Enabling small group sign up through Embed

In addition to enabling people to sign up for small groups through My ChurchSuite and Connect, you can also run small group sign-up through your web site using Small Group Embed. We've produced a related support article on how to customise and embed a small group List and Map into your website. This article looks at the group settings that determine which of your groups show in the embed and how to enable group sign-up through embed.

Using the small group embed people can browse the groups you offer and even sign-up there and then! This can be especially useful for non-members - those not yet in your Address Book - and those unable to access My ChurchSuite to be able to join small groups quickly and easily.

The sign up settings for Embed are set on a group-by-group basis, allowing you to enable the sign-up feature for some groups but not others, whilst retaining the ability to show all your other groups - even if they are full or not yet open for sign up - rather than displaying an empty list!

Additionally, within the Small Groups module settings, accessible by clicking the 'cogwheels' module settings icon within the module, on the Embed Options tab, you can further customise the user experience of those viewing your groups on your website.

Click Edit to make changes to the Settings and Details Visible. For example, you can set whether to show just your Active groups (the default) or to show Active & Future groups. In this way, future groups (those whose start date is in the future) can be shown even if the sign up period has not yet begun. This setting still respects each group's visibility settings so that you can still choose to show some future groups but not others, if you wish.

For each small group that is set to Show in Embed, people can browse your groups and, if Sign up through Embed is enabled and sign up is open and the group has capacity, they can sign up. If a group is full or the sign-up period has ended, the group remains visible in the Embed but an appropriate message is displayed and the Sign up button is disabled.

Multi-site functionality - Embed

For multi-site customers, 'unmatched' successful sign-ups are added as Address Book contacts to the Pending section for the same Site as the group they've signed up to. If the group is an "All sites" group, the new contact is added to the Address Book of your first (default) site.

Overview of the sign-up user experience

The user experience of signing up to a small group through Embed works in exactly the same way as the Connect Group List and uses the same Sign up form. Clicking into a group opens the group page.

ChurchSuite will attempt to match the signup's details to your existing people in the Address Book and Children modules, matching on first name, last name, email and optional phone. If matched, the person is added to the group's member list; otherwise a new Address Book contact is created and added to the group's member list.

Sign-ups are added to the member list with a pending or active member status depending on the group's sign-up settings. A 'Joined group' Key Date is added against their contact profile and, for new contacts created, a Note is added against their Address Book profile to indicate that the new contact was created through the the group page sign-up process. A sign-up notification is sent to those group members whose role permissions have Notify of sign up enabled - ideal for ensuring group leaders are kept in the loop so they can extend a welcome to the new group member - and a sign-up confirmation is sent to the new group member. New sign-up contacts are created in the 'Pending' section of the Address Book.

Enabling embed sign-up functionality for a small group

Enabling sign-up via Small Group Embed is done on a group-by-group basis, making it possible to enable sign-up on some groups but not others, if you wish. From a group's "View" page in the Small Groups module, click the Edit button.

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; also, tick Sign up through Embed in the Sign-Up section to enable sign-up.

Where Sign-Up has been 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. The Member List setting is only relevant to groups visible in My ChurchSuite - Embed and Connect "sign-ups" can never view a group Member List until they are subsequently granted access to My ChurchSuite, so this setting can be ignored for Embed purposes. Set the default Member Status assigned to new sign-ups - people can be added to the group as Active members or they can be added with a Pending status requiring a group leader with Edit Group Details role permissions to approve the new member and set them active.

Remember to save any changes made to a group. Repeat the above steps for each small group in turn.

Small group capacity

With the Small Group sign-up Capacity setting you can optionally cap the number of sign-ups a group can receive. Once a group is full, no further sign-ups are permitted via My ChurchSuite, Connect or Embed. However, Small Groups module Users and group leaders with Edit Group Details role permissions in My ChurchSuite are always able to exercise discretion and override the group's capacity in order to add new members to the group.

Enabling small group sign up through Embed