Enabling small group sign up through Embed

Overview of the Embed group sign-up functionality

In addition to people being able to sign up for small groups through My ChurchSuite and at in-person events using ChurchSuite Connect, you can also run group sign-up through your website using the Small Group Embed. We've produced a related support article on how to customise the embed HTML to embed group Lists and Maps in your website. This article looks at the group settings that determine which groups show in the embed and whether sign-up is enabled.

Embedded small group Lists and Maps are ideal for those not yet in your Address Book and those unable to access My ChurchSuite to explore a menu of the groups you offer, and, subject to group capacity, to join a group by signing up. Group sign-up through Embed can be enabled or disabled on a group-by-group basis, meaning you can allow sign-up for some groups but not others, while still showing a list of all the groups your run, even if they are full or not currently open for sign-up, rather than displaying an empty list.

Overview of the sign-up user experience

From an embedded List or Map of small groups, people can browse the list of groups you offer. Clicking into a group opens the Group Page showing further details about the group, and where sign-up is enabled for the group, a sign-up form is shown. After entering some basic contact details they can click to Sign Up.

ChurchSuite will attempt to match the sign-up details to the existing people in your Address Book and Children modules, matching the first name, last name, email and optional phone. If a definitive match is made the matching person is added to the group member list; otherwise a new contact profile is added to the Pending section of the Address Book and the group's member list.

Sign-ups are added to a group's member list with either a pending or active member status depending on the group's sign-up settings. In this way, you can enforce a new member approval workflow for some groups but not for others if you wish. A 'Joined group' Key Date is added against the sign-up contact profile, and for new people added to ChurchSuite, a Note is added against their profile to indicate that the profile was added through the Group Page sign-up process.

A sign-up notification is sent to those group members whose role permissions have to Notify of sign-up enabled - ideal for ensuring those with 'group leader' roles are kept in the loop so they can extend a welcome to new members. A sign-up confirmation is also sent to the new group member.

Enabling group sign-up through Embed

As explained earlier in this article, sign-up through Embed is enabled on a group-by-group basis, making it possible to enable sign-up through your website for some groups but not for others. From a group "View" page in the Small Groups module click Edit.

On the Edit group pop-up, scroll down to the Visibility section and tick Show in Embed to make the group visible in the Embed, and also tick Sign up through Embed in the Sign-Up section if you wish to allow people to sign up for the group from your website. Note that the Embed sign-up option is only shown if the Sign up through Group Page option is ticked.

Where Sign-up through Group Page is enabled specify the Dates within which the sign-up period is to be active (this can be open-ended, but a Start Date is required). Optionally set a sign-up Capacity for the group - no further sign-ups will be possible when the group is full. The Member List setting is only relevant to groups visible in My ChurchSuite, where group members can view a Member List - Embed and Connect "sign-ups" without My ChurchSuite access will be unable to view a group member list, so this setting can be ignored for Embed purposes. Finally, set the default Member Status assigned to new sign-ups - new members can be added as Active members, or with a Pending status requiring a group leader with Edit Group Details role permissions to approve the new member and set them as active. Click to Save any changes made.