Smart Groups are an integral part of Members360°. Simply put, a Smart Group defines a group of members, either based on fields in the database (a characteristic-based Smart Group) or based on serving on or belonging to a board, committee, or similar group (a participation-based Smart Group).
Once you create a group, you can use the membership subset it defines for several different purposes:
Creating a report (see Creating a report)
Running an advanced search (see Member search page)
Sending email (see Email)
Creating invoices (see Adding single or batch invoices)
Modifying the value of a field (see Data modification)
Creating relationships (see Linking members using relationships)
Adding members to a group (see Groups and committees)
Restricting access to a form (see Form properties)
To get to the Smart Groups page, navigate to Members > Smart Groups. Any existing groups you have will be displayed, and you have the ability to create, view, modify, and delete groups.
There are two different kinds of groups you can create:
Participation-based Smart groups (boards, committees, and other participation-based groups)
Characteristic-based Smart Groups (using database fields, like member type or custom fields)
Characteristic-based Smart Groups are defined based on database fields, such as member type, end date, active status, contact info fields (like state or phone number), or custom fields you've created. For example, you can have a characteristic-based Smart Group that only includes active members of a certain type, or companies of a particular size. Characteristic-based groups automatically change over time as your database changes - hence, the group is "smart" because it keeps itself up to date as long as it is defined properly.
Participation-based Smart Groups are used to track committees, boards, volunteer groups, and similar groups. Each member in a participation-based group has a participation type (such as President, Trustee, Volunteer, or Member), as well as an optional start and end date indicating the person's involvement in the group. Unlike characteristic-based groups, you manually add members (one at a time or in bulk) to your participation-based groups, such as adding new board members to your Board of Directors group once elections have been held.
You must create categories, called Group Types, to organize your smart groups. For example, you could have groups such as Saved Searches, Email Lists, Boards, and Dues Groups. Every new Smart Group must be placed in a category, and you have complete control over which category names you have.
The creation and management of group types is explained in the specific instructions for both participation and characteristic groups.