Re: Preparing my first forum for subgroups in the future
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Greetings Ward,
I have been running groups since back when Mark ha eGroups (before Yahoo Groups).? Over the last three decdes, I have operated many dozens of groups.? A couple of additional points from my experiences:?
- I use the main group as for when all members need to communicate, such as setting agendae for meetings, deciding meeting dates/times, and (most important for my groups) to have discussions that everyone can participate in.? I run the groups for a couple of committees:? Those who are members of the whole committee use the main group (as well as non-members sending us emails), and those who are members of a subcommittee or working group discussion the business of that group.? I have it set up so that members of the main committee cannot see messages in the subgroups of which they aren't members.?
- I use hyphens, rather than underscores for multi-word-names.? (I find the use of underscores highly annoying: Underscores require a modifier key to be pressed as well as the main key, and I can never remember which main key does underscores, whereas the hyphen doesn't require a modifier key and is easy to spot on the keyboard.? I find that people who use underscores tend to be more tech-savvy, which represents a challenge for those who are less tech-savvy.)? And due to the differences in the way text is selected by double- and triple-clicking on a Mac vs Windows (I'm on a Mac and the majority of members fo my groups seems o be on Macs), it's just easier not to have to remember those differences; hence, using the hyphen).? (YMMV.)?
Welcome to Groups.io!?
Cal?
From: "Jeremy Harrison via groups.io" <jeremygharrison@...>
To: "GroupManagersForum" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 4:22:18 PM
Subject: Re: [GMF] Preparing my first forum for subgroups in the future
On Sun, May 4, 2025 at 02:54 PM, Malcolm Austen wrote:
Also important ...
Make sure it is clear that members of a subgroup have also to be members of the main (or whatever name you use) group.
Also, in case there are any privacy issues, be clear that an owner of the main group has full access to the content of all the subgroups, even if they are not a member of it.
My own preference is to make the main group an 'administrative' announcement-only group and then create a subgroup for discussions between members. Anyone in the main group can then be free to opt in or out of the discussion (sub)group.
best, Malcolm.
On 04 May 2025 14:05:04 (+01:00), Marilyn Owen via groups.io wrote:
> Most important, Ward, is to make sure there are at least 2 Owners of the main group.
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Malcolm Austen -- malcolm.austen@...
Agree with all this.
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A point I would make is that the top level 'main' group is a super-set of all the members of all the sub-groups: think who you would (or might) want to include (or not) - should it (just) be church 'members' (whatever that might mean for your church: ours has an 'electoral roll' to list them), or should it also include 'friends' - people who have some lesser link: infrequent worshippers, neighbours, hall users, etc. If it does, then (appropriate) sub-groups can include them.?
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How much you set up the main group to do is up to you (or maybe your church leaders): it need not 'do' any more than hold the overall membership (in groups.io sense) list, with perhaps an (infrequent) administrative announcement only role, with all the 'serious' stuff happening in the various sub-groups.
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Even if you just start with one small sub-group for your A/V team, be prepared for there to be many more - better that way than the opposite.
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The other thing I would say is to echo Christos's point, and read the groups.io manual thoroughly to have a good idea of how it works. Something you might want to do is set up your main, top-level group first, and then add a couple of test/dummy sub-groups so you can familiarise yourself with how it hangs together (you may want several spare e-mail addresses, too), before setting up anything for 'real'. You can delete them later (or not, as you wish)
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Jeremy?
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