Managing Group Members

This article explains how to add, update, and remove members from groups, including the different roles and statuses available.

Member Roles

Every group member is assigned one of the following roles:

Leaders and Co-Leaders are collectively treated as the group's leadership team. They can manage prayer requests, resources, and chat settings from the group detail page.

Member Statuses

Adding Members

From the Admin Panel

1. Open the group detail page.
2. Click Add member(s) from the sidebar or the Members tab.
3. In the modal, search for and select a person from your church directory.
4. Choose a role (Leader, Co-Leader, Host, or Member).
5. For teams and classes, you can also assign a position at this time.
6. Click Add.

The person will be added as an active member with today's join date.

Note: Only people who are already in your church directory and marked as active can be added. The dropdown automatically excludes people who are already members of the group.

When Leaders Are Assigned During Group Creation

When you select leaders while creating a group, they are automatically added as members with the "Leader" role.

Reactivating a Former Member

If you add someone who was previously removed from the group (set to inactive), their existing membership record is reactivated rather than creating a duplicate. Their role can be updated at the same time.

Editing a Member

1. On the group detail page, navigate to the Members tab.
2. Find the member you want to edit.
3. Update any of the following fields:
   • Role -- Change between Leader, Co-Leader, Host, and Member.
   • Position -- Assign or change the member's position (teams and classes only).
   • Status -- Switch between Active, Inactive, and On Leave.
   • Notes -- Add internal notes about the member (max 500 characters).

Removing Members

1. On the Members tab, locate the member.
2. Click the remove action.
3. Confirm the removal.

Removing a member sets their status to "Inactive" and records the departure date. This is a soft removal -- the membership record is preserved for historical reporting. The member's name will still appear in past meeting attendance and health reports.

Position Assignments (Teams and Classes)

For teams and classes, members can be assigned to specific positions:

Assigning a Position

1. Open the member's detail or edit area on the Members tab.
2. Select a position from the group's defined positions.
3. Optionally mark it as the primary position.

When a position is marked as primary, any other primary assignments for that member are automatically cleared.

Permanent Position Mode

Teams and classes can enable Permanent Position Assignments mode:

• When enabled, each member must be assigned to one or more specific positions.
• When disabled, members can serve in any position flexibly per event.

To toggle this mode, use the position settings section on the group detail page.

Serving Preferences (Teams)

For team members, you can set individual serving preferences:

These preferences are used by the scheduling system to avoid over-scheduling volunteers.

Skill Levels (Teams)

Team members can be assigned a skill level to help with scheduling decisions:

Automatic Skill Suggestions

TimelyChurch tracks each member's assignment acceptance rate and can automatically suggest skill upgrades based on their track record:

• Beginner -- Suggested after 3 or more accepted assignments
• Intermediate -- Suggested after 8+ accepted with 75%+ acceptance rate
• Advanced -- Suggested after 15+ accepted with 80%+ acceptance rate
• Expert -- Suggested after 25+ accepted with 90%+ acceptance rate

When a suggestion is generated, leaders can approve it (which updates the skill level) or dismiss it.

Emailing Group Members

From the group detail page, you can send emails to members:

1. Click the Email button in the sidebar.
2. Recipients are pre-populated with all members who have email addresses.
3. You can also email only the leaders by using the "Email leaders" option on the leaders card.
4. Enter a subject and message body.
5. Click Send.

Emails are sent individually to each recipient through the church's notification system.

Tip: When a member has three or more consecutive absences, they appear in the Health tab's "At-Risk Members" section. Use the email link there to reach out to them directly.