[@injira Member 13 years ago]

BP Group Management works well and adds people to groups without sending friend requests: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bp-group-management/

Invite Anyone is supposed to invite people via email and automatically place them in designated groups: https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/invite-anyone/

[@injira Member 13 years ago]

I second that feature request archonic. The friend requirement is especially ridiculous when using buddypress as a LSM with Scholar Press.