Groups & Stations

Groups are how you organise people and units. A Station group is a physical place with an address — a fire station, an ambulance base, an EOC, a client site, a depot — that personnel and units respond to and that owns a response area (geofence). An Organisational group is a container without a location — a battalion, a division, a district, a team, a client account — used to nest stations and to scope permissions.

Where to find it

Department dropdown → Stations and Groups (/User/Groups). The list shows every group with type, parent, members and Edit / Geofence / Delete buttons.

Creating a group

Field	Notes
Group name	Station 1, Battalion 2, North District, Client: Acme HQ.
Group type	Station (requires a location) or Organisational.
Parent group	Nest groups to build a hierarchy (Department → Battalion → Station).
Station address	Street address, or GPS coordinates (decimal), or a what3words address. Used for the map, Responding to station, ETA and closest-unit selection.
Dispatch email / Message email	Optional addresses: mail sent to the dispatch address creates a call dispatched to this group; the message address delivers a message to the group.
PrintNode printer / Print calls to printer	With a PrintNode account, calls dispatched to this group's members or units are printed on the station printer.
Group admins / Group users	Assign members. A person can be in one group only.

Geofence (response area)

Geofence on a station opens a map; click to draw the boundary of the station's first-due area and pick a district colour. Geofences are used by:

• Run cards in station-based mode — the station whose area contains the call is selected first, cascading to the next nearest on shortfall;
• Move-up recommendations and station coverage minimums;
• Map display and the Big Board.

Deleting a group

A group cannot be deleted while it has active members, child groups, units or shift groups — move or delete those first. Deleting removes group data, personnel and unit memberships, group inventory and shift data permanently.

How groups are used elsewhere

Module	Use
Dispatch	Dispatch to a whole group; Dispatch shift instead of group.
Personnel / Units	Grouping on lists and the dashboard; group admins manage their own group.
Security	Department + group admins permission level; group-scoped visibility.
Shifts	Shift groups per station.
Records	Group anchor for numbering and group-scoped visibility.
Checklists / Work orders	Target type Group / station; assignment routing.
Inventory	A station is a stock location.
Notifications	Low-availability alerts per group.

Setup examples

Department	Structure
Single-station volunteer fire	One station group. Everyone in it.
Multi-station fire	Organisational Battalion 1/2 → Stations 1–6 with geofences; officers as group admins.
County EMS	Stations per base; organisational North / South division.
SAR	Organisational Ground / Technical / K9 / Support teams; one station for the cache / meeting point.
Emergency management	Station: EOC, Alternate EOC; organisational groups per section (Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance) and per ESF.
Security company	Organisational group per client, station groups per site (with address and geofence for alarm response); site supervisors as group admins.
Delivery / transit	Station per depot; organisational groups per route region.
Industrial	Station: Main plant, Tank farm, Warehouse; organisational Day / Night ERT.

Technical reference

Item	Value
Controller	GroupsController
Routes	/User/Groups/{Index,NewGroup,EditGroup,DeleteGroup,Geofence}?departmentGroupId=
Policies	Group_View/Create/Update/Delete
Data endpoints	GetAllGroups, GetMembersForGroup?groupId=, GetGroupsForCallGrid, SaveGeofence
Model	DepartmentGroup (Type 1 = Station, 2 = Organisational), DepartmentGroupMember, Address, Geofence (polygon + colour)
Events	GroupAddedEvent, GroupUpdatedEvent, UserAssignedToGroupEvent