Be well prepared for your group enrollment period or kick-off event by tackling some important details ahead of time! Whether you have four or forty groups to create, consider the settings, meeting times and events, and membership strategies first to save you time and energy during setup.
Tip
If a group stops meeting but plans to return with most of the same people, archive the group during the break and then unarchive it when the group starts again.
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.
Edit the group type defaults so the group settings are the same each time you add a new group to that type.
Use these questions to determine what should be the same across all groups in this group type.
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If you have a specific location for all the groups to meet, set the location and type.
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Add the limited number of spaces and end date for enrollment.
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Choose a contact person for the leaders.
The defaults will apply to every group added after these defaults are set, so create your groups! You can let leaders adjust the rest of the settings, such as meeting time, or make changes to those settings after creating the groups.
Add leaders to the groups and then train your group leaders to add members by sharing their group page.
Take the scheduling work off of your group leaders by creating their events for them. With a meeting schedule established for each group, create the entire season of events in bulk while honoring the different schedules of each group.
Tip
Create events in batches if there is a week that everyone takes off due to a shift in the regular schedule. That way, you (or your group leaders) don't have to cancel or delete just one meeting instance.
When you're ready for people to begin joining groups, you can set them Listed and Open: request to join, and then promote them.
Notify your church about this season of groups by promoting them on Church Center.