Spark Your Motivation with SparkTeams

• Option 1: From your Start page. In Step 3, under the ''Quick Links'' heading on the  left side of the page, you'll see one of your SparkTeams listed with a dropdown menu to view all of them.  There is also a link to ''Join More SparkTeams,'' which will take you to your main SparkTeams page.
• Option 2: From the Community tab. You can scroll over the Community tab at the top of any page on SparkPeople. From the dropdown menu, click on "SparkTeams" to get to your main SparkTeams page.

• Check off "New Member Notification" if you want to be emailed each time a new person joins your Team (otherwise, leave it unchecked).
• Check off “New Wall Post Notification” if you want to be emailed each time a new wall post is started on your Team Wall (otherwise, leave it unchecked).
• Check off "New Topic Notification" if you want to be emailed each time a new thread (message board topic) is started in your Team (otherwise, leave it unchecked).
• Check off "Display on SparkPage" if you want the Team icon to show up on your SparkPage (otherwise, leave it unchecked).
• Check off "Weekly Digest Email" if you want to receive a weekly summary of your Team's activity (otherwise, leave it unchecked).  Keep in mind that Teams with less than 10 members do not have Weekly Digest emails. 
• Check off "Team SparkMail" if you want to receive SparkMails from your Team Leaders (otherwise, leave it unchecked). 

SparkTeam Stats
 Near the bottom right are the Team Stats, which show how many SparkPoints and fitness minutes your team has collected.

• Click "Team Leaderboards" to see the SparkPoints totals for each Team member.
• Click "See Category Leaders" to see how your Team's total points rank compared to other Teams in its respective category.

SparkTeam Wall
Near the top of your SparkTeam page, you’ll find your Team Wall, which can be used to post a quick update or photo that you want to share with the team, or to comment or “like” updates from other Team members. The most recent 200 posts will remain on the wall, so the older posts will automatically be removed. You can also see announcements from your Team Leader(s) posted on the Team Wall, with the latest announcement staying at the very top of the wall for 48 hours after it was posted.
 
SparkTeam Forums
Moving down  the page, you'll find your Team Forums (message boards), which are for ongoing discussions that permanently remain on the Team page.  Here are a few terms you'll see used in your Team forums on a regular basis:

• Forum: A collection of related topics. For example, the "Introduce Yourself" Forum contains threads where new members introduce themselves to the Team.
• Thread- One topic of discussion in a forum. For example, "Hello, I'm Amy!" might be a new thread in the Introduce Yourself Forum.
• Post- A response to a thread. For example, I might make a post to respond to Amy by saying, "Hello, Amy! Welcome to the Team!"

Depending on how your Team is organized, your Team may have anywhere from two to five forums. By default, every SparkTeam has two forums: General Team Discussion Forum (typically used for a variety of topics) and Introduce Yourself to Team Forum (where new members to the Team post their introductions). Team leaders have the ability to add up to three more forums of their choice. For best organization, post your comments or questions in the Forum whose topic is most closely related to the topic of your post.

Next to the name of each forum is a number, such as 5/20. In this instance, 5/20 means you're seeing the 5 most recent threads on your Team's main page, but there are a total of 20 threads in that particular forum. So don't forget that what you're seeing on the main Team page is not everything! For each of the other sections, you'll see the 3 most recent threads, and need to click on the forum title to see the rest of the discussions.

The topics you see below each Forum title are threads. Threads with the most recent activity (posts) will appear on the top, while older threads will appear below. Some Teams also have "sticky topics" within their forums. Team Leaders have the ability to make up to three topics in each forum "sticky," which simply means that the Leader thinks that thread is important and wants everyone on the Team to see it. Sticky topics will always remain at the very top of the Forum, with a red "Sticky Topic" icon next to them. When you join a new Team, it's important to check out these sticky topics before you start posting. Many times they will give you information about how the Team runs, suggestions of where to post, the purpose of each forum, etc.
Before you start a new thread in your Team, first check out the current topics and threads—the question you want to ask might have already been covered elsewhere.

• If you want to respond in a thread, click on the thread title. At the top of the next page, click on the "Reply" button to compose a response.
• If you want to start a new thread, click on the forum title (such as General Team Discussion) that best fits the topic of your post. At the top of the next page, click the "Create a New Topic" button to compose your message.

SparkTeam Goals
Below your Team's forums, you'll find a section of Team Goals.  Click on each Goal to learn more about it.  Next to each Goal you'll see a link to "Join the Goal" or "Track the Goal".  These are the links you'll click to start participating in the Team Goal feature.  

Newest SparkTeam Members
At the very bottom of your Team's page is a section called "Newest Team Members." Here, you'll be able to see the  8 most recent people to join your SparkTeam, along with links to each of their SparkPages (if they have one). You can click on the red "View All Members" for a complete list of all Team members (and links to their SparkPages) too.

We hope this helps explain how SparkTeams work and how you can use them to help you reach your goals! If you have questions about your Team or aren’t sure where to post, contact your Team leader. They are always there to help!