Role Groups

Role Groups create themselves. You define criteria — “all Leaders”, “members aged 18-25”, “everyone with Certification Level = Advanced” — and the system automatically adds every matching member. When a member’s profile changes, their Role Group memberships update too. Use Role Groups when you need a collaborative space for a segment of your organization that’s defined by who members are, not where they are (that’s Local Centers) or what project they’re on (that’s Private Groups).

Do I need Role Groups?

Your situation	Recommendation
You want a space for all Leaders to coordinate	Yes — create a Role Group with criteria “User Type = Leader”
You need age-specific content (youth program, seniors group)	Yes — create a Role Group with an age range
You want to reach all members of a specific profession	Yes — criteria based on a custom field
You need a project team with hand-picked members	No — use a Private Group instead
You want to send announcements to everyone	No — use the Main Group

How Role Groups work

You define criteria:    User Type = "Leader"
                                ↓
System scans all members and adds matches
                                ↓
Maria gets promoted to Leader → automatically added
                                ↓
Tom steps down from Leader → automatically removed

There is no manual membership management. The system keeps the group in sync with your member data. When someone’s profile changes — they get a new user type, turn 18, update a custom field — their Role Group memberships adjust automatically.

Enable Role Groups

Settings → Groups → Module Settings → toggle Role Groups on.

Creating a Role Group

Settings → Groups → Role Groups → Create Role Group

Name the group

Give it a clear name that reflects the membership: “All Leaders”, “Youth Members (13-17)”, “Board of Directors”.

Define criteria

Select the criteria that determines membership. You can combine multiple criteria.

Enable features

Choose which features the group needs: Discussions, Events, Files, Issues.

Set permissions

Configure who can post, create events, and upload files.

Save

The system immediately populates the group with all matching members.

Criteria types

You can base Role Groups on any of these member attributes:

Criteria	Example groups
User Type	”All Leaders”, “All Volunteers”, “Staff Members”
Age range	”Youth (13-17)”, “Young Adults (18-30)”, “Seniors (60+)“
Gender	”Women’s Network”, “Men’s Group”
Custom fields	”Certification Level = Advanced”, “Department = Engineering”, “Years of Membership > 5”

Combining criteria

You can combine multiple criteria for more specific groups:

User Type = “Leader” AND Age > 18 → “Adult Leaders”
Custom Field “Department” = “Engineering” AND User Type = “Staff” → “Engineering Staff”

Be careful not to over-segment. A Role Group with criteria so specific that only 2-3 people qualify isn’t useful — you’d be better off with a Private Group. Role Groups work best for meaningful segments with 10+ members.

What happens inside a Role Group

Each Role Group is a full collaborative space, the same as any other group:

Feature	Use it for
Discussions	Coordination between all members of this segment — training updates, best practice sharing, role-specific announcements
Events	Role-specific meetings, training sessions, professional development
Files	Training materials, handbooks, templates relevant to this role
Issues	Track tasks and action items for this segment

Practical examples

Youth scouting organization

Role Group	Criteria	Purpose
All Leaders	User Type = Leader	Leadership coordination, training resources
Youth Members	Age 10-17	Age-appropriate activities and discussions
Young Adults	Age 18-25	Transition support, young leader development
Board Members	User Type = Board Member	Board governance, meeting documents
Parents	User Type = Parent	Parent communication, volunteer coordination

Professional association

Role Group	Criteria	Purpose
Certified Members	Custom Field “Certification” = Yes	CPD tracking, certification renewals
New Members (< 1 year)	Custom Field “Join Year” = current	Onboarding resources, mentorship matching
Committee Chairs	User Type = Committee Chair	Cross-committee coordination

How membership stays current

When you change a member’s user type, their Role Group memberships update automatically
When a member’s birthday crosses an age threshold, age-based groups update
When an admin updates a custom field value on a member’s profile, relevant groups adjust
The system syncs regularly — changes are reflected within minutes, not days

You cannot manually add or remove members from a Role Group. Membership is 100% criteria-driven. If someone needs to be in the group, adjust their profile to match the criteria. If they shouldn’t be in the group, change the attribute that qualifies them.

Permissions

Like all groups, Role Groups have posting controls:

Setting	When to use
Only admins can post — ON	When the group is primarily for admin-to-segment announcements (e.g., “All Leaders” gets leadership updates)
Only admins can post — OFF	When members should discuss among themselves (e.g., “Youth Members” has peer conversations)
Only admins can create events	When events should be coordinated centrally
Only admins can upload files	When documents should be curated by admins

Assign a group administrator from within the matching segment so they understand the audience.

Common scenarios

A member got promoted — do I need to manually move them to the Leaders group?

No. Change their user type to “Leader” and the system automatically adds them to any Role Group with criteria “User Type = Leader”. They’ll also be removed from groups they no longer qualify for (e.g., “Volunteers” if that was their old type).

I want a Role Group but also need to add a few extra people manually

Role Groups don’t support manual additions. Two options: (1) Adjust the criteria to include those people — perhaps add a custom field value they share. (2) Use a Private Group instead if the membership doesn’t map cleanly to profile data.

The Role Group has too many members — discussions are noisy

Either narrow the criteria (add an additional condition) or enable “Only admins can post” to make it an announcement channel. Direct discussion to smaller Private Groups for sub-topics.

Can I create a Role Group based on Local Center membership?

No — that’s what Local Centers already provide. Each Local Center is itself a group with discussions, events, and files. Role Groups are for cross-cutting segments that span all locations (e.g., “All Leaders” regardless of which center they belong to).

A Role Group is no longer needed

Archive the group. Content is preserved for reference but the group is hidden from the sidebar. If you’re sure it’s not needed, you can delete it entirely.

Groups Overview — All group types and when to use each
User Types — The most common criteria for Role Groups
Custom Fields — Create profile fields to use as Role Group criteria
Private Groups — For manually controlled membership

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Role Groups

Do I need Role Groups?

How Role Groups work

Enable Role Groups

Creating a Role Group

Criteria types

Combining criteria

What happens inside a Role Group

Practical examples

Youth scouting organization

Professional association

How membership stays current

Permissions

Common scenarios

​Do I need Role Groups?

​How Role Groups work

​Enable Role Groups

​Creating a Role Group

​Criteria types

​Combining criteria

​What happens inside a Role Group

​Practical examples

​Youth scouting organization

​Professional association

​How membership stays current

​Permissions

​Common scenarios

​Related

Do I need Role Groups?

How Role Groups work

Enable Role Groups

Creating a Role Group

Criteria types

Combining criteria

What happens inside a Role Group

Practical examples

Youth scouting organization

Professional association

How membership stays current

Permissions

Common scenarios

Related