Find a group and About pages

Find a group lets people in your church look through its groups and tell a group's leaders they'd like to come. It's for people who are signed in to your church's Trellis, not a page on the open web. Each group also has an About page, which is its profile written for reading.

Where people find it

• Find a group is in the menu for everyone whenever Groups is on: office staff find it under Groups.
• Your week shows a Find a group card, with Look through the groups, to anyone who isn't in a group yet.

What's listed

Find a group lists your church's groups whose kind is set to On Find a group. Groups of other kinds, like a support group, aren't listed and can't be asked to join there. Sample groups are never listed. See Kinds of group.

Groups are in two lists: Open to new people first, then Full or closed. A group is full when its roster reaches the number in Room for on its profile, and closed when its Status is Not taking new people.

Each group is a card, with the group's photo faint behind it if its leaders have added one (see Add a header photo). The card shows its name, its tags (Men’s or Women’s, its stages of life, and Spanish or Bilingual when it meets in Spanish), its sentence, its day and time, its neighborhood, its leaders by first name, and places left when that's known. A person sees Your group on the groups they're in, and You asked on ones they've asked to join.

People can search by name, neighborhood, leader or words in a group's description, and narrow by kind, day, time of day, Who can join, Stage of life and Language. Kind, day, time and who can join each appear once there's more than one choice. Stage of life appears once a group has one, and Language once a group meets in Spanish or in both languages. A church with campuses also has a campus filter, set at first to the person's own campus; groups for every campus show whichever campus is chosen.

How the filters read a group:

• Who can join: a group that doesn't say counts as open to anyone.
• Stage of life: a group marked All ages shows for every stage.
• Language: a group that doesn't say counts as English, and a bilingual group shows for English and for Spanish.

The language is a setting on the group. Trellis itself is in English.

What a person sees on a group

Opening a group shows its photo across the top, if it has one, then its About page: the sentence, About this group if the leaders have written one, who it's for in one line (like "Women · Young adults · Spanish"), whether it's open, when it meets, its neighborhood, its leaders, its size and childcare. The street address and whose home it meets at are left out.

Below it is Tell the leaders you’d like to come, with a note already started for them.

Asking to join

1. The person changes the note if they want to.
2. They press I’d like to come.

The group's leaders get an email saying the person would like to visit, and a reply goes straight to the person's email address. If the email can't go out, the leaders still see the note on the person's page in Trellis, and the person is told so.

The person also goes on the group's list as a guest. Where the group's kind follows up on visitors, they're on its visitor list with a follow-up due that day, so they show on the leader's list. See Visitors.

The page tells the person their name and note go to the group's leaders and the church office, no one else.

Limits on asking

• Not a group they're already in. They see You’re in this group with a link to their group's page.
• Not a group that's full or not taking new people.
• Not the same group again within two weeks.
• Not more than three groups in a day.
• A note under 1,000 characters.

A person needs their sign-in linked to their record in your church. If it isn't, Trellis tells them to ask the office to connect it.

The About page

Office staff and the group's leaders see About among the group's tabs. It's the same profile people read, with Edit profile to change it. If the group has no sentence yet, it says No description yet with a link, Add a sentence in Profile.

The About page shows:

• the group's sentence and who it's for: who can join, its stage of life, and its language when that isn't English,
• About this group under the sentence, when it's written, in the paragraphs it was written in,
• whether it's open, full or not taking new people,
• When, Where, Leader or Leaders (with the coach, if there is one), Size and Childcare.

Make a group look its best

• Write a clear sentence in Who it’s for, in a sentence (shown on Find a group). It's the one line on the group's card.
• Choose Who can join, tick each Stage of life that fits, and set Language if the group meets in Spanish or in both.
• Use About this group for the rest: what a night looks like, what you're studying, what to bring, childcare and parking.
• Set Room for, so people can see the places left.
• Keep Status honest: set Not taking new people when a group is closed.
• Fill in Childcare for families.

Create a group lists every field.

Still stuck? Ask Silas