Changing community name

Changing the name of a local Freegle community, e.g. to use the word "Freegle" if you don't already, is pretty simple and painless for the volunteers.

To do so,

1. Get in touch with the New Groups Team at newgroups@ilovefreegle.org.

At they same time, that team can also help to set up Facebook and Twitter pages to publicise the community, if you don't already have these. They will also offer you an updated logo.

2. Choose a date for the changeover and give a few days' notice to Freegle's IT expert, who will do most of the necessary work.

3. Send an Admin to your community before the change. A sample Admin is given below.

4. In ModTools, edit your Welcome message, and any Standard Messages.

5. Update your social media pages if applicable. You may want to use the occasion to post a special public message, e.g. a short history of the community with a reason for the change of name.

Sample Admin

On XXXXday afternoon this online community will be renamed to XX Freegle. "Freegle" stands for "FREE Giving, Locally, Easily" and is the national organisation that we are part of. Freegle provides superb technical and personal support for groups like ours, which means there's no reason to think about leaving it as an umbrella group. Renaming to use "Freegle" in our name will help to promote Freegle both nationally and as the local community.

This should not cause any disruption to our service. However, if you currently have a "rule" or "filter" for your emails based on the name or email address, e.g. to put the emails into a specific email folder, you will want to edit that rule.

It is possible that your email provider might start sending Freegle emails into your junk mail folder, so please check that folder just in case, and if necessary retrain your email system in the usual way.