Set up a Google group for your club
Google Groups is a free online service that lets you store all your club’s communications in one place. Your members can use it to view messages, as well as post replies and create their own messages from scratch. You can also use your group to attract new members to your club.
Create your group
Go to https://groups.google.com and sign into your club’s Google account (if you don’t have one, create a free account at www.snipca.com/37331).
On your Google Groups page click ‘Create group’ (top left), then enter your club name – this will be used to create the group’s email address, but you can edit it later if necessary (handy if your club has a long name). Enter a brief description of your club, then click Next.
Anyone can search for groups via the Google Groups homepage. If you want your club’s group to appear in relevant searches, select ‘Anyone one on the web’ in the ‘Who can search for group’ box. You probably don’t want people joining who haven’t first been vetted, so select ‘Anyone can ask’ in the ‘Who can join group’ box (see screenshot below left) - you’ll then have the option to approve or deny each request. Use the sliders below this box to set who can view conversations, post new messages and see who else is a member of the group – you can change these settings later if needed. Click ‘Next’ when you’ve finished.
Add your club members
You can now add your club’s existing members to the group. There are three levels: members (the basic level that follows the permissions you set in the previous screen), managers (can change group settings, add new members and send group emails) and owners (full control, including closing the group). Enter the email addresses of your members into the appropriate boxes. There’s no limit to the number of members each group contains.
At the bottom of the window you can set how each member will receive updates (such as an email each time there’s a new post or a digest email every day). Alternatively, you can leave it up to your members to decide by turning off the ‘Directly add members’ option – doing this also means members won’t be added to the group directly, but will instead be sent an invitation to join. Click ‘Create group’ to continue.
You’ll now see your new group listed on your Google Groups page. To post your first message, click the group’s name, then ‘New conversation’ (top left). Give your message a subject, then type your message. You can prevent your group members from replying to a post by clicking the padlock icon (see screenshot left).
Click ‘Post message’ and it will appear in the Conversations section of your Google Groups page. Depending on a member’s subscription settings, they will also receive the message via email.
If anyone replies to the group email address (this will be included in the CC field of the email), their message will appear under the original post on your group’s page. Your members can post new messages to the group by going to the club’s group page and selecting ‘New conversation’ or sending an email to the group address.
If you added any members with non-gmail addresses, they’ll receive emails when someone creates a new post and can post their own messages by emailing the group address, but they’ll need a Gmail account to access the Google Groups page and browse posts.
Post your first message
Add, edit and remove members
You can add new members and change the permission levels of existing members by clicking Members in the left-hand sidebar of your group’s page. To remove someone, tick the box next to their name, then click ‘Remove member’ (the ‘no entry’ icon, top-right). To prevent them rejoining in the future, select the ‘Ban member’ icon (see screenshot below).