The Ultimate Member Groups extension stores group records as a custom post type (commonly um_group) with per-user membership rows in either a dedicated table (such as um_groups_members) or in wp_usermeta keyed by group ID, depending on the extension version. Group-level metadata (privacy, owner) lives in wp_postmeta on the group post; per-user role within a group (member, moderator, owner) is stored alongside the membership row.

The default Groups admin surfaces groups one screen at a time and memberships per group. Cross-group views (every group user X belongs to, or every group with fewer than 10 active members) require direct SQL. Filtering members by group + Ultimate Member account_status + last-active in one query isn't built in.

SleekView reads the groups CPT, joins membership rows (table or usermeta, whichever your install uses), and exposes group privacy, role, join date, and member counts as proper columns. Inline edits route through the Groups extension API where supported; direct writes handle silent membership cleanup with conflict detection.

Groups make a community feel structured, but they also fragment the operating surface. Each group becomes its own little admin screen, and once you have more than a handful of groups the questions community managers ask stop being per-group. Which groups are dormant, which need extra moderation, which freshly approved members haven't joined any group yet: those are cross-group questions, and the default Ultimate Member Groups admin can only answer them with custom SQL.

The data is there, because every membership row carries group ID, user ID, role, and join date, and every group post carries privacy and owner. The gap is composition. SleekView's pivot turns that into one roster table where filters combine group attributes (privacy, member count) with profile attributes (account_status, last-active, custom fields), and rollups expose under-moderated or empty groups at a glance.

Group owners get a scoped view of their own group; community managers get the cross-group rollup. For any community where groups are a real product surface and not just nice-to-have, that's the unlock between reactive moderation and proactive community health.