Getting Started: Conversations and Groups

Users can now receive emailed updates of activities on Conversations. Please see: Manage Conversations Notifications

What is Conversations?

Conversations is a group engagement tool designed to facilitate discussion among association members. Much like an online bulletin board system, users can leave messages and reply to discussion prompts and other members' comments.

Users with special privileges, called: Conversation Managers have the ability to create, edit, and restrict access to Groups. Groups are forums restricted to specific members where discussion threads can be created.

Before continuing to the next step, please see the article: How to Add Conversations Managers to register yourself and your admin team as Conversations Managers.

How to Access the Conversations Page from the Backoffice (Admins)

To enter Conversations from the backoffice, click on the "launch conversations site" button from the Org-level Conversations tab in the backoffice:

*If your organization purchased the Conversations package, but the option does not appear in the backoffice, please reach out to your Product Specialist.

How to Create Groups

Following the previous steps, launch the Conversations page as a Conversations Manager. If Groups were not previously created, click on the + button or the Create a Group button under "Groups" (For creating subsequent groups, select the + button):

In the "Create Group" page, enter the following:

• Group name
  • Suggestions for group names:
    • Event name - If all participants from a restricted event (with known email addresses) should have access, e.g. "Annual Conference 2022".
    • Event/Org role name - If the group is intended to be used for year-round engagement, restricted to specific roles, e.g. "Board of Directors".
    • Topic name - If the group should be used to discuss a specific subject matter, e.g. "Member Feedback and Suggestions".
• Description - Short explanation for the intent of the Group.
• Group image - Icon image to represent the Group.

Controlling Access to Groups

There are two options for making Groups available to users:

1. Invitations
   • This option allows Conversation Managers and group administrators (moderators of a specific group who are not necessarily Conversation Managers) to send invites to users by entering a list of emails.
   • This option is highly recommended for associations using Conversations for the first time.
1. Invitation emails are sent to the user that will log them in to the Conversations page automatically:
   • Example of invitation email sent with a login link:
2. Role restrictions:

• This option allows access to users with a specified event/org role
  • Invitation emails are NOT generated
• This option is recommended for associations that have:
  • an integration that imports users and assigns roles
  • events that are restricted to known participants with a link to Conversations

Controlling Group Visibility

Lastly, groups can be set to:

• Visible but locked or
• Hidden

for users who are not part of the group.