Introduction

Crew represents the individual people who are working on an event. While collaborators model groups or companies, crew models the actual humans behind those groups.

Crew plays two critical roles in BackOps:

Tracking and managing information about the people involved in an event
Serving as the foundation for inviting users into the system

Together, these two functions make crew a core part of both planning and collaboration.

Crew as People Within Collaborators

Every crew member belongs to a collaborator. If collaborators represent companies, departments, or teams, crew represents the individuals inside those groups.

At a basic level, crew allows you to track essential information about the people you are working with, such as:

Name
Contact information
Role or function on the event

This ensures that everyone involved in the event is represented in a single, centralized place.

Custom Attributes and Flexible Data Collection

One of the most powerful aspects of crew is the ability to collect custom attributes.

In addition to standard contact details, you can define custom fields to gather any additional information you need from crew members. These attributes are intentionally flexible and can be tailored to different collaborators or groups.

Examples include:

T-shirt size for volunteers
Union status or certifications for labor crews
Special access requirements
Equipment responsibilities

Attributes do not have to be the same for every crew member. You can assign different attributes based on the collaborator they belong to, allowing you to collect relevant information without cluttering the experience for others.

Delegation and Self-Service Data Entry

Crew information does not have to be collected manually.

Once crew members are added, attributes can be filled out by:

You or your internal team
The crew members themselves
Representatives of the collaborator they belong to

This allows you to delegate data collection instead of managing it through email, spreadsheets, or external forms. Information stays centralized, up to date, and tied directly to the event.

Crew as the Basis for User Access

Crew is also how user management works inside BackOps.

A crew member can exist in one of two states:

Uninvited – tracked for planning and information purposes only
Invited – an active user who can log in and collaborate

Any crew member can be invited into the event by sending an invitation to their email address. Once invited, that person becomes a user in the system and gains access to collaborate on behalf of the collaborator they represent.

This allows you to:

Track people before they need access
Control when and who is invited
Maintain a clear connection between users and the collaborators they belong to

Planning First, Access Second

Because crew exists independently of user access, you can fully plan an event before involving external teams.

You might:

Build out all collaborators and crew early in the planning process
Collect information and requirements ahead of time
Invite people only when collaboration is needed

This separation keeps planning flexible while still making it easy to bring people into the system at the right moment.

Crew as a Core Concept

Crew completes the human model of BackOps.

By separating collaborators (groups) from crew (individuals), BackOps provides a system that mirrors how events actually work—many people, organized into teams, collaborating toward a shared goal.

Crew enables accurate representation, efficient data collection, and controlled collaboration, all within a single, unified event environment.