New badge announcement- the Joiner Badge (testing phase)

Hello, 7 Cups!

As you know, I am tasked with managing subcommunities on 7 Cups. One thing that is very clear to me is we need to help new members get better acquainted with their subcommunities. They need a tour of what the community is for, how to join in and where to find different elements (ie resources, leaders..etc).

Today, I am excited to share a new trial program I am launching to help solve this problem. This is an experiment, well be learning as we go! So please share your ideas and feedback!! Lets make our subcommunities even stronger! Go team!

How it works:

When a member joins a new sub-community they have the opportunity to earn the Joiner Badge. Like a forum hunt, they must complete 5 specific activities in the sub-community to be awarded the badge. Each task will introduce them to different parts of the sub-community and help them to get comfortable posting and being an active member.

They will get notification of the Joiner Badge opportunity via a welcome PM from a team member in the sub-community. Then they will fill out a google form with links to their 5 activities, which will be checked by the team. Those who have completed the tasks will be sent to me for their badge.

Tasks:

1.Post an introduction in the sub-community welcome section

2.Post in a daily check-in

3.Post in an icebreaker

4.Reply to a different icebreaker post

5.Start a new forum post in the sub-community

How we are unrolling this:

Right now, we will test this badge in two test communities: Healthy Living and Family Support (which is about to launch). We will test it for a couple weeks to see what kind of impact it makes, and if we think it is valuable and worth the effort of sending the PMs and tracking responses, we'll launch it site-wide. Thanks to @politeocean and @mistymagic for helping test it out!

We will add a discussion component in the near future, for simplicities sake I want to work the kinks out. Ultimately the goal is for them to experience both forums and discussions but I need to figure out the best way to accomplish that and I want to keep it simple for your team to manage this.

Example:

Hi ____,

Thanks for joining (sub-community)! We are so glad to have you, please come say hello in the forums!

Did you know you can earn a shiny new Joiner Badge by doing these 5 (6 if room) things in the (sub-community)? Open this google form so you can post the links as you go, then submit it when youre done.

1. Go to our welcome section (linked) and add a comment introducing yourself, we cant wait to learn more about you!

2. Go to our check-in section (linked) and check-in on the most recent one! This is a great way to get out there and meet more people in our community.

3. Head over to this ice-breaker (linked) and comment, these are fun!

4. Now find someone elses comment on the ice-breaker and post a reply!

5. Youre a seasoned pro, so create a new forum post about something you want to talk about, we cant wait to see what it is!

Fill out this google form (linked) with links to all your posts and then viola! You will get a Joiner badge added to your profile, showing everyone you are an active member of our community!

Please reach out with any questions, I hope to see your posts in the community soon!

-jill7cups

p.s. while you are waiting for your badge, be sure to see what discussions we have coming up by clicking here.

We will test this out over the next few weeks in Healthy Living and Family Support, in the meantime you can prep your other sub-communities by ensuring you have a welcome/introductions section of the forum, regular check ins (they don't need to be daily but need to be at least weekly), and an icebreaker section.

Thanks! Questions, comments, concerns? Post below! -Jill