Groups are a simple yet powerful way to keep your church, ministries, and teams organized; you can even use them to build small groups or keep track of things such as giftings. You can create groups for anything, really; they help you organize your church as needed. Search groups are just like regular groups, except people are included based on easily selected criteria. Use it to create any report you need and to ensure people don't slip through the cracks.
You can easily send group members email and SMS messages, leave follow up tasks that are emailed to the team, or view one of the available reports.
When your church first signed up for UCare, several groups were added to help you understand what groups you may need. You can change or delete these groups to better suit your church.
Tip: You will see groups that you own on your dashboard, making it quick to find them.
Tip: Tap on an attendance column header date to go directly to that meeting, e.g., 1 Oct.
The top right commands include the following options depending on your access level. These options may be displayed under the ... options button if you are using a device with a small screen:
- Record group attendance
- Send SMS message
- New email message
- Edit group
- Add tasks
- Duplicate group
- Merge group
- Delete
Group details
Group details allow you to define custom fields for groups; for instance, you may use it to identify a campus or different demographics for that group. If the group is a small group that is published to your list of published groups, then this detail will be used to filter the list of groups.
View and add people to the group
Meetings have been added for this group, and the recent attendance line next to each person lets you see at a glance how connected each person has been. On the very right of the attendance info is the percentage of meetings the person has attended; this excludes meetings that were not held (i.e., canceled).
Names are color-coded to make it quick and easy to identify people that may need help. Orange indicates a person hasn't been to the last half of this group's meetings, while red indicates they haven't attended any meetings and either need to be followed up or possibly removed from the group. Green, on the other hand, indicates that the person has been added in the last 30 days; in fact, when you hover a person, you will see the date they were added to the group.
If you check the boxes to the left of people's names, you'll get the following bulk action options when you click the Actions menu:
Add selected people to...: Add the selected people to another group, meeting, or process.
Remove from this group: Remove the selected members from this group.
Archive - remove from all public groups: Remove the selected people from all public groups, so they aren't getting charged for.
Add a note...: Add a note to all the selected people.
Move group members...: Move the selected people between groups; this is often used for school grade promotions.
Change a date....: Add, remove, or rename a date for the selected people.
Change a more detail...: Add, remove, or rename a more detail for the selected people. If you are using more details for storing grade information, then the rename detail option can be used for grade promotions.
Change restrictions...: Add or remove security area restrictions for the selected people.
Update email...: Reset a failed email address, or subscribe/unsubscribe the selected people from email.
Update SMS...: Reset a failed Mobile number, or subscribe/unsubscribe the selected people from SMS.
Update gender...: Update the gender of the selected people.
Delete selected people: Delete all the selected people.
Tip: When adding people to a group, you can add a person, or you can add all the people from a household, group, meeting, or event. Additionally, you can find people to add not just by name but also by phone number, email, or barcode. You can use a barcode or RFID reader to search for the person by their barcode.
Tip: Edit the group and then tap more info to change how many days of attendance to display. By default, the last 60 days are displayed.
Tip: If you need to add a new person and record that they are a group member, tap Add people > New person and enter their details. If a person with the same details already exists on UCare, then instead of creating an entirely new profile, the existing person will simply be added as a group member.
Tip: If visitors attend 3 of the displayed meetings, they will automatically become group members.
Tip: The first filter at the top of the list of names lets you filter to absent people or recently added people. This quickly shows high priority people to follow up.
Tip: The second filter at the top of the list of names, "Group attendance, "lets you filter to only view attendance for this group's meetings. "All attendance" displays attendance for all meetings; this is a great way to see where else these people are connected.
Tip: In the top right of the list of names is two buttons. By default, the names are displayed as a list, but the face button displays each person's image instead. You can print this view and use it for your prayer wall.
Visitors
If a person is checked into a meeting for a group but isn't a group member, they will show up on the visitors' tab. If they start attending regularly, then tap the plus next to their name to add them as a group member.
If you check the boxes to the left of people's names, you'll get the following bulk action options:
Add selected people to...: Add the selected people to another group, meeting, or process.
Add selected people as members: Add the selected visitors as group members.
Archive - remove from all public groups: Remove the selected people from all public groups.
Add a note...: Add a note to all the selected people.
Move group members...: Move group members in bulk; this is used to do grade promotions.
Change a date...: Add, remove, or rename a date for the selected people.
Change a more detail...: Add, remove, or rename a more detail for the selected people.
Change restrictions...: Change which security areas are applied to the selected people.
Update email...: Reset a failed email address, or subscribe/unsubscribe the selected people from email.
Update SMS...: Reset a failed mobile number, or subscribe/unsubscribe the selected people from SMS.
Remove from all groups: Remove the selected people from all groups.
Add a note...: Add a note to all the selected people.
Add or remove date...: Add or remove a date to the selected people.
Add or remove more detail...: Add or remove a more detail field to the selected people.
Update email...: Reset a failed email address, or subscribe/unsubscribe the selected people from email.
Update gender...: Update the gender of the selected people.
Delete selected people: Delete all the selected people.
Tip: The filter at the top of the list of names lets you filter absent people, recently removed, or new people. This quickly shows the high priority people to follow up.
Tip: In the top right of the list of names is two buttons. By default, the names are displayed as a list, but the face button displays each person's image instead. You can print this view and use it for your prayer wall.
Leaders
The group leaders are displayed under the leaders' tab and can include a leadership role. People with "Groups & meetings" access can only see groups they lead and members of those groups.
When attendance reports are submitted, an email notification like the following is sent to all group leaders with details of who attended, who was absent, who was new, and any notes.
Meetings
Group meetings are displayed on the meetings tab and show total attendance for each meeting, helping identify fluctuations.
It is recommended you record meetings for weekend services, kids, youth, young adults, and small groups. Other ministries that are important to your church should also have attendance recorded. See the meetings help section for more information.
Reports
The report tab gives you the ability to create reports for different needs. The current group reports are:
- View stats
- View notes
- Export group members
- Export addresses - create directory
- Export attendance
- Export meeting stats
Note: To create a report that finds a specific set of people, please look at the search groups' help topic.
The print tab is where you'll find options to print the group members. You can either print to a PDF or a DYMO LabelWriter. The following print options are available:
Address labels - Avery Labels - Create address labels PDF for printing on Avery labels.
Address labels - DYMO LabelWriter - Print address labels to a DYMO LabelWriter.
Name tag labels - Avery Labels - Create name tags PDF for printing on Avery labels.
Name tag labels - DYMO LabelWriter - Print name tags to a DYMO LabelWriter.
Check in labels - Avery Labels - Create check in name tags and security tickets PDF for printing on Avery labels.
Check in labels - DYMO LabelWriter - Print check in name tags and security tickets to a DYMO LabelWriter.
The following Avery label sizes are available:
Avery Labels L7159 - 3 x 8
Avery Labels L7160 - 3 x 7
Avery Labels L7169 - 2 x 4
Avery Labels L7173 - 2 x 5
Avery US Labels L5363 - 3 x 8
Avery US Labels L5360 - 3 x 7
Avery US Labels L5163 - 2 x 5
Tip: If you are running an event, then you can use Name tag labels - Avery Labels with the Avery 2 x 5 size to create name tags to use inside lanyards. The name tag can include a barcode to make it quick and easy to look up the guest in UCare if they want to make a purchase or re-register. Selecting Print a border around labels will add a border that you can use as crop marks.
Tip: If you have recorded allergies and want that info printed on labels, then ensure the "Print check-in info" option is selected.
History
If you are an admin, the history tab displays all the people that have viewed this group and all the changes made. For non-admins, the history tab show's all your updates to the group.