Groups

A group is a chapter of members who meet regularly and pass referrals to each other. Once your group is set up you can invite members, schedule meetings, track attendance, guests, referrals and 1-to-1s, and run reports.

Create a Group

Anyone can create a group. Open the Quick menu (the grid icon in the top header) and choose Create Group, or click Create a group in the left menu.

The Create a Group window asks for:

  • Group name (required)
  • Tell us more about the group: a short description
  • Where do you meet?: the meeting location. Groups with a location can be found on the Find a Group page.
  • Add people: pick people from your connections to invite. Use Select all to pick everyone.

The people you pick receive an invitation as Members. They join once they accept. You can change roles later.

A new group starts on the free plan, which allows up to 15 members including you. If you pick more people than the free plan allows, you are asked to pick fewer. To invite more people, upgrade the group's plan. See Plans and Billing.

To create a group that belongs to an organization, create it from inside the organization instead. See Organization.

Group Menu

Click a group in the left menu to open it. The group menu contains:

  • Dashboard
  • Meetings
  • Members
  • Referrals
  • 1-to-1s
  • Guests
  • Files
  • Reports
  • Membership: only when the group collects membership dues. See Membership Dues.
  • Settings: only for group organizers

Group Dashboard

The dashboard is the first screen members see when they open a group. It is made of widgets. Until someone customizes it, it shows the group's totals for the last 12 months (including the current month) and a chart of monthly group activity:

  • Referrals: referrals reported to the group
  • Business Closed: referrals that were marked Won
  • Conv Rate: the percentage of referrals that were marked Won
  • Rev Generated: revenue from those referrals
  • Monthly group activities for last 12 months

Private revenue amounts are included in these totals, although the individual amounts stay hidden.

Customize the Dashboard

Group organizers and managers can choose which widgets the dashboard shows and how they are arranged. Everyone in the group sees the same layout.

  1. Click Edit dashboard below the widgets.
  2. Drag a widget by its handle to move it, and drag its edge to resize it. Widths snap to standard steps and the widgets in a row fill its width.
  3. Click Add widget to add one, or the remove button on a widget to take it off. A removed widget can be added again.
  4. Click Save, or Cancel to discard your changes.

Besides the default widgets, you can add:

  • Referrals per month, Business closed per month, 1-to-1s per month and Attendance per month charts
  • Upcoming meetings
  • Top givers
  • Recent referrals
  • New members
  • My Contributions: each member sees their own share of the group's referrals and revenue over the last 12 months, next to the average member contribution

Reset to default returns to the default layout. Editing needs a wide window; on a narrow screen you see "Widen the window to edit the dashboard."

Groups in an organization

  • When an organization administrator or staff member saves the layout, they choose This group only or All groups in (organization).
  • A layout saved for all groups becomes the default for every group in the organization. A group that already saved its own layout keeps it until it is reset with Reset to organization default.
  • If Groups can change this layout is turned off, every group shows the organization's layout, and group managers see "Managed by (organization)" instead of the Edit dashboard button.

Group Public Page

Every public group has a page that you can share with guests and people outside the group. It shows the group's name, description, location, members and upcoming meetings. Visitors can RSVP for a meeting, send a message to the organizers, or apply to join.

The Send Message form is only shown while at least one of the group's organizers or managers has the New contact form submission e-mail turned on in their Notification Settings, so a message is never sent to nobody.

Find a Group

The public Find a Group page lets people search for groups near them. Enter a city, state or zip code, choose a distance (5, 10, 25 or 50 miles) and sort by distance, name, member count or date created.

  • Only public groups with a meeting location are listed.
  • Groups on a paid plan are listed first. Free groups appear once they have at least 5 members.

Join a Group

You can join a group in these ways:

  • Accept an invitation: a manager invited you. Accept it from the invitation e-mail or from your Pending requests page.
  • Join with a code: your group gave you a join code. Click join with code in the left menu and enter it. Organizers create and manage the code under Group Settings > Members (Generate, Copy, Refresh, Delete). Managers find the same controls under Join with Code on the page for adding a member. Joining by code only works while a code exists.
  • Apply: on the group's public page, click Apply to join group. You need a free ChamberForge account to apply.

When you join a group you are automatically connected with its other members. If the group belongs to an organization, you are also added to the organization.

If the group has reached its member limit, joining fails with a message that the group has reached its maximum member limit. The group needs to upgrade its plan.

Group Applications

When someone applies, the group's managers are notified by e-mail. Managers can turn this e-mail off under Notification Settings. Applications are listed on the Members page under the arrow next to Add New, in New member applications.

  • Open an application to Approve or Reject it. Each application can be decided only once.
  • An approved applicant joins the group as a Member.
  • The applicant can Withdraw their own application while it is pending.
  • Groups can add their own questions to the application form, or send applicants to an external form with Custom Application URL in Group Settings.

If the group collects membership dues, applicants choose a plan and enter a card when they apply. The card is not charged unless the application is approved; the dues subscription starts on approval.

Group Settings

Group organizers can open Settings from the group menu. Managers do not see it. The tabs are:

  • Group: name, description, images, Visibility, Custom Application URL (for applications), and Delete
  • Members: the group's join code
  • Meetings: recurring meeting setup and meeting reminders. See Meetings.
  • Subscription: membership dues plans (Group Plus and Group Max). See Membership Dues.
  • Custom Fields (Group Plus and Group Max)
  • Data (Group Plus and Group Max)

Visibility

  • Public: others can find your group, see its page and meetings, RSVP and apply.
  • Private: your group's information is hidden from the public. Only members can see the group page and meetings and RSVP.

Custom Fields

Custom fields let a group collect extra information when members report referrals, add guests or apply to join. For example, a dropdown called "Referral Source" with the values Partner, Customer, Standard and Online lets members say where a referral came from. The Referrals Report with Custom Fields then includes these values.

Custom fields are available on the Group Plus and Group Max plans.

Data Tab

The Data tab offers data import and export, Clear cache (use this if the dashboard numbers look out of date), and Delete Data, which wipes all of the group's activity data but keeps its members. Delete Data requires the Organizer role and cannot be undone.

Delete a Group

To delete a group, go to Settings > Group, tick Confirm I want to delete this group. and click Delete. Only the group's organizers (and organization managers) can delete a group.

{warning} Deleting a group deletes its data. Referrals are kept, because they belong to the people who sent and received them.