Group types and participation types are used to broadly classify groups and the members in groups into categories. You can have as many or as few group types and participation types as you need to classify your groups and group members, and you can add, modify, or remove them at any time.
When you create a group (see Groups), you assign a group type to the group. A group type is a broad classification that helps you classify your groups, such as Committees, Saved Searches, Email Lists, and so on. This way, you can more easily find the group you wish to use when creating a report or an email, accessing a custom search, or any of the other activities that involve groups.
The Group Type pulldown is demonstrated below as it appears on the Groups page. In this example, three group types (Accreditation, Committees, and Special Groups) have already been created, so any new group that is created can be classified as one of these three types. (In addition, there is a No Type Assigned group that holds any groups that were never assigned to a group; your site may or may not have this type, and you can never assign new or existing groups to this type.)
To list your current group types, navigate to Members > Tools and Customization. Then you can click on Customize the types of groups, which lists all your current group types in a screen like the one below.
From here, you can create a new group type using the New group type text box. Click to create your new type. You can then assign new and existing groups to this type (see Groups).
Note: You can also add a new group type while adding or editing a group (see Characteristic Smart Groups). Just click the add new group type link next to the Group type pulldown, and you can add a new group type on the fly.
You can click the 
icon to the right of the name of
an existing group type to edit its name. This
will update the type name anywhere it is displayed, and will have the
effect of "moving" all groups from the old type name to the
new type name.
You can delete a type you no longer need by clicking the 
icon to the right of its name. If
the icon is pale 
, that means the type has at least one
group assigned to it and cannot be deleted; you'll need to edit its groups
and move them to other types before deleting the group type.
When adding members to a group, each member of a group can be assigned a participation type (such as Member or Chair) to show what their role is in the group.
Note: A member can not have the same participation type in the same group, even if the participation start and end dates do not overlap.
The Participation Type pulldown menu is demonstrated below as it appears when you add a member to a group or edit an existing group member (see Groups and committees - adding group members).
To list your current participation types, navigate to Members > Tools and Customization. Then you can click on Customize the types of smart groups, and finally click the Participation Types tab. You'll see all your current participation types in a screen like the one below.
From here, you can create a new participation type using the New group type text box. Click to create your new type. You can then assign this type to people that you add to participation groups (see Participation groups - adding group members).
You can click the icon to the right of the name of
an existing participation type to edit its name. This
will update all members assigned to a group using participation type.
You can delete a type you no longer need by clicking the icon to the right of its name. If
the icon is pale , that means the type has at least one
member using it and cannot be deleted; you'll need to edit all members
using this type from all groups and move them to other participation types
before deleting this participation type.
When members of a smart group are displayed on your website, they are
sorted according to assigned order of the participation types for that
smart group. If you wish to modify the current order of the participation
types, click the reorder participation types link
at the bottom of the Participation Types tab.
Drag and drop the types into the desired order using the 
icons and then press the 
button, as shown
in the example below.
