A growing number of high school and college sports teams are adopting GroupSpot. These teams are a mix of parent-run booster groups, coach-run player groups, or sometimes a hybrid of the two. Regardless of group type, one question that frequently comes up at the end of the season is what to do with alumni (players and parents who’ve graduated and are not part of the current team)?
When the alumni question needs an answer, the good news is that GroupSpot provides two viable options and leaves the decision how best-to-handle with group owners:
The first option to address alumni is to use subgroups. Subgroups allow admins to parse communications into smaller groups within the larger group across posts and mass communications.
• Scenario A: Subgroups Don’t Exist
Let’s first look at the scenario where subgroups don’t exist. For example, take a parent-run booster group. In this scenario, two subgroups could be created, one for Current Parents and one for Alumni Parents, so that posts and communications can be delivered to the appropriate audience.
Here’s how to Create Subgroups:
• Scenario B: Subgroups Exist
The second scenario is what to do when subgroups already exist within the group. For example, teams may already have subgroups for parents, players, and coaches. In this scenario, it’s easy to create a new subgroup just for alumni. This new subgroup could even be broken into two subgroups, Alumni Parents and Alumni Players, if that’s more helpful. Again, when it comes time to post or send mass communications, admins would choose the appropriate subgroups to reach their desired audience.
When it comes to alumni, adding a new subgroup is easy to do, especially if subgroups are already being used. What’s nice about using subgroups is that this new line of communication is all maintained within the current group. The challenge of using subgroups is making sure that posts and mass communications are going to the right audience. Though if a mistake is made, adjusting your subgroups to the desired audience is an easy admin edit away.
A second viable option to handle alumni is to use sister groups which connect like, but separate groups, through cross-posting. This requires the creation of a new group just for alumni. Just like subgroups, sister groups can be used across post content and mass communications.
Here’s how to create Sister Groups:
When it comes to alumni, Sister Groups work great because select content in the current group can easily be cross-posted to the new alumni group. All you need is one administrator who has privileges to post in both groups to cross-post content or send mass communications. Having separate groups and using sister groups to cross-post is an effective way to connect like groups. On one hand, using sister groups reduces the chance content mistakenly gets shared with the wrong audience. On the other hand, maintaining two groups is more work, especially if you need to recreate game schedules and rosters.
Subgroups and sister groups are both effective solutions to the alumni question. Owners need to weigh the pros and cons of each solution and decide what fits their needs best.
