Creating a Local Group Collection

Want to give the tools a try, but don't want to setup a new collection?  Join one of our test groups or start your own. 

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Groups allow your supporters to organize together, over time, to create change in their communities. While individual groups are usually created by members, the collection itself – the umbrella under which the groups exists – is created by admins. Creating a group collection is the first step to supporting member-led groups.

To create a new group collection, go to the admin homepage and click All under Local Groups. Then, click the button labeled New Local Chapter Collection.

When creating a group, we only require three choices: name, basis, and the organizer introduction. However, the new collection creation page has various other options to consider. 

First, you'll need to decide what basis to use for your new collection's searches:

• Geography – these groups are tied to geographical shapes, which can be things like congressional/parliamentary constituencies, states/provinces, or other catchment areas that your organization uses. When searching, we'll place the user's query in the appropriate shape and show that group first in search results.
• Location – these groups are tied to simple point locations. When searching, we'll show the closest group first.
• Virtual – these groups are not tied to any locations. Users will see a list of all virtual groups on the lookup page.

Please note: once you've chosen a basis for the group collection it cannot be changed.

Next, choose a name for your group collection. This name is publicly visible. Then, decide if you want this collection to be your organization's default collection.

If you don't want users to be able to create new groups, click the box labeled Hide local chapter creation. This is not a commonly-used setting.

The text entered into Content for lookup page will appear on the collection's lookup page – the page that users go to when they want to find a group. This field is often used to describe why a user would want to join a group, what you expect for local groups, and tips to make groups successful.

The Search radius option allows you to set a maximum distance limit for search results.

When a user joins a local group, they'll be asked to choose their notification preference. They can choose to receive notifications every time a post is added to the forum, a daily digest of activity, or no notifications at all. The Default notification level dropdown allows you to choose the default selection, though members will be able to override this selection during the normal join process.

The option to Override welcome email content may be useful if you're running multiple group collections and wish to customize the welcome email per collection. Otherwise, this content is also updatable from Settings > Content > Local Groups > New Member Welcome Email. 

Finally, you can choose to customize the Questions for new organiser text. This text is shown to anyone applying to become a new group organizer – either as part of the group creation process or as part of an existing group. Because we require all organizer applications to be approved by org admins, this question is used to get a sense of the applicant's qualifications and suitability to be a group organizer. If there's specific information that you need in order to review an application, include the appropriate questions here.

Once you're done filling out this form click Save and your group collection will be live. You can now begin sending supporters to the group lookup page.