Sub-Community Leadership Track Announcement - Pulling It All Together
Hi Team -
Its clear that we need to more clearly define the Sub-community leadership track as distinct from the other tracks. In the past it has lived within the community track, but today, the SC track claims its independence. To ensure this track is inclusive to all age groups - teen & adult - we will refer to it as advocate (not mentor or star - a new word to encompass all age groups).
What is the sub-community mentor leadership track:
A track dedicated to building supportive sub-communities for members. This track supports all the leaders and volunteers in a given Subcommunity to ensure continuity of experience and clear communication. This track combines the knowledge of the forums and group support with a deep love for community building.
We talk a lot about self-care on 7 cups. And that will always be the case, especially with our leadership teams. Many of the roles outlined below are a combination of roles (ex. You are both a forum mentor & a group mod). The idea here is that instead of focusing on being a group mod or a forum mod in many areas of the site, youd pick a sub-community and learn both the forum roles and the group support roles SPECIFICALLY FOR THAT SUBCOMMUNITY.
The idea is focus on up to three Sub-communities on 7 cups but be able to build community in these spaces representing both forum and group support.
Jr SubCommunity Mentor -
Privileges: Forum Supporter + Group Mod
This individual is trained as both a group mod and forum supporter and they have all of the corresponding privileges. Once they have gone through both trainings, they will unlock the ability to be listed in their SC with this title.
In this role, a Jr Community Mentor should be:
-----> A friendly face in both the forums and group rooms
-----> Knowledgeable about the SC topic and be passionate to build a supportive environment for the members and fellow leaders/ listeners in this subcommunity
-----> Welcoming to all new members
-----> Coordinating and supporting the daily check-in threads
-----> Willing to learn and work as a team with the other leaders in the subcommunity
-----> Adding new welcoming monthly cohort threads
SubCommunity Mentor -
Privileges: Forum Mentor + Group Mod
This individual is trained as both a group mod and forum mentor and they have all of the corresponding privileges. Once they have gone through both group mod & forum mentor/ teen forum star trainings, they will unlock the ability to be listed in their SC with this title.
In this role, a Community Mentor should be:
-----> A friendly face in both the forums and group rooms
-----> Knowledgeable about the SC topic and be passionate to build a supportive environment for the members and fellow leaders/ listeners in this subcommunity
-----> Coordinating and supporting the daily check-in threads
-----> Willing to learn and work as a team with the other leaders in the subcommunity
-----> Adding new forum conversations / topics
-----> Work closely with the community Advocate leader to execute special events, resolve conflicts and ensure a safe experience for all members
Sub Community Advocate Leader - (read the original post about this role here)
A Subcommunity Advocate Leader shall coordinate and oversee the daily operations of the entire sub-community, ensuring that forums, group support and feed teams within their SC collaborate and work together for the betterment of the sub-community. They will work to ensure their community continues to be a place of support, kindness and activity. This will be a project based role, where your project is to take ownership of your sub-community, coordinate with other leaders, participate in group activities and be a reliable friendly face! This individual is a positive and uplifting force - always supporting new leaders and helping to teach skills to volunteers. You will work closely with the Jr SC Advocate & Community Advocate to ensure a positive atmosphere and ongoing participation.
Role Duties:
-----> Know all of the other leaders on your team! Make sure they are doing well, support them, be someone they can always go to with questions and ideas! You are the team cheerleader !
-----> Proactively reach out to your leaders to check in once per month/ Help the leaders on your team by setting goals
-----> Organize and lead subcommunity team meetings
-----> Make sure the leadership list is up to date
-----> Host special events in your sub-community! Should be at least one special event every 3 months (working with the jr advocate and advocates to host this)
-----> Be a friendly face in your community
-----> Post to the forums regularly - if your community has a check-in section - checking in regularly is a great way to show you are a friendly face
-----> Participate in group support - be a friendly face
-----> Fill in! We all know that volunteers sometimes have personal issues pop up! You will be responsible for pinch hitting & filling in to ensure regularly scheduled programming continues
-----> Able to take role on for 4+ months (if and when you leave the role, you will be responsible for training a new person to take over).
-----> Attends Advocate leader meetings and reports on the health of their SC to the community management team directly
Please see this drawing to see what the structure will look like within each SC -
While writing this post someone asked how conflict will be resolved within a given SC.
Group support - Conflict resolution within a groups support team will remain the same. As the first line of support, please always contact your group support team leader. If you are unable to resolve the group support conflict, you can connect with a community manager.
Forum - Conflict resolution within your subcommunity forum should include the forum mentors within your subcom. Please reach out to the forum mentor in your subcommunity to ask for suggestions, ideas and best practices on how to manage conflict.
I know this will continue to evolve and change. Please review and leave your feedback! :)
@Laura Thanks for all the hard work!! This will help us go a long way in making the teen community better managed and the teen leadership more effective.
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@ZizyTheTurtle
No need to be confuzzled! It just means that the roles are now re-named, so before they were Jr. Community Mentor, Community Mentor/Teen Star, and (SC) Community Mentor/Teen Star Leader. Instead of these being underneath the community mentor/teen star track, sub-community roles are now their own track, and instead of being a mentor/teen star role, they will be re-named as an advocate. So, now, a Community Mentor/Teen Star (Leader) will not be sub-community focused, but rather have a different role under the community track. For example, being an Intern Mentor/Teen Star, managing an official 7 Cups social media channel, and other projects to strengthen online outreach.
@ZizyTheTurtle It's true that there is a lot of words. I'm confused as well.
@AiluraBlaze
Sorry to hear - is there a specific question I can help answer?
Broadly, this is just about bringing more clarity to role titles that already exist.
@Laura Reading others replies helped make it all a bit clearer. I have a question, the SubCommunity Advocate is linked to the GSQM and Support Room Leader box, but they only need a Group Mod requirement. Is this accurate?
@Laura wow, this is so cool! I think that we needed advocate word for a while because otherwise people are mixing Communtiy track and sub-communities so it's awesome!
My concern would be, how it would be with our Support Team Leaders. Am I missing something or I can't see them in your post? Maybe they could have some new name or at least be listed there also Group support leading is also a huge leadership role in Sub-communities 
@RaCat @Laura Hehe yup, also gets confusing when we're a support team leader and forum supporter... Does Jr Subcommunity Advocate or Support Team Leader role take precedence? Which should we be listed as?
@PhoenixAsh I would say that as Support Team Leader as I got to know that Support Team Leaders are able to feature posts so it would make more sense to choose the one that shows that you lead the team. But I guess it is up to you, which one to choose 
@PhoenixAsh
Support team leader! :)
I love this update! I'm so glad that the sub-community track is now separate from the traditional community track. Thank you for updating this!
@Laura Thank you for outlining this :D For these roles does that mean you have to be a community-centered group mod rather than a global? (I am probably being silly on this question and has probably been asked loads of times but I thought I would ask again)
@emsworld yes, if you want to have community advocate or Jr Community advocate role, you should be focusing on 1-3 subcommunities. I am not so sure how the global bades are going to be named but I am guessing that they are staying in the same way, what means that if you are global mod, you will have moderator badge and this badge will let you to mod every room (but please be aware that if there are sub-community mod in that room, they have prior right to mod it). The same should be with Forum Mentor badge. The ones that are global Forum Mentors will be focusing on emergencies mostly and the forums that are not sub-comunities yet
@emsworld
there are no silly questions! :)
yes, youd focus on your specific SC! These roles are for ppl who want to help build community in a specific area of the site.
This app is absolutely amazing! It
@lxmx I am glad that you feel like 7Cups is helpful for you and you found the community for yourself
Great, I'm really confuzzled
@MarshmaIIows no need to be confused! Let me quote @Emily619 message that was posted above for you:
"It just means that the roles are now re-named, so before they were Jr. Community Mentor, Community Mentor/Teen Star, and (SC) Community Mentor/Teen Star Leader. Instead of these being underneath the community mentor/teen star track, sub-community roles are now their own track, and instead of being a mentor/teen star role, they will be re-named as an advocate. So, now, a Community Mentor/Teen Star (Leader) will not be sub-community focused, but rather have a different role under the community track. For example, being an Intern Mentor/Teen Star, managing an official 7 Cups social media channel, and other projects to strengthen online outreach."
If you still have any questions, make sure to ask and we will try to answer it!
@RaCat Ohh :o
As a Community Mentor Leader, and even before I took this role on, I not only spend a lot of time supporting the trauma community and doing my roles within that sub community but a large amount of my time is spent mentoring people, listeners, other mentors and teens, even tho I have often got warnings for not having taking four new teen chats per month and yet I have spent hours supporting teens who are listeners themselves. I spent many hours offering support to growing and developing other communities, working on discussions with other communities, building links with other communities and trauma to run sessions jointly, working with the trauma ambassador to develop training and so on. So even tho my role is to build and oversee and support the sub community and its team, since taking that on, the support I now offer others has increased tenfold because others want not only how to support their members with trauma issues but how to grow their own communitiesetc. Then in addition to all the roles expected of us as CML or FML, we also have our own member one to ones, so often left out of any job description drawn up for any of those roles and yet member support is so crucial.
So I feel in a sense I am a community mentor leader in the sense of supporting outside of trauma as well as supporting the trauma sub community and its members. So I am torn on the word advocate as opposed to community mentor leader but I am all for teens and adults on a sub community working together but I dont think changing titles will solve all the problems. And I dont think it will solve people wanting to stick to the tracks or roles they feel better in eg some want only to do group support. We welcome in trauma those who just want to do group,. as we do those who just want to do forum, all are welcome no matter where your talent or skill lies because collectively it makes up the team. We all need one another to make that sub community work.
But then what happens to those who are forum mentor leaders or mentors, have Support Team Leader status and who have group mod status? These leaders are knowledgable and skilled in all these areas even if they prefer one area. And they have worked hard in those areas and to build their community. I just think its simpler to have people join a community and to bring all those roles under a communities roof and to allow people to focus on the area they wish to volunteer in and then if they wish to take on more responsibility to allow them to do so. This doesnt prevent the teens from taking part nor the adults. It doesnt prevent a sub community or non sub community from functioning this way.
I am in support of community moderation and I do feel if all roles can come under one team along with providing that team or sub community with its own training, they would be the ones who would be more knowledgable and skilled in the area they focus than perhaps a mod who does general modding or a forum person who does general forum posts. That is not to say everyone doesnt have their value, not at all. I also would like as the community mentor leader for trauma for members to be able to identify easier those from trauma to turn to for support as it can be very hard for then to reach out for support and I worry about the change of title that this could take that away from them. I wanted very much for communities to be able to be recognised for the area they supported in, so their own members could access support easier no matter what that community was, and I think someone else above mentioned this concern of how taking this identification away could mean members missing out on resources.
The word advocate as opposed to mentor also is someone who publically supports or recommends. I think the roles within the sub community go well and far beyond that of an advocate personally. It may be semantics tho.
One final point. I may not have understood everything this thread has said or meant. And I do find as more and more changes are rolled out it can be hard to keep up with these and to understand how everything fits together. Sometimes it would be nice to consolidate changes recent ones made before looking to add more. Thats my personal view. I think sometimes its a lot to put on people in a short time it can seem. Change yes is necessary but it just feels as soon as we get used to one or are getting to grips with one such as community moderation, this is now being proposed.
It was only last week that I spoke with our ambassador on trauma about us teaching and training up two deputies on trauma to work alongside us to learn all the things that keep trauma running, learning all the things we do or are involved in, all the things the team needs daily, weekly, etc so that should we be sick, should we be away they can keep things running smoothly and work in partnership with one another and with the rest of the team to ensure everything keeps running smoothly. This too be is about the leadership of sub communities training others up which is part of their role, but also preparing their sub community should the leadership be underavailable.
I do think however when you start adding more and more people and more and more roles and responsibilities that should stay with the leadership to ensure the team stays united, cohesive and running smoothly, then problems will ensue. Each person on the team has their role and they can take more on if they want. Each person is responsible to the team, to the members and to themselves. Everyone is just as valued and just as equal no matter what their title is. Because without each person on that team, the team wouldnt function. It needs everyone pulling together, something I know in trauma we try and do, even when we hit our own glitches.
@Laura is there a post with ALL of the related roles and who has what capabilities? If so, can someone please reply with the link (and share for all, not just 1-1 message me)?
If not, can we please get one? I'm having trouble keeping track of the changes and with threads being on different subsections I'm not even sure where to go looking.
@AffyAvo I found it, although it doesn't have all the info:
@AffyAvo hey, what roles you feel are missing?
@RaCat RIght now it's the who can update the leader lists. I think you have all the roles, it's the capabilities where there may be other things. I do appreciate the post though! My brain fog has been worse than normal and keeping track of everything has been difficult.