How do I create and set up hubs?

A hub is a way to group contacts who you want to message easily or who may want to message or share files and/or photos with one another. You can manage multiple groups as well as groups within groups (or hubs within hubs). This allows organizations to communicate at multiple levels (i.e., organization-wide, class, or individual) and automatically add and remove people from hubs higher up the tree. Admins can create hubs by going to Contacts > Manage Hubs & Hub Contacts > clicking the Add Hub button.

Creating a Hub

1. From the toolbar select Contacts > Manage Hubs & Hub Contacts > click the Add Hub button.

2. Set up the new hub.

Parent Hub - If this is a hub within a hub (or sub-hub) click the Select Parent Hub button. An example of a hub within a hub would be a classroom hub within a grade level hub. All contacts within the classroom hub would also be in the grade level hub since it would be the parent hub of the classroom hub.
Enter your Hub Name.
Check the box if you wish to be added to the Hub as a Hub Administrator.

Adjust Hub Settings

Once your hub is created, you can adjust the settings for the hub. When viewing the list of hubs, click the 3 dots next to the hub and click Hub Settings.

For the Hub Settings, you can:

Change the Parent Hub or change the Hub name.
Archive the Hub.
Choose to allow everyone in the hub to send messages and create events within the hub or you can limit this permission to only Hub Admin.
If you want to allow users to view this Hub's contact list in the Directory, check the box for "Allow this hub to be filtered in the Directory."
Set Hub Join Settings: make the hub visible for anyone in your organization to join or keep hidden.
Enter a description of the hub.

Add Contacts to Hubs

Once you have created the hub, you can add contacts to your hub. Go to Contacts > Manage Hubs & Hub Contacts. Click the Add Contacts link for that hub.

There are 3 ways to add contacts here.

1. Add Contact - You can add new contacts that aren't already in your site. Select the contact's role and decide if you want the role to expire at the end of the school year. You can also choose to notify this contact via email that they have been added to this hub and send a personal message as well.

2. Add Existing Contacts - You can choose existing contacts from a list.

3. Enter Email Addresses - You can add one or more contacts by entering the email address(es).

View Hub Contacts

You can view the list of current hub contacts by going to Contacts > Manage Hub & Hub Contacts > click the 3 dots next to the hub > select Hub Contacts.

When viewing the list of contacts, you can click the gear icon in the top left area to adjust the Hub settings.
You can click the download icon to the right of the gear icon to export your hub contacts to a CSV file.
You can click the Add Contact button in the top right corner to add contacts to the hub.
If you check the box for a contact, you can use the Action button to add a Role (Admin, Contact, or Student) to the selected contact(s) or remove them from the hub.
You can also send selected contacts a message by clicking the envelope icon.

Joining Hubs

Contacts can join your hubs on their own. To do this, they would go to Communications > Join Hubs. From this page, you will see all hubs that are open for anyone to join. You can find the hub you wish to join and click Join or Request to Join for that hub. If a hub has a setting that requires you to submit a request to join rather than just join, the hub admin will have to approve the join request before you are added to the hub. Hub Admins can go here to see how to approve hub join requests.