To make your member administration even more insightful and clearer you can divide your members in groups. Think of for example Boards, Commissions, year clubs, etc.
How to use a group
Groups are divided into folders and possibly sub-folders. In the example below the root-folder 'Commissions' is divided into five sub-folders. The sub-folder 'Conference' contains the conference-commission of 2013 till 2015. This way you can keep an overview of the yearly changing commissions and its members.
Adding a folder
Under groups, on the left in the main menu, you get an overview of all the groups of your association. All groups are organised in different folders. Two folders are created by default: Board and Commissions. You can add new folders here, for example Debating societies, Year clubs, etc. Click 'Add folder' at the top right to create a new folder. Within a folder, choose 'Add' > 'Add folder'. Under folders you can create sub-folders by choosing a parent folder. In the example above, ‘Commissions’ is the root folder, with five sub-folders below it.
Editing a folder
To edit a folder, open it and choose 'Edit folder' under 'Actions'. Here you change the folder's name and its parent folder. Under 'Publication' you set whether, and how, the groups in the folder are published on the website. To share images or documents with the group, use 'Media'.
Who can see the members
Under 'Permissions', 'Who can see the members' sets who sees the member list of the groups in this folder on the website:
'Nobody';
'Members of the group': a group's members see their own group's member list on the webpage with the module 'profile';
'All members': every logged-in member sees the member list, also on the webpage with the module 'groups';
'Same as the parent folder, or the groups settings': the folder follows its parent folder, and a top-level folder follows Settings > Groups.
Under 'Permissions' in Settings > Groups you set the default for your association.
Adding a group
Once you have created a folder, you can create different groups within it. To do so, open a folder and choose 'Add' > 'Add group' at the top right. Here you set the name, the parent folder and the properties of the group.
Once the group has been created, you can add the group members. You can only add members who are already in your member administration. You add members one at a time, with the button 'New group member'. So if you want to put together a very large group, such as a field of study, you are better off creating a filter.
Editing a group
You edit a group by clicking it. On the tabs 'Members' and 'Properties' you can change the group's information and settings. When you click a member of the group, you can change their group function and dates. The 'Members' tab shows the current members by default. Choose 'All members' to also see former members.
Exporting groups
You export groups to Excel with the button 'Export':
on the Groups overview: all groups in the folders you are allowed to see;
in a folder: the groups in that folder and its sub-folders;
in a group, via 'Actions' > 'Export group': the members of that group.
The export of a folder or of all groups has two sheets: 'Groups' and 'Memberships', with one row per membership, including ended ones. To export, your user group needs the permission 'Export' under Groups.