Join and Participate in Groups

Groups are a vital component of our network.

Groups are where we may discover and connect with other activists who share our interests and/or our geographic region. Groups are where “conversations” take place, and where events are posted and publicized.

Things you can do:

• Join an existing group.
• Create a new group or sub group. 
• Create an event, either for the group or the entire membership.
• Add a resource, either an uploaded document or a link to an external source.
• Create a sub-group. For example, if you are interested in carbon taxes but want a subgroup for people in your state you could create a subgroup under carbon taxes for people in your state.

To check out the existing groups, or create a new one, first select Groups from the main site menu on the left.

The Groups Dashboard

This opens the Groups Dashboard.  Groups are listed in two sections. Groups to which you belong appear on the top, and a selection of “featured” UU groups appear below.

Menu links to create a new group, or search existing groups, are located on the top right of the Groups Dashboard page.

Join a Group

To join a group, first open its page and then look for the orange Request Membership button on the upper right.

If you later choose to leave a group, the Leave Group button is in the same place, on the upper right.

Group Sub-Pages

Each group has six internal pages (About, Conversations, Members, Events, Resources and Sub Groups) accessed by clicking the blue menu tabs at the upper right of the group’s page. Group moderators will see a seventh tab, Admin.

About:

This page includes key information about the group, tells you who the moderators are and allows you to email the group moderators by clicking the Email Moderators button, at the bottom of the page. 

Conversations and Notifications:

Conversations are a series of interactive comments/posts between group members on specific topics. Any group member can create a new conversation or join an existing one. When you open this page, you will see the existing group discussions.

 To view a conversation, simply click its blue title on the list.  This will open a new page containing that conversation’s posts. To add your own post, click the orange Comment button on the top right.

You have an option to tag other group members in your comment posts.  Type their name into the Tagged Members? field and select the name of the person you would like to tag. This will send that person a notification about your comment. This is useful for if you are directly responding to someone other than the person who made the original post, or if you want to bring someone into (or back into) the conversation.

To start a new conversation, click the orange New Post orange button in the top right of the group’s Conversations page.     

Each new post to start a conversation needs a Title (headline,) What’s on your mind? content (your conversation starter text) and Content Tags, to help people know at a glance what issues relate to your post. 

As with other comments, you can tag specific group members in this first post.  Type their name into the Tagged Members? field and select the name of the person you would like to tag. This will send that person a notification about your new post. 

The member who makes the first post to start a conversation is notified about every new comment in the conversation. Other people are only notified about new posts in a conversation if they are tagged in that post, or if they subscribe to a conversation.

To subscribe to a conversation (i.e. get a notification about each new post in the conversation) click the Subscribe toggle that appears at the top of each conversation.  This turns the toggle blue.  Conversations that you begin are automatically subscribed.

To view just your subscribed conversations, select Subscribed from the upper-left menu on the list of conversations.

Members:

This page displays the name, photo and occupation of all group members.  

You can identify who the group moderators are by looking for a star and the word “Moderator” below this basic information. 

Click on a name to access that member’s personal profile page, which includes an option to email that member.  

You also may send an email to the entire group, using the orange button at the top right of the group page.   

Events:

Events must be created within a group page. Once created, they may either be shared with the entire membership or else remain visible only to group members. 

Click the red + Create Event button, and a form will pop up.   Fields include: event title, description, content tags (select one or more relevant issue tags,) start and end times, and a physical or virtual address for the event.

You must specify whether the event is Public (viewable to any network member) or Private (visible only to group members.)

If you select Public, a field will appear asking if you want to Post to News Feed. This will post your new event on the News feed of our website Dashboard, and also cause it to appear on the Featured Events list of all members when they open the site’s main Events menu tab. 

Create Climate Justice Net users can mark that they plan to attend an event using the Attending toggle switch. If you have a separate registration process for an event, be sure this is posted in the event description and follow up with everyone who marks Attending to ask them to finish the registration process.

To finish, press the blue Submit button on the bottom right of the form.

If you are not a group moderator, a moderator will need to review and approve your event before it is visible on the site. Once your event is submitted and approved by a group moderator, then all group members will receive a notification about the new event.

Resources:

Any group member may add a resource to the site.

Cick the Resources tab at the top of the group page.

Next, click the orange Add New button, at the upper right.

This will open a pop-up form.

First, specify whether your resource is a file you’re uploading or a web link.

If you select File, then you may either drag a file into the Upload File box or else click the words “select a file” to surf for it on your personal device.

If you select Link, the box will change to instead provide a spot for the web link.

Next, create a title for your resource, add a detailed description and choose appropriate content tags.

At the bottom, you must choose whether the resource will be available for all site members, or just visible to your our own group.

When finished, click the blue Submit button.

Sub Groups:

Sub groups are visible only to members of their parent group.

To view them, click the blue Sub Groups tab at the top of a group page.  This will open a list of all (if any) existing subgroups. Click on the name of a subgroup to inspect its details.

To join a subgroup, click the orange Request Membership button on the upper right.  A group moderator will respond to your request.

To create a new sub group, click the orange Create Sub Group button on the upper left.  If you are not a group moderator, then the sub group will not be created until a moderator approves it.

Required fields include purpose/description, group type and content tags.  Optional info includes links to a website, Twitter account or Facebook page.