How do I send invitations to others to join my group?

1. If you are the group owner, use the "Invite members" link to send invitations out to people you know.  The "Invite members by e-mail" option allows you to enter the addresses of people to invite and prompts you for the group description. Google automatically sends the instructions for joining the group.
   
   
2. Another option under "Invite members" is to "Add members directly" to your group.  Only use this option for people you know and for those who you know want to be added to the group.  This is useful for workgroups that need to get started quickly and all members have agreed to the part of the group.
   
   
3. Compose your own invitation note that you can send to people as you think of them, or in response to questions on how to join.  Two "announce only" groups have also been set up specifically to share invitations to new groups: "Ecunet" (goes to all people with @ecunet.org addresses), and "LutherLink" is an announce-only group for people interested in ELCA-related discussions.  Here is the basic information you'll want to include in your invitation note (in this sample, we use the "Welcome" group):
   
   In the subject line of your note, put something like: "Invitation: Welcome group"  Then in the body of your note, include:
   
   Group name: Welcome
   
   Group description: A public group to welcome new members to Ecunet, get acquainted, ask questions.
   
   Group Web address: http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/group/welcome.topic
   
   Group e-mail address: welcome.topic@ecunet.org
   
   Subscribe to group via e-mail: welcome.topic+subscribe@ecunet.org
   
   Unsubscribe via e-mail: welcome.topic+unsubscribe@ecunet.org
   
   Group owner: your_emailaddress@ecunet.org
   
   Messages sent to the Ecunet group are moderated. Give it a day or so to be reviewed. If you are in a hurry to promote your group, send a note to helper@ecunet.org to draw attention to the waiting invitation.
   

1. Consider adding the subscribe and unsubscribe addresses in the footer of every message for your group.  That way if someone forwards a note from your group, it will have information at the bottom on how the recipient can subscribe too.
   
   
2. If appropriate, consider featuring recent notes from your group on your Web site.  Each public group has a number of RSS feeds that feature recent notes.  Always include group signup information near your RSS widget to encourage people to join the discussion.  You can find your RSS feeds by going to the "About" page for your group and then navigate to the "View all available feeds" page.  Here is is a sample of that page: http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/group/welcome.topic/feeds
   
   
3. Share your ideas for group promotion in the Ecunet Meeting Managers group.
   

PLEASE NOTE: this new Web interface hasn't rolled out yet on www.ecunet.org, this is just advance information for those who are interested.

Read more about the new features that are rolling out to the Google Groups Web interface:

http://www.groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1046906

These changes don't effect the way you use Ecunet via e-mail, just the appearance and features of the Groups interface on the Web.

Here's a summary of changes:

1. You can opt in or opt out of the new Groups user interface
2. If you opt in, you will notice that the preface for the URL for your groups will change from http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/group/ to http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/forum (e.g. http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/forum/welcome)
   
3. Some group tasks (mainly for the group owner), will revert to the old interface.
4. When you create a new topic in a group, you have a number of new options if you are the group owner (display the topic at the top of the list of topics, make it read only, attach a file to the topic).
5. New terminology seems to be cropping up, with "Google Groups discussions" being used to describe the platform, and the word "Forums" being used to describe groups ... but the interface still seems to have retained "Groups" language (e.g. "My Groups")
6. A left-hand navigation bar lets you switch between a Welcome screen and a My Groups screen.  If you click on a particular group, you'll see the particular Group/Forum screen of topics, and then if you click a topic, you'll see the Topic screen.
7. For each topic there is an "Overview" tab that provides a topic summary, profiles of active participants, Web links referred to in the topic, and an outline view of the topic structure.  On the topic "Discussion" tab you can select to show a flat or tree view of the topic and to expand or collapse all posts.  New options are there to link to the topic or subscribe for e-mail updates for JUST that particular topic.  That last one is redundant if you are already subscribed to the group via e-mail, but may be useful if you mainly read the group on the Web, but want to track one particular group topic more closely via e-mail.
8. For each group you can decide if you want your public Google profile to display in group discussions.
9. The left-hand navigation has a Favorites section where you can drag shortcuts to your favorite groups.  You can also create folders to organize your groups.
10. In groups that have e-mail delivery disabled, the group owner can turn on a "lightweight" comments feature where participants can post a brief (140-character) comment to any post.
11. The Web has a rich text editor for including font attributes, images and links in posts.
    

Ecunet member Mike Bailey has shared this illustrated guide for setting up your Ecunet account in Apple Mail.

Here are the instructions from Google for various versions of Apple Mail.

You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from an Ecunet group by simply sending an e-mail.

To subscribe, send any note (no subject or body text is needed) to:

groupname.topic+subscribe@ecunet.org  (e.g. welcome.topic+subscribe@ecunet.org)

To un-subscribe, send any note to:

groupname.topic+unsubscribe@ecunet.org  (e.g. welcome.topic+unsubscribe@ecunet.org)


Other methods for managing your subscriptions:

1. Go to the group Web page (e.g. http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/group/welcome.topic) and click the "Join the group" link to join.  To unsubscribe via the Web, log in and go to the "Edit my membership" page where, you'll find an "Unsubscribe" button.

2. Go to the "About this group" page on the Web (http://groups.google.com/a/ecunet.org/group/welcome.topic/about) and click the "Send email to the owner" link and ask them to help adjust your settings or remove you from the group.

The Ecunet Gmail interface let's you create a Label and Filter for each group you belong to. These label folders will appear in your e-mail software if you use set up your inbox as an IMAP account.

1. Go to a group email in the Ecunet Gmail web interface.
2. Click on the link in the email at the top right "show details."  You won't see this link if you are looking at a note in the "Groups" Web pages, you need to be doing these steps in the Ecunet Gmail Web interface (your browser-based mail inbox for Ecunet).
3. Click on the link next to the group name that says "filter messages from this mailing list"
4. Click the button that says "next step"
5. Put a check mark in the box "Apply the Label" 
6. Pull down the pull down menu next to that check box and either pick an already existing label or create a label using the name of the group or whatever you want the group to be called in your inbox.
7. To have it apply the same filter to all previous conversations check the box "Apply the filter to conversations below"
8. If you want notes to go directly to the folder without staying in your inbox, check the box that says "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)"
9. Click on the "create filter" button.
   

For more help with filters, go to: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6579
 

You can choose one or more of the following options for retrieving your Ecunet mail and group notes:

1. Some groups on Ecunet allow anyone to participate, whether you have an @ecunet.org address or not.  Here's a comparison of features available depending on whether you participate with a Google account or your personal or organizational address.
   
   
2. Read your mail for your @ecunet.org address in the Ecunet "Gmail" Web interface. <overview>  For tips on filtering groups notes into folders using Labels, check out this FAQ entry.
   
   
3. Read your notes in an e-mail client like Thunderbird, Live Mail, Apple Mail, Outlook, etc. <more>  IMAP is a great option, since it it synchronizes your inbox between the Web view, your computer(s) and mobile devices(s). An IMAP account will automatically display your group folders.
   
   
4. For each group your are joined to, you can use the "Edit my membership" option to:
• read your notes on the Web <take the tour>  (Note that Google has discontinued Group pages and files in favor of using Google Sites or Google Docs for those features)
  
• receive a daily abridged summary e-mail of activity in the group
• daily digest e-mail with up to 25 full messages in a single note
• receive each group note in a separate e-mail.  These can usually be filtered into folders in your e-mail client.
  
  
5. You can forward personal or group notes to alternate e-mail address(es) by logging into the Ecunet Gmail interface.  Some groups require that you have an @ecunet.org address in order to post to a group, so it may not be possible to reply to the group from your alternate address.
   

Google has a "multiple sign in" setting that will allow you to sign in to more than one account using the same browser session.

Go to this page for instructions on set up, use and limitations:

http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=181599&hl=en

You may also find it convenient to use different browsers for different Google accounts.

Finally, some browser extensions help to manage different Google accounts. Here is one for Firefox:

http://www.longfocus.com/firefox/gmanager/

Some Ecunet members used alternate domains for their e-mail address.  On the new service we intend to use "domain aliasing" to allow messages address to @presbynet.org or @lutherlink.org to be delivered to your @ecunet.org account.

In order for messages to appear to be FROM your presbynet.org or lutherlink.org address, please follow the instructions for Premier/Educational Google Apps users on this page: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=22370

If you can log in to your Ecunet account:

On the old Ecunet, firstname_lastname@ecunet.org was treated the same as firstname.lastname@ecunet.org

On the Google platform, each of those addresses is unique. If you would like to use both formats on the new Ecunet, fill out the "Sign up for Ecunet" form and make a comment regarding your need for a nickname.

Nicknames may also be used for other aliases.  For example, bill_smith@ecunet.org can be set up as a nickname for your william_smith@ecunet.org account.  To request an alias, please fill out the "Sign up for Ecunet" form so we have some information to authenticate who you are.