Can I Create New Action Network Groups?
What Are Groups?
An Action Network Group is a subset of the wider GPEW network. Examples of Groups are local parties, regional parties, and self-organised groups. These Groups allow staff, and volunteers to engage their own members and supporters via emails and Actions. If you're an administrator for a parent-Group then you'll have access to all child-Groups. For example, an administrator for the West Midlands Green Party would have access to local parties within the West Midlands.
You can find out more about how Groups work here: Understanding The Parent-Child Relationship Of Action Network Groups.
Can I Create A New Group?
Although there are risks involved when creating a new Group, we have made this function available to all Action Network Groups to prevent the loss of some functionality. Although it's possible to create a new Group we strongly discourage this as there are often easier ways to achieve the same result, with none of the associated risks. If you are considering creating a new Group please raise a support ticket, so we can understand the purpose of the Group and explore alternative possibilities.
Considerations When Creating A New Group?
GDPR
The first consideration when creating a new Group should be GDPR, and whether it is right to add any existing Activists to this Group. If somebody has subscribed to emails from your local party, this doesn't mean they have consented to be subscribed to additional mailing lists. It would be wise to contact people only in line with the explicit consent that they have given.
Assuming you had consent to add Activists to a new Group, you would also need to ensure that consent was still valid. You shouldn't subscribe someone to a new Group, if they've unsubscribed from the existing Group for example. You also shouldn't add Activists in bulk from another platform without confirming you have the right to do so.
If you add a Activists from another platform you'll need to coordinate with the regional party and GPEW to ensure you're not subscribing them to mailing lists elsewhere in the network. Any new Activists flow up the network- so adding somebody at local level will also add them at regional and national level.
Adding Activists To Your Group
Adding Activists to your new Group via Upload is fairly straightforward, but how will you add Activists going forward? Group assignments to local and regional party Groups involve several systems communicating, and several Ladders. These processes involve hundreds of steps, and it's not something we can set up for new Groups. If you were to, for example, create a Ward-level Group how will you ensure Activists are added and removed from the Group when their address changes?
Limiting Your Reach
One of the most common reason we see new Groups created is to support a campaign in a particular ward. There may be times when you genuinely only need to target people in a particular ward, but this can be achieved by including a ward filter in your email targeting. Splitting a local party into separate ward-level groups could limit your campaigning. Just because somebody doesn't live in the ward doesn't mean they're not interested in campaigning in that particular ward.
Email Fatigue
Adding somebody to a new Group means they're subscribed to a new mailing list. This can contribute to email fatigue which could cause hard to your email deliverability. It can also cause confusion when an Activist wishes to manage their email subscriptions. All Groups within the core GPEW network make it clear that the Group is part of The Green Party. Creating a group with a name that doesn't make this clear could result in higher unsubscribe rates.
Find out how to avoid email fatigue here: How To Avoid Email Fatigue With Targeting.
Admin Risk
Creating additional Groups means another group of administrators to manage. As we hold a lot of information on our members and supporters, it's essential that we limit access to only those who genuinely need it.
To learn how to manage your administrators, check out this guide: How To Add & Remove Action Network Administrators & Organisers.
How Do I Delete A Group I've Previously Created?
It's not possible for administrators to delete a Group once it's been created. Please raise a support ticket and a member of the team will remove any data and unpublish the Group.
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