From the ‘Groups’ page select ‘Create New Group.’ This will direct you to a 5 step process for creating your group.
Step 1: Create a group name, group description, and write (optional) some news about your new group. When you’re all set click “Create Group and Continue.”
Step 2: First check whether you would like to enable the discussion forums for the group. You will then select whether your group will be public, private, or hidden. A brief description of each of these features is included to help you decide which is appropriate to your needs.
Step 3: Here you will determine whether or not to have a group blog or marry your own blog to the group. You will also be asked to set member roles. This determines the status of your group members and their ability to post and comment on the group blog.
A bit about the WPMU member roles:
- Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration features.
- Editor – Somebody who can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
- Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts.
- Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish posts.
- Subscriber – Somebody who can read comments/comment/receive news letters, etc.
From here there a few ways to explore the groups; The ‘Groups Directory’ lists all groups on the CUNY Academic Commons in alphabetical order, ‘Find Groups’ allows you to search for groups by keyword, ‘Groups Listing’ shows all of the groups by order of most recent activity, and finally ‘Random Groups’ selects groups at random from the Commons.
After you’ve found a group that interests you there will be two options. You can either select the ‘Join Group’ button next the group name if the group is public, or select ‘Request Membership’ if the group is private. Joining a public group gives you immediate access to the group and group abilities. A private group will require the group’s moderator or admin to approve your application.
Maintaining Your Group
As the group creator and administrator you have control over individual member’s roles and abilities. From the top of the main page select ‘My Groups’ and then your group. This brings you to the group’s page. On the left you will find several links including ‘Members.’ Select ‘Members’ and you will be brought to a list of each member of your group followed by various actions. ‘Kick and Ban’ will eject a member from your group and prevent them from rejoining. ‘Promote to Mod’ will grant that member Moderator’s rights while ‘Promote to Admin’ will grant that member administrator’s rights. You will be prompted to confirm your selection once before the action is complete.
Maura Smale wrote an excellent post on ‘How Groups Can Use the Commons’ that can help you better understand some of the features of the ‘Group’ function on the Commons.
This is an excellent guide for a new feature that allows you to upload documents to the group. 
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