The adjective ‘ad hoc’ means ‘when necessary / when needed’.
An ad hoc group is created whenever you send a message to 2 or more people WITHOUT making them a "group".
For example, you want to send a one-time message to several church staff members. The PastorsLine system creates a group, so it can send out your message. However, you have not formally created a group and given it a name.
HUB: Our new system has been designed to keep this process in the background. (Screenshots coming soon.)
Legacy app: Ad hoc PastorsLine groups are needed whenever you want to send one text message to several people who are not already a group. So, the PastorsLine system does this for you.
Example #1:
You click on New and then New Message.
You search for and add the people who should receive this message. Perhaps one is the Bible studies leader, one is the head of volunteers, and one is the church secretary.
Since these people are not already collected into one group of three people, the PastorsLine system creates a numbered, Ad Hoc group. PastorsLine then sends this ‘group’ message out to the people you’ve chosen.
Example #2:
You want to send a text message to a few people from a particular group (so only a selection of people from that group), maybe the Easter committee group. On the Easter Group Details page, you select the people who should receive your text.
Again, since these people are not already collected into one group (they are just part of the main group), the PastorsLine system creates an Ad Hoc group. If you plan on using this same selection of the group again, you can rename and save it. Otherwise, PastorsLine keeps the numbered, Ad Hoc group and then sends this ‘group’ message out to the people you’ve chosen.
Want to filter your groups page to "hide" these ad hoc groups? Find out how to use our group filters HERE.