How to Set Up Recurring Group Sessions

Supporters and admins can create a group session that repeats on a schedule, such as a weekly study group, from a private group chat. This article covers creating a series, how members respond, and editing or cancelling a series once it is running.

Who can do this?

Supporters: can create a recurring group session in a private group chat where they are a chat admin, and edit or cancel it
Program Admins: can create a recurring group session in a private group chat in their program, and edit or cancel any recurring group session in their program
Support Admins: can create a recurring group session in a private group chat, and edit or cancel any recurring group session
Owners: can edit and cancel any recurring group session in the organisation
Members: cannot create a series. They can say whether they are attending

Group sessions, including recurring ones, can only be created in a private group chat. They are not available in program-wide chats, event chats or 1:1 chats.

Making a supporter a chat admin

Whoever creates a private group becomes its chat admin. Admins can also choose the Chat admins when creating a group, or make someone a chat admin later:

In the group chat's settings, open the member's menu and select Make chat admin
In Admin > Groups, open the group's details and select Make chat admin next to the member

Recurring group sessions need to be switched on for your organisation and allowed in the program. See What are Recurring Sessions?

How to create a recurring group session

Open the private group chat
Open the chat options and select Create group session
Enter the title, description, date and time, duration, location and broadcast mode
On the Repeats step, choose how often the session repeats and when the series ends
Check the Repeats row on the confirmation step, then create the session

Every member of the group chat receives one invite for the whole series, by in-app notification, email and push. The chat shows a banner with View session and View series.

Setting the schedule

The Repeats step opens on Does not repeat. Choose a pattern to turn the session into a series.

Repeat: Daily, Weekly, Bi-weekly or Monthly
Days: for Weekly and Bi-weekly, choose one or more days under On days. For Daily, use Exclude days to skip days such as weekends
Monthly options: the same date each month, or the same day each month (for example, the 3rd Wednesday)
Ends: after a set number of occurrences (up to 365), on a chosen date, or Never

A preview lists the upcoming dates and the total number of sessions before you confirm.

How members respond

Members answer once for the whole series, and can change their answer for any single session.

From the series page: members choose Attend every session or Not attending. Their answer carries over to sessions that have not been created yet
From a single session: members choose Attending or Not attending, then This session only or All sessions in the series

Answering the series again resets any single-session answers to match. The host is always attending and does not need to respond.

As the host, you can see everyone's answers on the series page under Who's coming, grouped as Attending every session and Not attending. Nobody is notified when a member responds.

Editing a recurring group session

To change one session, or this session and every later one:

Open the session, then open its options menu and select Modify session
Make your changes and save
Choose This session only or This and following sessions, then Continue

Changing the date or time of a single session applies to that session only. To move every session, edit the series.

To change the whole series:

Open the series page from the Repeats badge
Select Edit series
Update the title, description, duration, location or schedule, then select Save changes

Past sessions are never changed. Members receive one notification that the series has changed, not one per session.

Cancelling a recurring group session

To cancel one session: open the session, select Cancel session from its options menu, then choose This session only. Attendees of that session receive the normal cancellation, and the rest of the series carries on.

To stop the series from a session onwards: choose This and following sessions instead. Earlier sessions are not affected.

To stop the whole series: open the series page and select Cancel series. Every session still to come is cancelled, and members receive one message that the series has stopped.

Managing recurring group sessions as an admin

Admins can find every group session and series across their programs in Admin > Sessions. Select the Group tab, then switch between Sessions and Recurring series.

In Admin > Groups, a group's details also list its sessions. Recurring sessions carry a Repeats badge, and selecting it opens the series page, where admins can use Edit series and Cancel series. A series cannot be created from these dashboards; create it from the group chat.

Good to know

A session can only be set to repeat when it is first created. An existing group session cannot be turned into a series
Sessions are created about a month ahead and topped up automatically. Later dates are listed under Not yet scheduled
Every session in the series is created, even if it clashes with the host's availability
Members who join the group chat later receive one invite for the series and can respond straight away
Members who leave the group chat are removed from upcoming sessions
If the host leaves the group chat or the program, the series stops and members are told "The host is no longer in the group"
Members can manage recurring group session notifications under Account > Notifications: Recurring group session invite, Recurring group session updated and Recurring group session stopped. All three are on by default
Morning reminders only go to members who are attending that session

Tips

Ask members to choose Attend every session early, so they receive reminders for every session in the series
Match the end date to the teaching period, rather than choosing Never
Use This session only for one-off changes such as a guest speaker or a different room
Check the preview before confirming, especially around public holidays and mid-semester breaks