Group Management FAQ

Group management of stmhsa groups on Google Groups is fairly straight forward and can all be done over the web without any special tools. In general, to reduce administrative efforts, we want to encourage users to manage their own group subscriptions. To do this, users must have a Google account. See the HSA web page Mailing Lists page for instructions for users to create their Google account.

There are, however, some tasks for group managers to perform and this FAQ will guide you through some of the basic tasks that you need to perform basic management tasks such as approving group membership requests. Please do not change any of the other group settings or configuration than these listed below.

Becoming a List Manager:

To become a list manager you must first be subscribed to the group and be granted management privileges by the groups owner. If you are not subscribed to the group, first follow the instructions for subscribing to a group. After you are subscribed to the group the list owner can grant you manager privileges.

Managing your List:

Once subscribed and added as a list manager, to manage your group, login to your Google Groups account and click on the group name in the "My Groups" box. This will take you to your groups home page. From here, you can select from the available management tasks.

Approving Membership Requests:

All of our stmhsa google groups have been setup to allow users to request a membership to the group. When a user requests group membership, the group manager will receive an email with a link to follow to approve the membership request. You can also get to the approval page, by clicking on "Management tasks" and then "Review pending members" from the groups home page.

The user should have entered their full name as part of the request for membership, so please verify that this name looks like someone that should be on your particular list. The STM family directory would be a good place to check to verify this information. If the request is valid, then click the "Approve" button and hit "Save Changes".

Inviting Members:

As mentioned earlier, users will be strongly encouraged to handle their own group subscriptions, however, you may have cases where you do need to invite someone.

To invite members to your group, click on the "Invite members" link from the group home page. Enter the email addresses of the people you wish to invite(separated by a comma or space) and write a brief invitation message if desired. Then, click on the "Invite members" box to invite the members.

The invitees should then receive an email message informing them that they have been invited to the group. To accept the invitation, they need to follow the steps specified in the invitation, including creating their Google account if they don't yet have one, and then clicking on the link to activate their group subscription.

In the event that users do not create a Google account when accepting
their invitation, the user's group settings will be set by default to only let them view group message via the web interface(i.e. they won't get the email). In this case, the list manager should have the user follow the steps to create their account and have them change their account settings on their own. As a last resort, the list manager can also change the users setting for them by clicking on "Management tasks" and then "Manage members" from the group home page. Find the users email address and then select the "Edit" link by their address. Click "Email" under the subscription type and "Save Changes".

Unsubscribing Members:

As mentioned earlier, users will be strongly encouraged to handle their own group subscriptions, however, you may have cases where you receive a direct request to unsubscribe from your group and you should honor this request.

To do this, click on "Management tasks" and then "Manage members" from the group home page. Find the users email address and then select the "Edit" link by their address. Click the "Unsubscribe" box at the bottom of the form and the user will be unsubscribed from the group.

Monitoring Group Content:

As a list manager please ensure that content to your group is relevent and appropriate to the list topic. While only the general announcements list is officially moderated, all posts to any of the stmhsa lists on Google Groups should follow our Acceptable Use Policy. Spamming or any abuse of this policy should not be tolerated. Please take a moment to read through this so that you are familiar with it, and don't be afraid to politely refer any user to this policy and request that they abide by it. Please report any abuse immediately to the STM HSA system administrator and Communications Committee chair so that appropriate action may be taken.

Moderated Groups:

If you are a manager for a moderated group such as the stmhsa-general group, follow along here for more information.

Thanks for all your help managing stmhsa groups.