My ChurchSuite - My Groups
In this article
My Groups
Group Sign Up
Group Leaders - Edit Group
Group Leaders - Members List
Group Leaders - Attendance
Cluster Overseers
My Groups
In this article, we talk about the My Groups section of My ChurchSuite. This is where you can view and join small groups within your church.
Selecting My Groups from the Menu opens the My Groups tab:
Here, you can see any groups that you currently belong to or that you've already signed up for. Clicking on a group opens the group page.
Depending on the settings chosen by your church, you may see a list of the group members. The personal details you're able to see for other group members will depend on their privacy settings. Similarly, your privacy settings determine which of your details are visible to your fellow group members. You can use the Edit my visibility option to override your default privacy settings, enabling you to decide which details are visible to others in the group - you can edit your visibility on a group-by-group basis for each group that you belong to.
By default your Small Group visibility settings will be set to use your default privacy settings ...
... or by deselecting 'Use default privacy settings', you can customise which of your details are visible to others in your group.
From the group actions tab, you may also have the option to Email members - ideal for circulating a prayer request or pertinent information to the group's members:
My ChurchSuite email functionality explained.
- When composing an email, you can choose whether replies go to 'just you, the author', or to 'all group members'. You will receive a copy of the emails you send in your inbox and in My Communication too.
- Only group members with an active status can use the email feature; in this regard, it's a 'closed group' email system; those not belonging to the group are unable to send to the group - they'll receive an email bounce notification and their message will not be delivered.
- Sent emails are only visible to group members and are not visible in your church's admin-facing ChurchSuite database; in this regard, group emails are private and personal to the group's members.
- It's not currently possible to add attachments to emails composed from within My ChurchSuite, although you can type hyperlinks. However, if you send the email from your regular email application to the group's private email address, you can attach files to that email in the usual way. Those attachments can be opened when viewing the message in My Communication.
- It's not possible to restrict email circulation to a subset of the group or an individual member – it's a whole group email to the group that will be delivered to all active group members that have an email address. Group emails are, therefore, not intended or suitable for private one-to-one messages.
- Care should be taken when replying to a group email. Where the sender has set for replies to be sent to all group members - like a discussion thread - any reply to that message will be sent to all the group members. The group email, when first sent, will make clear whether replies will be sent to the entire group or just to the sender.
- Emails are only sent to group members with a valid email address - even if their privacy settings mean you can't see their email address and even if they have opted out of receiving general emails from the church office. Communication options only apply to the messages your church sends; they do not apply to rota group and small group emails, which are considered personal.
- A group email sent with "Send replies just to me" will unavoidably disclose the sender's email address in the 'reply-to' field of the email so that replies are correctly routed back to just the sender's email address instead of the group email address.
- A group email sent with "Send replies to me and all other members" will only disclose the group's private email address in the 'reply-to' field of the email so that replies are routed back to all group members without disclosing the sender's email address or the email address of other group members.
- Group members whose privacy settings are such that they are not visible in My ChurchSuite (i.e. their name is set to not be visible) and members pending approval to join the group will not be able to see or use the "Email member" button, although they will still receive group emails sent by others.
The Details tab of a group page shows your sign-up status to that particular group and group details, which may include group description and location:
Group Sign Up
Heading back to My Groups, the Sign Up tab lists groups that you can choose from to join (if enabled by your church):
Click on a group to view the group details and to Sign up:
Group Leaders - Edit Group
Designated small group leaders may have additional functionality based on assigned role permissions that enable them to manage the group's details and group image by clicking the Actions button, then the Edit group and Edit image buttons.
Group Leaders - Members List
From the Members list, leaders can manage their group member details by clicking the actions button (three dots next to a group member) and can add new members to a group using the Add member button:
When adding new group members, leaders can only search/select people who are visible through their privacy settings; otherwise, they are hidden and cannot be added to the group. Speak to your church office if you can't locate a new member through the search or if someone new joins your group who wishes to have their details added to the church database – new people can't be added to the database through My ChurchSuite; although they may be able to submit their details into the church database by signing up to the group via your church's website. Removing a group member retains their historic group attendance and prevents them from sending or receiving group emails.
Additionally, group leaders can manage role assignments, using the Add roles action show above.
Leaders can also approve new pending status members - using the Set as Active action for those who have recently signed up to join the group:
Group Leaders - Attendance
Group leaders, or those with an assigned "Attendance" role, may also see an Attendance tab on their group page, which shows recent group member attendance presented in a graph and as a list, with the option to Add attendance.
Previously added recent attendance can be further edited, either by clicking on an attendance point on the graph or by clicking the pencil "Edit" icon next to a date heading at the top of the table of recent attendance.
Clicking Add attendance (or editing existing attendance) opens a pop-up. Ticking member names auto-increases the No. Attendees for the selected attendance date or you can tick Didn't Meet. Pertinent meeting Notes can be optionally added - the names of guests and visitors or the material studied - and the No. Attendees can be manually adjusted accordingly. Maintaining details of group attendance helps churches with their small group ministry reporting and it can help you with pastoral care while also providing an invaluable historical record of group meetings for safeguarding purposes.
Cluster Overseers
Finally, depending on your church's settings, designated Cluster Overseers have an additional tab titled Clusters, listing the groups in their care and oversight:
Overseers can click through to view the historic attendance and member lists of groups within their cluster; however, they cannot change any of the group details, add or remove group members or add or edit group attendance unless they are also a group leader of that group.
