• Permissions specific to that appointment are removed
• Permissions covered by another active appointment or a direct grant are retained
• If the member loses all feature-gated access, they remain a brigade_user with no feature access (they will not be automatically demoted)

If a member’s role is later promoted to an admin level (e.g. brigade_admin), any feature permissions they held are cleared automatically — they no longer need them.

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Notification Scoping

Email notifications follow the same feature permission boundaries. A brigade_user will only receive notifications relevant to the features they can access:

Notification	Received when…
Overdue inspection schedules	Member has vehicles, BA, or equipment permissions
Expiring inspection items	Same as above
Action item assigned	Member is assigned the action and has the relevant feature access
Overdue action reminders	Member is assigned overdue actions
Training notifications	Member has training permissions
Event notifications	Member has events permissions
Vehicle booking updates	Member has vehicle or bookings permissions

Members can further control which notifications they receive from their profile under Notification Preferences. Only categories relevant to their current permissions are shown.

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Common Workflows

Appointing a Stores Officer

A member is taking on responsibility for managing the brigade’s stock and PPE.

1. Create an appointment type named Stores Officer with role brigade_user and permissions: Stock Management: Create, restock & manage stock items
2. Open the member’s profile and add the appointment
3. The member now sees the Stock section in the sidebar and can create and manage stock items
4. If they did not previously have platform access, they are automatically invited to log in

Appointing a Training Officer

A member is coordinating training sessions and managing member skills.

1. Create an appointment type Training Officer with role brigade_user and permissions: Training & Skills: Create & edit training records and Manage member skills & attendance
2. Assign the appointment to the member
3. They can now create training sessions and mark member attendance

Rotating Role Holders

When a member steps down from a position:

1. End the outgoing member’s appointment
2. Assign the appointment to the incoming member
3. Permissions transfer immediately — the outgoing member loses access and the incoming member gains it

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Tips and Best Practices

• Name appointment types clearly — use position titles that brigade members will recognise from their organisation’s structure.
• Use end dates where known — if a term or rotation is fixed, set the end date upfront so access expires automatically.
• Review active appointments periodically — members who have left a position but whose appointment hasn’t been ended will retain those permissions.
• Prefer appointments over direct grants — tying permissions to an appointment makes it easy to revoke access by ending a single record rather than editing the member’s permissions directly.
• Admin appointments need no permissions — if you are appointing a member to a full admin position (e.g. Captain), assign them the brigade_admin role directly rather than using feature permissions.

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Related Guides

• Add Members
• Manage Email Notifications