HOW TO MANAGE GOOGLE GROUPS

There are several options available to customize and manage a Google Group. Group owners and managers can assign membership rights and subscription types, specify email delivery options, manage message archive settings, change the visual appearance of a Group, and export and share a Group’s member list.

INVITE OR ADD MEMBERS TO A GROUP

You can invite members to join a Group, or manually add members yourself.

Invite Members to Join a Group

1. Click the Members link on the right-side of the Group’s homepage, next to the gear icon.
2. Select the green Manage tab.
3. Select the blue Invite tab.
4. Add one or more email addresses of members to be added to the group.
5. Write an invitation message (required) to introduce the Group to new members.
6. Click the Send invites button to send the invitations.

Manually Add Members to a Group

1. Follow steps 1 through 3 from above.
2. Select the Add members directly tab.
3. Add the email addresses of the members to be added to the group.
4. Write a welcome message (required) to introduce the group to new members.
5. Select a default subscription setting for your group members. Members can customize this setting later from their own account.
6. Click the Add button.

MANAGE MEMBER SETTINGS

Google Groups participants can be assigned one of the following roles:

• Member – can read the archives and post messages.
• Manager – can approve pending messages and members, and change group settings.
• Owner – can remove the Group, in addition to managing all settings.

Group managers and owners control the Group’s settings and memberships. They can add and invite new members, unsubscribe members, decide how the Group is accessed, and determine if a Group is searchable within the Boise State Groups directory.

How to Manage Member Settings

1. Click Members next to the gear icon.
2. Select the green Manage tab.
3. Select the check box next to the members names for whom you would like to change access.
4. Click the Actions drop down at the top, and hover over the Add to role, or Remove from role.  From here, you can click owner or manager.
5. You can update your members’ subscription types, make them group managers or owners, restrict their ability to post to your group, or unsubscribe or ban them by selecting Roles.

Differences Between an Owner and a Manager

The original Group owner is the person who created the Group, invited the first members, and chose the Group’s posting and access settings.

Once the owner selects a member to be a manager, both the owner and the manager can approve posts, invite new members, create managers, and change the group’s management settings. Only the owner, however, can create a co-owner, transfer ownership to another user, or remove the group.

EXPORTING A GROUP’S MEMBER LIST

This feature is only available in the older version of Google Groups.

A list of Group members’ email addresses may be exported into a .csv file; you can then download and keep this file for your own records, or share with other employees and Group owners.

Here’s how:

1. Click the Management tasks link on the right-side of the Group’s homepage.
2. Select the Manage members tab.
3. Click the Export member list button.
4. Save the file.