|
ClayMates:
If you have a good idea that might improve the list experience the process is
to present the idea to the owners of the list. This list, any other list that
you might be on.
The reason to present the idea to the owners as opposed to the list at large
is that very idea might have been considered and shelved years ago as not
workable.
The volunteers of this list have posted 243 posts so far this month on our
list COCModSquad. All
the posts deal with the services we provide for this list: Tracking library
books, updates on Newbie Boxes, listing new donations, sharing input to make
the services a quality experience for the list members here as well as for the
volunteer who oversees a particular department, and much more.
One thing that most list members here might not know about is the extensive
training that goes on before a volunteer can start working for this list or
any other CITY-List. All volunteers on all CITY-Lists have to subscribe to
CITY-Leaders and to the list for their particular Mod Team.
http://www.city-lists.com/CITY-Leaders/ (needs to be rebuilt 5/25/2013)
That page is an index of documents, which all volunteers for all CITY-Lists
have to review before we move on to hands on training. Each volunteer after
reading the CL-Index and agreeing in writing that they will abide by the
CITY-List philosophy can then get one to one training by someone on their Mod
Team. Some times the whole team takes part in helping train a new volunteer.
It's a good bonding experience for the team.
Hands on training deals with knowing all the settings behind the scenes: How
to change what's seen on the home page, change group setting, how to do
searches for list members or posts, how to change the posting status of list
members, how the polls, calendar, links, files and photo areas work. Training
is done with Yahoo Messenger and training logs get sent to the Mod Team's
list. The first training sessions' logs were sent to CITY-Leaders so all new
volunteers can read them.
Each CITY-List has a representative to vote on CITY-List wide policy changes
and updates in CITY-ListFounders. I'm the representative for the CITY-Leader's
list. Denise, our librarian, is the representative for CITY-o-Clay. Changes or
additions to policies are discussed there and taken to the Mod Teams by the
Reps, where the various teams can discuss amongst themselves how they feel
about it. The representative comes back with the result of that discussion by
way of a vote. Each Mod Team gets one vote on policy that will be implemented
through out the whole CITY-List family. A majority has to be achieved for a
policy to be implemented.
When any CITY-List needs more volunteers individual list members will be
contacted off list. This does not happen until various candidates for
recruitment have been discussed with the Mod Teams. Each member of a Mod Team
has to be comfortable with the new volunteer who is coming in to the team. If
a candidate agrees to be part of a Mod Team then the person who suggested them
in the first place usually takes over the orientation and training.
Surprising as it may seem I've recruited list members who were new to polymer
clay. I feel that volunteers who are enthusiastic is more important than they
know a ton of stuff and are "oh hum" about it, or worse, impatient with new
clayers' questions. The willingness to share the delight of discovery with a
new medium with the other new clayers is a decided plus. I've recruited list
members before they've been here for three months, just because of their
positive energy. But I digress...
All this work insures that all CITY-Lists deal with list members in the same
way and are trained regarding behind the scene settings. All policies found on
this list will be found on all other CITY-Lists. That being said doing
something untoward on one CITY-List gets shared with CITY-ListFounders.
There's 17 representatives who share information with their Mod Teams and all
news travels fast.
There's a simple reason why this process was created. It was lacking in the
list family the Founders were part of before. We needed input on who was going
to be on the Mod Team, uniformity of training, shared ownership of the list,
input on policy, uniformity of that policy through the whole list family,
rules of conduct and behavior for the volunteers to be equal and focused on
positive energy, open communication and a democratic process.
So if you have an idea about how to improve this list, contact one of the
volunteers. A link on the home page for CITY-o-Clay mentions "All outreach is
funded by list members and run by volunteers." That link takes you to a page
that shows who volunteers here, what that person takes care of and how to get
in touch with them.
http://www.city-lists.com/CITYpromo/CITY-o-Clay-Moderators.htm
All the pages on my Com site has a link to
COCModSquad and you
can contact the owner of that list. All the COC Mod Team will get the
forwarded message.
If you're interested in volunteering you can contact one of the volunteers
here and when we need new Moderators you'll be in line for consideration. We
have a dozen volunteers at present and are not in need of new volunteers right
now.
Lastly, if you're interested in creating a new CITY-List reading the
CITY-Leaders Index page first would be a good place to start. If you feel
comfortable with what you read there then you can
contact me and we can discuss your idea for a new CITY-List. Building a
Mod Team is necessary because no CITY-List can be run by only one person.
Everyone needs back up.
So that's what goes on behind the scenes to make sure that your experience on
this list and any CITY-List you might be part of is consistent with regards of
what to expect from the volunteers.
That's the process. I think I'll add this to my Ramble stash because it's
something that comes up now and again.
xoxo
NJ |
