Managing Networking Introduction Groups

Networking introduction groups are automated virtual coffee rounds that pair members for brief, informal conversations on a recurring schedule. They run independently from your mentorship programs and are a low-effort way to build peer connections across your organization. This article covers everything you need to create, configure, and maintain them.

Creating an Introduction Group

Navigate to Admin > Introductions and click Create Group. You will configure the following:

• Name: A short, descriptive label visible to members when they browse available groups (e.g., "Weekly Coffee Chats" or "Cross-Department Intros").
• Description: A brief explanation of the group's purpose. Members see this when deciding whether to join.
• Cadence: How often rounds fire. Options are Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, or Quarterly.
• Matching Strategy: How members are paired each round. See Pairing Configuration below for details on each option.
• Group Size: The number of members in each introduction (2 to 6). A size of 2 creates traditional 1:1 pairings. Larger sizes create small-group meetups.
• Feedback Required: When enabled, members must submit feedback after each introduction before they are included in the next round. This helps you track participation quality.
• No-Show Threshold: The number of missed introductions before a member is automatically removed from the group. The default is 3. Members receive a warning after the second no-show.

After creating a group, it starts in Active status. If you want to finalize your configuration before the first round fires, pause the group immediately after creation (see Pausing and Archiving Groups).

Configuring Round Scheduling

By default, rounds fire based on elapsed time from the last round. For example, a weekly group fires roughly every 7 days after the previous round. This works fine, but it means rounds can drift to different days over time.

You can instead configure a specific schedule so rounds always go out on a predictable day. The options depend on your cadence:

Weekly and Biweekly

Pick a day of the week (Sunday through Saturday). Rounds fire on that day each week (or every other week for biweekly). For example, setting "Tuesday" on a weekly cadence means every Tuesday your members receive their new introduction.

Monthly

You have two options:

• Fixed date: Pick a day of the month (1 through 28). Rounds fire on that date every month. Dates above 28 are not available to avoid ambiguity with shorter months.
• Weekday pattern: Pick a combination like "first Monday," "second Tuesday," "third Friday," or "last Wednesday." Rounds fire on the matching day each month. The "last" option always resolves correctly regardless of how many weeks the month has.

You can use one approach or the other, not both. The system enforces this automatically.

Quarterly

Quarterly groups always use elapsed time (approximately 91 days between rounds). Schedule fields are not available for quarterly cadence.

How the Schedule Works

All scheduling uses your organization's configured timezone. If your org is set to America/Toronto, a "Tuesday" schedule fires when Tuesday arrives in Eastern Time, not UTC.

When you first create a group with a schedule, the first round waits until the next matching day rather than firing immediately. For example, if you create a weekly Tuesday group on a Thursday, the first round goes out the following Tuesday.

The admin overview tab for each group displays a Next Round date so you always know when the next cycle fires.

Managing Members

Members join groups on their own from the member-facing introductions page. They browse available groups and opt in. As an admin, you do not need to enroll members manually.

What You Can Do

From the Members tab on a group's detail page, you can:

• View all members in the group, including their join date, no-show count, and warning status.
• Warn a member manually. This sends a no-show warning email and records the warning, separate from the automatic threshold. Use this for members who are participating poorly but have not technically hit the no-show count.
• Remove a member from the group. Removed members receive a notification email. They can rejoin the group later if they choose to.
• Reinstate a member who was previously removed or auto-removed due to no-shows.

No-Show Escalation

The no-show system works automatically based on the threshold you configured:

1. After each round, the platform checks introduction feedback to identify members who did not meet their partner (or did not attend the group meetup for groups larger than 2).
2. When a member reaches one below the threshold (e.g., 2 no-shows with a threshold of 3), they receive a warning email.
3. When they reach the threshold, they are automatically removed from the group and notified.

For groups with more than 2 members, the system uses self-reported attendance rather than partner blame. Members indicate whether they attended or not, and only self-reported absences count as no-shows.

Per-Member Cadence Preferences

Members can set their own cadence preference when they join a group. For example, a member in a weekly group might prefer biweekly pairings. The scheduler respects this: that member is only included in every other round. This lets you run a single group that accommodates different participation appetites.

Pausing and Archiving Groups

Pausing

Pausing a group stops all future rounds from firing. Members remain enrolled, but no new introductions are generated. Any introductions already in progress (pending feedback, reminders) continue to completion.

To pause, open the group's detail page and use the Pause button in the header actions (top right). The group status changes to Paused and the dashboard clearly indicates that rounds are suspended.

To resume, click Resume from the same header actions. The scheduler picks up from the next scheduled day (or after the configured interval if using elapsed-time mode). It does not retroactively fire missed rounds.

Archiving

Archiving moves a group to an inactive state. Archived groups no longer appear in the member-facing browse page, and no rounds fire.

An archived group can be deleted if it has no rounds. If rounds exist, the group retains its history and can be restored if needed. This preserves participation data for reporting.

Viewing Rounds and Feedback

The Rounds tab on a group's detail page gives you full visibility into the group's history.

Overview Statistics

At the top of the introductions dashboard, you see aggregate stats across all groups:

• Total groups (active, paused, archived)
• Active members across all groups
• Rounds completed to date
• Total introductions made

Per-Round Details

Each round shows:

• The round number and the date it was generated
• How many groups (or pairs, for size-2 groups) were created
• Participation rate: the percentage of introductions where at least one member submitted feedback confirming they met

Next Round Indicator

For active groups with a configured schedule, the group overview displays the calculated next round date. For elapsed-time groups, it shows the approximate date based on the cadence interval from the last round.

Pairing Configuration

Matching strategy controls how members are paired each round. You configure this when creating the group and can change it later in the group's settings.

Matching Strategies

• Random: Members are shuffled and grouped randomly. Simple and effective when you want maximum variety with no particular optimization goal.
• Interest-Based: Members are paired to maximize shared interests and profile overlap. The algorithm uses the same scoring engine as the mentorship match system. Best for groups where finding common ground matters (e.g., industry-specific networking).
• Diverse: Members are paired to maximize difference. The algorithm intentionally matches people with different backgrounds, seniority levels, and interests. Best for cross-pollination and broadening perspectives.

Interest-Based and Diverse strategies are only available for groups with a size of 2 (1:1 pairings). Groups with a size of 3 or larger always use random pairing, regardless of the configured strategy. The admin UI shows a note when this applies.

Dimension Weights

When using Interest-Based or Diverse matching, you can fine-tune which profile dimensions matter most by adjusting their weights. For example, you might weight "industry" heavily for an industry networking group, or weight "seniority" for a cross-level leadership group.

Weights are relative: a dimension with weight 0.4 has twice the influence of one with weight 0.2. If you leave weights unconfigured, all dimensions contribute equally.

Hard Filters

Hard filters exclude pairings that conflict on specific dimensions:

• Respect gender preference: If both members have specified a gender preference for introductions and their preferences conflict, they will not be paired.
• Respect meeting preference: If both members have specified a meeting format preference (e.g., virtual only, in-person only) and their preferences conflict, they will not be paired.

Hard filters fail open: if either member has not set the relevant preference, the filter does not apply. This prevents members from being excluded simply because they left a field blank.

Cross-Program Exclusions

Two additional filters help ensure introductions feel fresh:

• Exclude mentorship matches: Members who are (or were) matched in a mentorship program will not be paired in introductions. This avoids coffee-chatting someone you already meet with regularly.
• Exclude prior introductions across groups: Members who have been introduced in any other group will not be re-paired in this group. This is useful when running multiple groups targeting different audiences.

Both cross-program exclusions only apply to groups with a size of 2. For larger groups, partial familiarity within a group is expected and these filters are skipped.

No-Show Penalty

Members with a history of no-shows receive a lower affinity score when using Interest-Based or Diverse matching. This means they are less likely to be paired with highly engaged members, but they are not excluded entirely (the no-show threshold handles removal). The penalty weight is configurable in the group settings.

Pairing History

Regardless of matching strategy, the platform tracks pairing history and avoids repeating introductions from the last 6 rounds. This prevents members from being re-introduced to the same person in back-to-back cycles, even in smaller groups where the member pool is limited.