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Groups, Messages, Forums FAQ

Groups allow you to:

  1. Keep an up-to-date directory of your group members
  2. Communicate with your group via e-mail
  3. Have a forum for your group to conduct discussions

This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) contains instructions for how TASH members can find and join the groups in which they want to participate, how they can customize their participation, and how group leaders can administer their groups.

Groups

  1. Sign in to your member account.
  2. Your browser will be directed to your “Manage Profile” page.
    3. A screenshot of the Manage Profile page in Your Membership
  3. Scroll down to the “Community” heading.
  4. Click on the “Groups” icon.
  5. Your browser will be directed to the “My Groups” page.
    6. A screenshot of the My Groups page in Your Membership. /
  6. From the “Group Permissions” list, click on the group type for which you would like to browse for groups.
  7. Your browser will be redirected to a page titled "Community Groups" that lists the groups of that type that are available.
    8. A screen shot of the Community Groups page for Chapters from Your Membership.
  8. Click on the group you want to join. You will be taken to the homepage for the group.
    9. A screenshot of the TASH Chapters: Ohio TASH page with an arrow pointing to the Join Group icon.
  9. From the homepage for the group, click on the “Join Group” button.
  10. If the group has an open membership, you will be added to the group immediately. If the group requires approval from the group leader / administrator to join, you will be added to the approval queue and receive notice from the group once your request has been approved.

To leave a group of which you are a member:

  1. From the group homepage, click the “Options” icon under the header (name of the group).
    2. A screenshot of the Polypotamia group homepage.
  2. Click “Leave Group.”
  3. Click “OK” on the pop-up.
  4. The page will reload, and you will see a “Join Group” icon next to “Options.”
  1. Sign in to your member account.
  2. There are two ways to get to the Groups page:
    1. Scroll down to the “Community” heading and click on the “Groups” icon.
    2. Alternatively, find the box titled “My Profile” on the top right. The fourth menu option in the “My Profile” box is “Groups”.
  3. Underneath the “Group Permissions” heading is a list of group types. The main types of groups are Communities of Practice, Committees, Chapters and Networks.
  4. Click on the group type to browse a list of groups of that type.
  5. You will be taken to a page with a list of groups of that type. The group names and descriptions are listed.
  6. When you see a group you would like to join, click on the group name.
  7. Your browser will be redirected to the landing page for the group.
  8. Right below the name of the group is a small icon and label that reads “Join Group”. Click that button.
  9. If the group has an open membership, you will be added to the group immediately. If the group requires approval from the group leader / administrator to join, you will be added to the approval queue and receive notice from the group once your request has been approved.
    A screenshot of the Ohio group homepage with an arrow pointing to the Join Group icon.
  1. First, become a member of the group after accessing it, by clicking on the small “Join Group” icon under the main header.

    2. To sign up for instant updates from the group:

    A screenshot of the Polypotamia group homepage with an arrow pointing to Forums.
  2. Click on “Forums” (on the group home page) to the right of the main text.
    3. A screenshot of the Polypotamia Forums page with an arrow pointing to General Chapter Discussion.
  3. Click on “General Discussion.”
    4. A screenshot of the General Chapter Discussion forum within Polypotamia TASH.
  4. Click on the “Forum Actions” drop-down menu and select “Subscribe to Instant Updates.” You should get a confirmation message in the upper left corner of the page that “Your subscription settings have been updated.”

This process is similar to signing up to receive messages:

  1. Click on “Forums” (on the group home page) to the right of the main text.
  2. Click on “General Discussion.”
  3. Click on the “Forum Actions” drop-down menu and select “Unsubscribe from Instant Updates.” You should get a confirmation message in the upper left corner of the page that “Your subscription settings have been updated.”
  1. First, become a member of the group after accessing it, by clicking on the small “Join Group” icon under the main header.
  2. Click on “Forums” on the bar on the right side of the main text.
  3. Click on “Options,” and a pop-up appears. Now click on “Message All Members” to send a message to the whole group or “Email All Members” to send an email to the group.

Emails, Messages, Notifications, and Digests

You can subscribe to four different types of messages from the TASH website: TASH news, group messages, forum instant updates and blog subscriptions. Instructions on how to subscribe and unsubscribe to each type of message are below.

You are automatically subscribed to TASH News when you become a TASH member, sign up to be on our mailing list or register for a TASH event.

  1. You can unsubscribe to TASH News e-mails the same way you would any other e-mail list: at the footer of all TASH News e-mails is a link, “Unsubscribe from this List”.
  2. Click on the “Unsubscribe from this List” link.
  3. Your web browser will go to the “Email Communication Preferences” page on the TASH website. It will show the TASH News e-mail list with a check next to it.
  4. Uncheck the “TASH News” checkbox.
  5. Click the “Save Preferences” button.

You can also access the “Email Communication Preferences” page from your member account on tash.org. Follow these steps:

  1. Sign in to your member account.
  2. Upon logging in, your browser will be redirected to your “Manage Profile” page.
  3. At the top of the page, under the “Information & Settings” heading, is an icon of a rolodex card with the label, “Edit Bio” next to it.
  4. Click on “Edit Bio”
  5. On the “Edit Bio” page, under the first heading, “Account Information”, the last item is a link, “Manage Email Preferences”.
  6. Click on the “Manage Email Preferences” link and a pop-up window will appear with the contents of the “Email Communication Preferences” page.
  7. Uncheck the “TASH News” checkbox.
  8. Click the “Save Preferences” button.
    A screenshot of the Ohio group homepage with an arrow pointing to the Join Group icon.
  1. First, become a member of the group after accessing it, by clicking on the small “Join Group” icon under the main header.

    2. To sign up for instant updates from the group:

    A screenshot of the Polypotamia group homepage with an arrow pointing to Forums.
  2. Click on “Forums” (on the group home page) to the right of the main text.
    3. A screenshot of the Polypotamia Forums page with an arrow pointing to General Chapter Discussion.
  3. Click on “General Discussion.”
    4. A screenshot of the General Chapter Discussion forum within Polypotamia TASH.
  4. Click on the “Forum Actions” drop-down menu and select “Subscribe to Instant Updates.” You should get a confirmation message in the upper left corner of the page that “Your subscription settings have been updated.”

This process is similar to signing up to receive messages:

    A screenshot of the Polypotamia group homepage with an arrow pointing to Forums.
  1. Click on “Forums” (on the group home page) to the right of the main text.
    2. A screenshot of the Polypotamia Forums page with an arrow pointing to General Chapter Discussion.
  2. Click on “General Discussion.”
    3. A screenshot of the General Discussion Forum.
  3. Click on the “Forum Actions” drop-down menu and select “Unsubscribe from Instant Updates.” You should get a confirmation message in the upper left corner of the page that “Your subscription settings have been updated.”
  1. From the home page of the group, click on “Blogs” on the bar (which also contains “Forums”) to the right of the main text. You will then see a list of blogs in the group.
  2. Click on the name of the blog in the group that you want to unsubscribe from.
  3. Under the header (the name of the blog), click the small “Unsubscribe” icon. Then click “OK.” This will reload the page, but with a “Subscribe” icon in place of the “Unsubscribe” icon.
  1. From the home page of the group, click on “Blogs” on the bar (which also contains “Forums”) to the right of the main text. You will then see a list of blogs in the group.
  2. Click on the name of the blog in the group that you want to subscribe to.
  3. Under the header (the name of the blog), click the small “Subscribe” icon. Then click “OK.” This should automatically send you to the “My Subscriptions” page, where you will see the blog listed.

Forums

From the home page of the group, click on “Forums” on the bar on the right side of the main text to see all the forums associated with the group.

There are three levels in a forum, the forum itself, topics, and posts. New forums can only be created by admins, but topics within a forum can be created by any group member. Creating a topic automatically creates the first post within the topic, and group members can create other posts within the same topic. Note that these posts are also labelled as “replies” to the topic.

To create a new topic and post to it:

  1. From the forums home page (after clicking on “Forums” from the group home page), click on the name of the forum in the list that you want to post to.
  2. Click on the “New Topic” icon next to the “Forum Actions” drop-down menu to start a new post to the forum.
  3. Type in a subject in the “Subject” box at the top and adjust the settings if necessary. This will be both the name of the topic and the header of your post.
  4. Now you can type the text you intend to post in the text box provided, attach a video by putting a link in the “Attach Video” slot above, or attach images or files by clicking the box below the text box and navigating to the desired file on your computer. You can also drag and drop files into the box below the text. Once finished, click “Submit Post” to create a new topic and post to it.

To post to a topic that already exists:

  1. From the forums home page (after clicking on “Forums” from the group home page), click on the name of the forum in the list that you want to post to..
  2. You now see a list of all topics in the forum (in the gray “Topics” box in the main text of the page). Click on the name of the topic that you want to post to.
  3. There are two ways to post to the topic: quick reply and reply using full editor. For a quick reply, type your post in the text box below and click the “Submit Quick Reply” button. For the full editor, click “Reply using Full Editor” and then follow the instructions. Quick reply has the disadvantage in that it does not allow you to post files or add a header, so the full editor is more useful.
  4. After entering the full editor, type a subject in the “Subject” box at the top. This will be the header of your post.
  5. You can type the text you intend to post in the text box provided, attach a video by putting a link in the “Attach Video” slot above, or attach images or files by clicking the box below the text box and navigating to the desired file on your computer. You can also drag and drop files into the box below the text. Once finished, click “Submit Post” to post to the topic.
All group members can create new topics and posts within a forum, but by default only admins can create forums. Contact your admin to start a new forum.

Blogs

    From the home page of the group, click on “Blogs” on the bar on the right side of the main text to see the blogs associated with the group.

  1. Once on the page with a list of the blogs within a group, click on the name of the blog you want to post to.
  2. Now click on the small “Add New Post” icon under the search box. “Post an Entry” should now be written in the header of the page, and there should be fields for title, “posted by,” whether to allow comments, and main text.

Group Admins

  1. From the group home page, click on the orange “Change Homepage Layout” link.
  2. You can now make some edits to the group home page. On the top left, you can change the template for the home page from Right Column (default) to “Left Column.” On the top right, you can choose which features to display on the home page by checking or unchecking the boxes next to each one. Below are three zones: the “Header Zone,” “Main Content Zone,” and “Right Rail,” each containing boxes representing the features that are displayed on the page, i.e. the features you checked on the top right. (Note that the “Right Rail” is now the “Left Rail” and stands left of the “Main Content Zone” if you change the template to “Left Column,” but its function remains the same.) The features are displayed in the location corresponding to the zone in which the boxes are placed, as expected, and you can drag and drop the boxes to move them between the zones to change the location of the feature displayed. You can also move a box above another with a zone, and the feature it represents will be displayed above the other. For example, you can move the “Events” box from the “Main Content Zone” below the “Photo Gallery” box in the “Right Rail.”
  3. Scroll to the bottom and click “Save Changes.” You will be returned to the home page and get a pop-up on the top left of the screen that “Your layout changes have been saved.”
  1. From the group home page, click on the orange “Group Admin Options” link under the header (name of the group).
  2. Under “Member Management,” select “View Current Members” to view a database of all members in the group.
  3. Set the drop-down menu to “Approved Group Members” and click “Search,” unless the menu is already set to “Approved Group Members."
  4. Search for the member you want to remove by entering their first or last name in the search boxes provided and clicking “Search.” Alternatively, scroll down to find the member’s name; hitting “Search” with an empty first and last name box yields a list of all current members.
  5. Click “Remove from Group” to the right of the member’s name.
  1. From the group home page, click on the orange “Group Admin Options” link under the header (name of the group).
  2. Under “Member Management,” select “Export Group Members.”
  3. A new window will pop up. Wait for the member list file to load in this window and then click “Click here to download.” This will download a file containing data for each group member onto your computer.
  1. From the group home page, click on the orange “Group Admin Options” link under the header (name of the group).
  2. Under “Forum Management,” click “Add a New Forum.”
  3. Enter the name of the forum in the box next to “Forum Name,” and select a category of forums within the group using the drop-down menu next to “Category.” You can also type a number in the box next to “Sort Order within Category,” which will be the order within the category in which the forum will appear.
  4. Adjust the other settings below if necessary, by clicking on the bubbles.
  5. Enter a description in the “Brief Description” box if you want. (This will show up underneath the name of the forum on the “Forums” page for the group.)