June 13: Sponsor Program Sub-community Updates!
Hello Community!
Big thank you to everyone who has participated in the sponsor program! We launched this program around 6 months ago and have learned a great deal! Big thank you to everyone who has participated in the program up till this point.
The overarching goal was to build a long term connection program for you all! A place and system by which you could grow and foster long term relationships with others. And community around long term supportive interactions. We still hope to accomplish this goal, however, we believe that this program needs to an update. This update reflects all the feedback provided by you over the past 6 months.
Here are the changes we will be moving forward with:
-----> Updated subcommunity name: Long Term Support
-----> Browse Listener search text change:
New Search text: accepting long term members
-----> Listener setting page update:
Old text: "Accepting sponsees"
Updated tick box text: Accepting long term members
That is it for now!
Note: We will still use the sponsor/ sponsee badges. You can apply for these badges and earn them in the same way. And you can continue to work through the structed activities provided!
The main goal is to open this program up a little bit, remove some of the structure and see how to best evolve it in the future!
Anyone who has been or aspires to be a support to a member in a longer term support capacity (or vse versa) is welcome to join in! These changes will be made soon!
PS - If you are interested in helping out with this subcommunity - please let me knoe!
TLDR - we are rebranding the program & the subcommunity (same mission though - encourage and support long term supportive connections)
@Laura - I think this is a really positive change. I said all along that my biggest concerns with the sponsor program were it being over structured into something that might not work well for all members/listeners and that it ignored the many positive long term listener/member relationships that didn't fit into the model. I think shifting to something that better recognizes all ways of providing long term support and offers resources without requiring a set model is a great change. *adjusts profile accordingly*
Oops - looks like the 'accepting long term members' change hasn't been made yet! I'll adjust my profile when that part's ready :)
@Anomalia
Awesome, I am hopeful for the change!! thanks for the feedback all along :)
@Anomalia I as a listener have been supporting members for many months since I started here as a listener but as my availability to take on new members is pretty non existant, I would be unable to enter into a sponsee relationship. I have regular one to one with regular members which is ongoing which to me, is pretty similar from the sounds of it as the sponser programme??
I think this is a great change.
Sponsorship program I always felt it had not specific difinition and each one would have a defferent image about it.
But long-term-members is very understandable and listener\member both have a similar image about what would this relationship look like
@SunFlower700 Yes I agree! It is important for sponsors and sponsees to have a better understanding of exactly what the terms of the relationship mean.
@Laura *yawnles* what do you mean i don't have to whip my sponsees anymore and they might stick around? :o
thats a good change
Question: Has the lack of clarity regarding sponsor/sponsee relationships before caused problems for either sponsor or sponsee? I am curious to know.
@Laura - do members who want a long-term chat view themselves as "long-term members"?
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn if i have long term listeners, i am necessarily a long term member for them. 
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
good question....
Any members who've worked with the same listetner for 3+ months want to chime in?
@Laura "Providing long-term support" for that check box, then! :D ❤
still "Accepting long-term members" for listeners.
except then people who do will be swamped lol :(