Updates for Rock 1.0No updates made.Updates for Rock 2.0No updates made.Updates for Rock 3.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added reference to the new group schedule options and exclusion dates for group types. Added group attendance and reminders features. Added a group leader toolbox that are customizable with Lava. Added group finder and registration blocks. Added information on the new security settings for group member roles. Expanded the discussion of Group Member Roles. Updates for Rock 4.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. New chapter on the various service jobs related to groups. Add tips for using the new features built into the group finder. Documented the new Group Member Add from URL block. New chapter on automatically syncing groups. Documented the new Group Following features. Additional information on Group Members including Group Member Workflows. Added information on the new Alternate Placements features. New chapter on Group Requirements. Added a note to filter on Did Attend when reporting. Updates for Rock 5.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added new Inherited Permissions section in Securing Groups Documented a new setting on the Group Sync job that requires a person to reset their password on first login if enabled (default is disabled). Added details on the new group tree features. Documented the new group capacity features. Updates for Rock 6.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. New group type setting that will require all groups of that type to have a campus set. Documented new group type settings that will require a location/schedule when entering attendance for a group of that type. Added information on the new digital signitures feature and how it interacts with groups. Updates for Rock 7.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Documented the change in how group requirements notifications are sent. Updated Group Requirements section to include Applying Group Requirements to Group Types. Updated Group Type screenshots to include Group Requirements. Added Fundraising Progress documentation to Fundraising Groups section. Added Show Marital Status option to Advanced Group Type Settings table in the Group Types chapter. Added Rapid Attendance Entry section to the Group Attendance chapter. Added "Manage Members" security action information in the Securing A Group section of the Securing Groups chapter. Updates for Rock 8.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Clarified the Sync Data View callout in the Group Sync Settings screenshot. Updated the Group Sync Settings screenshot in the Group Sync chapter. Updated the Group Sync chapter with new options and settings. Added Group History chapter. Updates for Rock 9.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added "Show Administrator" to common group type settings Added the Group Scheduler Chapter Updated Group Type screenshot Updates for Rock 10.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added details to describe single-campus behavior Updated to include Group RSVP features and settings Updates for Rock 11.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Added the ability to opt individual groups out of scheduling or the Schedule Toolbox The frequency of Group Sync can now be set for each group individually Added option to stop accepting group fundraising donations after a chosen date Updates for Rock 12.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Financial transactions can be transferred from one fundraising opportunity to another when the participant is moved to the new group Updated the Group Scheduler to support scheduling more than one group at a time Added Group Scheduler Roster and Group Schedule Communication blocks for Group Scheduling Added a new "Attendance Types" Defined Type to classify an attendance occurrence as physical (in-person) or virtual (online) Updates for Rock 13.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Scheduling Confirmation and Scheduling Reminder communications can now be sent via email or SMS message New Group Attendance Reporting job will create and populate person attributes to track group attendance data Updates for Rock 14.0 Below is a summary of the updates for this version. A new Group Type setting lets you require capacities for groups of that type when a Group Capacity Rule of Hard or Soft has been set A new template for the Scheduling Confirmation Email allows the recipient to 'Accept All' or 'Decline All' Participation in Fundraising Groups can now be for either an individual or a family Enhancements to group requirements, including the ability to set due dates and launch workflows A Quick Communication can be sent to individual group members Scheduling preferences for serving teams can be edited on the Group Member Detail page The new Auto Accept option on the Group Type allows group scheduling assignments to be automatically accepted as soon as the person is scheduled Updates for Rock 15.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. The Group Attendance Detail block has an updated look and feel The Send Group Attendance Reminders system job sends attendance reminders to group leaders across multiple group types Updates for Rock 16.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Individual groups can be manually synced on demand The Search feature lets you quickly find people when making assignments in the Group Scheduler Updates for Rock 17.0Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Group Copy functionality now includes related entities and (optionally) child groups Individual groups can be excluded from receiving attendance reminders Confirmed schedule assignments can be cancelled and declined assignments can be accepted Updates for Rock 18.1Below is a summary of the updates for this version. Group Placement provides a flexible tool for sorting individuals into groups, accessible from the Group Viewer or a standalone block, with features like drag-and-drop, multi-select, and URL query strings for streamlined group management. Overview Groups are used whenever two or more are gathered. You'll find groups to be simple but incredibly powerful. Rock comes pre-configured with the following types of groups: Families: Each family is stored as a group. This is incredibly powerful because families get the same power and functionality as any other Group Type. In the beginning you'll want to leave families configured just the way you found them. As you create new Group Types and gain more experience with groups, keep in mind that you can add new attributes and additional functionality to the family Group Type. Security Roles: These groups help secure Rock data. While you'll use these groups a majority of the time for security, you'll soon discover that any group in Rock can act as a security role. Check-in Groups: Rock's check-in features use groups to store the locations where kids can check in and to track attendance. Serving Teams: While we have big ideas for how serving teams will work in the future, we have configured a simple group type to get you started with tracking your groups. General Groups: It's likely that you'll be creating several groups that don't warrant their own specific group type. In these cases feel free to create them as 'General Groups'. Application Groups: Rock needs to keep track of various lists of people. For instance people who have opted out of getting future photo requests. These 'lists of people' are stored as Application Groups. Application groups can be viewed/managed under Admin Tools > System Settings > System Groups. Small Groups: We've added a generic Small Group group type. Feel free to use this as a base to build from if your church has a groups ministry. Small Group Sections: This group type works in conjuction with the Small Group type and acts as a leadership level to provide hierarchy for your groups. Again, feel free to use this type as a launching point for getting started. Searching for Groups As you add more and more groups to Rock, it may be tedious to locate a specific group. Never fear, you can use the Smart Search at the top of each page to help find the specific group you are looking for. Smart Search Be sure to choose the Group Name option from the drop down and then enter the group name you are searching for. You don’t need to enter the full group name, since the search will return any group that has the search term you entered. Say you were looking for the Bible Study group that Ted Decker leads (named "Ted Decker's Bible Study Group"). Any of the searches below would be valid, although some may return several other groups in the results, as well. Decker Bible Study Ted Deck If the search term you provide only matches a single group, you will be taken directly to that group. However, if several groups match, you will have to select one from the list of groups provided. Group Viewer The group view People > Group Viewer is the primary window for viewing and editing groups. Below, we will discuss each section of the group viewer in detail. Group Viewer 1Group Tree This control allows you to drill down through your group hierarchies. You’ll want to plan your hierarchies to achieve a good balanced approach. Too deep of a hierarchy will lead to too many clicks to drill down. However, if your hierarchy is too broad, then you will have to scan through long lists of groups to find the one you want. 2Group Details Displays information about the group. 3Action Bar Options to edit or delete a group. 4Group Maps The viewer will display maps for each group location that is able to be mapped. You can click on the map to see a larger interactive map. You can also click on the map marker button directly below the maps to see the interactive map. 5Security Using the security button you can control who has access to view and edit this specific group. See the Securing Groups section below for more information on how you can secure your groups. 6Group Members List of member inside the group. Group Maps Clicking the map marker button will take you to an interactive group map showing the members of the group. Depending on the configuration of the group other features may be enabled. If the group has a geopoint (determined through the address geocoding process or by selecting the point on the map) the location of the group will also be present on the map. If the group has a defined geofence this fence will be shown on the map. The presence of the geofence will also enable the display of connection status checkboxes at the top of the map. Checking these boxes will show everyone with that connection status in the database who lives within the geofence. This allows you to view possible 'prospect' group members. Limiting The Display of Certain Connection Statuses In order for a connection status to be displayed as a checkbox the status must be configured with a 'Color' attribute. This helps determine the pin color for the map marker as well as acts as a global setting to help determine which connection statuses should be mapped. You can set the color for a connection status under Admin Tools > General Settings > Defined Types > Connection Status. Group Map Adding a Group You can add a new group to the tree by clicking the Add Group dropdown and then selecting the location from the list. Adding a group to the Top-Level will place the group at the root or top of the tree. Selecting Child to Selected will place the group under the currently selected group. Note If you have a group selected but Add Child to Selected is disabled, then this group type does not allow child groups. See the Group Types section below for more on group hierarchies. Adding a Group Group Details The group details section displays all of the information about the group. The group type and campus (if configured) will be shown as labels in the banner at the top. A map of the group’s location will also be shown, if configured. Editing a Group Clicking the Edit button from the detail section will allow you to edit information about the group and provide additional configuration settings. Each area of the edit screen is discussed below. Editing a Group General Group Type: Changing the group type of an existing group is possible, but it does have some consequences. All group attribute data for the group will be lost if the group type is changed. Parent Group: This will move the group to a new parent in the hierarchy. Removing a parent group will move the group to the root or top of the tree. Campus: Providing an optional campus will link the group to a specific campus. Security Role: This option will enable the group to operate as a security role. The members of the group will be granted access to whatever privileges the group is granted. Locations The location area allows you to add locations based on the configuration provided through the group type. Group Attributes Any group attributes added by the group type will be available here for editing. Member Attributes In this area, you can configure attributes to be assigned to each member of the group. These attributes will be available for edit when adding or editing group members. Group Types As you start to customize Rock for your ministry, you'll want to define new group types to match your various ministry areas (small groups, ministry groups, etc.) Tip: Once you realize the power of group types, you’ll be tempted to start creating many custom types to fit each of your ministries. Don't do it! Resist this temptation at first. Less is more. Look for common points within your many ministries. This will help you reduce the number of group types that you’ll need. In general, it’s easier to add new group types later than it is to merge group types in the future. Group Hierarchy One of the most important concepts to understand as you create new group types is the relationship that groups have to each other. There are two basic hierarchy types to choose from: Structured Hierarchy: In this configuration, the levels of hierarchy are defined and limited. For example, you may want to define the hierarchy of your small group ministry to have a single leadership team, under them a level of lay leaders who act as coaches to the groups, and then the groups themselves. In a structured hierarchy you can be sure that this structure is enforced. Example of Structured Group Heirarchy Flexible Hierarchy: For some ministry types, you want your groups to have a more unstructured hierarchy. An example of this might be how you set up serving teams. You may want serving teams to be able to have sub-teams that might have additional sub-teams themselves. These hierarchies may be very deep in some ministry areas (like First Impressions) but shallow in others. Example of Flexible Group Heirarchy You define these hierarchies by configuring what child groups each group type can have. In the structured example, you would create a group type called Small Group Leadership, which would allow child group types of Group Coaches, which would allow child groups of Small Groups. The Small Groups would not allow any child types, ensuring that your hierarchy was fixed at the third level. In the flexible hierarchy example, you would configure Serving Teams to have child-types of itself. This guarantees that you can have an unlimited hierarchy. Administering Group Types You administrate group types under Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types. When adding or modifying a group type, you can provide the following types of configuration: Group Type Editor Common Group Type Settings Setting Description Example Group Term This is what Rock will use to describe the group on the various screens. Group, Family, Event, Team Group Member Term This is what Rock will use to describe the people in the groups on the various screens. Member, Individual, Participant Roles Roles describe the relationship of the individual to the group. Are they a leader? Or just a member? Leader, Member, Prospect Default Group Role The default role to use when someone is added to the group. Selection of one of the roles defined to the group. Child Group Types As we discussed above, child group types help determine the hierarchy of the group tree. This tells Rock what kind of groups can be added as children of the current group. Serving Teams may allow Child Serving Teams Location Types The types of locations that can be assigned to the group. Meeting Location Location Selection Mode Determines how locations should be selected in Location Picker. The following options are available: Named - Allows you to pick from named locations that have been defined under Admin Tools > General Settings > Named Locations Address - Allows the input of a new street address for the location. Point - Displays a map that allows for the selection of a specific latitude/longitude point. Geo-fence - Also displays a map that allows for drawing a polygon shape to use as a geo-fence. Group Member Address - Lists all of the addresses associated to the group members of the group. Note that if the address of the group member changes the meeting location will not be automatically updated to this new address. Multiple Locations Determines if the group can have multiple locations. True/False Group Attributes The custom attributes that each group will have. Meeting Day, Meeting Time, Topic of Study Group Member Attributes The custom attributes that each group member will have. Hours Per Week Serving, Assigned Bus Takes Attendance Determines if the group takes attendance. This will help to enable check-in and metrics features. True/False Attendance Rule Determines how check-in will work if the person is not already in the group. Add on Check-in (adds the person to the group if they are not already in the group), Already Belongs (the individual must already belong to the group) Advanced Group Type Settings These settings will be rarely used, but it's helpful to know they exist as you define your group types. Setting Description Example Purpose The purpose helps categorize different group types together. This allows you the flexibility of creating multiple group types but at the same time providing a way of 'linking' these various types together with a single 'purpose'. To add a new purpose simply add a new Defined Value under Admin Tools > General Settings Defined Values > Group Type Purpose. While we recommend that you start with a single group type to manage your various serving teams you could over time add new ones. You would then create a purpose to descibe them all as serving opportunities. Group Type Attributes Custom attributes that will be shared by every group of this type. In other words every group of this type will have the same value of these attributes. Most group types won't have a need for these. They are used by the checkin system. Attendance Prints To Determines the device / location where check-in labels will be printed. The options are: Default - UseS the print location configured in the check-in workflow. Kiosk - Overides the check-in workflow to always print at the check-in kiosk. Location - Overrides the check-in workflow to always print at the location configured in the group. This setting will have limited value outside of configuring check-ins. Inherited Group Type This allows you to create a group that inherits its attributes from another group type. This is helpful when you have two group types that are very similar but one needs a few more attributes. Say you have a Serving Team group type that covers most of your serving groups. Your worship teams, however, would like to add a special attribute for Instruments Played. You want this new group type to have all of the same attributes of the current Serving Team. To solve this, add the Serving Team group type as the Inherited Group Type of the new Worship Serving Team group type. Securing Groups Most groups you create will need to have some level of security added to them. They may or may not contain the world’s secrets, but you’ll want to control who can add, edit and/or delete them at the very least. Securing Group Types By adding security to a group type, you control the base security of every group of that type. Let's say your organization adds a new type of group to help manage some classes you're starting. You may want to create a new group type for this initiative where every class is a group of this new type. By adding security to the group type, you can ensure that every group can be viewed and edited by a select handful of people. To add security to a group type, go to Admin Tools > General Settings > Group Types. There you will see a list of group types in a table. In the far right column you will see an button. Clicking this will allow you to set the security for the selected group type. Securing A Group They may be occasions where each group will need different security settings. Don't worry, this is super easy in Rock. To secure a specific group, find the group in the group viewer (People > Group Viewer). On the group details page you'll find the same button. Clicking this will bring up the Rock security dialog where you can adjust the security settings. Note the inherited permissions at the bottom of this screen. Inherited security is a very powerful concept with groups. By default, a group will inherit the security of its parent groups and group type. This limits the amount of security configuration each group requires. These inherited rights are only a starting point. You can either build on top of these permissions or override them. The choice, and power, is up to you. At first you may be tempted to go overboard with your group's security settings. In general it's best to keep them simple. For instance, in the case of home-based Bible studies you may be tempted to secure each group differently to only allow the leader to edit them. While in certain cases you may need to do this, you could also secure all groups with a generic Small Group Leader role. You could then limit which groups a leader was able to navigate to through the configuration of your leader toolbox blocks. Group Strategies The flexibility built into Rock groups is very powerful. But like a puzzle when you open the box and dump out the pieces, it can be a little overwhelming to get started. Below are a few strategies for you to consider first. Don’t be afraid to ask others how they have configured their groups. The Ask section of the Rock website is perfect for these kinds of discussions. Multiple Group Viewers Rock comes preconfigured with a general group viewer People > Group Viewer, but you can add more. Say, for instance, your church has a strong small group ministry. You may want to create a new Group Viewer page just for this ministry. You can do this by adding a new page under People (or any other page you like) and add the group viewer blocks to the page. Here Are Your Tools The following blocks are used to make a group viewer. We recommend that you use the LeftSidebar Panel page layout. 1 Group Tree View Add a group tree view block to the sidebar zone to help you navigate your group heirarchy. 2 Group Details Add the group details block to the top of the main zone. 3 Group Member List Next add the group member list block under the group details. When you set up the Group Tree Block you can set the root group to start with and limit which types of groups it will display. This allows you to make a very specific small groups viewer with just a couple of clicks. Group Folders As you start to think about your group hierarchies, make sure that you plan for growth. This might mean that you create special groups in your hierarchy to help to categorize your groups. You can think of this like using folders on your computer to help manage all of your files. You could throw all of your files in one folder, but you’d never find anything. Adding folders helps you arrange and sort your groups. While folders add little value to your computer’s file-system, these category groups can actually be beneficial beyond just organizing. For instance, if you add these category groups to your serving teams, the categories can act as leadership teams for their sub-groups. Take a look at this example of the first impressions serving teams at a large multi-campus church: Sample Serving Heirarchy Notice how each campus and ministry area has a leadership group. These groups not only help arrange the serving teams, but they can also have members of their own that represent the leadership team for each area.