Group rosters: adding people, imports, and exports

Open any group and click Workspace to reach its People section — the group's roster with each person's standing (member, pending, opted out), channel readiness (email/phone on file, preference), and any group role they hold. Group leaders see a simpler version of the same roster in the parishioner portal's Connect tab, under My groups — each group they lead carries a Manage link to that roster.

Finding your way around a long roster

• The list sorts itself pending decisions first, then A–Z, so anyone waiting on you is at the top where you'll see them, and the rest stay in an order you can scan.
• Once the roster passes eight people, a Find in this list… box appears above it. Type a few letters to narrow the rows you're looking at. It filters the members already in front of you — it is not the same thing as the Add someone search lower down, which searches the whole parish.
• Over on the Groups tab, a Sort dropdown orders the group list itself: Name A–Z, Most people, or Newest. It applies at every level, so sub-groups sort inside their parent too.

Adding one person

• Staff: in the People section, type a name in the Add someone box and pick the right person from the matches. People are always added from the parish records — if someone isn't in People yet, create them there first.
• Leaders (portal): type the person's full name and click Add. If exactly one parishioner has that name, they're proposed for you to confirm. If more than one match exists, the portal won't guess — it will ask you to contact the parish office, where staff can tell the candidates apart safely.

Importing a roster from a spreadsheet (staff)

Click Import…, choose a CSV or Excel file with First name + Last name columns (or one Name column), optionally Email and Birth date. Every import is a dry run first: Vianney checks each row against the parish records and shows you the result — exact matches pre-selected, uncertain rows waiting for your choice, and rows with no match skipped. Nothing changes until you review and click Apply.

The file can be up to 8 MB — thousands of names over. Anything larger is refused before a single row is read, with "that roster is larger than the 8 MB limit — please split it or export a smaller range". Vianney also checks that the file really is what its name says: if a .csv turns out to be something else inside, you get "that file doesn't look like a .csv inside — please re-export it and try again". Re-exporting from your spreadsheet program, rather than renaming a file, fixes it.

A few rules keep imports safe:
- Nobody is ever matched by guesswork. An exact match is proposed; anything uncertain waits for a human choice.
- Imports never create, merge, or edit people — they only add existing parishioners to the group's list.
- Opt-outs always stand. Adding someone who unsubscribed does not re-subscribe them; only they can opt back in.
- Role columns are ignored. A spreadsheet can never make anyone a leader or sender — roles are granted one at a time, with their own confirmation.

Exporting

- Staff can export the full roster (names, standing, preferences, contact details) as a CSV from the People section.
- Leaders can export names and standing only — never contact details, regardless of other settings.
Every export is recorded in the audit log.

Roles from the roster

Staff can make a member a sender or leader (or revoke a role) right from the roster rows. Role changes are always separate from membership changes and always confirmed individually — and on youth groups, Safe Environment status is checked first.

Removing people

Removing someone takes them off the list (and, when a leader removes them in the portal, turns their subscription off). It never deletes the person, never touches their opt-out history, and never removes a role by itself — the roster will remind you if the person still holds one.

Good to know

• A big import makes a big audience. When you then send to that group and the total passes your parish's size threshold, Confirm brings up an extra size check first — and if your sign-in isn't recent enough (15 minutes out of the box), Vianney asks you to sign in again before it will go. See Connect settings and safety limits.