Launch a new season of groups
Get ready for your group enrollment period or kick-off event by tackling some important details ahead of time! Whether you're launching four groups or forty, start by considering the settings, event details, and membership strategies to save you time and energy during setup.
Tip
If a group takes a short break but plans to return with most of the same members, archive the group and unarchive it when it starts up again.
Set up defaults and groups
If you have groups with similar settings, create a group type for them, and then assign a group type manager to finish setting up the groups.
Begin by editing the group type defaults so the settings are the same each time you create a new group in that type. Use these questions to determine what should be the same across all groups in this group type:
Who is the contact person for the leaders?
Is there a specific location for all groups to meet? Will they meet virtually? Set the location and type.
Will there be a limited number of spaces and an end date for enrollment?
Once your defaults are set, create your groups! You can choose to let leaders adjust the rest of the settings, like a meeting time, or make changes after the initial setup.
Tip
Creating similar groups? Save time by duplicating an existing group. You can reuse and tweak the details as needed.
Add leaders to groups
On the Members tab of each group, add your leaders and notify them by email so they can access their group's settings and finish the setup process.
Train your group leaders to add members using Groups or on Church Center, then consider sharing the Introduction for group leaders article with them!
Create all events at once
Make life easier for your group leaders by creating their events for them. Once you know the meeting schedule for each group, create all the events for the season in bulk. If there's a break week or holiday, create events in batches so you don't have to cancel or delete one or two meetings later.
Open your groups
When you're ready for people to start joining groups, bulk edit their visibility and enrollment settings. Then, promote them on Church Center to let your church know the new season is open!