How do I add a group?

Describes how to add a new group.

Updated over a week ago

You will need the Full Write Groups permission to perform this action.

There are two ways you can add a new group to One Church Software. The first is to click on the "New" drop down menu at the top of any page, and click on "Group." 

The other way is to navigate to the Group button, via the left-hand navigation menu, and click on the "Add New" button at the top.

Regardless of which method you choose, a pop up will appear where you can enter the details for this group. The following fields are available:

General

The general tab contains basic information about the group.

  • Name - the name of the group. This must be unique meaning no two groups in the system can have the same name. This field is required and is limited to 200 characters.

  • Type - the type of group. Choose the ones that best match the purpose of the group. The type chosen will be visible to others when viewing the group listing. You can define new types by clicking on the menu to the right of the drop down or clicking on "Add New" if there are none. You will need the Full Write Groups permission to do so.

  • Category - the group category. Use this field to label the group (e.g. Staff, Campus Volunteers). You can manage the list of categories by clicking on the menu to the right of the drop down or clicking on "Add New" if there are none. You will need the Full Write Groups permission to do so.

  • Campus - if you have multiple campuses, this field contains the campus this group is associated with (if any). You can manage the list of languages by clicking on the menu to the right of the drop down. You will need the Campuses permission to do so.

  • Childcare? - whether child care is provided for members of this group. This is mostly applicable to groups of type "Small Group."

  • Language - the primary language spoken in the group (if applicable). You can manage the list of languages by clicking on the menu to the right of the drop down. You will need the Full Write Groups permission to do so.

  • Description - description of the group. This field accepts HTML which means you can embed videos, and images, and format the text.

Meeting Details

If a group meets, you would add an event to the group's calendar to set up the details of their meeting day and time. This would be done separately after you create the group.

Go to the Calendar tab within the group you created and select Add Event. You can also hover and click on the desired day you want the event listed as.

In the pop up, under the General tab, check the "Use as primary meeting event for this group?" option to indicate this event should be used to determine when the group meets. Then simply fill out any other details for the event.

Once added, you'll notice a star on the event. This is to help indicate this is the regular meeting time for the group (to set it apart from any other events you may add to the group).

Note: the meeting frequency (i.e. days and times) and the address (if set) will appear in the Info tab for the group.

Member Fields

This tab contains any custom fields you want to track each member of the group. You will not be able to define these fields while creating the group. However, after you save, you can edit the group and define these fields.

See the "Fields" section of this article for more information on which fields can be added. Note that payment fields such as Ticket/Item and Donation cannot be added.

Options

This tab contains various configuration settings which affect how the group is displayed and functions.

  • Membership - controls how new members can be added. Possible values are:

Internal - This group is visible only to leadership. Members can only be added by leadership and the members will not know they are part of this group.

Invite Only - People must sign up or be invited by leadership to join this group.

Public - Allows people to see all group information such as events, files, and discussions. This also allows them to register themselves into the group without a leader's approval.

  • Sign-up form - this is the form that should be filled out when someone signs up for the group. This is only applicable when the group has a membership type of Public or Invite Only. You can choose any custom form you've designed in the system. The default is the Generic Group Sign-Up form that comes with the system.

  • Interactive? - If set, members will be able to know who else is a member of the group. Leaders will always be visible.

  • Listed? - Whether this group will be visible to non-members. If not listed, only the members of this group will be able to see the group.

  • Active? - If not active, this group will no longer be accessible to members. Leadership will still be able to access this group.

Rosters

This section contains settings related to the check-in system.

  • Leaders Only? - If yes, only leaders of this group will be able to add new people to the roster. If no, new people can be added from a manual check-in within an event as well. This defaults to "No."

When you are finished entering the information, click on "Save" to finish. You will be redirected to the new group afterward.

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