Group Connect
Note: While you could use Group Connect to manage larger groups, we recommend you use Check-In Kiosk and/or Classroom Manager instead. Those tools were specifically designed to efficiently track and manage events – large group meetings included!
Group Connect lets your group leaders manage and engage with their small groups and community groups (of about 50 people or fewer). Group leaders can see who's in the group, schedule meetings, take attendance, manage group members, and send messages. Group participants can see their groups, see who's in their group (along with contact information that others choose to share), and RSVP for upcoming activities.
- To access Group Connect, leaders can start from the My Groups widget and click the Group Connect button on a group, or they can start from PocketPlatform and click the Group Connect link in the navigation menu.
- Group Connect requires authentication. When you go to Group Connect from My Groups or PocketPlatform, authentication is passed automatically and you don't need to log in again!Important: If two or more group leaders have the same email address on their User records, they can't log in to Group Connect, even if they lead different groups. You'll need to remove the duplicate email addresses from the User record(s).
- Authenticated users who are the Primary Contact or have a Group Role Type of Leader can:
- Add or remove participants.
- Schedule activities.
- Mark attendance or indicate that an activity was canceled.
- Respond to group sign-up requests.
- Send an email with attachments to the entire group or just selected participants.
- Send a text message to the entire group or just selected participants. Tip: Want to let group participants communicate with each other? We have an app for that! Check out Group Chat in PocketPlatform.
- Authenticated users who are active, current participants in the group can:
- View information about the group(s) they are in.
- View certain information about fellow group participants, but only if those participants allowed that information to be shared.
- Set their privacy options to share or hide their information with other participants.
- See the next upcoming activity for their group(s).
- RSVP to indicate which activities they plan to attend, might attend, or won't attend.
- Administrators can set the appropriate groups and leaders along with other configuration settings. See Get Started with Group Connect.
Sections
- Info: Dynamic display of information about the group, including meeting cadence and time, location, leaders, and description. The next upcoming activity also displays with an option to RSVP.
- Participants: Toggle between all current and past participants. Displays their contact information (if available), and their Group Role, start date, and last attended date. And you can put a face to the name! If there's an image attached to their Contact Record, you can see that, too.
- Sign-ups: View Group Inquiries by name or date. Includes contact information, the inquiry date, and a comment, if one is left by the pending participant. Group leaders can add or reject the pending group participant.
- Activities: See past (up to three months ago) or future events and their location. You can also take attendance from this tab.
- Attendance: Mark group participants' attendance for an activity that happened in the past 14 days or is currently in progress.
Note: Admins: You can customize the language used in Group Connect, including these tab names! Go to , and update the appropriate records that have a Field Name containing "groupconnect".
Actions
If configured by an admin, group leaders and primary contacts can:
- Add or remove group participants. And if the "new" participant is already in the group, they won't be added a second time.
- Edit information about their group (like the description, meeting details, maximum target size, and group photo) and information about participants.
- Respond to a group sign-up request.
- Accept people into the group.
- Schedule an activity and review RSVPs.
- Mark attendance for attendees and guests.
- Send a message to the entire group or selected participants.
Tip: Want to see how to put the power of group ministry into your leaders' hands? Check out the Group Connect Made Easy webinar in the MinistrySmart Academy!