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Community — post-enable runbook

Community just got switched on. This is the social and communication backbone — Engage forums, bulletins, photo albums, events, recognition, and mentorship — and it pays off only once you seed a few things. The next half hour is mostly setup, not content.

For the surface-level overview, see the Community module reference.

Prerequisites​

Before Community feels alive, confirm:

  • Storage is configured for the org. Forums accept attachments, photo albums obviously store images, and recognition can include a photo.
  • Email delivery is configured at the platform level. Forum subscriptions, RSVP reminders, and bulletin pings all flow through email.
  • At least one chapter exists with active members. Empty orgs render empty forums.

Who can enable it​

Only a platform admin can toggle Community for your org. Org admins request the change through their platform admin.

What gets auto-created​

Enabling Community does not create forums, albums, events, or recognition categories. Those are authored by org admins and officers. The toggle simply makes the sidebar entries visible and allows the related endpoints to respond.

What appears in the sidebar​

A new Community group appears for org admins, regional admins, chapter officers, and members. Inside it:

  • Engage (forums)
  • Recognition
  • Feed
  • Photos (albums)
  • Events
  • Mentorship

Org admins also get Bulletins as a top-level sidebar item.

First 30 minutes — required steps​

  1. Open Org → Engage. Create one starter forum — usually an org-wide "Announcements" forum that every member can read.
  2. In the new forum, set the visibility (open to all members vs. officers-only) and save.
  3. Open Org → Settings → Moderation Rules. Set the default moderation policy (auto-flag thresholds, prohibited terms). This applies to every forum post going forward.
  4. Open Org → Settings → Recognition Categories. Add at least one category (e.g., "Brother of the Month") so recognition has something to attach to.
  5. Open Org → Bulletins and post a single welcoming bulletin. It will show on every member's dashboard and signals that the module is live.

First 30 minutes — recommended next steps​

  • Create a private "Officers" forum so chapter exec boards stop using group texts.
  • Create one photo album per upcoming or recent event so the gallery has content the moment members arrive.
  • Configure forum subscription defaults in Settings → Moderation Rules so members automatically receive new-post notifications for forums they join.
  • Draft the next 1–2 events in Events to fill in the events tab.

What happens if you disable​

Turning Community off hides the Community sidebar group and returns 403 on forum, event, photo, recognition, mentorship, and feed endpoints. Data is preserved — every forum post, photo, RSVP, and recognition stays in the database. Re-enabling restores access.

Note that Bulletins is mostly unaffected by the Community toggle today — the announcements UI lives on the dashboard regardless.

Common gotchas​

  • Mentorship matching is gated under Community, not Alumni. The mentor profile UI is an Alumni feature, but the mentorship matching endpoints turn on with Community. If a member opens Mentorship and sees an empty state, you usually need both modules enabled.
  • Photo uploads fail with no storage. A missing or misconfigured storage bucket surfaces as a generic upload error. Verify storage in Settings → Storage before chasing photo bugs.
  • Moderation rules apply going forward only. Existing posts are not retroactively rescanned when you tighten the rules.
  • Feed is read-only. It is an aggregated view of forum and recognition activity — there is no "post to feed" surface.

Where to go deeper​

Last verified against v0.62.1 (2026-05-10).