Dynamic Subgroups

Overview

Dynamic Subgroups are based on a set of criteria for fields within your database. Because Dynamic Subgroups use data in Shepherd’s Staff, the people in the list can change as the data changes. An example of this is a list of all active and confirmed members. A Subgroup like this will display all current active and confirmed members and not display those who do not meet those requirements. Once an active member is listed as “confirmed”, they will appear in the Subgroup.

The first part of a Subgroup is the field. This is the piece of data you want to filter people by. Options include membership status, address, envelope number, pledge status, and hundreds more types of fields that are organized into various categories. The second part is an operator, which is a characteristic that can be applied to the data. These are things like “Equal to”, “Greater than”, “Between”, and more. Lastly is the value. In many cases, the value is “Yes”, but it can also be a date, number, or other type.

Note

Multiple traits can be added to a Subgroup, and the more traits you add, the smaller your group will become. It's important to think about the specific traits you need to filter by and not include any extra traits that might filter people out who should otherwise be in your group.

Below are a few examples of Dynamic Subgroups you can make:

» All active confirmed members

Category	Field	Operator	Value
Church	Member?	Equal to	Yes
Church	Confirmed?	Equal to	Yes
Church	Participation	Equal to	Active

» All December birthdays

Category	Field	Operator	Value
Personal	Birth Month	Equal to	December

In this case, you will select “December” from a drop-down when you select the month. But in the Subgroup summary, the value will be displayed as “12”.

» Members between the ages of 25 and 45

Category	Field	Operator	Value
Church	Member?	Equal to	Yes
Personal	Age (as of today)	Between	25 and 45

 

Note

One thing that you will often want to do with your subgroups is to exclude any removed people. This is an easy trait to add to any subgroup. The field you would select is "Removed by" and the operator you would choose would be "is blank". This trait will make sure that only people whose "Removed by" field is empty.

Here is how to create a Dynamic Subgroup:

1. Open either the Membership, Attendance, or Contribution module.
2. Select the Subgroup icon in the main menu or toolbar.
3. Click Add.
4. Select Dynamic from the list of options.
5. Add a name for the Subgroup. A description and category are optional but can be helpful in managing the Subgroups.
6. Click Add to add a Subgroup trait. This will bring up a new window where the traits are selected.
7. Build the trait you want to add to the Subgroup by selecting a Category, then a Field, and finally an Operator. Lastly, enter the value from the Find
8. Click Continue to add the trait.
9. You can then add other traits, or edit or delete the ones you don’t want anymore.
10. Click Save once you are done.