Pre-group planning is considering the number of session, who should be the member, The number of session is determined by members or situation such as length of school term, needs of members or the information. Some of the groups such as assertiveness-training, parenting, childbirth and education groups need to set specific number of sessions, whereas support group, growth group, and counselling therapy without set number of sessions.
Usually frequency of meeting is determined by leader. Leader should consider time of day and frequency of meeting. Leader should not lead more than one group a day, if there is no choice, then only maximum should be three. The time of meeting must be available for leader and member. The purpose of group, time constraint, and setting are usually as the guideline for leader to determine membership.
In the pre-planning planning, screening is important for leader to ensure the group is effective because not everyone is suitable to all groups as well as need to eliminate the negative, hostile or inappropriate member to join the group. There are several ways to do screening, such as personal interview, written screening, screening by referral sources, screening after the group has begun. Among the procedural options for screening, personal interview is the best screening method as it directly face to face deal with the candidate and give opportunities for potential candidate to ask questions. However, there are certain groups are need no screening, which are task group that compulsory everyone to involve in the group as well as education or discussion group that consist general information.
Furthermore, big-picture planning is one of the pre-group planning. Big-picture planning allows leader to get overall picture of what needs to be covered in the group as well s prioritize the topics to gain which one is the most important. Then only leader can differentiate which topic should be mentioned in the beginning stage and which topic is unnecessary to be bring out in group.