Set up your Dashboard

To keep the group aligned, engaged, and clear on why they are there and what they can do, it's helpful to set the stage. The group dashboard helps you do that.

Here are a few additional steps we suggest:

• Help people use your group's dashboard: As you set up the dashboard, pretend you know nothing about your group. Is your purpose statement clear? Have you and the other leads added your profile pictures? Do the key links help new people orient? Do you need member requirements? A code of conduct? Is there too much information? Make sure that you have looked at your group from the eyes of a new person.
• Set up a subgroup or two: Groups that set out with 20 subgroups and 3 people are likely to fade. On the other hand, groups with only a main group announcements space have no place for other conversations, and will struggle to cultivate community connections. To generate engagement, try lightly shaping the group structure, while leaving space to see what happens. A few relevant subgroups can help you lead by example. Other members can join as and where they see fit, and gain a better understanding of how the group might grow, or what they may want to do in the group. Not sure what subgroup to make first? "Open Discussion" can be a generative one. Do you have project teams, regional chapters, discussion topics, or open questions that you're coming together to explore? Create a subgroup to support some of the subsets in your community, and watch what happens.
• Begin with a clear announcement: Once you have your group set up, and members have been invited, wait a bit for the invitations to be accepted and then kick off your group by sending your first group note! This gives you a chance to welcome folks, orient them to why the group exists and generally get things rolling. You can also create notes in any subgroup.
  Notes are only visible to group or subgroup members, unless external people have been added to the note via email. You can also send notes across groups and subgroups if you, as the note author, have permission to create notes in both/all those groups. This is a cool new way to coordinate across the silo and create value for your network.