Find your way around the Local Portal

The Local Portal is where your local talks with its members. Everything starts on Together, the first page you see after you sign in.

Your first visit

The first time you visit, a welcome card offers three places to start: your local's notices, the calendar, and who to ask for help. When you have seen them, press Got it, hide this. You can bring the card back any time with Show the welcome again.

What needs you

Needs you lists anything your local has asked of you: unread messages, actions you agreed to take, and meetings waiting for your reply. Choose a row to go straight to it. When it says Nothing is waiting on you right now., you are up to date.

If you belong to more than one local

When your account is in two or more locals, a Showing local menu sits above Together. Choose the local you want to work in. Needs you, My Actions and Recent Bulletin then show only that local, so nothing from another local is mixed in.

Your Circles and Coming up lists keep every local you belong to, so you do not miss a meeting. Anything from a local other than the one you chose carries a small badge with its local number, such as Local 404. Screen readers read it as "From Local 404". Items from the local you chose have no badge. If you belong to only one local, you will not see badges or the menu.

Circles

A Circle is a group inside your local. Every member belongs to the Hall, which is the whole local. Your local may also add you to a committee or a campaign Circle.

Open a Circle to see its tabs:

• Bulletin: notices from your local. Pinned posts stay at the top.
• Actions: small jobs, such as bringing a volunteer or confirming a shift.
• Calendar: meetings and events. Use Download .ics to add one to your own calendar.
• Binder: documents and contacts kept for the Circle.
• Floor: the conversation, where members can post.

Some Circles have more tabs, such as Roll Call or Many hands. A line under the tabs says what each one is for. If the Circle says you are a guest, you can read but not post.

Dispatch

Dispatch collects what is new across your Circles: actions assigned to you, things due soon, new Bulletin posts and mentions.

1. 1Open Dispatch from the menu. It opens on Unread when you have something new.
2. 2Choose an item to open it in its Circle, or press Mark read.
3. 3Press Mark all read when you have caught up.

Dispatch is one inbox for every local you belong to. It does not follow the local you chose, so you do not miss anything. If you belong to more than one local, an item from a local other than the one you chose carries a small badge with its local number, such as Local 404. Items from the local you chose, and from Circles that belong to no one local, have no badge.

If a Circle is too busy for you, open it and press Mute Dispatch. Its posts still appear in the Circle, but they stop arriving in Dispatch.

Hold the line and Sidebars

• Hold the line shows the Circles that are running now, coming up or ended, such as a campaign with a start and end date.
• Sidebars are private one-to-one messages, separate from any Circle. Choose a person under Message someone, then press Start Sidebar.