Now that you know how useful groups can be, you’re probably creating new groups left and right. Have you wondered how to keep them under control?
There are a couple of principles to abide by to keep groups manageable:
1. Think of groups as in one of two categories: temporary or permanent. Differentiating temporary and permanent groups, as well as periodically removing the temporary groups can help keep your groups down to a manageable number. Use a naming convention to indicate temporary groups (and if possible, to indicate who created the group and/or what program/campaign/department it’s used for). Have an internal discussion about when it’s okay to disable temporary groups. PTP’s protocol is that any temporary group can be disabled at any time, but we usually ask first.
2. Name them in a consistent way. As suggested above, a helpful group name indicates a) whether it’s a temporary or permanent group b) what it’s used for and/or c) who it belongs to, if necessary/applicable.
Temporary groups might be marked with a special character at the beginning of the name – we use an underscore. Here’s an example of a consistent naming protocol put into practice. _ denotes that the group is temporary; ORG means the group is related to and used for organizing work, while CM and FR stand for communications and fundraising.
You can also see how a naming protocol helps alphabetize (some) groups.
3. Use smart groups whenever possible and know that smart groups can always be created again, as long as you know what the underlying criteria are. Not-so-smart groups (static groups) cannot be easily re-created, so delete them only when you know they won’t be used again. If you’re unsure, it’s better to disable them.
