https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Jacky 2026-07-15T17:37:26Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.43.0 https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56087 2026-07-10T15:07:12Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group where they were posted. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. Broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> =====The one big &quot;please don't&quot;=====<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> =====The same applies to replies=====<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> =====How posters appear in your community=====<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> ====What this means in practice:====<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new:<br /> <br /> =====Posts arriving from other communities=====<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> =====A reach/map view on posts=====<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> =====A reminder when you edit a shared post=====<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> =====Held replies in Chat Review=====<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> ====When a poster leaves your community====<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Email settings for rippled members====<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> '''Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest'''<br /> <br /> '''Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is'''<br /> <br /> '''Community events and volunteering]'''- copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> ====Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item====<br /> <br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> ====The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;====<br /> <br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting a rippled-in post====<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> <br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting or removing a post on its home community====<br /> <br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> <br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> ====TrashNothing posts====<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently (30.6.26) not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> ====What to expect from members====<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> ====The two habits to build====<br /> *Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> *Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> ====Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means====<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Links:==== <br /> <br /> * [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Wiki_Reports&diff=56086 2026-06-30T20:12:15Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>In 2020 it was decided to post a regular report to Central for changes to the wiki. The reports include edits that are significant, not the odd spelling mistake etc. The links are:<br /> <br /> '''2026'''<br /> <br /> January 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2026/9371]] - February 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2026/9462]] - March 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2026/9536]] - April 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2026/9640]] - May 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2026/9765]] - June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2026/9846/1]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2025'''<br /> <br /> January 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2024/8268]] - February 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2025/8365]] - March 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2025/8462]] - April 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2025/8539]] - May 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2025/8612]] - June 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2025/8700]] - July 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2025/8815]] - August 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2025/8901]] - September 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2025/9010]] - October 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2025/9119]] - November 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2025/9194]] - December 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2025/9265]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2024'''<br /> <br /> December 2024 -[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2024/8183]] - November 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2024/8103]] - October 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2024/8024]] - September 2024- [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2024/7953]] - August 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-august-2024/7869]] - July 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2024/7709]] - June 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2024/7601]] - May 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2024/7509]] - April 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2024/7387]] - March 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2024/7280]] - February 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-29th-february-2024/7175]] - January 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-january-2024/7087]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2023'''<br /> <br /> December 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2023/7000]] - November 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2023/6913]] - October 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2023/6828]] - September 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2023/6733]] - August 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2023/6612]] - July 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2023/6492]] - June 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2023/6366]] - May 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-april-2023/6269 ]](incorrect subject line, this was the report for 31st May 2023)- - April 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2023/6177]] - March 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2023/6083]] - February 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2023/5966]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2022'''<br /> <br /> December 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2022/5791]] - November 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2022/5703]] - October 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2022/5594]] - September 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-for-30th-september-2022/5507]] - August 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2022/5388]] - July 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2022/5243]] - June 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2022/5140]] - May 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2022/5049]] - March 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2022/4841]] - February 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2022/4729]] - January 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2022/4619]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2021'''<br /> <br /> December 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2021/4488]] - November 2021- [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2021/4348]] - October 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2021/4217]] - September 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2021/4054]] - August 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-26th-august-2021/3935]] - July 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-july-2021/3750]] - June 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-june-2021/3624]] - May 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-may-2021/3492]] - April 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-april-2021/3322]] - March 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-22nd-march-2021/3127]] - February 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-22-2-21/2936]] - January 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-20-1-2021/2766]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2020'''<br /> <br /> September 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-14th-sept-2020/20]] - October 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-14-10-20/2223]] - November 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-18th-november-2020/2439]] - December 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-18th-december-2020/2590]] -<br /> <br /> <br /> Link: [[Freegle Wiki]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:Freegle Wiki]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56085 2026-06-30T12:33:56Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group where they were posted. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> =====The one big &quot;please don't&quot;=====<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> =====The same applies to replies=====<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> =====How posters appear in your community=====<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> ====What this means in practice:====<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new:<br /> <br /> =====Posts arriving from other communities=====<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> =====A reach/map view on posts=====<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> =====A reminder when you edit a shared post=====<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> =====Held replies in Chat Review=====<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> ====When a poster leaves your community====<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Email settings for rippled members====<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> '''Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest'''<br /> <br /> '''Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is'''<br /> <br /> '''Community events and volunteering]'''- copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> ====Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item====<br /> <br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> ====The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;====<br /> <br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting a rippled-in post====<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> <br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting or removing a post on its home community====<br /> <br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> <br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> ====TrashNothing posts====<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently (30.6.26) not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> ====What to expect from members====<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> ====The two habits to build====<br /> *Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> *Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> ====Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means====<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Links:==== <br /> <br /> * [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56084 2026-06-30T12:32:53Z

<p>Jacky: /* Reference: what the &#039;Rippled&#039; log entry means */</p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> =====The one big &quot;please don't&quot;=====<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> =====The same applies to replies=====<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> =====How posters appear in your community=====<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> ====What this means in practice:====<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new:<br /> <br /> =====Posts arriving from other communities=====<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> =====A reach/map view on posts=====<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> =====A reminder when you edit a shared post=====<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> =====Held replies in Chat Review=====<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> ====When a poster leaves your community====<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Email settings for rippled members====<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> '''Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest'''<br /> <br /> '''Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is'''<br /> <br /> '''Community events and volunteering]'''- copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> ====Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item====<br /> <br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> ====The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;====<br /> <br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting a rippled-in post====<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> <br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting or removing a post on its home community====<br /> <br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> <br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> ====TrashNothing posts====<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently (30.6.26) not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> ====What to expect from members====<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> ====The two habits to build====<br /> *Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> *Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> ====Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means====<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Links:==== <br /> <br /> * [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56083 2026-06-30T12:32:12Z

<p>Jacky: /* Misc Admin */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts. See [[Rippling out]] for an explanation of how posts are disseminated.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Images===<br /> <br /> Our system generates AI images for posts that don't include a photo or other image. Any images flagged by volunteers as needing regeneration can be reviewed and replaced, where needed, here.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> ===SysAdmin===<br /> <br /> System administration information about regular background work and details of emails and digests sent out across the system.<br /> <br /> ===Rippling===<br /> <br /> Rippling is the method that member's posts are sent and shown to other members. This section on Modtools offers an interactive map of how rippling affect each postcoe/address across the UK. See [[Rippling out]] for more details.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56082 2026-06-30T12:31:19Z

<p>Jacky: /* SysAdmin */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts. See [[Rippling out]] for an explanation of how posts are disseminated.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Images===<br /> <br /> Our system generates AI images for posts that don't include a photo or other image. Any images flagged by volunteers as needing regeneration can be reviewed and replaced, where needed, here.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===SysAdmin===<br /> <br /> System administration information about regular background work and details of emails and digests sent out across the system.<br /> <br /> ===Rippling===<br /> <br /> Rippling is the method that member's posts are sent and shown to other members. This section on Modtools offers an interactive map of how rippling affect each postcoe/address across the UK. See [[Rippling out]] for more details.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56081 2026-06-30T11:46:48Z

<p>Jacky: /* What this means in practice: */</p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> =====The one big &quot;please don't&quot;=====<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> =====The same applies to replies=====<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> =====How posters appear in your community=====<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> ====What this means in practice:====<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new:<br /> <br /> =====Posts arriving from other communities=====<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> =====A reach/map view on posts=====<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> =====A reminder when you edit a shared post=====<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> =====Held replies in Chat Review=====<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> ====When a poster leaves your community====<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Email settings for rippled members====<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> '''Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest'''<br /> <br /> '''Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is'''<br /> <br /> '''Community events and volunteering]'''- copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> ====Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item====<br /> <br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> ====The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;====<br /> <br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting a rippled-in post====<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> <br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting or removing a post on its home community====<br /> <br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> <br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> ====TrashNothing posts====<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently (30.6.26) not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> ====What to expect from members====<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> ====The two habits to build====<br /> *Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> *Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> ====Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means====<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> Links: <br /> <br /> [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56080 2026-06-30T11:46:03Z

<p>Jacky: /* Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators */</p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> =====The one big &quot;please don't&quot;=====<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> =====The same applies to replies=====<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> =====How posters appear in your community=====<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> ====What this means in practice:====<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new<br /> <br /> <br /> =====1. Posts arriving from other communities=====<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> =====2. A reach/map view on posts=====<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> =====3. A reminder when you edit a shared post=====<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> =====4. Held replies in Chat Review=====<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> ====When a poster leaves your community====<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Email settings for rippled members====<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> '''Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest'''<br /> <br /> '''Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is'''<br /> <br /> '''Community events and volunteering]'''- copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> ====Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item====<br /> <br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> ====The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;====<br /> <br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting a rippled-in post====<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> <br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> ====Rejecting or removing a post on its home community====<br /> <br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> <br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> ====TrashNothing posts====<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently (30.6.26) not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> ====What to expect from members====<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> ====The two habits to build====<br /> *Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> *Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> ====Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means====<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> Links: <br /> <br /> [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56079 2026-06-29T09:34:00Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Rippling Out - A Guide for Moderators===<br /> <br /> <br /> The one big &quot;please don't&quot;<br /> Don't reject a post just because it looks &quot;out of area&quot;<br /> With rippling out, a post that started on a neighbouring community can appear on your community, even if the poster lives some distance away (by default it arrives already approved; see below). That is expected and correct. It means the system is deliberately spreading a post that has not been collected locally so your members get a chance at it.<br /> <br /> Only reject it for the usual reasons - spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing, and so on. &quot;They're not from round here&quot; is no longer a reason to reject.<br /> <br /> The same applies to replies<br /> If someone replies to a post from outside what you think of as your area, that is the system working as intended. Do not ban or block a member simply because they replied to a post you think is out of their area.<br /> <br /> How posters appear in your community<br /> When a post ripples into your community, the poster is automatically joined as a full Member/Approved. This is intentional - moderators need to be able to contact posters and moderate their posts in the usual way, so they must be real members.<br /> <br /> What this means in practice:<br /> <br /> You can contact the poster, moderate their post, and use all the normal moderation tools, exactly as you would for any other member.<br /> The poster appears in your member list.<br /> Your community's member count may include rippled members.<br /> The join is recorded with reason 'Rippled' in the membership log, so you can distinguish it from a manual or organic join if you need to.<br /> What you will see that is new<br /> 1. Posts arriving from other communities<br /> Some posts on your community will have started on another community and rippled into yours. You will see a small notice on the post making this clear (&quot;This post has rippled in from a neighbouring community&quot;).<br /> <br /> A post only ripples after it has already been approved on the community where it started, so it has already been vetted. We therefore do not make it sit out a full review again. With the default settings it is approved on your community straight away - it appears among your approved posts with the rippled-in notice, not in your pending list. You can still reject it for the usual reasons (spam, breaks the rules, wrong sort of thing) - see &quot;Rejecting a rippled-in post&quot; below.<br /> <br /> (If your instance is configured with a mod-veto window - RIPPLE_RIPPLED_IN_PENDING_HOURS set above zero - a rippled-in post instead waits in your pending list for that many hours and auto-approves if nobody rejects it first. Either way, &quot;they're not from round here&quot; is never a reason to reject.)<br /> <br /> 2. A reach/map view on posts<br /> On posts in your moderation screens there is a &quot;View rippling reach&quot; button (with a map-marker icon) that shows you on a map the area a post is currently visible in. This is useful for checking how far a post has spread or why it turned up on your list.<br /> <br /> 3. A reminder when you edit a shared post<br /> If you edit a post that is on more than one community, you will see a warning:<br /> <br /> &quot;This edit will apply to the post on all N groups it appears on.&quot;<br /> <br /> (N is the actual number of communities the post is on.) Edit as normal - just be aware your change is seen everywhere the post appears.<br /> <br /> 4. Held replies in Chat Review<br /> Occasionally a reply is held because the post has not yet rippled out to where that member is. Chat Review shows you it is held because of rippling (not because you chose to hold it). You do not need to do anything - the reply is released automatically once the post reaches that member's area, or once the post has finished spreading as far as it will go, so no reply is ever held indefinitely. Members are never shown this reason; only moderators see it.<br /> <br /> When a poster leaves your community<br /> If a poster leaves your community (or is removed), their rippled-in post is pulled from your community automatically. The post continues to appear on all other communities where it was approved. The poster is not re-added to your community, even if the post carries on rippling elsewhere.<br /> <br /> Email settings for rippled members<br /> For your awareness, when a poster is auto-joined to a community via rippling, their email settings for that community are set as follows:<br /> <br /> Immediate email - downgraded to daily digest.<br /> Daily digest or no emails - preserved exactly as-is.<br /> Community events and volunteering - copied from their home community settings (no extra emails).<br /> The poster receives one bundled intro email explaining all of this, rather than a separate welcome email from each community they were joined to.<br /> <br /> Because rippling moves more members onto the daily digest and joins them to more communities, those digests can gather posts from several communities at once. The daily &quot;What's New&quot; email therefore lists up to around 65 posts, to avoid being clipped by email providers like Gmail. If there are more, it shows the first batch with a link to browse the rest, and the subject line says simply &quot;What's New&quot; instead of a post count.<br /> <br /> Repost reminders and chase-ups happen once per item<br /> Freegle reminds a poster shortly before it auto-reposts their item (&quot;Will Repost: ...&quot;) and, once reposting is exhausted, chases them up to ask what happened (&quot;What happened to: ...&quot;). Under rippling a single item can be live on several communities at once, but the poster still gets one reminder and one chase-up per cycle - not one per community. Whatever they do in response (mark it taken, withdraw it, or promise it) applies to the item everywhere it has rippled, so one email is enough to settle it.<br /> <br /> Behind the scenes the item is still reposted on each community independently, so it stays near the top of every local browse list - that part is invisible to the poster and costs them no extra email.<br /> <br /> The spam-flag and &quot;seen on many groups&quot;<br /> Rippling joins a poster to multiple communities. This does not trigger the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam review flag. Ripple-joins are excluded from that count, so a poster whose item has rippled widely will not be incorrectly flagged as a spammer.<br /> <br /> Rejecting a rippled-in post<br /> If you reject a post that rippled in from another community, two things happen:<br /> <br /> The poster is not told. They posted to their own community and the post is still visible there. A faraway community saying &quot;not for us&quot; is not something they need to hear about.<br /> The post stops showing in your community's area. It carries on being visible everywhere else it has been approved. Your rejection simply trims your patch off the map.<br /> A secondary rejection is low-stakes: it quietly removes the post from your area and nobody is upset. Use it if a post genuinely is not suitable locally - but not simply because the poster is from out of area.<br /> <br /> Rejecting or removing a post on its home community<br /> This is different from a secondary rejection above. When a post is rejected, deleted or withdrawn on the community it was originally posted to (its home community), it is no longer a live offer anywhere - so:<br /> <br /> It is pulled from every community it had rippled into, automatically. You do not have to chase it around the neighbouring communities; removing it at home cleans it up everywhere it had spread.<br /> It stops spreading. Its rippling is halted, so it will not appear on any further communities.<br /> This is exactly what you want when you catch spam or a rule-breaking post on its home community: dealing with it once removes it everywhere, instead of leaving live copies sitting on the neighbouring communities it had already reached.<br /> <br /> The poster is also removed from any community they had been auto-joined to only to carry that post (i.e. where they have no other posts). They keep their home community and any community where they have other activity, and - because this is a tidy-up rather than them choosing to leave - a later post of theirs can still ripple into those communities normally.<br /> <br /> TrashNothing posts<br /> TrashNothing posts are currently not rippled out into new communities. TrashNothing still cross-posts an item to several Freegle communities itself, so rippling deliberately stays out of its way to avoid the same item appearing twice. They behave on your community exactly as they always have. This exclusion is temporary - once TrashNothing posts to a single origin community, those posts will ripple like any other.<br /> <br /> What to expect from members<br /> The main thing members may ask you about is &quot;why can't I reply to this post?&quot; The answer is reassuring:<br /> <br /> The post has not rippled out to your area yet. It is being shown to people closest to it first. As soon as it reaches you, you will be able to reply - you do not need to do anything.<br /> <br /> Members on immediate emails may also notice they get an alert when a post that started on a neighbouring community ripples close enough to reach them. That is expected: they get one immediate alert per such post, the moment it reaches their area - exactly as they would for a post made directly on the community. If they would rather not, they can switch that community to daily digest in Settings.<br /> <br /> Some members may also ask why they have been joined to communities they did not sign up for. The answer is that their post has been travelling to reach more people, and the membership is what makes replies and contact work properly. They can leave any of those communities in Settings, which will remove their post from that community.<br /> <br /> The two habits to build<br /> Do not reject a post just for being out of area - that is the system working.<br /> Do not ban a member just for replying from out of area - same reason.<br /> Everything else about your day-to-day moderation routine stays the same.<br /> <br /> Reference: what the 'Rippled' log entry means<br /> The membership log shows reason='Rippled' for any join created by rippling out. This is purely for provenance and audit - you do not need to do anything with it. It lets us distinguish ripple-joins from manual or organic joins, and it is used internally to suppress the per-group welcome email (replaced by a single bundled intro) and to exclude these joins from the &quot;seen on many groups&quot; spam check.<br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> <br /> [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Publicity_tools&diff=56078 2026-06-22T15:29:10Z

<p>Jacky: /* QR codes and short links */</p> <hr /> <div>This page lists the (technical) publicity tools available to group volunteers and members.<br /> <br /> ==[[QR Codes|QR codes]] and short links==<br /> <br /> Freegle-branded QR code generator (restricted to use by signed-in moderators): <br /> * https://www.ilovefreegle.org/qr/<br /> <br /> Shortlinks for each community, including ready-made QR codes to download:<br /> * https://www.ilovefreegle.org/shortlinks<br /> <br /> == Current active posts for your group ==<br /> <br /> This tool lists the currently open OFFER and WANTED posts for a group, divided by category and OFFER/WANTED.<br /> You need to choose your group, then the active posts are listed (that have been placed in the last week).<br /> You can then choose a date range to show, from today to 3 months.<br /> To see any more details, you'll have to look in Freegle Direct ie by clicking on the Freegle Now! link.<br /> <br /> * [https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/groupitems.php Current active posts group selector]<br /> <br /> Once you've found your group, you can bookmark the link, eg:<br /> <br /> * [https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/groupitems.php?groupid=49 Penrith and Eden District Freegle active posts]<br /> <br /> == Weight stats for your group ==<br /> <br /> Freegle Direct estimates how much has been saved from waste for each item successfully Freegled. This tool lists the weight saved per month for a while group, eg:<br /> <br /> * [https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/weightstats.php?groupid=49&amp;start=2015-04-01&amp;end=2016-03-31 Penrith and Eden District Freegle weight stats for April 2015 to March 2016]<br /> <br /> To find your group's weight stats, build your own link, starting with:<br /> <br /> * https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/weightstats.php<br /> <br /> followed by a groupid or groupname parameter and optional start and end parameters.<br /> Get your groupid using the active posts tool (above).<br /> The start and end parameters are in the form YYYY-MM-DD eg 2015-04-01.<br /> <br /> == Map stats for your group ==<br /> <br /> Freegle Direct attempts to work out the map location of each post (with the group centre as the default).<br /> The spread of posts is mapped using this tool, eg:<br /> <br /> * [https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/mapstats.php?groupid=49&amp;start=2015-04-01&amp;end=2016-03-31 Penrith and Eden District Freegle posts map for April 2015 to March 2016]<br /> <br /> To find your group's map stats, build your own link, starting with:<br /> <br /> * https://direct.ilovefreegle.org/modtools/mapstats.php<br /> <br /> followed by a groupid or groupname parameter and optional start and end parameters, as per above.<br /> <br /> Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Direct]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Publicity]]<br /> [[category:Freegle Direct]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56077 2026-06-22T15:27:36Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> <br /> [[ModTools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rippling_out&diff=56076 2026-06-22T15:26:28Z

<p>Jacky: Created page with &quot;Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility. Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn&#039;t the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a diffe...&quot;</p> <hr /> <div>Since the beginning of Freegle, offer and wanted posts were posted out on the group they were posted on. The idea was to keep things local and there were varying rules across Freegle groups on cross posting and group boundary eligibility.<br /> <br /> Over time, analysis of how quickly and where posts were effectively successful highlighted that that way of presenting posts wasn't the most efficient at getting maximum freegling. So, in June 2026 the website and app adopted a different way of distributing posts - rippling out. This was announced on Central on 21st June 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/rippling-out/9808]]<br /> <br /> The short version is that posts become visible to people gradually, starting with those closest and spreading outwards over time. The time periods used are broadly, there are outward steps at these points: 1h, 3h, 6h, 12h, 24h, 48h, 72h, 120h (5d), 168h (7d).<br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> <br /> [[Modtools]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:Modtools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56075 2026-06-22T07:34:41Z

<p>Jacky: /* Messages */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts. See [[Rippling out]] for an explanation of how posts are disseminated.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Images===<br /> <br /> Our system generates AI images for posts that don't include a photo or other image. Any images flagged by volunteers as needing regeneration can be reviewed and replaced, where needed, here.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===SysAdmin===<br /> <br /> System administration information about regular background work and details of emails and digests sent out across the system.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=QR_Codes&diff=56071 2026-06-18T14:55:09Z

<p>Jacky: /* Where do I get one? */</p> <hr /> <div>====What is a QR code?====<br /> QR codes are the square blocky equivalents to bar codes or web site addresses. <br /> <br /> ====What does it look like?====<br /> <br /> <br /> [[File:QR scan me.png|200px|thumb|left|-]]<br /> <br /> ====How does it work?====<br /> When you focus the camera of a smart phone or tablet on the code, it leads to the Freegle Home page.<br /> <br /> ====Where do I get one?====<br /> You can copy and paste them in to a banner or leaflet, anywhere where it is easier to point a device than to jot down a website address.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''June 2026'''<br /> <br /> You can generate your own Freegle QR code at http://ilovefreegle.org/qr use any URL, no tracking.<br /> <br /> also - https://www.ilovefreegle.org/shortlinks/ has a new Download QR button, which gives a QR code for all groups that have shortlinks, and these are tracked when used.<br /> <br /> ====How should I use it?====<br /> https://app.qr-code-generator.com has helpful advice on how best to use these codes, and where. <br /> <br /> ====How long will it last?====<br /> Freegle subscribed to the code which remained live for three years until August 2021.<br /> However it still seems to be working in 2023.<br /> <br /> ====Can I track the effectiveness of a particular campaign, poster or leaflet?====<br /> One can be provided for a particular campaign or location. Please contact Dee via support@ilovefreegle.org<br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[Promotion]] or [[Publicity]] <br /> [[Category:Promotion]]<br /> [[Category:Groups]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=QR_Codes&diff=56070 2026-06-18T14:44:56Z

<p>Jacky: /* Where do I get one? */</p> <hr /> <div>====What is a QR code?====<br /> QR codes are the square blocky equivalents to bar codes or web site addresses. <br /> <br /> ====What does it look like?====<br /> <br /> <br /> [[File:QR scan me.png|200px|thumb|left|-]]<br /> <br /> ====How does it work?====<br /> When you focus the camera of a smart phone or tablet on the code, it leads to the Freegle Home page.<br /> <br /> ====Where do I get one?====<br /> You can copy and paste them in to a banner or leaflet, anywhere where it is easier to point a device than to jot down a website address.<br /> <br /> June 2026 - you can generate your own Freegle QR code at http://ilovefreegle.org/qr use any URL, no tracking.<br /> <br /> ====How should I use it?====<br /> https://app.qr-code-generator.com has helpful advice on how best to use these codes, and where. <br /> <br /> ====How long will it last?====<br /> Freegle subscribed to the code which remained live for three years until August 2021.<br /> However it still seems to be working in 2023.<br /> <br /> ====Can I track the effectiveness of a particular campaign, poster or leaflet?====<br /> One can be provided for a particular campaign or location. Please contact Dee via support@ilovefreegle.org<br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[Promotion]] or [[Publicity]] <br /> [[Category:Promotion]]<br /> [[Category:Groups]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Quote_Bank&diff=56069 2026-06-18T08:06:26Z

<p>Jacky: /* Unusual and interesting Freegles */</p> <hr /> <div>This is to help Volunteers with writing emails, letters, comment, appeal for support, tweets etc.<br /> &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;<br /> <br /> ====Weight of stuff kept out of landfill====<br /> <br /> You can see the estimated weight of items reused through your group by looking at your group home page and clicking on the small 'more stats' link in the intro text. This will reveal several stats about your group that all your members can access, including estimates of weight.<br /> <br /> <br /> *&quot;On average every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks.&quot;<br /> http://www.southampton.gov.uk/s-environment/householdwaste/<br /> &lt;br&gt;<br /> *&quot;The average kg per household per fortnight, weighted to reflect the population of the area, was 17.54 kg.&quot;<br /> http://www.southglos.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6A5A1670-6A9B-4255-91AB-15DCB28C3EC7/0/COS090013.pdf<br /> &lt;br&gt;<br /> *Pick any item from the Furniture Reuse Network list<br /> http://www.crni.ie/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/2009_FRN_Average_Weights.pdf<br /> &lt;br&gt;<br /> Calculate how much your Group saves from Landfill and divide this by the average weight of one chosen item<br /> &lt;br&gt;<br /> eg 4483kg saved from landfill is approx 118 fridges.<br /> <br /> ====WRAP study shows re-use potential of household bulky waste====<br /> August 2012: <br /> The purpose of this research was to understand the composition of bulky waste in terms of item type and re-usability, in order to identify the opportunities for the re-use of bulky items across the UK.<br /> National estimates derived from WasteDataFlow (WDF) suggest that across the UK during 2010/11, some 1,590,000 tonnes of bulky waste is collected at the kerbside or taken to HWRCs. Approximately twice as much is taken to HWRCs (1,050,000 tonnes) than is collected at the kerbside (540,000 tonnes).<br /> <br /> Using the above data and extrapolating the sample findings across all UK kerbside and HWRC bulky waste collections suggests that of all bulky waste in the UK, (including both kerbside collected and HWRC bulky items), around 42% consists of furniture, 19% textiles and 19% WEEE. These estimates equate to 670,000 tonnes of furniture and 310,000 tonnes each of textiles and WEEE disposed by householders in the UK annually.<br /> <br /> There is a perception that items, when they reach the HWRC, or are collected at the kerbside are no longer fit for re-use, yet this report identifies down to specific product level the significant amount of products that are potentially re-usable. It is hoped that this information can help to inform re-use organisations, local authorities and waste management companies of the potential re-use of items that are currently being recycled or disposed.<br /> <br /> http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/study-re-use-potential-household-bulky-waste <br /> <br /> ====WRAP Facts and Figures====<br /> October 2012<br /> <br /> * WRAP estimates that around 600 million tonnes of products and materials enter the UK economy each year… only 115 million tonnes of this gets recycled.<br /> * Between now and 2020, WRAP estimates that electronic waste in the UK will total more than 12 million tonnes. A quarter of this will comprise of IT equipment, consumer electronics and display screens. This 12 million tonnes will include precious metals, which at the time of writing, have a total estimated market value of £7bn.<br /> * Nearly 25% of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that’s taken to household waste recycling centres could be re-used, worth around £200m gross a year.<br /> * We throw away more than 7 million tonnes of food and drink every year from our homes – most of which could have been safely consumed.<br /> * UK hospitality sector (hotels, pubs, restaurants and quick service restaurants) could save £724 million a year by tackling food waste.<br /> * By pursuing opportunities for re-use, the UK could reduce its reliance on raw materials, including rare earths, by as much as 20% by 2020.<br /> * Our research shows doubling the number of sofas re-used, could save 52,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. At the moment, 83% of sofas are not re-used and are sent to landfill or recycled.<br /> <br /> And this is only the tip of the waste iceberg.<br /> <br /> http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/facts-and-figures<br /> <br /> ====Freegle stats====<br /> <br /> See [[Freegle Group Membership]] for links to find stats about us and your group.<br /> <br /> Information about your group can be found on the group's home page (click on 'more stats' at in the group intro) or in Modtools on your Introduction Page on the dashboard.<br /> <br /> ====Unusual and interesting Freegles====<br /> <br /> Interviewers or reporters often ask for examples of unusual or interesting things that have been freegled. Keep a note for your own group, but across the UK the following have all appeared as offers on Freegle groups:<br /> <br /> * Offer: Tarantula Exoskeleton: Does anyone want one of our latest spider's skin sheds. It's a useful learning aid for animal adaptions etc at primary level. Clear fangs, camouflage and hairy long legs from our Red Indian Ornamental tarantula. Will be handed over in clear plastic box though suggest sealing it if taking into a school for show and tell.<br /> *World War II air raid shelter<br /> *Giant African Land Snails<br /> *several hundred wine bottle corks made into a cork noticeboard<br /> *shop mannequins<br /> *a yacht; a 4-berth caravan<br /> *hospital hoists<br /> *unicyle and tandem<br /> *car with tax and MOT (from someone off abroad that day) offered, and a request that resulted in someone giving a little runabout with tax and MOT<br /> *life size cardboard sci-fi figure<br /> *a melodeon (like an accordion) said to have been made by prisoners of war; bongo drums<br /> *an ex-cinema Shrek hanging display<br /> *a well (decorative only)<br /> *a front near side quarter light for some model of 1960's Austin was requested, he got offered four!!<br /> * monkey puzzle tree; pampas grass<br /> *full size dalek<br /> *whole kitchens<br /> *6 tonnes of filing cabinets and paper office furniture for Brighton and Hove city council (they are going paperless)<br /> *1,000 rolls of 'out of date' wall paper from a DIY store<br /> * over 3,000 video tapes for the Brighton Waste House (from just one wanted post) – to be turned into insulation<br /> *spinning wheel and drum carder<br /> *3 coffins offered! (cardboard, offered by a theatrical group. 2 went to a Derbys theatrical group and 1 to a Sheffield theatrical group – all for Halloween productions.)<br /> *18 former Humberside telephone boxes bought on a whim to sell to BT, but never did – they all apparently went to folks for garden ornaments...<br /> *space transporter (turned out to be a toy)<br /> *Noah's ark (it wasn't full scale but it was big enough it needed four people to carry it. A prop from a play)<br /> *Captain Pugwash cardboard cut out, made for a children's birthday party, taken, re-offered and then asked for<br /> *a collection of porcelain dolls looking for a &quot;new loving home&quot;<br /> *entire contents of a large garden shed full of winemaking equipment<br /> *Someone on Towcester (pronounced Toaster) Freegle posted: ''Offer: Toaster (Towcester)''. The group owner was delighted – she's been waiting for years for that to happen!<br /> <br /> <br /> Misspellings:<br /> <br /> *bag of badgers<br /> <br /> Items people don't immediately think of, but are requested often:<br /> <br /> *cardboard boxes for moving house<br /> *padded envelopes and bubble wrap<br /> *plant pots<br /> *jam jars<br /> *egg boxes<br /> <br /> story snippets:<br /> <br /> *I rescued and eventually rehomed (after about 3 years!) a lovely framed family tree, framed by someone in the tree, eventually managed to get in contact with a descendant through various family history sites who was very pleased that it was saved from landfill!<br /> * I posted with photos an old damaged wheelbarrow with a flat tyre which was dented, damaged and plaster clotted. We were surprised when it was taken and picked up by someone who was very happy with it. Turns out he had exactly the same model almost new but had broken the handle which was the only part of mine in any usable condition. The result was one wheelbarrow very usable and only one in the waste. <br /> *A couple lived in a maisonette and were emigrating to Australia. Four doors away unknown to them a young lady moved in to her maisonette with nothing but a primus stove and a blow up mattress. The couple were taking nothing but clothes with them and were off to live with their son so they wanted in the space of a few days to recycle on the group EVERYTHING in the property. The woman contacted the group about putting a wanted on for basically anything as she had nothing. To cut a long story short she had been in her place a couple of days and done nothing to it. So the locla moderator got both parties and the council together and with their agreement she moved into the property becoming vacant the day they moved out and hers became vacant again in exactly the condition she had as when she had moved in. No work for the council with any refurbishment of either property, nothing down the tip, she even took over their Canary. It was the ultimate in recycling. It all happened within the space of a week.<br /> *&quot;Someone asked for a diamond engagement ring on our group as she had lost hers while gardening and wanted to 'propose' a marriage blessing to her husband of 15 years. Co-incidentally I had found a beautiful engagement ring in the mud at the local park and even with the help of the police and local shop windows never found the owner. After 6 months it had become legally mine so I gave it to her in exchange for an afternoon's gardening. It felt very right somehow. The ring was never really mine and this way she got her new ring through gardening just as she lost her old one. (plus I had some NASTY ground elder!) &quot;<br /> *&quot;Someone tried to post a 'Wanted' for a pianist for their am dram show in aid of the RAF Association (their only pianist was ill). I was modding at the time, and had to reject it, however I felt sorry for them, so I phoned a friend who happened to be a piano teacher in the hope that she might be able to find someone to help them, I thought perhaps one of her students might do it. Well they ended up with a former West End pit piano player! I went to see the show and put a review of it http://www.qsulis.org.uk/Reviews/Sams_Bar.htm &quot;<br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[Publicity]]<br /> <br /> [[Category:Press Coverage]] [[Category:Freegle PR]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=1._What_is_Freegle&diff=56068 2026-06-16T13:42:05Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>'''1.1 Introduction'''<br /> <br /> Freegle provides an online platform to enable free giving and receiving of items via local communities, primarily run by volunteers.<br /> <br /> The majority of those working in Freegle communities and nationally are volunteers. Volunteers come together to form a mutually supportive network. As a grassroots organisation, all volunteers are encouraged to take part in discussion and decisions. <br /> <br /> To participate fully in national decisions and to support the organisation, Membership of Freegle is an option for all volunteers. Membership gives voting rights and entitlement to be elected as a Director on the Board.<br /> <br /> The Board comprises persons appointed to perform the duties of directors of the Society, primarily by Member election.<br /> <br /> Find out more about the Membership of Freegle here: [[Freegle Membership]]<br /> <br /> Organigram of the interesting and unique structure of Freegle: https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Freegle_Organigram_v6bt_Jul13.pdf - although this does need updating!<br /> <br /> *[[1.2 Freegle Objects]]<br /> *[[1.3 Vision, Mission, Values]]<br /> *[[1.4 Legal Structure]]<br /> *[[1.5 Our strategic objectives]]<br /> *[[1.6 Public Benefit]]<br /> https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=1._What_is_Freegle&amp;action=edit<br /> Link: [[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:1.Introduction to Freegle]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56067 2026-06-16T13:34:02Z

<p>Jacky: /* Support */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Images===<br /> <br /> Our system generates AI images for posts that don't include a photo or other image. Any images flagged by volunteers as needing regeneration can be reviewed and replaced, where needed, here.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===SysAdmin===<br /> <br /> System administration information about regular background work and details of emails and digests sent out across the system.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56066 2026-06-16T13:30:58Z

<p>Jacky: /* Logs */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Images===<br /> <br /> Our system generates AI images for posts that don't include a photo or other image. Any images flagged by volunteers as needing regeneration can be reviewed and replaced, where needed, here.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=ModTools&diff=56065 2026-06-16T13:27:52Z

<p>Jacky: /* Publicity */</p> <hr /> <div>'''ModTools''' is a website/app that provides tools for volunteers to moderate messages on their local Freegle communities.<br /> __TOC__<br /> <br /> ==Starting with Modtools==<br /> You can use ModTools from any browser, e.g. Chrome, Edge or Firefox. If you don't have a preference, use Chrome. https://modtools.org/modtools<br /> ]]<br /> If you're using a phone/tablet, then you should get the ModTools app from the Play Store or iTunes. That will work best, and you'll get notifications when there's stuff to do. Wiki page explanation - [[ModTools app]].<br /> <br /> Or do both.<br /> <br /> ==Getting Set Up==<br /> <br /> First things first - set up ModTools for you and your community. Select ''Settings'' from the left hand menu bar.<br /> <br /> You will see 4 tabs/sections for this:<br /> <br /> * '''Personal''' - these are ModTools settings just for you.<br /> * '''Community''' - choose ModTools settings for each community you are moderating, either as an active moderator or a backup. The button to change you from actively moderating or back up is under Your Settings in this Community section. &lt;br&gt;For more information on shortlinks, have a look at [[Shortlinks]]. Also [[How to add a picture to a community home page]]<br /> *'''Standard Messages''' - these are a range of template messages that you can use for moderating posts and members on your community.<br /> Substitution strings are used on lots of messages; they are a special terminology you can put in standard messages, which ModTools expands more fully before it sends a message. For a full explanation of these, have a look at [[Substitution Strings]].<br /> *'''Bulk Operations''' - this section will have some actions that you can use - watch this space!<br /> <br /> You may like to get going with the basic features offered and once you are confident, come back and edit as you gain confidence or things change. It is also a good idea to review these, say, annually to check that everything is still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> <br /> Now your Settings are sorted, you are ready to go. ModTools should be self explanatory on each of the sections/pages, but for some more information and ideas, there are other sources/pages that might help - see below (in order of how they appear in the toolbars).<br /> <br /> ==Dashboard==<br /> The dashboard shows several useful types of information:<br /> * A snapshot of current discussions on Discourse (our national discussion forum for volunteers). <br /> * When the volunteers on a community last took action on MT. You will have to select a community and click Update before you see any info here. (To see when they last logged in or accessed FD/MT, go to Members: Approved, and select Moderation Team from the drop down.)<br /> * Popular posts and active members. <br /> * Stats about your community's activity and impact. For more information, see [[Statistics]].<br /> <br /> ==Messages==<br /> If you need extra message templates to deal with any member messages, see [[Sample Messages]] for ideas. See [[Postcodes]] for an explanation of how the website handles postcode and location information in posts.<br /> <br /> ====Pending====<br /> This is where the messages that need moderating arrive, whether generated on the website, email or via [[Trash Nothing]]. The red notification badge shows those for communities where you are lead moderator, the blue for those on which you are back-up moderator.<br /> <br /> If messages are left for more than 48 hours they will automatically approve. This means a community can survive a glitch of non-moderation, but it shouldn't be relied on – it is important for the messages to be looked at as members and scammers will notice problem posts.<br /> <br /> Messages that are not subject to moderation might have [[worry words]] involved, so these are also flagged up here for you to review.<br /> <br /> A red-letter message about crossposting means that a message has been identified as very similar to that on another group.<br /> <br /> '''Moving a message between communities:''' when you click the Edit button, you can make various changes. There is a drop-down showing the community name; it will also show other communities that the member belongs to ''and'' which you moderate, if any. You can use this to move a pending message from one community to another; if you use this, the message will go into pending messages in the second community, even if the member's posting status is &quot;group settings&quot;. (Not available for TrashNothing members.)<br /> <br /> '''Marking a message as Spam:''' If a message is spam, you can just mark the message as spam, or also mark the member as a spammer. Under 'other actions', there is a button to report a member as a spammer, but only use this is you are sure the spam message isn't a one off anomaly as the member seems to be a sound freegler usually. A message that is marked as Spam is used, behind the scenes, to train our spam filters, the Delete button just removes the message.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> The list of all messages on your community/communities. <br /> <br /> ====Edits====<br /> When members edit their approved posts, and the members are moderated, you can see the edits in this section.<br /> <br /> Edits may go straight out for members who are unmoderated.<br /> <br /> ==Members==<br /> [[Member Notes]] gives more information about moderator and system notes on a member's account.<br /> <br /> ====Approved====<br /> List of all members in your community/communities. See [[Banning]] for explanation of banning and unbanning a member. See [[Trouble unsubscribing]] for more information about unsubscribing. See [[Inactive Members]] for information about members not active for a long time. The list view default is to show all members, but you can select members who are banned, bouncing, who have notes or who are on the moderating team. You can reactivate [[Bouncing members]] if you wish.<br /> <br /> The &quot;View profile&quot; link takes you to the member's profile page seen by other users within the Freegle system. You will see the page as logged in to Freegle if you are accessing this from ModTools in a browser, but not if using the ModTools app. <br /> <br /> ;Moderation Status<br /> There are 3 different status settings for members:<br /> *Moderated - all offers and requests the member posts are kept in pending until a moderator approves them. The default under [[Best Practice Notes#Quick posting|Best Practice]] should be that a member is removed from moderated status as soon as they post an acceptable offer or request. <br /> *Group Settings - member posts are posted straight away without moderation, unless they trigger a worry word, where they will appear in Messages&gt;Pending for approval. <br /> *Can't Post' - allows a member to complete the posting process up to the point of completion where it says 'Freegle it!'. At that point nothing happens so the member is aware there is an issue with posting. They will usually contact volunteers or support mailbox when this happens.<br /> <br /> If you set a member to &quot;Can't post&quot;, it is recommended that you add a Note recording the reason for this. If they leave and rejoin, the &quot;Can't post&quot; setting would be lost, but the Note would remain, and would be shown when the member's first new post appears in Pending messages.<br /> <br /> ====Member Review====<br /> This section flags up members who have unusual freegling behaviour. Information about possible spammer behaviours and present measures can be found here: [[Spammers]]. <br /> <br /> There is no national rule about how many communities it is reasonable for one person to join, that is up to local discretion. But please don't ban a multijoiner unless you have clear evidence of 'wrongdoing'. <br /> <br /> Replying to posts a long way apart is also flagged. The threshold distance is determined in the Settings for each community. This check only looks at posts within the last 90 days. <br /> <br /> More info can be found using &quot;Go to membership&quot;, e.g. a green icon which shows the number of replies to offers, and [[LoveJunk]] membership if applicable. (Currently, these are not always displayed the Member Review page.&lt;!-- As of March 2025; see https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/lovejunk-members-not-receiving-modmails-plus-potential-breach-of-gdpr/8169/39 --&gt;)<br /> <br /> You have the option to ignore the member. They will pop up again if they do something further that is flagged as a concern on your community or others.<br /> <br /> ====Chat Review====<br /> Chats between members which include [[Worry Words|worry words]] or might be spam or scams are diverted for moderation. This allows you to review the messages and catch anything that might be a concern. [[Spammers#Chat_Review]] gives more information about chat in the context of spam detection. [[Member Chat]] gives more information about the chat facility.<br /> <br /> ====Related====<br /> These are members who have used the '''same device for different member accounts'''. You can merge members who you know have ended up with more than one account within Members&gt;Approved section, but this section automatically detects possibles and lets you send an auto message asking if they wish to merge.<br /> <br /> We can't merge TN memberships with Freegle ones.<br /> <br /> If you can't see any connection between two members in Related, click Ignore. If they do look connected, click &quot;Ask member what they want&quot;. If they choose to merge, they click a button, and the system completes this without needing to refer it back to you.<br /> <br /> ====Stories====<br /> Members are encouraged to submit a story of their freegling experiences. A selection is then sent out in a newsletter to members and as a post on Discourse for volunteers to read. <br /> <br /> Stories submitted in your community are subject to your review in Modtools, so inappropriate ones can be declined at this point. The approved stories should be good for publicity purposes and suitable for public view on chitchat, a community page etc. They are then put in a pending list to be voted upon at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/fornewsletter for selection for publication and then reviewed and compiled into a newsletter by the Stories Team.<br /> <br /> If you want to search through published stories, you can do this at https://www.ilovefreegle.org/stories/summary<br /> <br /> ====Gift Aid====<br /> A section only available and visible to the team that checks Gift Aid consent forms.<br /> <br /> ====Feedback====<br /> See [[Feedback]] for more information about this. [[Member Ratings]] also has some information.<br /> <br /> ====Microvols====<br /> We invite members to do some basic moderating tasks to encourage participation and identify possible new volunteers. See [[Microvolunteering]] for information about the continuing development of this facility.<br /> <br /> ====Notes====<br /> Notes that have been added by volunteers for members on your communities, oldest first. Please keep the number and content of notes to an absolute minimum to comply with GDPR requirements. Please also review these regularly to ensure that only really relevant information is kept and redundant notes deleted.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Moderation==<br /> ===Events===<br /> Community event posts for your community can be reviewed here before publication. Some events are added automatically by us from the [[Restart|Restart Project]] for Repair Cafes that are held across the UK.<br /> <br /> If an event needs to be changed after being approved in ModTools, you may need to contact the [[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks Team]] and ask them to do it, although a workaround was reported [https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/help-needed-to-edit-or-delete-an-event/8293 here].<br /> <br /> Unlike offer/wanted posts, where we show them based on travel time (by default), event and volunteer posts are shown/mailed based purely on group membership. The weekly emails are titled Community Event Roundup.<br /> <br /> ===Volunteering===<br /> Posts asking for Volunteers can be reviewed here before publication. See [[Reach Volunteering]] for the link we have with them.<br /> <br /> ===Admins===<br /> This is the method to send out admins to your members. Members can't opt out of receiving important information from you, but they can opt out of admins which are not essential. <br /> Choose which via the first toggle option box - Essential or Newsletter.<br /> <br /> There are three options when composing admins - <br /> Pending, Create and Previous. Write the admin in Create, send it, it goes to Pending, approve it, a copy goes to Previous for future use.<br /> &quot;Call to Action&quot; fields are explained here - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/call-to-action-button-in-admins/5240&lt;br&gt;<br /> A pending Admin will get erased if left pending for more than 7 days.<br /> <br /> See [[Admins]] for some templates you can use for newsletter or admin messages for your community.<br /> <br /> ===Spammers===<br /> See [[Spammers]] for a full explanation of how this spam system works.<br /> <br /> ==Misc Admin==<br /> ===Logs===<br /> <br /> You can see the chronological logs of activity on your community - select your community and then messages or members to see a list. Or you can search for individual messages or members.<br /> <br /> ===Support===<br /> <br /> This is an option that can be seen only by those who [[Support Tools]] access. It is a set of tools that allow some national teams/roles to have access to more detailed information to help them carry out their role.<br /> <br /> ===Settings===<br /> See [[ModTools#Getting_Set_Up|Getting Set Up]] above for basic information. It is good practice to have a quick look through these on a regular basis to check they are all still fit for purpose.<br /> <br /> We have guidelines for deciding on community geographical areas in [[Community Mapping]], [[Freegle Affiliated Community Area Guidelines]] and [[Spammers]]. Maps for all groups can be found at https://modtools.org/modtools/map<br /> <br /> ===Teams===<br /> There are various teams and groups of people working nationally to deal with a variety of tasks. You can see who they are and a brief description of what they do this section. If you are interested in volunteering to help with any of these, find out more information about them via the links on [[Getting Involved]]. If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email volunteers@ilovefreegle.org. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> ===Help===<br /> This brings you here! If you can't find the help you want on this page or the links provided, ask on Discourse (click 'Us' on the top ModTools menu) to ask your question and/or to ask for more information to be included here.<br /> <br /> ===Log Out===<br /> Self explanatory. Probably best to stay logged in, though, to save you having to sign in each time you wish to moderate.<br /> <br /> ==Top Menu==<br /> ===Red/Orange/Green Dot===<br /> You will notice that there are different colour 'dots' that appear over the blue home icon at the top left of each page. These dots denote the platform status - just click on them to see what is happening. Green indicates everything is fine, Orange indicates a problem easily resolved, Red indicates a serious problem. If you need to do something about an orange or red dot when you notice it, it will tell you.<br /> <br /> ===Us===<br /> This button on the top menu bar takes you to the Discourse website, where you will find all the national discussion groups. See [[Central Groups]] for more detail. All volunteers that are registered on Modtools are given automatic access to Discourse.<br /> <br /> ===Chats===<br /> This button will take you to the Chats section. This is where all the emails can be accessed between you and your members, along with other emails from volunteers who work with you on your communities. Each of these chats (other than those you initiated) can be hidden from your view by clicking the downwards chevron in the top right of the chat screen.<br /> <br /> Please note that if you have a chat with a group you don't moderate, the conversation will appear in your personal chat list, not your group chat(s).<br /> <br /> If you see a green tick at the bottom of the chat, it means the message has been read on the site. If you see a small envelope it means the message has been sent out via email. There is a deliberate small delay in sending out a chat message via email, as obviously it would be really irritating if you are reading the message on site and also getting emails at the same time with the same message.<br /> <br /> Your list of chats is pre-populated with the communities you are on, so you can use those to chat to the other members of your team in each of them if you wish.<br /> <br /> If a member replies to the group volunteers by email, their reply will appear in Chats, and you can reply to them here. Their initial message will have a button to &quot;View original email&quot; for a day or two after the chat message has been received, which may help you to check the context of what they are saying.<br /> <br /> See [[Member Chat]] for more information about this feature for your members.<br /> <br /> ==Help and other links==<br /> *Questions and help with using ModTools, contact [mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org]<br /> *Questions, suggestions and observations about ModTools, post on https://freegle.in/tech<br /> <br /> Other pages that might help:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle_Mobile_app#ModTools_app]] <br /> *[[Add a Member using Mod Tools]]<br /> *[[Photos]]<br /> *[[ChitChat]]<br /> *[[Member Chat]]<br /> *[[Promise Button]]<br /> *[[Housekeeping]]<br /> *[[ModTools History]]<br /> *[[Trash Nothing]]<br /> *[https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Training_manual_for_modtools_2020.pdf Mentors' Training Manual for Modtools]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:ModTools]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Glossary&diff=56063 2026-06-11T21:15:10Z

<p>Jacky: /* F */</p> <hr /> <div>Glossary of terms used in Freegle Ltd documents<br /> <br /> {{CompactTOC}} <br /> <br /> ===A===<br /> *App - there are two Freegle Apps for mobiles and tablets, Android and Apple - one for users of groups and one for volunteers to access ModTools.<br /> *Autonomy - this is a term we use a lot in Freegle. For us, this means: <br /> **Advantage of being able to deal locally with local issues, adapting communities to local conditions (e.g rural or urban or innovation), and keeping our ethos of being a collective of like minded people who support grass roots initiatives in reuse of resources.<br /> **Local communities must work to http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Basic_Requirements_of_a_Freegle_Group and http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Volunteer_Agreement<br /> **A local membership list belongs to that local community except when the community has been abandoned as per http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Abandoned_Groups_Procedure .<br /> **Communities may choose to leave Freegle, or Freegle may choose to no longer be associated with a community, as per http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Disaffiliation_Procedure<br /> **Otherwise local communities can be run as the volunteers see best for their locality.<br /> <br /> ===B===<br /> *Board - elected group of people (Directors) <br /> *Board Discussion Group - private group, used as the working space for Directors to discuss business and hold Board meetings<br /> <br /> ===C===<br /> *Candidates - nominees who have confirmed ((usually to the Returning Officer) that they are willing to stand for election<br /> *Caretakers/Caretaker Groups - groups which are being looked after centrally (by caretakers) until new local volunteers can be found.<br /> *Catchment area - the area a group will accept members and posts from. This is usually a wider area than the core area and can include neighbouring group's core or catchment areas.<br /> *Central - Freegle UK Central Yahoo group http://freegle.it/Central<br /> *Central Mod Team - team of Volunteers who own and moderate Central<br /> *CGA - Core Group Area <br /> *Chairman - Chair of the Board<br /> *Constitution - the framework of rules adopted by Freegle UK, which has been replaced by the [[Rules]] of Freegle Ltd<br /> *Contact methods - when documents refer to acceptable contact methods, that includes via the group owner address, any known email address, any known phone number, any known social networking connection, notice to Central and other Freegle forums.<br /> *Core area - the area agreed on affiliation that is specific to a group, and no other group will be affiliated in that core area.<br /> *CRM - Customer Relationship Management - essentially a database which interacts with other data held (website, mailboxes etc)<br /> *CTO - Chief Technology Officer (aka Edward)<br /> <br /> ===D===<br /> *DA - Delegated Authority, as used in the [[Finance Sub Committee Remit]]<br /> *Director - One of the elected Directors that comprise the Freegle Board<br /> *DPA (Default Posting Area) - Freegle Direct software uses a Default Posting Area (DPA) as the technical boundary to share new members and their posts to the nearest group. The DPA should surround the core, which is the area within which another group may not start up. Cores and DPAs shouldn't overlap other groups. None of this affects the catchment area from which a group receive messages, it is just the system default, which applies when other choices have not been made by the member.<br /> <br /> ===F===<br /> *FB - Facebook<br /> *FD - Freegle Direct<br /> *FSC - Finance Sub Committee<br /> *Firefox - A web browser alternative to Internet Explorer (IE)<br /> *Freegle Direct - the interface provided on the website for members of groups to use<br /> *Freegle - the association/network of affiliated groups (not the individual groups themselves)<br /> *Freegle Member- a voting, paid up member of Freegle Ltd<br /> *Freegle UK - the previous unincorporated association/network of affiliated groups<br /> *Freegle Wiki - this! http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org<br /> <br /> ===G===<br /> *GAT - old name for Group Affiliation Team, the team that processed applications for affiliating groups to Freegle. Now call NGT, New Groups Team.<br /> *GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation<br /> *Geeks - fond and irreverent term for our brilliant IT development and management team.<br /> *GLC - Group Launch Coordinator<br /> *GM - Group Mentor, person appointed by GAT to assist a new group<br /> *GO - Group Owner, someone who has full moderation privileges<br /> <br /> ===I===<br /> *IPS - Industrial Provident Society, the organisational structure adopted by Freegle Ltd. Now known as a Registered Society for the Benefit of the Community.<br /> <br /> ===M===<br /> *MM - Message Maker, neat addition which used to make it easier for group members to post messages<br /> *MT - ModTools<br /> *Member - paid up member of Freegle Ltd<br /> *member - member of a local group<br /> *Mod - Moderator, someone who has moderation privileges. We also use the term to include Group Owners when talking generally.<br /> *ModTools - The facility that Volunteers can use to help run their group. There is an App version of Modtools available.<br /> <br /> ===N===<br /> *NGT - New Groups Team, our lovely team that process applications for new Freegle groups<br /> *Nominees - people put forward to stand for election to a post.<br /> *Non Profit (nonprofit) Group - group with a not-for-profit aim to facilitate free giving and receiving items for reuse in a local community, free to use by its members.<br /> <br /> ===O===<br /> *Ombudsman - one of the appointed team of two Ombudsmen.<br /> *Owner - Volunteer who takes on full responsibility for a local group, including being able to recruit and demote other Volunteers, control the membership list etc. Some groups work with just one Owner, but others choose to have a team of Owners. <br /> *owner-address - the email address of a Freegle Group moderating team<br /> <br /> ===P===<br /> *PECR - Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (which sit alongside Data Protection Act and GDPR)<br /> *PID - Public Interest Disclosure - also known as whistleblowing<br /> *PLI - Public Liability Insurance<br /> <br /> ===R===<br /> *Reps - the elected representatives of the previous Freegle UK organisational set up<br /> *Returning Officer/RO - one of the appointed team of two Returning Officers, abbreviated sometimes to RO<br /> *RO email address - returning_officer@ilovefreegle.org<br /> *Rules - the primary document for running Freegle Ltd, which has replaced the previous Constitution<br /> <br /> ===S===<br /> *Secretary - [[Society Secretary]] or [[Board Secretary|Secretary to the Board]]<br /> *Self-Nomination - volunteers nominating themselves as candidates<br /> *Skype chat - online messaging system used by the Board for Board meetings<br /> *Snaply - defunct mobile app which used to provide an access method to Freegle groups<br /> *Society - Freegle Ltd (term used within the Rules)<br /> *Subject Line - A line in an e-mail that indicates the subject of the message<br /> <br /> ===T===<br /> *TFN - The Freecycle Network<br /> *Treasurer - appointed position by Board, remit [[Finance Role Remits]]<br /> *Trashnothing/TN - different access method for group members to join and use a group<br /> *Trello - online message board used by Board for action points from meetings etc - https://trello.com/<br /> <br /> ===V===<br /> *Volunteer - an owner, moderator or volunteer of a group affiliated to Freegle, or a nationally recognised Volunteer<br /> <br /> ===W===<br /> *Wiki - this Freegle wiki<br /> *Working Groups / WG - Central groups, open to all Freegle Volunteers, which discuss and organise how the Freegle organisation works. <br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=1._What_is_Freegle&diff=56062 2026-06-11T19:48:13Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>'''1.1 Introduction'''<br /> <br /> Freegle provides an online platform to enable free giving and receiving of items via local communities, primarily run by volunteers.<br /> <br /> The majority of those working in Freegle communities and nationally are volunteers. Volunteers come together to form a mutually supportive network. As a grassroots organisation, all volunteers are encouraged to take part in discussion and decisions. <br /> <br /> To participate fully in national decisions and to support the organisation, Membership of Freegle is an option for all volunteers. Membership gives voting rights and entitlement to be elected as a Director on the Board.<br /> <br /> The Board comprises persons appointed to perform the duties of directors of the Society, primarily by Member election.<br /> <br /> Find out more about the Membership of Freegle here: [[Freegle Membership]]<br /> <br /> Organigram of the interesting and unique structure of Freegle: https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Freegle_Organigram_v6bt_Jul13.pdf<br /> <br /> *[[1.2 Freegle Objects]]<br /> *[[1.3 Vision, Mission, Values]]<br /> *[[1.4 Legal Structure]]<br /> *[[1.5 Our strategic objectives]]<br /> *[[1.6 Public Benefit]]<br /> <br /> Link: [[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:1.Introduction to Freegle]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rules&diff=56061 2026-06-09T07:58:48Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Freegle Limited was registered with the FCA [https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593 here] on 3rd June 2014, registration no. 32410R.<br /> <br /> The original FCA approval details are [https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Documents/Download/82241 here]. This is a single PDF which contains a bundle of documents relating to the application:<br /> * p1 The letter approving us.<br /> * p2 The Resolution which had to be passed before applying.<br /> * p7 The letter approving us (again, for some reason).<br /> * p8 The Rules which govern us. For convenience you can also view that [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2R4ItxT_JfZQ215NWM1cENKclk/view here].<br /> * p25 The signatures for the Rules. For convenience you can also view that [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1RmuJEJbouSlEyZ2E2MlFzWUU/view here].<br /> * p26 The application form.<br /> <br /> Notes: <br /> * The Registered Office was changed and agreed by the FCA on 13th February 2026.<br /> * At the 2025 AGM, it was agreed by Member Vote to change three parts of these Rules - [[AGM 2025 Minutes]] - Extraordinary Resolutions. The FCA agreed this partial Rule change on 8th June 2026, and the name change on 1st June 2026. The details are available on the FCA website -https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593<br /> <br /> ==Rule 1: NAME==<br /> <br /> 1. The name of the society shall be Freegle.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 2: REGISTERED OFFICE==<br /> <br /> 2. The registered office of the society shall be at 64a North Road, Ormesby, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR29 3LE<br /> <br /> ==Rule 3: INTERPRETATIONS==<br /> <br /> 3. In these rules:<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Address&quot;'' means a postal address or, for the purposes of electronic communication, a fax number, email address or telephone number for receiving text messages;<br /> <br /> '' “the Act” refers to the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 or any Act or Acts amending or in substitution of it or them for the time being in force;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Auditor&quot;'' means a person eligible for appointment as a company auditor under section 25 of the Companies Act 1989;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;The Board of Directors&quot;'' or ''&quot;Board&quot;'' means all those persons appointed to perform the duties of directors of the society;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Board Meeting&quot;'' includes, except where inconsistent with any legal obligation a physical meeting, a meeting held by electronic means and a meeting held by telephone;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Clear Days&quot;'' in relation to the period of notice does not include the day on which the meeting is to be held and the day on which the notice is handed to someone or left at their Address, or the day on which it is sent, is in the process of being sent and is<br /> assumed to be delivered;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Connected&quot;'' means the spouse, civil partner, child, step-child, parent,<br /> grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister or other person in a relationship with a<br /> director, which may reasonably be regarded as equivalent to such a relationship or<br /> any company or business controlled or managed by a director and includes a trustee<br /> of any trust, the beneficiaries of which include a Connected Person;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Director&quot;'' means a director of the society and includes any person occupying the<br /> position of director, by whatever name called;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Document&quot;'' includes, unless otherwise stated, any document sent or supplied in <br /> electronic form;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Electronic Means&quot;'' shall include, for example, email, video links and secure<br /> authenticated website transactions;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Extraordinary Resolution&quot;'' means, unless the context requires otherwise, those<br /> decisions requiring an Extraordinary Resolution as detailed under ‘Resolutions’ in <br /> these rules; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Founder Member&quot;'' means a subscriber to these rules for the purposes of <br /> registration; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Member&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Membership’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Office Holder&quot;'' means a receiver, administrative receiver, liquidator, provisional<br /> liquidator or administrator of a Member of all or substantially all of the Member's <br /> assets;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Officer&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Officers’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Paper ballot&quot;'' means a ballot of all members by physical or electronic means.<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Person&quot;'' means, unless the context requires otherwise, a natural person,<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership, corporate body or the nominee of an<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership or corporate body;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Registrar&quot;'' means the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or any body that succeeds<br /> its function;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Regulations&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Regulations’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Rules&quot;'' means these Rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Secretary&quot;'' means any person appointed to perform the duties of the Secretary of the<br /> society; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Show of Hands&quot;'' means a show of hands at a physical meeting or using<br /> electronic means to make a decision at the meeting;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Society&quot;'' means the above named society;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Transferable&quot;'' means shares that are transferable to another Person who also<br /> qualifies for membership of the Society in accordance with these Rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Withdrawable&quot;'' means shares with the associated right for the Member to withdraw<br /> and receive in return the value of their shares from the Society.<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Writing&quot;'' means the representation or reproduction of words, symbols or other<br /> information in a visible form by any method or combination of methods, whether sent<br /> or supplied by Electronic Means or otherwise.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 4: OBJECTS==<br /> <br /> 4. The objects of the Society shall be to carry on any business for the benefit of the<br /> community by<br /> <br /> *Promoting the keeping of usable items out of landfill.<br /> *Promoting and supporting local community groups working in the area of reuse.<br /> *Empowering and supporting volunteers working for local Freegle groups.<br /> *Informing and educating the public about environmental matters related to the reuse and recycling of unwanted usable goods.<br /> *Promoting sustainable waste management practices.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 5: POWERS==<br /> <br /> 5. The Society may do all such lawful things as may further the Society's objects and, in <br /> particular, may borrow or raise funds for any purpose that is beneficial to the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 6-9: BORROWING==<br /> <br /> 6. The Society shall have the power to borrow money from its Members and others in<br /> order to further its objects providing that the amount outstanding at any one time shall <br /> not exceed £10,000,000.<br /> <br /> 7. The Society shall have the power to mortgage or charge any of its property, including<br /> the assets and undertakings of the Society, present and future, and to issue loan <br /> stock, debentures and other securities for money borrowed or for the performance of<br /> any contracts of the Society or its customers or Persons having dealings with the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> 8. The rate of interest on money borrowed, except on money borrowed by way of bank<br /> loan or overdraft or from a finance house or on mortgage from a building society or <br /> local authority, shall not exceed 5% per annum or 2% above the Co-operative Bank’s<br /> base rate at the commencement of the loan, whichever is the greater.<br /> <br /> 9. The Society may receive from any Person, donations or loans free of interest in order<br /> to further its objects but shall not receive money on deposit.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 10: FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS ACT 2000 ACTIVITY==<br /> <br /> 10. For the avoidance of doubt the Society shall not engage in any activity by virtue of any<br /> of these Rules that would require a permission from the Registrar to carry on that<br /> activity without first having applied for and obtained such permission.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 11: INVESTMENT OF FUNDS==<br /> <br /> 11. The Society may invest any part of its funds in the manner set out in Section 31 of the<br /> Act.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 12-21: MEMBERS==<br /> <br /> 12. The first Members of the Society will be the Founder Members. The Board may at its <br /> discretion admit to membership any individual, corporate body or nominee of a<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership or corporate body who supports the objects of <br /> the Society through being an owner, moderator or other volunteer for a Freegle <br /> affiliated local group or who is a volunteer for the Society who has paid or agreed to pay any<br /> subscription or other sum due in respect of membership for the time being in force.<br /> <br /> ===Applications for Membership===<br /> <br /> 13. No natural person shall be admitted into membership of the Society unless they have<br /> attained the age of 16. All those wishing to become a Member must support the <br /> objects of the Society and complete an application for membership which shall include <br /> an application for at least one share in the Society. Such an application form must be <br /> approved by the Directors and the Directors must approve each application for<br /> membership.<br /> <br /> 14. A corporate body which is a Member shall by resolution of its governing body appoint <br /> a representative who may during the continuance of her/his appointment be entitled to<br /> exercise all such rights and powers as the corporate body would exercise if it were an<br /> individual person. Each such corporate body Member shall supply notification in<br /> Writing to the Society of its choice of representative.<br /> <br /> ===Member Commitment===<br /> <br /> 15. All Members agree to participate in general meetings and take an active interest in the<br /> operation and development of the Society and its business. Members have a duty to<br /> respect the confidential nature of the business decisions of the Society.<br /> <br /> ===Termination of Membership===<br /> <br /> 16. A Member shall cease to be a Member of the Society immediately that they:<br /> <br /> (a) Fail to hold the minimum shareholding; or<br /> <br /> (b) Fail to pay the annual subscription (if any) within 3 months of it falling due; or<br /> <br /> (b+) Are no longer active as an owner, moderator or volunteer if accepted into membership as such<br /> <br /> (c) Resign in Writing to the Secretary; or <br /> <br /> (d) Are expelled from membership in accordance with these Rules; or <br /> <br /> (e) Die, are wound up or go into liquidation. <br /> <br /> ===Expulsion from Membership===<br /> <br /> 17. A Member may be expelled for conduct prejudicial to the Society by an Extraordinary<br /> Resolution, provided that the grounds for expulsion have been specified in the notices <br /> calling the meeting and that the Member whose expulsion is to be considered shall be<br /> given the opportunity to make representations to the meeting or, at the option of the<br /> Member, an individual who is there to represent them (who need not be a Member of <br /> the Society) has been allowed to make representations to the general meeting. <br /> <br /> 18. If on due notice having been served the Member fails to attend the meeting the<br /> meeting may proceed in the Member's absence. No Member expelled from <br /> membership shall be re-admitted except by an Extraordinary Resolution.<br /> <br /> ===Proceedings on Death or Bankruptcy of a Member=== <br /> <br /> 19. Upon a claim being made by:<br /> <br /> (a) The personal representative of a deceased Member; or <br /> <br /> (b) The trustee in bankruptcy of a Member who is bankrupt; or <br /> <br /> (c) The Office Holder to any property in the Society belonging to such a Member,<br /> the Society shall transfer or pay property to which the Office Holder has become<br /> entitled as the Office Holder may direct them.<br /> <br /> 20. A Member may in accordance with the Act nominate any individual or individuals to<br /> whom any of her/his property in the Society at the time of her/his death shall be<br /> transferred, but such nomination shall only be valid to the extent of the amount for the<br /> time being allowed in the Act. On receiving a satisfactory proof of death of a Member <br /> who has made a nomination the Society shall, in accordance with the Act, either <br /> transfer or pay the full value of the property comprised in the nomination to the <br /> individual or individuals entitled thereunder.<br /> <br /> ===Share Capital===<br /> <br /> 21. The shares of the Society shall be of the nominal value of £1 issued to Persons upon<br /> admission to membership of the Society. The shares shall be fully paid prior to issue, <br /> and shall be non-Transferable except on death or bankruptcy or (in the case of an<br /> unincorporated organisation or partnership), on a change of nominee(s) and only<br /> to the new nominee(s), nor Withdrawable, shall carry no right to interest, dividend or<br /> bonus, and shall be forfeited and cancelled on cessation of membership from <br /> whatever cause, and the amount paid up on such cancelled shares shall become the <br /> property of the Society. Each Member shall hold one share only in the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 22-49: GENERAL MEETINGS==<br /> <br /> 22. The Society shall, within six months of the end of the financial year, hold a general<br /> meeting of the Members as its annual general meeting and shall specify the meeting<br /> as such in the notice calling it.<br /> <br /> 23. The business of an annual general meeting shall comprise, where appropriate:<br /> <br /> (a) The receipt of the accounts and balance sheet and of the reports of the Board <br /> and Auditor (if any);<br /> <br /> (b) The appointment of an Auditor, if required;<br /> <br /> (c) The election of the Board or the results of the election if held previously by <br /> ballot;<br /> <br /> (d) The application of profits; <br /> <br /> (e) The transaction of any other business included in the notice convening the<br /> meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Calling a General Meeting===<br /> <br /> 24. The Secretary, at the request of the Board of Directors may convene a general<br /> meeting of the Society. The purpose of the general meeting shall be stated in the<br /> notice of the meeting.<br /> <br /> 25. The Board of Directors upon an application signed by one-tenth of the total number of<br /> Members, or 100 Members, whichever is the lesser, delivered to the registered office <br /> of the Society, shall convene a general meeting. The purpose of the general meeting<br /> shall be stated in the application for and notice of the meeting. No business other than<br /> that stated in the notice of the meeting shall be conducted at the meeting. <br /> <br /> 26. If within one month from the date of the receipt of the application the Board have not<br /> convened a general meeting to be held within six weeks of the application, any three <br /> Members of the Society acting on behalf of the signatories to the application may<br /> convene a general meeting, and shall be reimbursed by the Society for any costs<br /> incurred in convening such a meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Notices===<br /> <br /> 27. The Directors shall call the annual general meeting giving 14 Clear Days’ notice to all<br /> Members. All other general meetings shall be convened with at least 14 Clear Days’ <br /> notice but may be held at shorter notice if so agreed in Writing by 90% of the<br /> Members. <br /> <br /> 28. Notices of meetings shall either be given to Members personally or sent to them at <br /> their Address or alternatively, if so agreed by the Society in general meeting, notices <br /> of general meetings may be displayed conspicuously at the registered office and in all<br /> other places of business of the Society to which Members have access. Notices shall<br /> specify the date, time and place at which the meeting is to be held, and the business<br /> which is to be transacted at that meeting. A general meeting shall not transact any<br /> business other than that specified in the notices calling the meeting.<br /> <br /> 29. A notice sent to a Member's Address shall be deemed to have been duly served 48<br /> hours after its posting. The accidental omission to send any notice to or the<br /> non-receipt of any notice by any Person entitled to receive notice shall not invalidate<br /> the proceedings at the meeting. <br /> <br /> 30. All notices shall specify the date, time and place of the meeting along with the general <br /> nature of business to be conducted and any proposed resolutions.<br /> <br /> 31. If the Society has appointed an Auditor in accordance with these Rules they shall be<br /> entitled to attend general meetings of the Society and to receive all notices of and<br /> communications relating to any general meeting which any Member of the Society is<br /> entitled to receive. The Auditor shall be entitled to be heard at any meeting on any part<br /> of the business of the meeting which is of proper concern to an Auditor.<br /> <br /> ===Quorum===<br /> <br /> 32. No business shall be transacted at a general meeting unless a quorum of Members is<br /> present which shall include those Members not present in Person. Unless amended<br /> by Extraordinary Resolution, a quorum shall be 20 Members or 10% of the membership whichever is smaller, subject to a minimum of<br /> 3 Members.<br /> <br /> ===Chairing General Meetings===<br /> <br /> 33. The chairperson of the Society shall facilitate general meetings. If s/he is absent or<br /> unwilling to act at the time any meeting proceeds to business then the Members <br /> present shall choose one of their number to be the chairperson for that meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Attendance and Speaking at General Meetings===<br /> <br /> 34. A Member is able to exercise the right to speak at a general meeting and is deemed to<br /> be in attendance when that Person is in a position to communicate to all those<br /> attending the meeting. The Directors may make whatever arrangements they consider<br /> appropriate to enable those attending a general meeting to exercise their rights to<br /> speak or vote at it including by Electronic Means. In determining attendance at a<br /> general meeting, it is immaterial whether any two or more Members attending are in<br /> the same place as each other, provided that they are able to communicate with each<br /> other.<br /> <br /> 35. The chairperson of the meeting may permit other persons who are not Members of the <br /> Society to attend and speak at general meetings, without granting any voting rights.<br /> <br /> ===Adjournment=== <br /> <br /> 36. If a quorum is not present within half an hour of the time the general meeting was due<br /> to commence, or if during a meeting a quorum ceases to be present, the chairperson<br /> must adjourn the meeting. If within half an hour of the time the adjourned meeting was <br /> due to commence a quorum is not present, the Members present shall constitute a<br /> quorum.<br /> <br /> 37. The chairperson of a general meeting may adjourn the meeting whilst a quorum is <br /> present if:<br /> <br /> (a) The meeting consents to that adjournment; or<br /> <br /> (b) It appears to the chairperson that an adjournment is necessary to protect the<br /> safety of any persons attending the meeting or to ensure that the business of the<br /> meeting is conducted in an orderly manner.<br /> <br /> 38. The chairperson must adjourn the meeting if directed to do so by the meeting.<br /> <br /> 39. When adjourning a meeting the chairperson must specify the date, time and place to<br /> which it will stand adjourned or that the meeting is to continue at a date, time and <br /> place to be fixed by the Directors. <br /> <br /> 40. If the meeting is adjourned for 14 days or more, at least 7 Clear Days’ notice of the<br /> adjourned meeting shall be given in the same manner as the notice of the original<br /> meeting. <br /> <br /> 41. No business shall be transacted at an adjourned meeting other than business which<br /> could properly have been transacted at the meeting if the adjournment had not taken<br /> place.<br /> <br /> ===Voting===<br /> <br /> 42. A resolution put to the vote at a general meeting shall be decided on a show of hands<br /> unless a paper ballot is demanded in accordance with these Rules. A declaration by <br /> the chairperson that a resolution has on a show of hands been carried or lost with an<br /> entry to that effect recorded in the minutes of the general meeting shall be conclusive <br /> evidence of the result. Proportions or numbers of votes in favour for or against need<br /> not be recorded.<br /> <br /> 43. In the case of an equality of votes, whether on a show of hands or a poll, the<br /> chairperson shall not have a second or casting vote and the resolution shall be<br /> deemed to have been lost.<br /> <br /> ===Paper Ballot===<br /> <br /> 44. A paper ballot on a resolution may be demanded before or on the declaration of the<br /> result of the show of hands by three Members at a general meeting.<br /> <br /> 45. If a paper ballot is duly demanded it shall be taken in such a manner as the<br /> chairperson directs, provided that no Member shall have more than one vote, and the<br /> result of the ballot shall be deemed to be the resolution of the meeting at which the<br /> ballot was demanded.<br /> <br /> 46. The demand for a paper ballot shall not prevent the continuance of a meeting for the<br /> transaction of any other business than the question upon which a ballot has been<br /> demanded. The demand for a paper ballot may be withdrawn. <br /> <br /> ===Resolutions===<br /> <br /> 47. Decisions at general meetings shall be made by passing resolutions:<br /> <br /> (a) The following decisions must be made by Extraordinary Resolution:<br /> <br /> (i) Decisions to expel Members;<br /> <br /> (ii) Any amendment to the Society's Rules;<br /> <br /> (iii) The decision to wind up the Society.<br /> <br /> (b) All other decisions shall be made by ordinary resolution.<br /> <br /> 48. An Extraordinary Resolution is one passed by a majority of not less than 75% of votes <br /> cast at a general meeting and an ordinary resolution is one passed by a simple<br /> majority (51%) of votes cast.<br /> <br /> 49. Resolutions may be passed at general meetings or by written resolution. A written<br /> resolution may consist of several identical Documents signed by one or more<br /> Members.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 50-69: DIRECTORS==<br /> <br /> 50. The Society shall have a Board of Directors comprising not less than three Directors. <br /> <br /> 51. The initial Directors of the Society from registration until the first annual general <br /> meeting shall be appointed by the Founder Members.<br /> <br /> 52. Under no circumstances shall any Employee of the Society serve on the Board.<br /> <br /> 53. Only persons of the Society who are aged 18 years or more may serve on the Board<br /> of Directors.<br /> <br /> 54. The Board of Directors shall be elected by and from the Society’s Members. The<br /> maximum number of Directors serving on the Board shall be determined by a general<br /> meeting of the Society from time to time.<br /> <br /> ===Retirement Cycle===<br /> <br /> 55. At the first annual general meeting all elected Directors shall stand down. At every<br /> subsequent annual general meeting one-third of the elected Directors, or if their<br /> number is not a multiple of three then the number nearest to one-third, shall retire from <br /> office. The Directors to retire shall be the Directors who have been longest in office <br /> since their last election. Where Directors have held office for the same amount of time<br /> the Directors to retire shall be decided by lot. A retiring Director shall be eligible for re-<br /> election.<br /> <br /> ===Co-option of Directors===<br /> <br /> 56. In addition the Board of Directors may co-opt up to two external independent Directors <br /> who need not be Members and are selected for their particular skills and/or<br /> experience. Such external independent Directors shall serve a fixed period determined<br /> by the Board of Directors at the time of the co-option, subject to a review at least every<br /> 12 months. External independent Directors may be removed from office at any time by <br /> a resolution of the Board of Directors. <br /> <br /> 57. The Board of Directors may at any time fill a casual vacancy on the Board by <br /> co-option. Co-opted individuals must be Members of the Society and will hold office as<br /> a Director only until the next annual general meeting.<br /> <br /> 58. At no time must the number of co-opted individuals comprise more than one-third of<br /> the Board of Directors.<br /> <br /> ===Powers and Duties of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 59. The business of the Society shall be managed by the Board who may exercise all<br /> such powers of the Society as may be exercised and done by the Society and as are <br /> not by statute or by these Rules required to be exercised or done by the Society in<br /> general meeting.<br /> <br /> 60. All decisions made by a meeting of the Board of Directors or by any person acting as<br /> a Director shall remain valid even if it is later discovered that there was some defect in<br /> the Director’s appointment or that the individual had previously been disqualified from <br /> acting as a Director or as a charity trustee.<br /> <br /> 61. All cheques, promissory notes, drafts, bills of exchange and other negotiable<br /> instruments, and all receipts for monies paid to the Society shall be signed, drawn,<br /> accepted, endorsed, or otherwise executed in such manner as the Board shall from <br /> time to time direct.<br /> <br /> 62. Without prejudice to its general powers, the Board may exercise all the powers of the <br /> Society to borrow money and to mortgage or charge its undertaking and property or <br /> any part of it and to issue debentures and other securities whether outright or as<br /> security for any debt, liability or obligation of the Society or of any third party.<br /> <br /> 63. No Regulation made by the Society in general meeting shall invalidate any prior act of <br /> the Board which would have been valid had that Regulation not been made.<br /> <br /> ===Delegation===<br /> <br /> 64. Subject to these Rules, the Directors may delegate any of the powers which are<br /> conferred on them under these Rules to any Person or committee consisting of<br /> Members of the Society, by such means, to such an extent, in relation to such matters<br /> and on such terms and conditions as they think fit. <br /> <br /> 65. The Directors may specify that any such delegation may authorise further delegation<br /> of the powers by any Person to whom they are delegated.<br /> <br /> 66. The Directors may revoke any delegation in whole or in part or alter any terms and<br /> conditions. <br /> <br /> ===Sub-Committees===<br /> <br /> 67. A sub-committee to which the Directors delegate any of their powers must follow<br /> procedures which are based as far as they are applicable on those provisions of these <br /> Rules which govern the taking of decisions by Directors.<br /> <br /> 68. The Directors may make Regulations for all or any sub-committees, provided that<br /> such Regulations are not inconsistent with these Rules. <br /> <br /> 69. All acts and proceedings of any sub-committee must be fully and promptly reported to <br /> the Directors.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 70-81: PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS==<br /> <br /> ===Calling a Meeting of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 70. Any Director may, and the Secretary on the requisition of a Director shall, call a<br /> meeting of the Board of Directors by giving reasonable notice of the meeting to all<br /> Directors. Notice of any meeting of the Board of Directors must indicate the date, time<br /> and place of the meeting and, if the Directors participating in the meeting will not be in<br /> the same place, how they will communicate with each other. <br /> <br /> ===Proceedings of a Meeting of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 71. The Board of Directors may meet together for the despatch of business, adjourn and <br /> otherwise regulate their meetings as they think fit. <br /> <br /> 72. A Director is able to exercise the right to speak at a meeting of the Board of Directors<br /> and is deemed to be in attendance when that person is in a position to communicate<br /> to all those attending the meeting. The Directors may make whatever arrangements<br /> they consider appropriate to enable those attending a meeting of the Board of<br /> Directors to exercise their rights to speak or vote at it including by Electronic Means. In<br /> determining attendance at a meeting of the Board of Directors, it is immaterial whether<br /> any two or more Directors attending are in the same place as each other.<br /> <br /> 73. Questions arising at any meetings of the Board shall be decided by a majority of votes. <br /> In the case of an equality of votes the status quo shall be maintained and the Board of <br /> Directors may choose to refer the matter to a general meeting of the Society. <br /> <br /> 74. A written resolution, circulated to all Directors and signed by a simple majority (51%)<br /> of Directors, shall be valid and effective as if it had been passed at a Board meeting<br /> duly convened and held. A written resolution may consist of several identical<br /> Documents signed by one or more Directors. <br /> <br /> 75. The Board of Directors may, at its discretion, invite other persons to attend its<br /> meetings with or without speaking rights and without voting rights. Such attendees will <br /> not count toward the quorum. <br /> <br /> ===Quorum===<br /> <br /> 76. The quorum necessary for the transaction of business at a meeting of the Board of <br /> Directors shall be 50% of the Directors or 3 Directors, whichever is the greater and<br /> shall include those Directors not present in person. <br /> <br /> 77. If at any time the total number of Directors in office is less than the quorum required,<br /> the Directors are unable to take any decisions other than to appoint further Directors <br /> or to call a general meeting so as to enable the Members to appoint further Directors. <br /> <br /> ===Chairing Board Meetings===<br /> <br /> 78. The chairperson shall facilitate meetings of the Board of Directors. If s/he is absent or <br /> unwilling to act at the time any meeting proceeds to business then the Directors<br /> present shall choose one of their number to be the chairperson for that meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Declaration of Interest===<br /> <br /> 79. A Director shall declare an interest in any contract or matter in which s/he has a <br /> personal, material or financial interest, whether directly or indirectly, and shall not vote<br /> in respect of such contract or matter, provided that nothing shall prevent a Director <br /> voting in respect of her/his terms and conditions of employment or any associated <br /> matter.<br /> <br /> ===Expenses===<br /> <br /> 80. The Society's income and property shall be applied solely to the promotion of the objects of the Society. and no portion shall be transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise whatsoever by way of profit to the Members of the Society and no Director or Connected Person may buy goods or services from the Company on terms preferential to those applicable to other members of the public, sell any interest in land to the Society, or be employed by the Society, unless the payment is in respect of payment of any reasonable expenses which the Directors properly incur in connection with their attendance at meetings or otherwise in connection with the exercise of their powers and the discharge of their responsibilities in relation to the Society. A Director or Connected Person may sell goods or services to the Society, receive remuneration from the Society and receive any other financial benefit from the Society, provided that person declares their conflict of interest and does not authorise or vote on the transaction or decision.<br /> <br /> ===Termination of a Director’s Appointment===<br /> <br /> 81. A person ceases to be a Director of the Society as soon as:<br /> <br /> (a) Where there is co-option of Directors for their skills/experience: That<br /> person is removed from office by a resolution of the Board of Directors, where <br /> the person is a co-opted Director appointed for their particular skills and/or<br /> experience; <br /> <br /> (b) Where ex officio Directors: That person ceases to hold that office or that office <br /> ceases to exist, where the person is a Director ex officio; <br /> <br /> (c) Where there are representatives of organisations on the Board: The<br /> organisation they are representing removes their endorsement of them;<br /> <br /> (d) Where there are representatives of organisations on the Board: The<br /> organisation they are representing ceases to exist; <br /> <br /> (e) That person resigns from office in Writing to the Secretary of the Society, and<br /> such resignation has taken effect in accordance with its terms;<br /> <br /> (f) That person is removed from office by an ordinary resolution of the Society in<br /> general meeting, the notices for which specified that the question of the<br /> Director's removal was to be considered;<br /> <br /> (g) That person is prohibited from being a Director by law or otherwise disqualified<br /> by law from serving as a charity trustee;<br /> <br /> (h) A bankruptcy order is made against that person; <br /> <br /> (i) A registered medical practitioner who is treating that person gives a written <br /> opinion to the Society stating that the person has become mentally incapable of<br /> acting as a Director and may remain so for more than three months;<br /> <br /> (j) By reason of that person’s mental health, a court makes an order which wholly <br /> or partly prevents that person from personally exercising any powers or rights<br /> which that person would otherwise have.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 82: OFFICERS==<br /> <br /> 82. The Board shall elect from among their own number a chairperson and Secretary and <br /> such other Officers as they may from time to time decide. These Officers shall have <br /> such duties and rights as may be bestowed on them by the Board or by law and any <br /> Officer appointed may be removed by the Board. A serving Officer who is not re-<br /> elected to the Board at the annual general meeting shall nevertheless continue in<br /> office until the first Board meeting following the annual general meeting.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 83: DISPUTES==<br /> <br /> 83. In the event of a dispute between the Society or its Board and a Member of the<br /> Society or a former Member, such dispute shall be referred to an independent<br /> arbitrator whose appointment is acceptable to both parties to the dispute or in the<br /> absence of agreement to be nominated by the Secretary General of Co-operatives UK<br /> (or any role or body that succeeds to its function). The decision of such an arbitrator<br /> shall be binding. In the event that a dispute cannot, for whatever reason, be concluded <br /> by reference to an arbitrator, the matter may be referred to the county court (or in<br /> Scotland, to the sheriff). Any Person bringing a dispute must, if so required, deposit<br /> with the Society a reasonable sum (not exceeding £100) to be determined by the <br /> Board. The arbitrator will decide how the costs of the arbitration will be paid and what <br /> should be done with the deposit.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 84: REGULATIONS==<br /> <br /> 84. The Society in a general meeting, or the Board of Directors, may from time to time<br /> make, adopt and amend such Regulations in the form of bye-laws, standing orders, <br /> secondary rules or otherwise as they think fit for the management, conduct and <br /> regulation of the affairs of the Society and the proceedings and powers of the Board of <br /> Directors and sub-committees. Such Regulations (if any) shall be made available to<br /> Members. No Regulation shall be made which is inconsistent with these Rules or the <br /> Act. All Members of the Society and the Board of Directors shall be bound by such<br /> Regulations whether or not they have received a copy of them.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 85: LIABILITY OF MEMBERS==<br /> <br /> 85. The liability of a Member is limited to the amount of their shareholding.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 86: APPLICATION OF PROFITS==<br /> <br /> 86. The Society shall not trade for profit. Any profits generated by the Society shall be <br /> applied solely to the continuation and development of the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 87-88: AMALGAMATION, TRANSFER OF ENGAGEMENTS AND CONVERSION==<br /> <br /> 87. The Society may, by special resolution passed in the way required by the Act,<br /> amalgamate with or transfer its engagements to any other charitable society with<br /> objects similar to or compatible with those of the Society. The Society may also<br /> accept a transfer of engagements and assets by resolution of the Board or of a<br /> general meeting.<br /> <br /> 88. The Society may, by special resolution passed in the way required by s52(3) of the <br /> Act, amalgamate with or transfer its engagements to a charitable company or convert<br /> itself into a charitable company under the provisions of the Act. In relation to calling a<br /> general meeting for the purpose of such resolution, the following provisions shall<br /> apply.<br /> <br /> (a) The Society shall give to Members not less than two months’ notice of the <br /> meeting;<br /> <br /> (b) Notice of the meeting shall be posted in a prominent place at the registered<br /> office and at all trading premises of the Society to which Members have access.;<br /> <br /> (c) The notice shall be accompanied by a separate statement setting out for<br /> Members: <br /> <br /> (i) the reasons for the proposal;<br /> <br /> (ii) whether the proposal has the support of the Board of the Society;<br /> <br /> (iii) what alternative proposals have been considered, and whether they are<br /> viable;<br /> <br /> (iv) details of the number of shares in the Society held by Members of the<br /> Board, and Persons connected with them;<br /> <br /> (v) a recommendation by reputable independent financial advisors that the <br /> Members should support the proposal rather than any alternative <br /> proposal.<br /> <br /> (d) Where the separate statement is contained in another Document, information<br /> shall be provided in the notice specifying where Members can obtain a copy of<br /> the Document.<br /> <br /> (e) The quorum for a meeting at which a special resolution to amalgamate with,<br /> transfer engagements to or convert into a charitable company is to be voted<br /> upon shall be 150 Members or 50% of the Members present in Person, <br /> whichever is the greater, subject to an absolute minimum of three Members.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 89-90: DISSOLUTION==<br /> <br /> 89. The Society may be dissolved by the consent of three quarters of the Members by <br /> their signatures to an instrument of dissolution, or by winding up in a manner provided<br /> for by the Act. <br /> <br /> 90. If on the winding up or dissolution of the Society any of its assets remain to be<br /> disposed of after its liabilities are satisfied, these assets shall not be distributed among<br /> the Members, but shall be transferred instead to some other charitable body or bodies <br /> with objects similar to or compatible with those of the Society as may be decided by <br /> the members at the time of or prior to the dissolution.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 91-111: ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS==<br /> <br /> ===Means of Communication===<br /> <br /> 91. A Member must provide their consent to receive communications from the Society by <br /> Electronic Means.<br /> <br /> 92. A notice sent to a Director’s Address shall be deemed to have been duly served 48<br /> hours after its posting. A Director may agree with the Society that notices or <br /> Documents sent to her/him in a particular way are to be deemed to have been<br /> received within a specified time of their being sent, and for the specified time to be<br /> less than 48 hours. <br /> <br /> ===Seal===<br /> <br /> 93. If the Society has a seal, it shall only be used by the authority of the Board of Directors <br /> acting on behalf of the Society. Every instrument to which the seal shall be attached<br /> shall be signed by a Director and countersigned by a second Director or the Secretary.<br /> <br /> ===Registers===<br /> <br /> 94. The Board of Directors shall ensure accurate registers are maintained which shall <br /> include a register of Members, a register of Directors and a register of Officers.<br /> <br /> ===Register of Members===<br /> <br /> 95. The Board shall ensure that the register is maintained in accordance with the Act and<br /> that the particulars required by the Act are available for inspection and accessible<br /> without the need to disclose other particulars contained in the register.<br /> <br /> ===Register of Directors and Officers===<br /> <br /> 96. The Society shall maintain a register of Directors and Officers which shall include the <br /> following particulars: <br /> <br /> (a) Name of the Director;<br /> <br /> (b) Address of the Director;<br /> <br /> (c) The date on which they assumed office;<br /> <br /> (d) The date on which they vacated office; and<br /> <br /> (e) The position held by a Director if s/he is also an Officer and the date on which<br /> the Director assumed and vacated his/her Officer position.<br /> <br /> ===Amendments to Rules===<br /> <br /> 97. Any of these Rules may be rescinded or amended or a new rule made by an<br /> Extraordinary Resolution at a general meeting of which 14 Clear Days’ notice has <br /> been given, such notice to include details of the change(s) to be proposed at that<br /> meeting. No amendment may be made to the Rules which shall cause the Society to<br /> cease to be a charity in law. No amendment of Rules is valid until registered by the <br /> Registrar. When submitting the rule amendments for registration, the Secretary may<br /> at their sole discretion accept any alterations required or suggested by the Registrar<br /> without reference back to a further general meeting of the Society.<br /> <br /> ===Copies of the Society's Rules===<br /> <br /> 98. A copy of these Rules and any amendments made to them shall be given free of <br /> charge to every Member upon admission to membership and shall be provided to any <br /> other Person on demand and on payment of the statutory fee chargeable for the time<br /> being in force.<br /> <br /> ===Minutes===<br /> <br /> 99. The Society shall ensure that minutes are kept of all:<br /> <br /> (a) Proceedings at general meetings of the Society; and<br /> <br /> (b) Proceedings at meetings of the Board of Directors and its sub-committees which<br /> include names of the Directors present, decisions made and the reasons for<br /> those decisions.<br /> <br /> ===Annual Return===<br /> <br /> 100. Every year and within the period prescribed by the Act, the Secretary shall send the <br /> annual return in the prescribed form to the Registrar. The annual return shall be <br /> accompanied by:<br /> <br /> (a) A copy of the Auditor’s report on the Society's accounts for the period covered <br /> by the annual return or a copy of such other report (if any) as is required by <br /> statute for such a period; and<br /> <br /> (b) A copy of each balance sheet made during that period and report of the Auditor<br /> or other appropriate person as required by statute on that balance sheet. <br /> <br /> 101. The Society shall on demand supply free of charge to any Member or any person with<br /> an interest in the funds of the Society a copy of the latest annual return together with a<br /> copy of the Auditor's report on the accounts and balance sheet contained in the<br /> annual return and the Auditor’s Report (if any).<br /> <br /> 102. The Society shall at all times keep a copy of the latest balance sheet of the Society<br /> together with a copy of the corresponding Auditor's report (if any) hung up in a <br /> conspicuous place at the registered office and displayed on the Society's website (if<br /> any).<br /> <br /> ===Audit===<br /> <br /> Rule 103 <br /> <br /> (i) The Society shall, unless it meets the requirements under subsection 83(2) or section 84 of the Act, appoint an Auditor to act for each financial year to audit the Society’s accounts and balance sheet.<br /> <br /> (ii) An Auditor for the preceding financial year shall be re-appointed as Auditor of the Society for the current financial year unless any of the exceptions set out in section 93 of the Act apply.<br /> <br /> 104. The following persons shall not be appointed as Auditor of the Society:<br /> <br /> (a) An Officer or Employee of the Society;<br /> <br /> (b) A person who is a partner or employee of, or who employs, an Officer of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> 105. The Board may appoint an Auditor to fill a casual vacancy occurring between general<br /> meetings.<br /> <br /> 106. An Auditor for the preceding financial year shall be re-appointed as Auditor of the <br /> Society for the current financial year unless:<br /> <br /> (a) A decision has been made by the Board to appoint a different Auditor or<br /> expressly decided that s/he shall not be re-appointed; or<br /> <br /> (b) S/he has given notice in writing to the Secretary of her/his unwillingness to be<br /> re-appointed; or<br /> <br /> (c) S/he is ineligible for appointment as Auditor of the Society for the current <br /> financial year; or <br /> <br /> (d) S/he has ceased to act as Auditor of the Society by reason of incapacity.<br /> <br /> 107. Any ordinary resolution of a general meeting of the Society either to remove an Auditor<br /> from office or to appoint another person as Auditor shall not be effective unless notice<br /> of the proposed resolution has been given to the Society at least 28 days prior to the <br /> meeting at which the resolution is to be considered. At least 14 days' notice of such<br /> resolution must then be given to Members of the Society in the manner prescribed in<br /> these Rules and in Writing to the Auditor(s).<br /> <br /> ===Social Accounting and Reporting===<br /> <br /> 108. In addition to any financial accounts required by the Act, the Members may resolve to <br /> undertake an account of the activities of the Society which will endeavour to measure <br /> its social and environmental performance using whatever methodology the Members <br /> deem appropriate. Following the completion of such an account the Society shall<br /> report any findings to its Members and other stakeholders.<br /> <br /> ===Indemnity and Insurance===<br /> <br /> 109. Subject to the following rule, any Director or former Director of the Society may be<br /> indemnified out of the Society’s assets against:<br /> <br /> (a) Any liability incurred by that Director in connection with any negligence, default,<br /> breach of duty or breach of trust in relation to the Society; <br /> <br /> (b) Any liability incurred by that Director in connection with the activities of the<br /> Society in its capacity as a trustee of an occupational pension scheme;<br /> <br /> (c) Any other liability incurred by that Director as an Officer of the Society.<br /> <br /> 110. The above rule does not authorise any indemnity which would be prohibited or <br /> rendered void by any provision of law.<br /> <br /> 111. The Directors may decide to purchase and maintain insurance, at the expense of the<br /> Society, for the benefit of any Director or former Director of the Society in respect of<br /> any loss or liability which has been or may be incurred by such a Director in<br /> connection with their duties or powers in relation to the Society or any pension fund or<br /> employees’ share scheme of the Society. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1.<br /> <br /> 2.<br /> <br /> 3.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1.<br /> <br /> <br /> Signatures of Founder Members<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Signature of Secretary <br /> <br /> <br /> Full Names of Founder Members in BLOCK<br /> CAPITALS (no initials)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Full Name of Secretary in BLOCK CAPITALS<br /> (no initials)<br /> <br /> ...............................................................<br /> <br /> For record of changes, see [[Rules - Amendments]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> For information about Freegle's previous rule about polling, see [[10% Polling Guidelines]]<br /> [[Category: Policies, Procedures, Remits]] [[category:Freegle Organisation]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Rules&diff=56060 2026-06-09T07:55:23Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Freegle Limited was registered with the FCA [https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593 here] on 3rd June 2014, registration no. 32410R.<br /> <br /> The original FCA approval details are [https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Documents/Download/82241 here]. This is a single PDF which contains a bundle of documents relating to the application:<br /> * p1 The letter approving us.<br /> * p2 The Resolution which had to be passed before applying.<br /> * p7 The letter approving us (again, for some reason).<br /> * p8 The Rules which govern us. For convenience you can also view that [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2R4ItxT_JfZQ215NWM1cENKclk/view here].<br /> * p25 The signatures for the Rules. For convenience you can also view that [https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1RmuJEJbouSlEyZ2E2MlFzWUU/view here].<br /> * p26 The application form.<br /> <br /> Note: at the 2025 AGM, it was agreed by Member Vote to change three parts of these Rules - [[AGM 2025 Minutes]] - Extraordinary Resolutions. The FCA agreed this partial Rule change on 8th June 2026, and the name change on 1st June 2026. The details are available on the FCA website -https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593<br /> <br /> ==Rule 1: NAME==<br /> <br /> 1. The name of the society shall be Freegle.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 2: REGISTERED OFFICE==<br /> <br /> 2. The registered office of the society shall be at 64a North Road, Ormesby, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR29 3LE<br /> <br /> ==Rule 3: INTERPRETATIONS==<br /> <br /> 3. In these rules:<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Address&quot;'' means a postal address or, for the purposes of electronic communication, a fax number, email address or telephone number for receiving text messages;<br /> <br /> '' “the Act” refers to the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 or any Act or Acts amending or in substitution of it or them for the time being in force;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Auditor&quot;'' means a person eligible for appointment as a company auditor under section 25 of the Companies Act 1989;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;The Board of Directors&quot;'' or ''&quot;Board&quot;'' means all those persons appointed to perform the duties of directors of the society;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Board Meeting&quot;'' includes, except where inconsistent with any legal obligation a physical meeting, a meeting held by electronic means and a meeting held by telephone;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Clear Days&quot;'' in relation to the period of notice does not include the day on which the meeting is to be held and the day on which the notice is handed to someone or left at their Address, or the day on which it is sent, is in the process of being sent and is<br /> assumed to be delivered;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Connected&quot;'' means the spouse, civil partner, child, step-child, parent,<br /> grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister or other person in a relationship with a<br /> director, which may reasonably be regarded as equivalent to such a relationship or<br /> any company or business controlled or managed by a director and includes a trustee<br /> of any trust, the beneficiaries of which include a Connected Person;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Director&quot;'' means a director of the society and includes any person occupying the<br /> position of director, by whatever name called;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Document&quot;'' includes, unless otherwise stated, any document sent or supplied in <br /> electronic form;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Electronic Means&quot;'' shall include, for example, email, video links and secure<br /> authenticated website transactions;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Extraordinary Resolution&quot;'' means, unless the context requires otherwise, those<br /> decisions requiring an Extraordinary Resolution as detailed under ‘Resolutions’ in <br /> these rules; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Founder Member&quot;'' means a subscriber to these rules for the purposes of <br /> registration; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Member&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Membership’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Office Holder&quot;'' means a receiver, administrative receiver, liquidator, provisional<br /> liquidator or administrator of a Member of all or substantially all of the Member's <br /> assets;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Officer&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Officers’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Paper ballot&quot;'' means a ballot of all members by physical or electronic means.<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Person&quot;'' means, unless the context requires otherwise, a natural person,<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership, corporate body or the nominee of an<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership or corporate body;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Registrar&quot;'' means the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or any body that succeeds<br /> its function;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Regulations&quot;'' has the meaning as detailed under ‘Regulations’ in these rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Rules&quot;'' means these Rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Secretary&quot;'' means any person appointed to perform the duties of the Secretary of the<br /> society; <br /> <br /> ''&quot;Show of Hands&quot;'' means a show of hands at a physical meeting or using<br /> electronic means to make a decision at the meeting;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Society&quot;'' means the above named society;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Transferable&quot;'' means shares that are transferable to another Person who also<br /> qualifies for membership of the Society in accordance with these Rules;<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Withdrawable&quot;'' means shares with the associated right for the Member to withdraw<br /> and receive in return the value of their shares from the Society.<br /> <br /> ''&quot;Writing&quot;'' means the representation or reproduction of words, symbols or other<br /> information in a visible form by any method or combination of methods, whether sent<br /> or supplied by Electronic Means or otherwise.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 4: OBJECTS==<br /> <br /> 4. The objects of the Society shall be to carry on any business for the benefit of the<br /> community by<br /> <br /> *Promoting the keeping of usable items out of landfill.<br /> *Promoting and supporting local community groups working in the area of reuse.<br /> *Empowering and supporting volunteers working for local Freegle groups.<br /> *Informing and educating the public about environmental matters related to the reuse and recycling of unwanted usable goods.<br /> *Promoting sustainable waste management practices.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 5: POWERS==<br /> <br /> 5. The Society may do all such lawful things as may further the Society's objects and, in <br /> particular, may borrow or raise funds for any purpose that is beneficial to the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 6-9: BORROWING==<br /> <br /> 6. The Society shall have the power to borrow money from its Members and others in<br /> order to further its objects providing that the amount outstanding at any one time shall <br /> not exceed £10,000,000.<br /> <br /> 7. The Society shall have the power to mortgage or charge any of its property, including<br /> the assets and undertakings of the Society, present and future, and to issue loan <br /> stock, debentures and other securities for money borrowed or for the performance of<br /> any contracts of the Society or its customers or Persons having dealings with the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> 8. The rate of interest on money borrowed, except on money borrowed by way of bank<br /> loan or overdraft or from a finance house or on mortgage from a building society or <br /> local authority, shall not exceed 5% per annum or 2% above the Co-operative Bank’s<br /> base rate at the commencement of the loan, whichever is the greater.<br /> <br /> 9. The Society may receive from any Person, donations or loans free of interest in order<br /> to further its objects but shall not receive money on deposit.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 10: FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS ACT 2000 ACTIVITY==<br /> <br /> 10. For the avoidance of doubt the Society shall not engage in any activity by virtue of any<br /> of these Rules that would require a permission from the Registrar to carry on that<br /> activity without first having applied for and obtained such permission.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 11: INVESTMENT OF FUNDS==<br /> <br /> 11. The Society may invest any part of its funds in the manner set out in Section 31 of the<br /> Act.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 12-21: MEMBERS==<br /> <br /> 12. The first Members of the Society will be the Founder Members. The Board may at its <br /> discretion admit to membership any individual, corporate body or nominee of a<br /> unincorporated body, firm, partnership or corporate body who supports the objects of <br /> the Society through being an owner, moderator or other volunteer for a Freegle <br /> affiliated local group or who is a volunteer for the Society who has paid or agreed to pay any<br /> subscription or other sum due in respect of membership for the time being in force.<br /> <br /> ===Applications for Membership===<br /> <br /> 13. No natural person shall be admitted into membership of the Society unless they have<br /> attained the age of 16. All those wishing to become a Member must support the <br /> objects of the Society and complete an application for membership which shall include <br /> an application for at least one share in the Society. Such an application form must be <br /> approved by the Directors and the Directors must approve each application for<br /> membership.<br /> <br /> 14. A corporate body which is a Member shall by resolution of its governing body appoint <br /> a representative who may during the continuance of her/his appointment be entitled to<br /> exercise all such rights and powers as the corporate body would exercise if it were an<br /> individual person. Each such corporate body Member shall supply notification in<br /> Writing to the Society of its choice of representative.<br /> <br /> ===Member Commitment===<br /> <br /> 15. All Members agree to participate in general meetings and take an active interest in the<br /> operation and development of the Society and its business. Members have a duty to<br /> respect the confidential nature of the business decisions of the Society.<br /> <br /> ===Termination of Membership===<br /> <br /> 16. A Member shall cease to be a Member of the Society immediately that they:<br /> <br /> (a) Fail to hold the minimum shareholding; or<br /> <br /> (b) Fail to pay the annual subscription (if any) within 3 months of it falling due; or<br /> <br /> (b+) Are no longer active as an owner, moderator or volunteer if accepted into membership as such<br /> <br /> (c) Resign in Writing to the Secretary; or <br /> <br /> (d) Are expelled from membership in accordance with these Rules; or <br /> <br /> (e) Die, are wound up or go into liquidation. <br /> <br /> ===Expulsion from Membership===<br /> <br /> 17. A Member may be expelled for conduct prejudicial to the Society by an Extraordinary<br /> Resolution, provided that the grounds for expulsion have been specified in the notices <br /> calling the meeting and that the Member whose expulsion is to be considered shall be<br /> given the opportunity to make representations to the meeting or, at the option of the<br /> Member, an individual who is there to represent them (who need not be a Member of <br /> the Society) has been allowed to make representations to the general meeting. <br /> <br /> 18. If on due notice having been served the Member fails to attend the meeting the<br /> meeting may proceed in the Member's absence. No Member expelled from <br /> membership shall be re-admitted except by an Extraordinary Resolution.<br /> <br /> ===Proceedings on Death or Bankruptcy of a Member=== <br /> <br /> 19. Upon a claim being made by:<br /> <br /> (a) The personal representative of a deceased Member; or <br /> <br /> (b) The trustee in bankruptcy of a Member who is bankrupt; or <br /> <br /> (c) The Office Holder to any property in the Society belonging to such a Member,<br /> the Society shall transfer or pay property to which the Office Holder has become<br /> entitled as the Office Holder may direct them.<br /> <br /> 20. A Member may in accordance with the Act nominate any individual or individuals to<br /> whom any of her/his property in the Society at the time of her/his death shall be<br /> transferred, but such nomination shall only be valid to the extent of the amount for the<br /> time being allowed in the Act. On receiving a satisfactory proof of death of a Member <br /> who has made a nomination the Society shall, in accordance with the Act, either <br /> transfer or pay the full value of the property comprised in the nomination to the <br /> individual or individuals entitled thereunder.<br /> <br /> ===Share Capital===<br /> <br /> 21. The shares of the Society shall be of the nominal value of £1 issued to Persons upon<br /> admission to membership of the Society. The shares shall be fully paid prior to issue, <br /> and shall be non-Transferable except on death or bankruptcy or (in the case of an<br /> unincorporated organisation or partnership), on a change of nominee(s) and only<br /> to the new nominee(s), nor Withdrawable, shall carry no right to interest, dividend or<br /> bonus, and shall be forfeited and cancelled on cessation of membership from <br /> whatever cause, and the amount paid up on such cancelled shares shall become the <br /> property of the Society. Each Member shall hold one share only in the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 22-49: GENERAL MEETINGS==<br /> <br /> 22. The Society shall, within six months of the end of the financial year, hold a general<br /> meeting of the Members as its annual general meeting and shall specify the meeting<br /> as such in the notice calling it.<br /> <br /> 23. The business of an annual general meeting shall comprise, where appropriate:<br /> <br /> (a) The receipt of the accounts and balance sheet and of the reports of the Board <br /> and Auditor (if any);<br /> <br /> (b) The appointment of an Auditor, if required;<br /> <br /> (c) The election of the Board or the results of the election if held previously by <br /> ballot;<br /> <br /> (d) The application of profits; <br /> <br /> (e) The transaction of any other business included in the notice convening the<br /> meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Calling a General Meeting===<br /> <br /> 24. The Secretary, at the request of the Board of Directors may convene a general<br /> meeting of the Society. The purpose of the general meeting shall be stated in the<br /> notice of the meeting.<br /> <br /> 25. The Board of Directors upon an application signed by one-tenth of the total number of<br /> Members, or 100 Members, whichever is the lesser, delivered to the registered office <br /> of the Society, shall convene a general meeting. The purpose of the general meeting<br /> shall be stated in the application for and notice of the meeting. No business other than<br /> that stated in the notice of the meeting shall be conducted at the meeting. <br /> <br /> 26. If within one month from the date of the receipt of the application the Board have not<br /> convened a general meeting to be held within six weeks of the application, any three <br /> Members of the Society acting on behalf of the signatories to the application may<br /> convene a general meeting, and shall be reimbursed by the Society for any costs<br /> incurred in convening such a meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Notices===<br /> <br /> 27. The Directors shall call the annual general meeting giving 14 Clear Days’ notice to all<br /> Members. All other general meetings shall be convened with at least 14 Clear Days’ <br /> notice but may be held at shorter notice if so agreed in Writing by 90% of the<br /> Members. <br /> <br /> 28. Notices of meetings shall either be given to Members personally or sent to them at <br /> their Address or alternatively, if so agreed by the Society in general meeting, notices <br /> of general meetings may be displayed conspicuously at the registered office and in all<br /> other places of business of the Society to which Members have access. Notices shall<br /> specify the date, time and place at which the meeting is to be held, and the business<br /> which is to be transacted at that meeting. A general meeting shall not transact any<br /> business other than that specified in the notices calling the meeting.<br /> <br /> 29. A notice sent to a Member's Address shall be deemed to have been duly served 48<br /> hours after its posting. The accidental omission to send any notice to or the<br /> non-receipt of any notice by any Person entitled to receive notice shall not invalidate<br /> the proceedings at the meeting. <br /> <br /> 30. All notices shall specify the date, time and place of the meeting along with the general <br /> nature of business to be conducted and any proposed resolutions.<br /> <br /> 31. If the Society has appointed an Auditor in accordance with these Rules they shall be<br /> entitled to attend general meetings of the Society and to receive all notices of and<br /> communications relating to any general meeting which any Member of the Society is<br /> entitled to receive. The Auditor shall be entitled to be heard at any meeting on any part<br /> of the business of the meeting which is of proper concern to an Auditor.<br /> <br /> ===Quorum===<br /> <br /> 32. No business shall be transacted at a general meeting unless a quorum of Members is<br /> present which shall include those Members not present in Person. Unless amended<br /> by Extraordinary Resolution, a quorum shall be 20 Members or 10% of the membership whichever is smaller, subject to a minimum of<br /> 3 Members.<br /> <br /> ===Chairing General Meetings===<br /> <br /> 33. The chairperson of the Society shall facilitate general meetings. If s/he is absent or<br /> unwilling to act at the time any meeting proceeds to business then the Members <br /> present shall choose one of their number to be the chairperson for that meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Attendance and Speaking at General Meetings===<br /> <br /> 34. A Member is able to exercise the right to speak at a general meeting and is deemed to<br /> be in attendance when that Person is in a position to communicate to all those<br /> attending the meeting. The Directors may make whatever arrangements they consider<br /> appropriate to enable those attending a general meeting to exercise their rights to<br /> speak or vote at it including by Electronic Means. In determining attendance at a<br /> general meeting, it is immaterial whether any two or more Members attending are in<br /> the same place as each other, provided that they are able to communicate with each<br /> other.<br /> <br /> 35. The chairperson of the meeting may permit other persons who are not Members of the <br /> Society to attend and speak at general meetings, without granting any voting rights.<br /> <br /> ===Adjournment=== <br /> <br /> 36. If a quorum is not present within half an hour of the time the general meeting was due<br /> to commence, or if during a meeting a quorum ceases to be present, the chairperson<br /> must adjourn the meeting. If within half an hour of the time the adjourned meeting was <br /> due to commence a quorum is not present, the Members present shall constitute a<br /> quorum.<br /> <br /> 37. The chairperson of a general meeting may adjourn the meeting whilst a quorum is <br /> present if:<br /> <br /> (a) The meeting consents to that adjournment; or<br /> <br /> (b) It appears to the chairperson that an adjournment is necessary to protect the<br /> safety of any persons attending the meeting or to ensure that the business of the<br /> meeting is conducted in an orderly manner.<br /> <br /> 38. The chairperson must adjourn the meeting if directed to do so by the meeting.<br /> <br /> 39. When adjourning a meeting the chairperson must specify the date, time and place to<br /> which it will stand adjourned or that the meeting is to continue at a date, time and <br /> place to be fixed by the Directors. <br /> <br /> 40. If the meeting is adjourned for 14 days or more, at least 7 Clear Days’ notice of the<br /> adjourned meeting shall be given in the same manner as the notice of the original<br /> meeting. <br /> <br /> 41. No business shall be transacted at an adjourned meeting other than business which<br /> could properly have been transacted at the meeting if the adjournment had not taken<br /> place.<br /> <br /> ===Voting===<br /> <br /> 42. A resolution put to the vote at a general meeting shall be decided on a show of hands<br /> unless a paper ballot is demanded in accordance with these Rules. A declaration by <br /> the chairperson that a resolution has on a show of hands been carried or lost with an<br /> entry to that effect recorded in the minutes of the general meeting shall be conclusive <br /> evidence of the result. Proportions or numbers of votes in favour for or against need<br /> not be recorded.<br /> <br /> 43. In the case of an equality of votes, whether on a show of hands or a poll, the<br /> chairperson shall not have a second or casting vote and the resolution shall be<br /> deemed to have been lost.<br /> <br /> ===Paper Ballot===<br /> <br /> 44. A paper ballot on a resolution may be demanded before or on the declaration of the<br /> result of the show of hands by three Members at a general meeting.<br /> <br /> 45. If a paper ballot is duly demanded it shall be taken in such a manner as the<br /> chairperson directs, provided that no Member shall have more than one vote, and the<br /> result of the ballot shall be deemed to be the resolution of the meeting at which the<br /> ballot was demanded.<br /> <br /> 46. The demand for a paper ballot shall not prevent the continuance of a meeting for the<br /> transaction of any other business than the question upon which a ballot has been<br /> demanded. The demand for a paper ballot may be withdrawn. <br /> <br /> ===Resolutions===<br /> <br /> 47. Decisions at general meetings shall be made by passing resolutions:<br /> <br /> (a) The following decisions must be made by Extraordinary Resolution:<br /> <br /> (i) Decisions to expel Members;<br /> <br /> (ii) Any amendment to the Society's Rules;<br /> <br /> (iii) The decision to wind up the Society.<br /> <br /> (b) All other decisions shall be made by ordinary resolution.<br /> <br /> 48. An Extraordinary Resolution is one passed by a majority of not less than 75% of votes <br /> cast at a general meeting and an ordinary resolution is one passed by a simple<br /> majority (51%) of votes cast.<br /> <br /> 49. Resolutions may be passed at general meetings or by written resolution. A written<br /> resolution may consist of several identical Documents signed by one or more<br /> Members.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 50-69: DIRECTORS==<br /> <br /> 50. The Society shall have a Board of Directors comprising not less than three Directors. <br /> <br /> 51. The initial Directors of the Society from registration until the first annual general <br /> meeting shall be appointed by the Founder Members.<br /> <br /> 52. Under no circumstances shall any Employee of the Society serve on the Board.<br /> <br /> 53. Only persons of the Society who are aged 18 years or more may serve on the Board<br /> of Directors.<br /> <br /> 54. The Board of Directors shall be elected by and from the Society’s Members. The<br /> maximum number of Directors serving on the Board shall be determined by a general<br /> meeting of the Society from time to time.<br /> <br /> ===Retirement Cycle===<br /> <br /> 55. At the first annual general meeting all elected Directors shall stand down. At every<br /> subsequent annual general meeting one-third of the elected Directors, or if their<br /> number is not a multiple of three then the number nearest to one-third, shall retire from <br /> office. The Directors to retire shall be the Directors who have been longest in office <br /> since their last election. Where Directors have held office for the same amount of time<br /> the Directors to retire shall be decided by lot. A retiring Director shall be eligible for re-<br /> election.<br /> <br /> ===Co-option of Directors===<br /> <br /> 56. In addition the Board of Directors may co-opt up to two external independent Directors <br /> who need not be Members and are selected for their particular skills and/or<br /> experience. Such external independent Directors shall serve a fixed period determined<br /> by the Board of Directors at the time of the co-option, subject to a review at least every<br /> 12 months. External independent Directors may be removed from office at any time by <br /> a resolution of the Board of Directors. <br /> <br /> 57. The Board of Directors may at any time fill a casual vacancy on the Board by <br /> co-option. Co-opted individuals must be Members of the Society and will hold office as<br /> a Director only until the next annual general meeting.<br /> <br /> 58. At no time must the number of co-opted individuals comprise more than one-third of<br /> the Board of Directors.<br /> <br /> ===Powers and Duties of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 59. The business of the Society shall be managed by the Board who may exercise all<br /> such powers of the Society as may be exercised and done by the Society and as are <br /> not by statute or by these Rules required to be exercised or done by the Society in<br /> general meeting.<br /> <br /> 60. All decisions made by a meeting of the Board of Directors or by any person acting as<br /> a Director shall remain valid even if it is later discovered that there was some defect in<br /> the Director’s appointment or that the individual had previously been disqualified from <br /> acting as a Director or as a charity trustee.<br /> <br /> 61. All cheques, promissory notes, drafts, bills of exchange and other negotiable<br /> instruments, and all receipts for monies paid to the Society shall be signed, drawn,<br /> accepted, endorsed, or otherwise executed in such manner as the Board shall from <br /> time to time direct.<br /> <br /> 62. Without prejudice to its general powers, the Board may exercise all the powers of the <br /> Society to borrow money and to mortgage or charge its undertaking and property or <br /> any part of it and to issue debentures and other securities whether outright or as<br /> security for any debt, liability or obligation of the Society or of any third party.<br /> <br /> 63. No Regulation made by the Society in general meeting shall invalidate any prior act of <br /> the Board which would have been valid had that Regulation not been made.<br /> <br /> ===Delegation===<br /> <br /> 64. Subject to these Rules, the Directors may delegate any of the powers which are<br /> conferred on them under these Rules to any Person or committee consisting of<br /> Members of the Society, by such means, to such an extent, in relation to such matters<br /> and on such terms and conditions as they think fit. <br /> <br /> 65. The Directors may specify that any such delegation may authorise further delegation<br /> of the powers by any Person to whom they are delegated.<br /> <br /> 66. The Directors may revoke any delegation in whole or in part or alter any terms and<br /> conditions. <br /> <br /> ===Sub-Committees===<br /> <br /> 67. A sub-committee to which the Directors delegate any of their powers must follow<br /> procedures which are based as far as they are applicable on those provisions of these <br /> Rules which govern the taking of decisions by Directors.<br /> <br /> 68. The Directors may make Regulations for all or any sub-committees, provided that<br /> such Regulations are not inconsistent with these Rules. <br /> <br /> 69. All acts and proceedings of any sub-committee must be fully and promptly reported to <br /> the Directors.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 70-81: PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS==<br /> <br /> ===Calling a Meeting of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 70. Any Director may, and the Secretary on the requisition of a Director shall, call a<br /> meeting of the Board of Directors by giving reasonable notice of the meeting to all<br /> Directors. Notice of any meeting of the Board of Directors must indicate the date, time<br /> and place of the meeting and, if the Directors participating in the meeting will not be in<br /> the same place, how they will communicate with each other. <br /> <br /> ===Proceedings of a Meeting of the Board of Directors===<br /> <br /> 71. The Board of Directors may meet together for the despatch of business, adjourn and <br /> otherwise regulate their meetings as they think fit. <br /> <br /> 72. A Director is able to exercise the right to speak at a meeting of the Board of Directors<br /> and is deemed to be in attendance when that person is in a position to communicate<br /> to all those attending the meeting. The Directors may make whatever arrangements<br /> they consider appropriate to enable those attending a meeting of the Board of<br /> Directors to exercise their rights to speak or vote at it including by Electronic Means. In<br /> determining attendance at a meeting of the Board of Directors, it is immaterial whether<br /> any two or more Directors attending are in the same place as each other.<br /> <br /> 73. Questions arising at any meetings of the Board shall be decided by a majority of votes. <br /> In the case of an equality of votes the status quo shall be maintained and the Board of <br /> Directors may choose to refer the matter to a general meeting of the Society. <br /> <br /> 74. A written resolution, circulated to all Directors and signed by a simple majority (51%)<br /> of Directors, shall be valid and effective as if it had been passed at a Board meeting<br /> duly convened and held. A written resolution may consist of several identical<br /> Documents signed by one or more Directors. <br /> <br /> 75. The Board of Directors may, at its discretion, invite other persons to attend its<br /> meetings with or without speaking rights and without voting rights. Such attendees will <br /> not count toward the quorum. <br /> <br /> ===Quorum===<br /> <br /> 76. The quorum necessary for the transaction of business at a meeting of the Board of <br /> Directors shall be 50% of the Directors or 3 Directors, whichever is the greater and<br /> shall include those Directors not present in person. <br /> <br /> 77. If at any time the total number of Directors in office is less than the quorum required,<br /> the Directors are unable to take any decisions other than to appoint further Directors <br /> or to call a general meeting so as to enable the Members to appoint further Directors. <br /> <br /> ===Chairing Board Meetings===<br /> <br /> 78. The chairperson shall facilitate meetings of the Board of Directors. If s/he is absent or <br /> unwilling to act at the time any meeting proceeds to business then the Directors<br /> present shall choose one of their number to be the chairperson for that meeting.<br /> <br /> ===Declaration of Interest===<br /> <br /> 79. A Director shall declare an interest in any contract or matter in which s/he has a <br /> personal, material or financial interest, whether directly or indirectly, and shall not vote<br /> in respect of such contract or matter, provided that nothing shall prevent a Director <br /> voting in respect of her/his terms and conditions of employment or any associated <br /> matter.<br /> <br /> ===Expenses===<br /> <br /> 80. The Society's income and property shall be applied solely to the promotion of the objects of the Society. and no portion shall be transferred directly or indirectly by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise whatsoever by way of profit to the Members of the Society and no Director or Connected Person may buy goods or services from the Company on terms preferential to those applicable to other members of the public, sell any interest in land to the Society, or be employed by the Society, unless the payment is in respect of payment of any reasonable expenses which the Directors properly incur in connection with their attendance at meetings or otherwise in connection with the exercise of their powers and the discharge of their responsibilities in relation to the Society. A Director or Connected Person may sell goods or services to the Society, receive remuneration from the Society and receive any other financial benefit from the Society, provided that person declares their conflict of interest and does not authorise or vote on the transaction or decision.<br /> <br /> ===Termination of a Director’s Appointment===<br /> <br /> 81. A person ceases to be a Director of the Society as soon as:<br /> <br /> (a) Where there is co-option of Directors for their skills/experience: That<br /> person is removed from office by a resolution of the Board of Directors, where <br /> the person is a co-opted Director appointed for their particular skills and/or<br /> experience; <br /> <br /> (b) Where ex officio Directors: That person ceases to hold that office or that office <br /> ceases to exist, where the person is a Director ex officio; <br /> <br /> (c) Where there are representatives of organisations on the Board: The<br /> organisation they are representing removes their endorsement of them;<br /> <br /> (d) Where there are representatives of organisations on the Board: The<br /> organisation they are representing ceases to exist; <br /> <br /> (e) That person resigns from office in Writing to the Secretary of the Society, and<br /> such resignation has taken effect in accordance with its terms;<br /> <br /> (f) That person is removed from office by an ordinary resolution of the Society in<br /> general meeting, the notices for which specified that the question of the<br /> Director's removal was to be considered;<br /> <br /> (g) That person is prohibited from being a Director by law or otherwise disqualified<br /> by law from serving as a charity trustee;<br /> <br /> (h) A bankruptcy order is made against that person; <br /> <br /> (i) A registered medical practitioner who is treating that person gives a written <br /> opinion to the Society stating that the person has become mentally incapable of<br /> acting as a Director and may remain so for more than three months;<br /> <br /> (j) By reason of that person’s mental health, a court makes an order which wholly <br /> or partly prevents that person from personally exercising any powers or rights<br /> which that person would otherwise have.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 82: OFFICERS==<br /> <br /> 82. The Board shall elect from among their own number a chairperson and Secretary and <br /> such other Officers as they may from time to time decide. These Officers shall have <br /> such duties and rights as may be bestowed on them by the Board or by law and any <br /> Officer appointed may be removed by the Board. A serving Officer who is not re-<br /> elected to the Board at the annual general meeting shall nevertheless continue in<br /> office until the first Board meeting following the annual general meeting.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 83: DISPUTES==<br /> <br /> 83. In the event of a dispute between the Society or its Board and a Member of the<br /> Society or a former Member, such dispute shall be referred to an independent<br /> arbitrator whose appointment is acceptable to both parties to the dispute or in the<br /> absence of agreement to be nominated by the Secretary General of Co-operatives UK<br /> (or any role or body that succeeds to its function). The decision of such an arbitrator<br /> shall be binding. In the event that a dispute cannot, for whatever reason, be concluded <br /> by reference to an arbitrator, the matter may be referred to the county court (or in<br /> Scotland, to the sheriff). Any Person bringing a dispute must, if so required, deposit<br /> with the Society a reasonable sum (not exceeding £100) to be determined by the <br /> Board. The arbitrator will decide how the costs of the arbitration will be paid and what <br /> should be done with the deposit.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 84: REGULATIONS==<br /> <br /> 84. The Society in a general meeting, or the Board of Directors, may from time to time<br /> make, adopt and amend such Regulations in the form of bye-laws, standing orders, <br /> secondary rules or otherwise as they think fit for the management, conduct and <br /> regulation of the affairs of the Society and the proceedings and powers of the Board of <br /> Directors and sub-committees. Such Regulations (if any) shall be made available to<br /> Members. No Regulation shall be made which is inconsistent with these Rules or the <br /> Act. All Members of the Society and the Board of Directors shall be bound by such<br /> Regulations whether or not they have received a copy of them.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 85: LIABILITY OF MEMBERS==<br /> <br /> 85. The liability of a Member is limited to the amount of their shareholding.<br /> <br /> ==Rule 86: APPLICATION OF PROFITS==<br /> <br /> 86. The Society shall not trade for profit. Any profits generated by the Society shall be <br /> applied solely to the continuation and development of the Society.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 87-88: AMALGAMATION, TRANSFER OF ENGAGEMENTS AND CONVERSION==<br /> <br /> 87. The Society may, by special resolution passed in the way required by the Act,<br /> amalgamate with or transfer its engagements to any other charitable society with<br /> objects similar to or compatible with those of the Society. The Society may also<br /> accept a transfer of engagements and assets by resolution of the Board or of a<br /> general meeting.<br /> <br /> 88. The Society may, by special resolution passed in the way required by s52(3) of the <br /> Act, amalgamate with or transfer its engagements to a charitable company or convert<br /> itself into a charitable company under the provisions of the Act. In relation to calling a<br /> general meeting for the purpose of such resolution, the following provisions shall<br /> apply.<br /> <br /> (a) The Society shall give to Members not less than two months’ notice of the <br /> meeting;<br /> <br /> (b) Notice of the meeting shall be posted in a prominent place at the registered<br /> office and at all trading premises of the Society to which Members have access.;<br /> <br /> (c) The notice shall be accompanied by a separate statement setting out for<br /> Members: <br /> <br /> (i) the reasons for the proposal;<br /> <br /> (ii) whether the proposal has the support of the Board of the Society;<br /> <br /> (iii) what alternative proposals have been considered, and whether they are<br /> viable;<br /> <br /> (iv) details of the number of shares in the Society held by Members of the<br /> Board, and Persons connected with them;<br /> <br /> (v) a recommendation by reputable independent financial advisors that the <br /> Members should support the proposal rather than any alternative <br /> proposal.<br /> <br /> (d) Where the separate statement is contained in another Document, information<br /> shall be provided in the notice specifying where Members can obtain a copy of<br /> the Document.<br /> <br /> (e) The quorum for a meeting at which a special resolution to amalgamate with,<br /> transfer engagements to or convert into a charitable company is to be voted<br /> upon shall be 150 Members or 50% of the Members present in Person, <br /> whichever is the greater, subject to an absolute minimum of three Members.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 89-90: DISSOLUTION==<br /> <br /> 89. The Society may be dissolved by the consent of three quarters of the Members by <br /> their signatures to an instrument of dissolution, or by winding up in a manner provided<br /> for by the Act. <br /> <br /> 90. If on the winding up or dissolution of the Society any of its assets remain to be<br /> disposed of after its liabilities are satisfied, these assets shall not be distributed among<br /> the Members, but shall be transferred instead to some other charitable body or bodies <br /> with objects similar to or compatible with those of the Society as may be decided by <br /> the members at the time of or prior to the dissolution.<br /> <br /> ==Rules 91-111: ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS==<br /> <br /> ===Means of Communication===<br /> <br /> 91. A Member must provide their consent to receive communications from the Society by <br /> Electronic Means.<br /> <br /> 92. A notice sent to a Director’s Address shall be deemed to have been duly served 48<br /> hours after its posting. A Director may agree with the Society that notices or <br /> Documents sent to her/him in a particular way are to be deemed to have been<br /> received within a specified time of their being sent, and for the specified time to be<br /> less than 48 hours. <br /> <br /> ===Seal===<br /> <br /> 93. If the Society has a seal, it shall only be used by the authority of the Board of Directors <br /> acting on behalf of the Society. Every instrument to which the seal shall be attached<br /> shall be signed by a Director and countersigned by a second Director or the Secretary.<br /> <br /> ===Registers===<br /> <br /> 94. The Board of Directors shall ensure accurate registers are maintained which shall <br /> include a register of Members, a register of Directors and a register of Officers.<br /> <br /> ===Register of Members===<br /> <br /> 95. The Board shall ensure that the register is maintained in accordance with the Act and<br /> that the particulars required by the Act are available for inspection and accessible<br /> without the need to disclose other particulars contained in the register.<br /> <br /> ===Register of Directors and Officers===<br /> <br /> 96. The Society shall maintain a register of Directors and Officers which shall include the <br /> following particulars: <br /> <br /> (a) Name of the Director;<br /> <br /> (b) Address of the Director;<br /> <br /> (c) The date on which they assumed office;<br /> <br /> (d) The date on which they vacated office; and<br /> <br /> (e) The position held by a Director if s/he is also an Officer and the date on which<br /> the Director assumed and vacated his/her Officer position.<br /> <br /> ===Amendments to Rules===<br /> <br /> 97. Any of these Rules may be rescinded or amended or a new rule made by an<br /> Extraordinary Resolution at a general meeting of which 14 Clear Days’ notice has <br /> been given, such notice to include details of the change(s) to be proposed at that<br /> meeting. No amendment may be made to the Rules which shall cause the Society to<br /> cease to be a charity in law. No amendment of Rules is valid until registered by the <br /> Registrar. When submitting the rule amendments for registration, the Secretary may<br /> at their sole discretion accept any alterations required or suggested by the Registrar<br /> without reference back to a further general meeting of the Society.<br /> <br /> ===Copies of the Society's Rules===<br /> <br /> 98. A copy of these Rules and any amendments made to them shall be given free of <br /> charge to every Member upon admission to membership and shall be provided to any <br /> other Person on demand and on payment of the statutory fee chargeable for the time<br /> being in force.<br /> <br /> ===Minutes===<br /> <br /> 99. The Society shall ensure that minutes are kept of all:<br /> <br /> (a) Proceedings at general meetings of the Society; and<br /> <br /> (b) Proceedings at meetings of the Board of Directors and its sub-committees which<br /> include names of the Directors present, decisions made and the reasons for<br /> those decisions.<br /> <br /> ===Annual Return===<br /> <br /> 100. Every year and within the period prescribed by the Act, the Secretary shall send the <br /> annual return in the prescribed form to the Registrar. The annual return shall be <br /> accompanied by:<br /> <br /> (a) A copy of the Auditor’s report on the Society's accounts for the period covered <br /> by the annual return or a copy of such other report (if any) as is required by <br /> statute for such a period; and<br /> <br /> (b) A copy of each balance sheet made during that period and report of the Auditor<br /> or other appropriate person as required by statute on that balance sheet. <br /> <br /> 101. The Society shall on demand supply free of charge to any Member or any person with<br /> an interest in the funds of the Society a copy of the latest annual return together with a<br /> copy of the Auditor's report on the accounts and balance sheet contained in the<br /> annual return and the Auditor’s Report (if any).<br /> <br /> 102. The Society shall at all times keep a copy of the latest balance sheet of the Society<br /> together with a copy of the corresponding Auditor's report (if any) hung up in a <br /> conspicuous place at the registered office and displayed on the Society's website (if<br /> any).<br /> <br /> ===Audit===<br /> <br /> Rule 103 <br /> <br /> (i) The Society shall, unless it meets the requirements under subsection 83(2) or section 84 of the Act, appoint an Auditor to act for each financial year to audit the Society’s accounts and balance sheet.<br /> <br /> (ii) An Auditor for the preceding financial year shall be re-appointed as Auditor of the Society for the current financial year unless any of the exceptions set out in section 93 of the Act apply.<br /> <br /> 104. The following persons shall not be appointed as Auditor of the Society:<br /> <br /> (a) An Officer or Employee of the Society;<br /> <br /> (b) A person who is a partner or employee of, or who employs, an Officer of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> 105. The Board may appoint an Auditor to fill a casual vacancy occurring between general<br /> meetings.<br /> <br /> 106. An Auditor for the preceding financial year shall be re-appointed as Auditor of the <br /> Society for the current financial year unless:<br /> <br /> (a) A decision has been made by the Board to appoint a different Auditor or<br /> expressly decided that s/he shall not be re-appointed; or<br /> <br /> (b) S/he has given notice in writing to the Secretary of her/his unwillingness to be<br /> re-appointed; or<br /> <br /> (c) S/he is ineligible for appointment as Auditor of the Society for the current <br /> financial year; or <br /> <br /> (d) S/he has ceased to act as Auditor of the Society by reason of incapacity.<br /> <br /> 107. Any ordinary resolution of a general meeting of the Society either to remove an Auditor<br /> from office or to appoint another person as Auditor shall not be effective unless notice<br /> of the proposed resolution has been given to the Society at least 28 days prior to the <br /> meeting at which the resolution is to be considered. At least 14 days' notice of such<br /> resolution must then be given to Members of the Society in the manner prescribed in<br /> these Rules and in Writing to the Auditor(s).<br /> <br /> ===Social Accounting and Reporting===<br /> <br /> 108. In addition to any financial accounts required by the Act, the Members may resolve to <br /> undertake an account of the activities of the Society which will endeavour to measure <br /> its social and environmental performance using whatever methodology the Members <br /> deem appropriate. Following the completion of such an account the Society shall<br /> report any findings to its Members and other stakeholders.<br /> <br /> ===Indemnity and Insurance===<br /> <br /> 109. Subject to the following rule, any Director or former Director of the Society may be<br /> indemnified out of the Society’s assets against:<br /> <br /> (a) Any liability incurred by that Director in connection with any negligence, default,<br /> breach of duty or breach of trust in relation to the Society; <br /> <br /> (b) Any liability incurred by that Director in connection with the activities of the<br /> Society in its capacity as a trustee of an occupational pension scheme;<br /> <br /> (c) Any other liability incurred by that Director as an Officer of the Society.<br /> <br /> 110. The above rule does not authorise any indemnity which would be prohibited or <br /> rendered void by any provision of law.<br /> <br /> 111. The Directors may decide to purchase and maintain insurance, at the expense of the<br /> Society, for the benefit of any Director or former Director of the Society in respect of<br /> any loss or liability which has been or may be incurred by such a Director in<br /> connection with their duties or powers in relation to the Society or any pension fund or<br /> employees’ share scheme of the Society. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1.<br /> <br /> 2.<br /> <br /> 3.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1.<br /> <br /> <br /> Signatures of Founder Members<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Signature of Secretary <br /> <br /> <br /> Full Names of Founder Members in BLOCK<br /> CAPITALS (no initials)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Full Name of Secretary in BLOCK CAPITALS<br /> (no initials)<br /> <br /> ...............................................................<br /> <br /> For record of changes, see [[Rules - Amendments]]&lt;br&gt;<br /> For information about Freegle's previous rule about polling, see [[10% Polling Guidelines]]<br /> [[Category: Policies, Procedures, Remits]] [[category:Freegle Organisation]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Operations_Team&diff=56059 2026-06-07T12:02:25Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>This team was announced on Discourse on 1st April 2025. https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/making-freegle-stronger-together-announcing-the-freegle-operations-team/8463<br /> <br /> '''The team with it's original intent and remit below was taken over by the new [[Operations &amp; Tech Working Group]] in May 2026. However, it is still open as a general discussion group. The Remit below is basically obsolete, apart from the membership criteria for people who can use the group.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> The working space for the Operations Team is https://groups.io/g/FreegleOperationsTeam/<br /> <br /> ===Terms Of Reference===<br /> <br /> ====Purpose====<br /> The Operations Team (OT) provides day-to-day co-ordination for Freegle Limited in line with the strategic direction, goals and objectives of the Board of Directors.<br /> <br /> ====Responsibilities====<br /> *The OT is responsible for drafting the Freegle annual work programme. Once drafted, the OT will submit it to the Freegle Board of Directors for approval.<br /> <br /> *The OT is responsible for delivering and monitoring the progress of the approved annual Freegle work programme and its budgets.<br /> <br /> *The OT is responsible for the work of any groups/teams set up to consider, make decisions on, and undertake any specific work. This responsibility includes ensuring that each group has clear terms of reference, agreeing on an annual work programme, monitoring progress on the delivery of the work programme, and ensuring that any difficulties/challenges faced by the groups/teams are considered and acted upon.<br /> <br /> *The OT provides day-to-day direction and support for the functions and activities of the Chief Technical Officer, Director of Media, the Council officers and any other Freegle contractors/employees.<br /> <br /> *The Directors of the Board are ultimately responsible for what they delegate to the OT, therefore they need a regular flow of reports, and alerts to any necessary deviations of plans. The OT Chair will report to each Board of Directors meeting.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Authority====<br /> The OT's authority derives from the Board of Directors, under its powers to delegate responsibilities outlined in Rule 64 of the [[Rules]] of Freegle Limited.<br /> <br /> ====Membership====<br /> The OT membership consists of:<br /> <br /> *Group 1. (Freegle Board Members)<br /> **The Chair of The Freegle Board.<br /> **Two other Freegle Limited Directors.<br /> <br /> *Group 2 (Freegle Team volunteers)<br /> **The Freegle Treasurer or their deputy.<br /> **A representative from the Mentors Group.<br /> **A representative from the New Groups Team.<br /> **A representative from the Mailbox Team.<br /> **A representative from the Spammer List Team.<br /> **A representative from the Support Team.<br /> <br /> If the appointed representative cannot attend a meeting, a deputy from the team may attend to represent the team.<br /> <br /> *Group 3 (Freegle contractors)<br /> **The Chief Technical Officer.<br /> **The App Developer. (occasional attendance.<br /> **The Director of Media.<br /> **The Council Officers. (one of the two)<br /> <br /> N.B. Representatives of other Freegle roles may attend ad hoc when an agenda item is relevant to their work.<br /> <br /> ====Attendance at Meetings====<br /> *If for some reason a member cannot attend, please inform the Chair of the OT.<br /> <br /> *Representatives of Freegle Teams can nominate a deputy from their team to attend in their absence. Please advise the Chair of the OT if you need to do this.<br /> <br /> ====Information requirements====<br /> *The OT should ensure arrangements are in place to carry out its responsibilities effectively, including having information of appropriate form and quality.<br /> <br /> *Each Freegle contractor and Freegle team volunteer representative has the responsibility to provide the Board and OT with the following items of information at least once every three months (or more often if requested by the Chair of the OT):<br /> <br /> **A report of their or their Team's activities comparing their progress to the expectations outlined in the annual work plan.<br /> <br /> **An explanation of the variations in the expenditure compared to the budget they are responsible for.<br /> <br /> **Details of any staffing issues (i.e. does the Team have enough volunteers, their training requirements, recruitment issues etc.).<br /> <br /> **Provide details of any risks and other issues needing attention.<br /> <br /> ====Meetings====<br /> *Full meetings will be held monthly online, using Zoom, with an intermediate meeting with select members as operations require.<br /> Meetings will be chaired by the nominee of Freegle Board of Directors; if they cannot be present, they will nominate a chair who can develop the agenda and circulate reports.<br /> <br /> *The nominated Chair will develop the meeting agenda. The Chair should receive reports at least 72 hours before the meeting so that they can be circulated in time for members to read and review them.<br /> <br /> *The Freegle Board will arrange for minutes to be taken.<br /> <br /> The email address for the Team's Chair is operations.team.chair@ilovefreegle.org<br /> <br /> <br /> 2025 Meeting Dates (3rd Monday of the month @ 7:00 PM):&lt;br&gt;<br /> April 28, 2025, May 19, 2025, June 23, 2025, July 25, 2025, August 18, 2025, September 22, 2025, October 27, 2025, November 24, 2025, (December cancelled).<br /> <br /> 2026 Meeting Dates: (4th Monday of the month @ 9am) &lt;br&gt;<br /> 26th January, 23rd February, 23rd March, (27th April cancelled), 25th May, 22nd June, 27th July, 24th August, 28th September, 26th October, 23rd November<br /> <br /> ===Amendments, Variations or Modifications===<br /> <br /> The Board of Directors may amend, vary or modify these terms of reference in the light of operational needs.<br /> <br /> <br /> *[[Conflicts of Interest Procedure]]<br /> *[[Operations Team Minutes]]<br /> <br /> Version 1.0 Approved by the Freegle Limited Board on the 5th February 2025.<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]] [[category:Operations Team]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Operations_Team&diff=56058 2026-06-07T11:59:26Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>This team was announced on Discourse on 1st April 2025. https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/making-freegle-stronger-together-announcing-the-freegle-operations-team/8463<br /> <br /> '''The team with it's original intent was taken over by the new [[Operations &amp; Tech Working Group]] in May 2026. However, it is still open as a general discussion group. The Remit below is basically obsolete, apart from the membership criteria for people who can use the group.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> The working space for the Operations Team is https://groups.io/g/FreegleOperationsTeam/<br /> <br /> ===Terms Of Reference===<br /> <br /> ====Purpose====<br /> The Operations Team (OT) provides day-to-day co-ordination for Freegle Limited in line with the strategic direction, goals and objectives of the Board of Directors.<br /> <br /> ====Responsibilities====<br /> *The OT is responsible for drafting the Freegle annual work programme. Once drafted, the OT will submit it to the Freegle Board of Directors for approval.<br /> <br /> *The OT is responsible for delivering and monitoring the progress of the approved annual Freegle work programme and its budgets.<br /> <br /> *The OT is responsible for the work of any groups/teams set up to consider, make decisions on, and undertake any specific work. This responsibility includes ensuring that each group has clear terms of reference, agreeing on an annual work programme, monitoring progress on the delivery of the work programme, and ensuring that any difficulties/challenges faced by the groups/teams are considered and acted upon.<br /> <br /> *The OT provides day-to-day direction and support for the functions and activities of the Chief Technical Officer, Director of Media, the Council officers and any other Freegle contractors/employees.<br /> <br /> *The Directors of the Board are ultimately responsible for what they delegate to the OT, therefore they need a regular flow of reports, and alerts to any necessary deviations of plans. The OT Chair will report to each Board of Directors meeting.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Authority====<br /> The OT's authority derives from the Board of Directors, under its powers to delegate responsibilities outlined in Rule 64 of the [[Rules]] of Freegle Limited.<br /> <br /> ====Membership====<br /> The OT membership consists of:<br /> <br /> *Group 1. (Freegle Board Members)<br /> **The Chair of The Freegle Board.<br /> **Two other Freegle Limited Directors.<br /> <br /> *Group 2 (Freegle Team volunteers)<br /> **The Freegle Treasurer or their deputy.<br /> **A representative from the Mentors Group.<br /> **A representative from the New Groups Team.<br /> **A representative from the Mailbox Team.<br /> **A representative from the Spammer List Team.<br /> **A representative from the Support Team.<br /> <br /> If the appointed representative cannot attend a meeting, a deputy from the team may attend to represent the team.<br /> <br /> *Group 3 (Freegle contractors)<br /> **The Chief Technical Officer.<br /> **The App Developer. (occasional attendance.<br /> **The Director of Media.<br /> **The Council Officers. (one of the two)<br /> <br /> N.B. Representatives of other Freegle roles may attend ad hoc when an agenda item is relevant to their work.<br /> <br /> ====Attendance at Meetings====<br /> *If for some reason a member cannot attend, please inform the Chair of the OT.<br /> <br /> *Representatives of Freegle Teams can nominate a deputy from their team to attend in their absence. Please advise the Chair of the OT if you need to do this.<br /> <br /> ====Information requirements====<br /> *The OT should ensure arrangements are in place to carry out its responsibilities effectively, including having information of appropriate form and quality.<br /> <br /> *Each Freegle contractor and Freegle team volunteer representative has the responsibility to provide the Board and OT with the following items of information at least once every three months (or more often if requested by the Chair of the OT):<br /> <br /> **A report of their or their Team's activities comparing their progress to the expectations outlined in the annual work plan.<br /> <br /> **An explanation of the variations in the expenditure compared to the budget they are responsible for.<br /> <br /> **Details of any staffing issues (i.e. does the Team have enough volunteers, their training requirements, recruitment issues etc.).<br /> <br /> **Provide details of any risks and other issues needing attention.<br /> <br /> ====Meetings====<br /> *Full meetings will be held monthly online, using Zoom, with an intermediate meeting with select members as operations require.<br /> Meetings will be chaired by the nominee of Freegle Board of Directors; if they cannot be present, they will nominate a chair who can develop the agenda and circulate reports.<br /> <br /> *The nominated Chair will develop the meeting agenda. The Chair should receive reports at least 72 hours before the meeting so that they can be circulated in time for members to read and review them.<br /> <br /> *The Freegle Board will arrange for minutes to be taken.<br /> <br /> The email address for the Team's Chair is operations.team.chair@ilovefreegle.org<br /> <br /> <br /> 2025 Meeting Dates (3rd Monday of the month @ 7:00 PM):&lt;br&gt;<br /> April 28, 2025, May 19, 2025, June 23, 2025, July 25, 2025, August 18, 2025, September 22, 2025, October 27, 2025, November 24, 2025, (December cancelled).<br /> <br /> 2026 Meeting Dates: (4th Monday of the month @ 9am) &lt;br&gt;<br /> 26th January, 23rd February, 23rd March, (27th April cancelled), 25th May, 22nd June, 27th July, 24th August, 28th September, 26th October, 23rd November<br /> <br /> ===Amendments, Variations or Modifications===<br /> <br /> The Board of Directors may amend, vary or modify these terms of reference in the light of operational needs.<br /> <br /> <br /> *[[Conflicts of Interest Procedure]]<br /> *[[Operations Team Minutes]]<br /> <br /> Version 1.0 Approved by the Freegle Limited Board on the 5th February 2025.<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]] [[category:Operations Team]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Central_Groups&diff=56057 2026-06-07T11:43:16Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Discourse [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/]] hosts our Central discussion groups, that all owners, moderators and volunteers of groups affiliated to Freegle are welcome and encouraged to join. [[Central Discussion and Groups Membership Policy]] explains the criteria for membership of all these national Freegle groups. <br /> <br /> All Central Groups are looked after by the [[Discourse Support Team Remit|Discourse Support Team]]<br /> <br /> == Freegle Central Group ==<br /> <br /> This is your main group to ask for help and information from your fellow Freegle moderators. It is a '''strong''' recommendation that you and your co-moderators belong to Freegle Central. <br /> <br /> If anyone wants to raise a general comment or ask questions about the way Freegle is working, they can just post a message on the group!<br /> <br /> <br /> == Freegle Cafe ==<br /> <br /> Off topic group for all Freegle volunteers to chat, post jokes and ditties, and generally socialise. <br /> <br /> <br /> == Tech and Modtools Group ==<br /> <br /> Group where tech questions can be raised and discussed about Freegle Direct, Apps and Modtools.<br /> <br /> <br /> == Announcements ==<br /> <br /> == Freestock ==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A summary of our central policies, procedures etc can be found in the [[:category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]]<br /> <br /> ==Participating==<br /> <br /> New members of Freegle Central and other national groups are encouraged to consider the following as a part of getting involved.<br /> <br /> * Introducing yourself to the Group and sharing any relevant experience which you bring to the group. Of course, everyone is welcome in the Freegle Working Groups regardless of experience.&lt;br&gt;<br /> * Familiarise yourself with the various groups.&lt;br&gt;<br /> * And lastly, please engage in the discussions on the Groups, contributing your thoughts to the collaborative process.<br /> <br /> Participating in the Central and Working Groups can be a first step toward getting more involved with your Freegle organisation on a national level.<br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;br&gt; '''Links''' to all the central groups of Freegle: <br /> <br /> All the following central groups for Freegle can be found on https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/<br /> <br /> *Freegle Central <br /> *Freegle Cafe <br /> *Freegle Development Working Group <br /> *Freegle Tech Working Group <br /> *Freegle Funding Group <br /> *Freestock <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[The Freegle Organisation]] [[Image:Freegle-heart.png|20px]] <br /> <br /> [[Category:Central Groups]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Policies,_Procedures_and_Remits&diff=56056 2026-06-07T11:41:22Z

<p>Jacky: /* T */</p> <hr /> <div>This section contains links to all those documents we have put in place to keep Freegle Ltd ticking over centrally. It also includes links to significant polls which have contributed to the decisions we have jointly made for Freegle, and footnote pages for significant revisions.<br /> <br /> A list of documents that have been archived/deleted can be found at [[Archived Documents]]<br /> <br /> These documents can be revised and amended, or new ones created in line with the [[Document Approval Policy]].<br /> <br /> {{CompactTOC}} <br /> ===1===<br /> <br /> [[10% Polling Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> ===A===<br /> <br /> [[Advisory Panel Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Affiliation Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Archived Documents]]<br /> <br /> ===B===<br /> [[Board Agenda and Minutes Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Board Chair]]<br /> <br /> [[Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Board Role and Remit]]<br /> <br /> [[Budget Creation Process]]<br /> <br /> ===C===<br /> <br /> [[Caretaker Group Rules]]<br /> <br /> [[Caretaker Groups]]<br /> <br /> [[Central Discussion Groups Membership Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Chief Technology Officer]]<br /> <br /> [[Co-option for Elected Roles]]<br /> <br /> [[Community Affiliation Requirements Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Community Mapping]]<br /> <br /> [[Complaints Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Conflicts of Interest Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Contacting Groups Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Contract for Services]]<br /> <br /> ===D===<br /> <br /> [[Data Use &amp; Protection]]<br /> <br /> [[December 2010 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[Development Working Group]]<br /> <br /> [[Director Autopromotion Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Director Role Description]]<br /> <br /> [[Directors Ending Term of Office Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Disaffiliation Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Discourse Support Team Remit]]<br /> <br /> [[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> <br /> ===E===<br /> <br /> [[Election Timetable Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Election and Poll Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Election links]]<br /> <br /> [[Emergencies]]<br /> <br /> ===F===<br /> <br /> [[Finance Documents Review]]<br /> <br /> [[Finance Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Finance Procedures]]<br /> <br /> [[Finance Role Remits]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Affiliated Group Area Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Affiliated Group Name and Logo Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Affiliation Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Aims]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Central Group]]<br /> <br /> Freegle Direct Information Policy<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Equality and Diversity Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Funding Group]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Group Membership Information Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Health and Safety Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Ltd Adopted Document Summary]]<br /> <br /> [[Freegle Mailbox Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> ===G===<br /> <br /> [[Geeks Team Remit]]<br /> <br /> [[Glossary]]<br /> <br /> [[Governance Wonk]]<br /> <br /> [[Group Affiliation Requirements Policy]]<br /> <br /> Group Affiliation Team (GAT) Remit<br /> <br /> Group Affiliation Team - Naming New Groups<br /> <br /> Group Affiliation Team Footnotes<br /> <br /> Group Affiliation Team Procedures<br /> <br /> ===H===<br /> <br /> [[Head of Media]]<br /> <br /> [[Head of Volunteers]]<br /> <br /> ===I===<br /> <br /> [[Insurance]]<br /> <br /> ===J===<br /> <br /> [[January 2010 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[July 2011 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[June 2010 Poll]]]<br /> <br /> [[June 21st 2010 Poll]]<br /> <br /> ===M===<br /> <br /> [[May 2011 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[May 2013 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[Mentor Team Remit]]<br /> <br /> ===N===<br /> <br /> [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[National Volunteers Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[New Director Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[New Group Support Procedures]]<br /> <br /> [[November 2009 Poll]]<br /> <br /> ===O===<br /> <br /> [[October 2009 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[October 2012 Poll]]<br /> <br /> [[Ombudsman Remit]]<br /> <br /> [[Operations Team]]<br /> <br /> ===P===<br /> <br /> [[Partners with Freegle]]<br /> <br /> [[Partnerships and Website Links Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[Paying People in Freegle Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Poll Voting Protocol Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Poll and Election Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Polls]]<br /> <br /> [[Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Policy and Procedures]]<br /> <br /> ===R===<br /> <br /> [[Returning Officer Remit]]<br /> <br /> [[Rules]]<br /> <br /> [[Rules - Amendments]]<br /> <br /> ===S===<br /> <br /> [[Safeguarding]] Statement<br /> <br /> [[Social Media Guidelines]]<br /> <br /> [[Society Secretary]]<br /> <br /> ===T===<br /> <br /> [[Trading Subsidiary Working Team]] Remit<br /> <br /> ===U===<br /> <br /> [[Unused and Redundant National Groups Procedure]]<br /> <br /> ===W===<br /> <br /> [[Working Groups Procedure]]<br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[The Freegle Organisation]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Tech_Responsibilities&diff=56055 2026-06-07T11:40:51Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>==This page is now obsolete and has been archived. October 2018==<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> This page lists the hardware, software, web sites, projects and tools supported by the Freegle-Tech team. Please also see the http://frgl.it/TechTasks tasks list of things to do (and some done). This page needs expanded as and when we have time to fill in the details - this is an important task to ensure that Tech knowledge and procedures are documented and passed on as far as possible. <br /> <br /> See here for a list of regular-ish Tech Jobs. <br /> <br /> Access details and locations of crucial files etc will not detailed here. <br /> <br /> Documentation often gets out of date, or is incomplete in the first place, so consider this a guide for you to scout around, not a definitive statement of fact. <br /> <br /> Web site <br /> <br /> Website Editing<br /> <br /> Freegle Website Editing Procedure<br /> <br /> Domain names <br /> <br /> *DNS config<br /> <br /> Web hosting<br /> <br /> See message posted to Central 13th October 2011 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreegleUK-Central/message/23673<br /> <br /> <br /> Web site system<br /> <br /> *runs what? <br /> *rebooting <br /> *database <br /> *email SMTP server <br /> *command line: putty / puttygen <br /> *FTP, eg WinSCP <br /> *Stats <br /> *backup<br /> <br /> Sub-domains + layout<br /> <br /> *www.ilovefreegle.org <br /> **/groups/ pages use code on maps.ilovefreegle.org and file at /kml/Freegle.kml <br /> **/kml/ stores Freegle.kml <br /> *messagemaker.ilovefreegle.org <br /> **Also known as mm.ilovefreegle.org and mm.frgl.it <br /> *maps.ilovefreegle.org <br /> **Find a Group JavaScript code <br /> ***Used by www /groups/ <br /> ***Used by mapplet, gadget, iframe and facebook code <br /> **/kml/ stores Freegle.kml <br /> **Admin page to rebuild the Freegle KML <br /> ***Rebuilt overnight <br /> ***KML file stored in www /kml/ and maps /kml/ <br /> *shared.ilovefreegle.org <br /> **Used for hosting badges: either general purpose badges or for specific events <br /> *surveys.ilovefreegle.org <br /> *freegle.in <br /> *freegle.it<br /> <br /> Web site directories<br /> <br /> *live and dev <br /> *backup using svn<br /> <br /> Databases<br /> <br /> phpMyAdmin <br /> <br /> *ilovefreegle+perch <br /> *ilovefreegle+shortlinks <br /> *wiki <br /> *LimeSurvey<br /> <br /> Groups database<br /> <br /> *used by mm and maps <br /> *updated overnight by scraping groups<br /> <br /> wiki <br /> <br /> *Check weekly for any dodgy entries (CC) <br /> *&lt;pre&gt;What was the decision on whether to approve new members to give them editing rights? &lt;/pre&gt;<br /> <br /> Links<br /> <br /> Procedure for adding external links to website - Partnerships and Website Links Procedure<br /> <br /> Non-Web site<br /> <br /> email<br /> <br /> *Google App <br /> *website server<br /> <br /> Documents<br /> <br /> *Google Docs<br /> <br /> Graphics <br /> <br /> *icons+apple touch icons <br /> *Badges<br /> <br /> Group stats <br /> <br /> Firefox Freegle Persona <br /> <br /> ;Leader <br /> :Chris<br /> <br /> Group home page <br /> <br /> ModTools<br /> <br /> ModTools helps you moderate Freegle or other reuse groups hosted on Yahoo! Groups. It can also be used to moderate other Yahoo Groups. It's the replacement for the Firefox Moderation Plugin (modplugin).<br /> <br /> It gives you an interface aimed at moderators - easily see all your messages in one place, and do what you need to do with a single click. <br /> <br /> Here is a link to Modtools Wiki:<br /> http://wiki.modtools.org<br /> <br /> Access keys <br /> <br /> These are used by the modplugin. Find out more http://wiki.modplugin.org/index.php/Access_Keys here. <br /> Spammers <br /> <br /> There's a group where you can report spammers - it's http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FCMODSpammers. This helps keep the mails about them off the main groups like Central. <br /> <br /> If you use the modplugin, it can scan your group automatically for spammers - see [http://wiki.modplugin.org/index.php/Spammer_List here]. <br /> <br /> Category:Tech_Group_Stuff<br /> <br /> Facebook<br /> <br /> See Facebook Republisher and Facebook Freegle Application.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:Historic documents]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Shortlinks&diff=56054 2026-06-07T11:39:22Z

<p>Jacky: /* Working Groups */</p> <hr /> <div>= About Shortlinking =<br /> <br /> == General Information ==<br /> Shortlinks are short web site addresses which redirect to longer ones. They are easier to remember and type then a long URL. More information about the topic can be found in [[wikipedia:URL shortening|Wikipedia's URL Shortening article]].<br /> <br /> Note: Within a Wiki article shortlinks are not clickable, but they will work in a browser bar without http:// or www. That is part of what makes them short.<br /> <br /> An example shortlink would be as follows:<br /> <br /> freegle.in/croydon which redirects to https://www.ilovefreegle.org/explore/Croydon-Freegle<br /> ==Shortlinks for communities==<br /> The basic format for community shortlinks is freegle.in/groupid where groupid is the form of the communities name used in the Explore page for the community. <br /> But there are variations. For instance <br /> *freegle.in/lancasterMorecambe<br /> *freegle.in/Lancaster <br /> *freegle.in/morecambe<br /> and nicknames<br /> *freegle.in/toon<br /> <br /> The list of current shortlinks is here - https://www.ilovefreegle.org/shortlinks<br /> <br /> <br /> Shortlinks are centrally provided for all Freegle communities. Changes or additions can be requested by emailing [mailto:shortlinks@iLoveFreegle.org shortlinks@iLoveFreegle.org]<br /> <br /> == Why Shortlink ==<br /> <br /> '''First''', it is practical to use shortlinks when publishing the website address for a local Freegle community on pamphlets, business cards, bumper stickers, posters, etc. A potential new member will much more easily remember a shortlink then the longer community URL.<br /> <br /> freegle.in/Ambridge is more memorable than https://www.ilovefreegle.org/Ambridge-BorchesterFreegle<br /> <br /> The shortlink is easier to type and faster to write down for someone taking note. <br /> <br /> '''Second''', shortlinks are by definition, short. Thus they are useful for displaying graphics and linking to other pages<br /> <br /> '''Third''', shortlinks are useful for providing easier to access URLs in place of more complicated ones. For instance, the following shortlink links to our Freegle Who's Who spreadsheet.<br /> <br /> freegle.it/WhosWho goes to http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tHlrrV6stByNXhbGduUVHrQ&amp;output=html<br /> <br /> The Google Documents target link is quite a mouthful. The shortlink is easier to remember and type. It is also self-descriptive, it is not hard to tell where it goes, while the long URL is a mystery until you actually load it up.<br /> <br /> '''Lastly''', shortlinks are internally useful by Freegle mods as they are simply easier to remember. If you wanted to visit the Freegle Who's Who spreadsheet above and could not use the shortlink, you might have to visit another web page or use a bookmark to find a link to the Who's Who spreadsheet. With the shortlink you can quickly load up the spreadsheet without having to go anywhere else first as freegle.it/WhosWho is easily remembered.<br /> <br /> A URL shortlinking service for Freegle uses the domains freegle.in and freegle.it / frgl.it.<br /> <br /> == Freegle.in ==<br /> <br /> '''Freegle.in''' shortlinks make it easier for Freegle mods to connect people with their local Freegle communities. They provide redirects to each community's page and are setup and maintained by the Freegle geeks team.<br /> <br /> Several other shortlinks are setup at Freegle.in for redirecting to another location based Freegle page. For instance, Freegle UK region shortlinks redirect to the appropriate &quot;Find a Community&quot; region page on the Freegle website. And those interested in Freestock can visit freegle.in/aField. <br /> <br /> == Freegle.it ==<br /> <br /> '''Freegle.it''' shortlinks are setup as needed for more miscellaneous targets, such as Freegle moderator discussion groups or Google documents that we want to make easily findable. To request a new shortlink, please email [mailto:shortlinks@iLoveFreegle.org shortlinks@iLoveFreegle.org].<br /> <br /> All Freegle.it shortlinks can also be accessed by using the domain name frgl.it. It is advised to use freegle.it when the URL will be visible and character limitation is not an issue eg. on a poster. The shorter version frgl.it is better used when the URL is not visible and when character limitation is an issue.<br /> <br /> == Tips &amp; Tricks ==<br /> <br /> Please note that all Freegle.it and Freegle.in shortlinks are case insensitive. For example, the following are all equivalent.<br /> <br /> * http://freegle.it/WhosWho<br /> * http://freegle.it/Whoswho<br /> * http://freegle.it/whoswho<br /> * http://freegle.it/wHoSwHo<br /> <br /> Of course, the last option is a bit insane. ;)<br /> <br /> In future the shortlinking application will be extended to allow shortlinks to optionally log tracking details via Google analytics as well. This will allow individual communities to provide the Shortlinking team with a Google analytics web property ID (the UA-XXXXX-YY number) which will then be used for tracking visits to your community page via a Freegle.in shortlink.<br /> <br /> = Notable Freegle Shortlinks =<br /> <br /> There are shortlinks to the core Freegle documents as well as the main Freegle moderator discussion groups. Some of these are listed below.<br /> <br /> == Google Documents ==<br /> <br /> * Who's Who in Freegle - http://freegle.it/WhosWho<br /> * Governing Document - http://freegle.it/GoverningDoc <br /> * Freegle Accounts - http://frgl.it/Accounts<br /> <br /> == Main Groups ==<br /> * [[Freegle Central Group]] - http://freegle.it/Central or http://frgl.it/Central<br /> * [[Freegle Cafe]] - http://freegle.it/Cafe or http://frgl.it/Cafe<br /> <br /> == Helpful Misc Shortlinks ==<br /> * Donate to Freegle - http://freegle.it/donate or http://frgl.it/donate<br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[PR Materials]]<br /> [[category:Freegle Tech Group]]<br /> [[category: PR Materials]]<br /> [[category:Home Page Help]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Tech_Working_Group_Remit&diff=56053 2026-06-07T11:38:11Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>'''This page has been mothballed. Governance changes in May 2026 created the Operations and Tech Working Group, previous to that this group had changed over the years from a formal Working Group to discussion group without task lists, reports etc. '''<br /> <br /> --------------------------------------------<br /> <br /> This remit was approved by the Board at their meeting of 29th April 2015.<br /> <br /> ====Link to Group:====<br /> The Freegle Tech Working Group can be found at http://freegle.it/Tech.<br /> <br /> ====Responsibilities, Jobs and Task List:====<br /> *The task list for this group can be found at http://freegle.in/techtasks.<br /> *The hardware, software, web sites, projects and tools supported by the Geeks team are included in the Geeks Team Remit<br /> <br /> ====Reports:====<br /> Reports from the group can be found at the wiki category:Tech Group Reports<br /> <br /> ====Remit of the Freegle Tech Working Group:====<br /> *Freegle Tech is a forum for discussing and planning technical aspects of running Freegle, either existing technologies or new initiatives. Example technologies include the Freegle web site, Freegle Direct, Freegle app, social media and Yahoo groups.<br /> *Although questions are always welcome, regular technical support is offered by the Support Team (email support@ilovefreegle.org) or, for advanced technical queries, the Geeks (email geeks@ilovefreegle.org), or for those new to any of the systems, the Mentors (email mentors@ilovefreegle.org).<br /> *Any technical efforts to maintain existing systems or develop new systems should primarily be organised here. However sub-groups may be set up for specific projects for those involved - and anyone else interested. Project teams may assign roles to individuals. These teams should report back to Tech Group on progress.<br /> *We will aim to document our systems on the wiki.<br /> *Freegle Tech will act on requests from the Board, Freegle Central and other Working Groups. It will also take the lead when appropriate in suggesting new possibilities.<br /> *Any significant proposals will be referred to the Board and Freegle Central for approval, as appropriate.<br /> *We welcome all Freegle volunteers as members, even if not taking part regularly. We may work with people outside Freegle, after checking with the Board, within the group and elsewhere.<br /> *We will report back to Freegle Central at appropriate intervals, eg every 3 months at a minimum.<br /> <br /> ====Links:====<br /> *The Geek Team are responsible for the central web facilities, see Geeks Team Remit<br /> *Working Groups Procedure <br /> *Document Approval Policy<br /> *Glossary<br /> *Previous Freegle UK document: Freegle Tech<br /> <br /> [[category:Historic documents]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Contact_Details&diff=56052 2026-06-07T11:00:25Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>The following are a selection of addresses have been set up for contact from inside and outside of Freegle. All volunteers and contractors manning mailboxes for Freegle centrally are required to follow [[Freegle Mailbox Guidelines]]. <br /> <br /> <br /> == External/Internal Contact Addresses ==<br /> <br /> *[mailto:info@ilovefreegle.org info@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact point for general queries about Freegle.<br /> *[mailto:support@ilovefreegle.org support@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact point for more technical queries relating to the way communities run on Freegle Direct, Freegle app, Trashnothing etc.<br /> *[mailto:media@ilovefreegle.org media@ilovefreegle.org] is an address for national media queries. <br /> *[mailto:directors@ilovefreegle.org directors@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact point for the [[Freegle Board]].<br /> *[mailto:newgroups@ilovefreegle.org newgroups@ilovefreegle.org] the mailbox of the New Groups Team (NGT), and is where you apply to start a new Freegle community or move an existing re-use community over to Freegle. <br /> *[mailto:webmaster@ilovefregle.org webmaster@ilovefreegle.org] is for technical problems with the [http://ilovefreegle.org website] (which are directed in the first instance to info@ilovefreegle.org)<br /> *[mailto:partnerships@ilovefreegle.org partnerships@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact address for the Partnerships Team <br /> *Community volunteer email addresses are in the format Groupname-volunteers@groups.ilovefreegle.org - the 'groupname' part of the address needs to be exactly as your community is titled (including any underscores, hyphens or spaces)<br /> <br /> == Internal Contact Addresses ==<br /> <br /> Several Freegle teams and addresses have been set up to help Freegle volunteers with various matters. These can be found on the Teams tab of Modtools, but here are some:<br /> <br /> *[mailto:mentors@ilovefreegle.org mentors@ilovefreegle.org]Help, support and holiday cover by the Mentor Team.<br /> *[mailto:ombudsman@ilovefreegle.org ombudsman@ilovefreegle.org] to contact our Ombudsman.<br /> *[mailto:returningofficer@ilovefreegle.org returningofficer@ilovefreegle.org] to contact our Returning Officer about polls and elections.<br /> *[mailto:grouplaunchcoordinator@ilovefreegle.org grouplaunchcoordinator@ilovefreegle.org] for new Freegle community launches <br /> *[mailto:geeks@ilovefreegle.org geeks@ilovefreegle.org]for specific information on Freegle IT matters.<br /> *[mailto:volunteer-support@ilovefreegle.org volunteer-support@ilovefreegle.org] is the address for the Mods who deal with Freegle UK Central and Freegle Rock Cafe<br /> *[mailto:board@ilovefreegle.org board@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact address for accessing and finding information about Freegle's insurance policy cover<br /> *[mailto:media@ilovefreegle.org media@ilovefreegle.org] is the contact address for our Head of Media if you have any questions or information to share about promoting Freegle<br /> <br /> <br /> These national working groups can also be used to ask for help or advice:<br /> <br /> *Development Group for questions or suggested changes on running a community or the national organisation. https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/c/development/<br /> *Funding Group for ideas and support on raising funding for locally or nationally.https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/c/funding/<br /> *Tech Group for interested non techies, tech policy and some Geek discussion. https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/c/tech/<br /> <br /> <br /> *If you wish to volunteer to do any specific piece of work or want to know what you could do, please don't hesitate to email [mailto:volunteers@ilovefreegle.org volunteers@ilovefreegle.org]. Or have a look at https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/c/volunteering/ and see if there are any tasks needing doing, or offer help generally. It will be great to hear from you!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;br&gt; Back to [[The Freegle Organisation]] [[Image:Freegle-heart.png|20px]] <br /> <br /> [[Category:Recruit/Train/Retain]] [[Category:Contact_Details]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Finance_Sub_Committee_Remit&diff=56051 2026-06-07T10:49:27Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>'''This document is has been superseded by [[Finance and Risk Working Group]].'''<br /> <br /> <br /> ........................<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> '''The Finance Sub-Committee (FSC) was a sub-committee of the Freegle Board. This remit was in force from the inception of the Committee in August 2017 until 2nd May 2026 when it was announced by the Board Chair to the committee it is now the [[Finance and Risk Working Group]].<br /> '''<br /> <br /> <br /> The Board delegates authority for approving certain expenditure to this sub-committee, within clearly defined areas and up to certain limits. This allows routine expenditure to be approved more quickly, without a full poll of the Board, while ensuring that unusual financial activity is referred to the full Board, with whom ultimate financial responsibility rests.<br /> <br /> <br /> ====Role====<br /> To approve expenditure within the levels of authority delegated by the Freegle Board.<br /> <br /> ====Membership====<br /> *The FSC will comprise the Treasurer and should also have 2 members of the Board who are not budget holders<br /> *The Board will at their first meeting following the AGM each year, determine members of the Sub-Committee until the next following AGM.<br /> *The Board from amongst their members will fill casual membership vacancies that might occur. A casual vacancy would be created by a member resigning mid term or being unavailable for an extended time, meaning the sub-committee can’t function appropriately.<br /> <br /> ====Working space/decision making process====<br /> *Meetings: A confidential group will be used to discuss and make decisions via messages and polls on that group as and when required. This was previously https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FreegleFSC/info and is now https://groups.io/g/FreegleFSC; email address finance@ilovefreegle.org <br /> *One member of FSC will be agreed by the members to be responsible for manning the mailbox and setting up/closing polls.<br /> *Level 2 Expenditure requests will be polled on by all four members of FSC - a simple majority and a 48 hour time limit will apply.<br /> *Members will tell FSC if they are going to be unable to access the group for a period of time.<br /> *The messages and poll results on the group will not be deleted and will be kept as a record of decisions. *Rejections of requested payments and any Finance Policy or procedural discussions will be reported to the Board.<br /> *The Treasurer will normally be required to take part in all decisions. <br /> *If there is deemed to be a conflict of interest for any member, that member must not be part of the meeting/decision relating to them.<br /> <br /> ====Delegated Authority (DA) Levels on Freegle Budgets====<br /> *Level 1: DA direct to the Treasurer for known expenditure within the agreed budget - e.g. regular payments to individuals, insurance, expenditure against restricted donations etc. The FSC won't be involved with this DA level.<br /> *Level 2: DA to FSC within agreed budgets and/or time periods with the approval for the spend coming from the budget holder - e.g. Media Director could request spend against their media budget, but not against the IT budget, and Platform Developer vice versa.<br /> *Board to agree DA Levels as part of approving each annual budget, as prepared by the Finance Director or the Board if that role isn't filled.<br /> <br /> ====Links====<br /> *This document was adopted by the Board at their meeting in July 2017. <br /> *Document Approval Policy<br /> *Finance Policy<br /> *Conflicts of Interest Procedure<br /> *Glossary<br /> *Finance Procedures<br /> *Budget Creation Process<br /> *Budget Owner<br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:Historic documents]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=4.1_Budget_cycle_and_approval&diff=56050 2026-06-07T10:44:20Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Freegle’s financial year ends 31st March (changed from 4th April in 2025). The calendar of Board meetings, accessed through the Board's shared google drive, includes dates relating to the review and production of accounts and budgets.<br /> <br /> <br /> *[[4. Finances]]<br /> *[[4.2 Funding]]<br /> *[[4.3 Annual Accounts]]<br /> *[[4.4 Financial Management]]<br /> *[[4.5 Levels of Authority]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Link: [[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:4.Finances]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=3.2_How_the_Board_operates&diff=56049 2026-06-07T10:40:31Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div><br /> The Board discusses day to day matters on the Board Group and uses polls to help with decision-making. Directors are expected to read all mails and contribute regularly to this group. In April 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-board-news-april-2026/9619]], it was agreed to change to a portfolio governance model and the establishment of working groups. The intention being to distribute workload and responsibilities more evenly across Board members, empowering our volunteer base, and maintaining strict financial oversight. <br /> <br /> <br /> * Board Group link – https://groups.io/g/FreegleBoard/<br /> <br /> * [[Board Role and Remit]]<br /> <br /> * [[Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> * Links to all Board Minutes on this wiki – [[:Category:Freegle Board Minutes]]. The Minutes, with full agendas and accompanying papers, are also on the Board's shared Freegle Drive.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * [[3.1 Board Structure]]<br /> * [[3.3 Practicalities]]<br /> * [[3.4 Policies]]<br /> <br /> <br /> Link: [[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:3. Directors, Meetings, Policies]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Wiki_Reports&diff=56048 2026-06-07T08:38:41Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>In 2020 it was decided to post a regular report to Central for changes to the wiki. The reports include edits that are significant, not the odd spelling mistake etc. The links are:<br /> <br /> '''2026'''<br /> <br /> January 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2026/9371]] - February 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2026/9462]] - March 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2026/9536]] - April 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2026/9640]] - May 2026 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2026/9765]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2025'''<br /> <br /> January 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2024/8268]] - February 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2025/8365]] - March 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2025/8462]] - April 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2025/8539]] - May 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2025/8612]] - June 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2025/8700]] - July 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2025/8815]] - August 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2025/8901]] - September 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2025/9010]] - October 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2025/9119]] - November 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2025/9194]] - December 2025 [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2025/9265]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2024'''<br /> <br /> December 2024 -[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2024/8183]] - November 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2024/8103]] - October 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2024/8024]] - September 2024- [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2024/7953]] - August 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-august-2024/7869]] - July 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2024/7709]] - June 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2024/7601]] - May 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2024/7509]] - April 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2024/7387]] - March 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2024/7280]] - February 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-29th-february-2024/7175]] - January 2024 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-january-2024/7087]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2023'''<br /> <br /> December 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2023/7000]] - November 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2023/6913]] - October 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2023/6828]] - September 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2023/6733]] - August 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2023/6612]] - July 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2023/6492]] - June 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2023/6366]] - May 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-april-2023/6269 ]](incorrect subject line, this was the report for 31st May 2023)- - April 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-april-2023/6177]] - March 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2023/6083]] - February 2023 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2023/5966]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2022'''<br /> <br /> December 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2022/5791]] - November 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2022/5703]] - October 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2022/5594]] - September 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-for-30th-september-2022/5507]] - August 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-august-2022/5388]] - July 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-july-2022/5243]] - June 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-june-2022/5140]] - May 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-may-2022/5049]] - March 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-march-2022/4841]] - February 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-28th-february-2022/4729]] - January 2022 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-january-2022/4619]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2021'''<br /> <br /> December 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-december-2021/4488]] - November 2021- [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-november-2021/4348]] - October 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-31st-october-2021/4217]] - September 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-30th-september-2021/4054]] - August 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-26th-august-2021/3935]] - July 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-july-2021/3750]] - June 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-june-2021/3624]] - May 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-may-2021/3492]] - April 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-25th-april-2021/3322]] - March 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-22nd-march-2021/3127]] - February 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-22-2-21/2936]] - January 2021 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-20-1-2021/2766]]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''2020'''<br /> <br /> September 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-14th-sept-2020/20]] - October 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-14-10-20/2223]] - November 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-18th-november-2020/2439]] - December 2020 - [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/wiki-report-18th-december-2020/2590]] -<br /> <br /> <br /> Link: [[Freegle Wiki]]<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [[category:Freegle Wiki]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Freegle_Teams&diff=56047 2026-06-06T09:20:46Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>There are several national teams of people in Freegle, along with individual national roles.<br /> <br /> A list showing who does what in Freegle can be found in Modtools under 'Teams'. If you would like to join any of these teams, just email them and offer. <br /> <br /> Teams and individuals with national roles (volunteers and contractors):<br /> *[[Ads_on_Freegle%27s_website#Ad_filtering|Ads Monitoring]] - team checking Google ads suitability for the website<br /> *[[Freegle App Developer|App Developer]] - developing and maintaining the Freegle apps*<br /> *[[Freegle Board|Board]] - The Board of Directors<br /> *[[Company_Secretary#Board_Secretary|Board Secretary]] - organising and recording Board meetings<br /> *[[ChitChat]] - moderation team for UK wide member chitchat on the website*<br /> *[[Data Protection Policy|Data Protection]] - Data Protection Officer to help Freegle 'keep it legal' with our use of data <br /> *[[National Media Director|Director of Media]] - dealing with national social media accounts and other publicity/promotional activities<br /> *[[Discourse Support Team Remit]] - team moderating Central and Cafe Groups on Discourse*<br /> *[[Finance_Role_Remits#FINANCE_DIRECTOR|Finance Director]]<br /> *[[Geeks Team Remit|Geeks]] - looking after the website, FD, Apps and anything else IT!*<br /> *[[Donations for Freegle|Gift Aid]] - team checking gift aid declarations*<br /> *[[Governance Wonk]] - role supporting the Board in maintaining high standards of governance, compliance, and transparency <br /> *[[Freegle Mailbox Guidelines|Mailbox Team]] - manning the national Freegle info@ mailbox* <br /> *[[Mentor Team Remit|Mentors Team]] - helping new groups and any other groups with practical support*<br /> *[[New_Groups_Team_-_NGT|New Groups Team (NGT)]] - team affiliating new communities to Freegle and sorting out boundaries for existing local communities*<br /> *[[ModTools#Stories|Newsletter]] - team reviewing member's stories to include in a regular newsletter - [[Council Newsletters]] <br /> *[[Ombudsman Remit|Ombudsman]] - final arbiters for our [[Complaints Procedure]] * <br /> *[[Operations Team]]<br /> *[[Contracted Roles|Partnerships]] - working with councils to try to get them to promote Freegle more <br /> *[[Freegle Platform Developer|Platform Developer]] - keeping our website up to date* <br /> *[[Returning Officer Remit|Returning Officers]] - team organising the AGM and annual election of Directors*<br /> *[[Social Media Team]] - helping local teams keep their Facebook and Twitter accounts linked and accessible*<br /> *[[Spammers|Spammer List]] - team reviewing spam reports from local groups, to check if needing to be included on national spammer list*<br /> *[[Freegle Mailbox Guidelines|Support]] - manning the national Freegle support@ mailbox*<br /> *[[Training Team]] - coordinating team for training new moderators*<br /> *[[Finance Role Remits|Treasurer]] - keeping our finances ship shape, reporting to the Board*<br /> *[[Events_and_Awards#Trustpilot|Trustpilot]] - responding to national Trustpilot reviews of Freegle<br /> *[[Help with the Wiki|Wiki]] - wiki editing is open to all, but this team pays particular attention to its upkeep<br /> <br /> A lot of the above roles require access to Support Tools on Modtools (these are marked with a asterix *) The list of these can be found at [[Support Tools Procedure]].<br /> <br /> <br /> &lt;br&gt; Back to [[The Freegle Organisation]] [[Image:Freegle-heart.png|20px]] <br /> <br /> [[Category:Freegle Teams]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Contracted_Roles&diff=56046 2026-06-06T09:19:18Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>The Board may appoint people to carry out specific work, under a paid contract for services. Contracts are/have been:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle Platform Developer‎]] – covers ongoing development of the platform. Edward Hibbert<br /> * Freegle Platform Maintenance – covers major fixes and general maintenance. Details of contract awards announcements are included on Freegle Platform Developer. Edward Hibbert<br /> *[[Freegle Social Media Management]] – Cat Fletcher<br /> *[[Freegle Media - Stories]]<br /> *Freegle Volunteer Support – Mhairi Gordon-Preston, 1 year contract 2016–17 to review and improve our volunteer strategy <br /> *[[Freegle App Developer]] – Chris Cant<br /> *[[National Media Director]] – from April 2018 known as Director of Media Services for Freegle UK. Cat Fletcher<br /> *Partnerships - two positions to encourage local Council engagement and support, contracted April 2018 and annually to May 2026. Natalie Ibbott and Anna Carmichael. Previously know as Council Services.<br /> *Mapping Officer – position appointed by the Board July 2023 for Wandsworth project. Matt Aitken<br /> *Freegle Doer – position appointed by the Board August 2023. Lou Devine<br /> *Strategy Assessment – short contract appointed by the Board August 2024. Esther Ptolemy<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A Pay Review was conducted by the Board in March 2022. An explanation of this was posted on Central https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-2022-agm-item-9-financial-sustainability/5383/86<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[Contract for Services]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Contracted Roles]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Contracted_Roles&diff=56045 2026-06-06T09:18:58Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>The Board may appoint people to carry out specific work, under a paid contract for services. Contracts are/have been:<br /> <br /> *[[Freegle Platform Developer‎]] – covers ongoing development of the platform. Edward Hibbert<br /> * Freegle Platform Maintenance – covers major fixes and general maintenance. Details of contract awards announcements are included on Freegle Platform Developer. Edward Hibbert<br /> *[[Freegle Social Media Management]] – Cat Fletcher<br /> *[[Freegle Media - Stories]]<br /> *Freegle Volunteer Support – Mhairi Gordon-Preston, 1 year contract 2016–17 to review and improve our volunteer strategy <br /> *[[Freegle App Developer]] – Chris Cant<br /> *[[National Media Director]] – from April 2018 known as Director of Media Services for Freegle UK. Cat Fletcher<br /> *[[Partnerships]] - two positions to encourage local Council engagement and support, contracted April 2018 and annually to May 2026. Natalie Ibbott and Anna Carmichael. Previously know as Council Services.<br /> *Mapping Officer – position appointed by the Board July 2023 for Wandsworth project. Matt Aitken<br /> *Freegle Doer – position appointed by the Board August 2023. Lou Devine<br /> *Strategy Assessment – short contract appointed by the Board August 2024. Esther Ptolemy<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A Pay Review was conducted by the Board in March 2022. An explanation of this was posted on Central https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-2022-agm-item-9-financial-sustainability/5383/86<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[Contract for Services]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Contracted Roles]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Society_Secretary&diff=56044 2026-06-05T15:34:30Z

<p>Jacky: /* Society Secretary */</p> <hr /> <div>==Secretary Terminology==<br /> <br /> The terms &quot;Secretary&quot;, &quot;Society Secretary&quot; and &quot;Board Secretary&quot; are all used in Freegle documentation.<br /> <br /> Secretary is a commonly used term to describe the individual who is accountable for making sure that an organisation is managed correctly and in accordance with the law.<br /> <br /> Secretary is the term used in the Freegle [[Rules]] to describe the Society Secretary role.<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary, related to the administration and minuting of board meetings are delegated to another individual. This role is called the Board Secretary.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary and Board Secretary roles are described in more detail below.<br /> <br /> ==Society Secretary==<br /> <br /> As highlighted above, the [[Rules]] use the term Secretary to describe this role.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of Freegle as a company, particularly in regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and for ensuring that decisions of the Board of Directors are implemented.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In 2026 a new governance structure was implemented. The Board agreed this new structure, with role descriptions, at their meeting of 2nd April 2026. The Society Secretary role was described to be:<br /> <br /> ===Primary Focus: Governance, Compliance, and Records===<br /> *Key Responsibilities: Ensuring Freegle complies with its own Rules and UK law.<br /> **Ensuring the formal Register of Members is maintained.<br /> **Coordinating Board papers and ensuring minutes of the Board and Working Groups are recorded and accessible.<br /> **Managing the Board’s annual calendar (e.g., election cycles).<br /> • Success looks like: An organisation that is &quot;audit-ready&quot; with transparent governance records.<br /> <br /> <br /> The original and still applicable parts of this remit are below.<br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> The rules for Society Secretary are different for public and private companies. Freegle is a private company and society, because it is owned by its Members. <br /> A Secretary is optional for a private company (April 2008 Companies Act), because it is not owned by the public and so public disclosure of business and financial activities and performance is not required to Companies House. Freegle opts to have a Society Secretary, rule 84.<br /> <br /> When a Society Secretary is appointed by the Board, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be notified.<br /> <br /> The heart of the role is that the Society Secretary is the guardian of the company’s proper compliance with both the law and best practice. The Board will look to the Society Secretary for guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged. A Society Secretary has to keep up to date on law, as advised by the FCA.<br /> <br /> The typical roles for a Society Secretary to undertake, or oversee are: <br /> <br /> # Maintaining the company’s statutory books, including a register of present and past Directors and Secretaries, minutes of general meetings and Board meetings; <br /> # Filing annual returns, AR30 form with the FCA. Other documents which should be filed include the directors’ report and financial statements, including details of the company’s assets and liabilities.<br /> # Arranging meetings of the Directors. This responsibility will involve ensuring proper notices of meetings is given, with preparation of agenda, circulation of relevant papers, and taking and producing minutes to record the business transacted at the meetings and the decisions taken. A calendar should be kept for Actions that have been worthwhile to pursue, even though they resulted in no change for the present. An annual or biennial reminder to be set, to flag to the Board for further reviews.<br /> # Informing the FCA of any significant changes in the company’s structure or management, for example the appointment or resignation of Directors.<br /> # Maintaining the company’s registered office as the address for any formal communications. <br /> # Ensuring the security of the company’s legal documents, such as certificate of incorporation or articles of association<br /> # Deciding on the company’s policy for the filing and retention of documents.<br /> # Ensuring Directors comply with corporate legislation and the articles of association of the company.<br /> <br /> The Board can from time to time vary these. Freegle adds the following to the remit of Society Secretary:<br /> # To maintain registers of members, in accordance with Rules 95 - 97. <br /> # Convene General Meetings, at the request of the Board of Directors, in line with requirements of Rules 22-­49. <br /> # Appointment of Returning Officers and Ombudsman, in collaboration with the Board of Directors.<br /> # Ensure [[New Director Procedure]] is carried out.<br /> # Ensure that an annual confirmation of affiliation process is carried out.<br /> # Be the Board's first contact for the [[Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Policy and Procedures]].<br /> <br /> ==Board Secretary==<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary (related to the administration of board meetings) are delegated to another individual, called the Board Secretary. The Board Secretary will be appointed by the Board. <br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> To be the administrative secretary for the Board, particularly in regard to managing Board meetings. <br /> <br /> For more information on specific duties, see the [[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-needs-a-new-company-secretary/7306]] 2024 request for Company Secretary <br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/board-secretary/7790]] 2024 request for Board Secretary<br /> *[[Notes on Submission of the AR30 Annual Return]]<br /> *[[Freegle Ltd Annual Reports]] - Directors reports to the AGM<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board]]<br /> *[[Director Handbook]]<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Register of Members and Directors]]<br /> *[[Company Records]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Society_Secretary&diff=56043 2026-06-05T15:34:03Z

<p>Jacky: /* Primary Focus: Governance, Compliance, and Records */</p> <hr /> <div>==Secretary Terminology==<br /> <br /> The terms &quot;Secretary&quot;, &quot;Society Secretary&quot; and &quot;Board Secretary&quot; are all used in Freegle documentation.<br /> <br /> Secretary is a commonly used term to describe the individual who is accountable for making sure that an organisation is managed correctly and in accordance with the law.<br /> <br /> Secretary is the term used in the Freegle [[Rules]] to describe the Society Secretary role.<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary, related to the administration and minuting of board meetings are delegated to another individual. This role is called the Board Secretary.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary and Board Secretary roles are described in more detail below.<br /> <br /> ==Society Secretary==<br /> <br /> As highlighted above, the [[Rules]] use the term Secretary to describe this role.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of Freegle as a company, particularly in regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and for ensuring that decisions of the Board of Directors are implemented.<br /> <br /> In 2026 a new governance structure was implemented. The Board agreed this new structure, with role descriptions, at their meeting of 2nd April 2026. The Society Secretary role was described to be:<br /> <br /> ===Primary Focus: Governance, Compliance, and Records===<br /> *Key Responsibilities: Ensuring Freegle complies with its own Rules and UK law.<br /> **Ensuring the formal Register of Members is maintained.<br /> **Coordinating Board papers and ensuring minutes of the Board and Working Groups are recorded and accessible.<br /> **Managing the Board’s annual calendar (e.g., election cycles).<br /> • Success looks like: An organisation that is &quot;audit-ready&quot; with transparent governance<br /> records.<br /> <br /> <br /> The original and still applicable parts of this remit are below.<br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> The rules for Society Secretary are different for public and private companies. Freegle is a private company and society, because it is owned by its Members. <br /> A Secretary is optional for a private company (April 2008 Companies Act), because it is not owned by the public and so public disclosure of business and financial activities and performance is not required to Companies House. Freegle opts to have a Society Secretary, rule 84.<br /> <br /> When a Society Secretary is appointed by the Board, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be notified.<br /> <br /> The heart of the role is that the Society Secretary is the guardian of the company’s proper compliance with both the law and best practice. The Board will look to the Society Secretary for guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged. A Society Secretary has to keep up to date on law, as advised by the FCA.<br /> <br /> The typical roles for a Society Secretary to undertake, or oversee are: <br /> <br /> # Maintaining the company’s statutory books, including a register of present and past Directors and Secretaries, minutes of general meetings and Board meetings; <br /> # Filing annual returns, AR30 form with the FCA. Other documents which should be filed include the directors’ report and financial statements, including details of the company’s assets and liabilities.<br /> # Arranging meetings of the Directors. This responsibility will involve ensuring proper notices of meetings is given, with preparation of agenda, circulation of relevant papers, and taking and producing minutes to record the business transacted at the meetings and the decisions taken. A calendar should be kept for Actions that have been worthwhile to pursue, even though they resulted in no change for the present. An annual or biennial reminder to be set, to flag to the Board for further reviews.<br /> # Informing the FCA of any significant changes in the company’s structure or management, for example the appointment or resignation of Directors.<br /> # Maintaining the company’s registered office as the address for any formal communications. <br /> # Ensuring the security of the company’s legal documents, such as certificate of incorporation or articles of association<br /> # Deciding on the company’s policy for the filing and retention of documents.<br /> # Ensuring Directors comply with corporate legislation and the articles of association of the company.<br /> <br /> The Board can from time to time vary these. Freegle adds the following to the remit of Society Secretary:<br /> # To maintain registers of members, in accordance with Rules 95 - 97. <br /> # Convene General Meetings, at the request of the Board of Directors, in line with requirements of Rules 22-­49. <br /> # Appointment of Returning Officers and Ombudsman, in collaboration with the Board of Directors.<br /> # Ensure [[New Director Procedure]] is carried out.<br /> # Ensure that an annual confirmation of affiliation process is carried out.<br /> # Be the Board's first contact for the [[Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Policy and Procedures]].<br /> <br /> ==Board Secretary==<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary (related to the administration of board meetings) are delegated to another individual, called the Board Secretary. The Board Secretary will be appointed by the Board. <br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> To be the administrative secretary for the Board, particularly in regard to managing Board meetings. <br /> <br /> For more information on specific duties, see the [[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-needs-a-new-company-secretary/7306]] 2024 request for Company Secretary <br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/board-secretary/7790]] 2024 request for Board Secretary<br /> *[[Notes on Submission of the AR30 Annual Return]]<br /> *[[Freegle Ltd Annual Reports]] - Directors reports to the AGM<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board]]<br /> *[[Director Handbook]]<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Register of Members and Directors]]<br /> *[[Company Records]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Board_Chair&diff=56042 2026-06-05T15:32:48Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>This remit was agreed by the Board at their meeting held August 2014.<br /> <br /> <br /> ROLE<br /> <br /> Lead the Board and Freegle to enable it to fulfil its purpose, ensuring an effective relationship between:<br /> <br /> * the Board and Volunteers/Members<br /> * the Board and the external stakeholders/community<br /> * Act as a spokesperson and figurehead as appropriate.<br /> <br /> To supervise and support other officers and role holders<br /> <br /> <br /> REMIT<br /> <br /> Plan and prepare the committee meetings and the AGM with others as appropriate.<br /> <br /> Chair committee meetings ensuring:<br /> <br /> * A balance is struck between time-keeping and space for discussions.<br /> * Business is dealt with and decisions made.<br /> * Decisions, actions and deliberations are adequately minuted.<br /> * The implementation of decisions is clearly assigned and monitored.<br /> <br /> Ensure adequate support and supervision arrangements are made for role holders/volunteers directly managed or reporting to the Board.<br /> <br /> Ensure that a successor is found before the term of office finishes.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Addition'''<br /> The Board agreed to implement a new governance structure at the meeting of 2nd April 2026. The role of the Board Chair was agreed as below. This doesn't supersede the remit above, but adds to it.<br /> <br /> *Primary Focus: Leadership, Strategy, and External Representation.<br /> <br /> *Key Responsibilities: Ensuring the Board stays focused on Freegle’s mission and long-term strategy.<br /> **Chairing quarterly Board meetings and the Annual General Meeting (AGM).<br /> **Providing a &quot;sounding board&quot; and support to lead volunteers or staff.<br /> **Jointly approving unbudgeted expenditure with the Finance Director/Treasurer.<br /> <br /> *Success looks like: Productive meetings where every voice is heard and clear decisions are made.<br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[Freegle Board]]<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]] [[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Society_Secretary&diff=56041 2026-06-05T15:28:11Z

<p>Jacky: /* Society Secretary */</p> <hr /> <div>==Secretary Terminology==<br /> <br /> The terms &quot;Secretary&quot;, &quot;Society Secretary&quot; and &quot;Board Secretary&quot; are all used in Freegle documentation.<br /> <br /> Secretary is a commonly used term to describe the individual who is accountable for making sure that an organisation is managed correctly and in accordance with the law.<br /> <br /> Secretary is the term used in the Freegle [[Rules]] to describe the Society Secretary role.<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary, related to the administration and minuting of board meetings are delegated to another individual. This role is called the Board Secretary.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary and Board Secretary roles are described in more detail below.<br /> <br /> ==Society Secretary==<br /> <br /> As highlighted above, the [[Rules]] use the term Secretary to describe this role.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of Freegle as a company, particularly in regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and for ensuring that decisions of the Board of Directors are implemented.<br /> <br /> In 2026 a new governance structure was implemented. The Board agreed this new structure, with role descriptions, at their meeting of 2nd April 2026. The Society Secretary role was described to be:<br /> <br /> ===Primary Focus: Governance, Compliance, and Records===<br /> *Key Responsibilities: Ensuring Freegle complies with its own Rules and UK law.<br /> **Ensuring the formal Register of Members is maintained.<br /> **Coordinating Board papers and ensuring minutes of the Board and Working Groups<br /> are recorded and accessible.<br /> **Managing the Board’s annual calendar (e.g., election cycles).<br /> • Success looks like: An organisation that is &quot;audit-ready&quot; with transparent governance<br /> records.<br /> <br /> <br /> The original and still applicable parts of this remit are below.<br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> The rules for Society Secretary are different for public and private companies. Freegle is a private company and society, because it is owned by its Members. <br /> A Secretary is optional for a private company (April 2008 Companies Act), because it is not owned by the public and so public disclosure of business and financial activities and performance is not required to Companies House. Freegle opts to have a Society Secretary, rule 84.<br /> <br /> When a Society Secretary is appointed by the Board, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be notified.<br /> <br /> The heart of the role is that the Society Secretary is the guardian of the company’s proper compliance with both the law and best practice. The Board will look to the Society Secretary for guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged. A Society Secretary has to keep up to date on law, as advised by the FCA.<br /> <br /> The typical roles for a Society Secretary to undertake, or oversee are: <br /> <br /> # Maintaining the company’s statutory books, including a register of present and past Directors and Secretaries, minutes of general meetings and Board meetings; <br /> # Filing annual returns, AR30 form with the FCA. Other documents which should be filed include the directors’ report and financial statements, including details of the company’s assets and liabilities.<br /> # Arranging meetings of the Directors. This responsibility will involve ensuring proper notices of meetings is given, with preparation of agenda, circulation of relevant papers, and taking and producing minutes to record the business transacted at the meetings and the decisions taken. A calendar should be kept for Actions that have been worthwhile to pursue, even though they resulted in no change for the present. An annual or biennial reminder to be set, to flag to the Board for further reviews.<br /> # Informing the FCA of any significant changes in the company’s structure or management, for example the appointment or resignation of Directors.<br /> # Maintaining the company’s registered office as the address for any formal communications. <br /> # Ensuring the security of the company’s legal documents, such as certificate of incorporation or articles of association<br /> # Deciding on the company’s policy for the filing and retention of documents.<br /> # Ensuring Directors comply with corporate legislation and the articles of association of the company.<br /> <br /> The Board can from time to time vary these. Freegle adds the following to the remit of Society Secretary:<br /> # To maintain registers of members, in accordance with Rules 95 - 97. <br /> # Convene General Meetings, at the request of the Board of Directors, in line with requirements of Rules 22-­49. <br /> # Appointment of Returning Officers and Ombudsman, in collaboration with the Board of Directors.<br /> # Ensure [[New Director Procedure]] is carried out.<br /> # Ensure that an annual confirmation of affiliation process is carried out.<br /> # Be the Board's first contact for the [[Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Policy and Procedures]].<br /> <br /> ==Board Secretary==<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary (related to the administration of board meetings) are delegated to another individual, called the Board Secretary. The Board Secretary will be appointed by the Board. <br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> To be the administrative secretary for the Board, particularly in regard to managing Board meetings. <br /> <br /> For more information on specific duties, see the [[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-needs-a-new-company-secretary/7306]] 2024 request for Company Secretary <br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/board-secretary/7790]] 2024 request for Board Secretary<br /> *[[Notes on Submission of the AR30 Annual Return]]<br /> *[[Freegle Ltd Annual Reports]] - Directors reports to the AGM<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board]]<br /> *[[Director Handbook]]<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Register of Members and Directors]]<br /> *[[Company Records]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Society_Secretary&diff=56040 2026-06-05T15:26:53Z

<p>Jacky: /* Society Secretary */</p> <hr /> <div>==Secretary Terminology==<br /> <br /> The terms &quot;Secretary&quot;, &quot;Society Secretary&quot; and &quot;Board Secretary&quot; are all used in Freegle documentation.<br /> <br /> Secretary is a commonly used term to describe the individual who is accountable for making sure that an organisation is managed correctly and in accordance with the law.<br /> <br /> Secretary is the term used in the Freegle [[Rules]] to describe the Society Secretary role.<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary, related to the administration and minuting of board meetings are delegated to another individual. This role is called the Board Secretary.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary and Board Secretary roles are described in more detail below.<br /> <br /> ==Society Secretary==<br /> <br /> As highlighted above, the [[Rules]] use the term Secretary to describe this role.<br /> <br /> The Society Secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of Freegle as a company, particularly in regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and for ensuring that decisions of the Board of Directors are implemented.<br /> <br /> In 2026 a new governance structure was implemented. The Society Secretary role was described to be:<br /> <br /> ===Primary Focus: Governance, Compliance, and Records===<br /> *Key Responsibilities: Ensuring Freegle complies with its own Rules and UK law.<br /> **Ensuring the formal Register of Members is maintained.<br /> **Coordinating Board papers and ensuring minutes of the Board and Working Groups<br /> are recorded and accessible.<br /> **Managing the Board’s annual calendar (e.g., election cycles).<br /> • Success looks like: An organisation that is &quot;audit-ready&quot; with transparent governance<br /> records.<br /> <br /> <br /> The original and still applicable parts of this remit are below.<br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> The rules for Society Secretary are different for public and private companies. Freegle is a private company and society, because it is owned by its Members. <br /> A Secretary is optional for a private company (April 2008 Companies Act), because it is not owned by the public and so public disclosure of business and financial activities and performance is not required to Companies House. Freegle opts to have a Society Secretary, rule 84.<br /> <br /> When a Society Secretary is appointed by the Board, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must be notified.<br /> <br /> The heart of the role is that the Society Secretary is the guardian of the company’s proper compliance with both the law and best practice. The Board will look to the Society Secretary for guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged. A Society Secretary has to keep up to date on law, as advised by the FCA.<br /> <br /> The typical roles for a Society Secretary to undertake, or oversee are: <br /> <br /> # Maintaining the company’s statutory books, including a register of present and past Directors and Secretaries, minutes of general meetings and Board meetings; <br /> # Filing annual returns, AR30 form with the FCA. Other documents which should be filed include the directors’ report and financial statements, including details of the company’s assets and liabilities.<br /> # Arranging meetings of the Directors. This responsibility will involve ensuring proper notices of meetings is given, with preparation of agenda, circulation of relevant papers, and taking and producing minutes to record the business transacted at the meetings and the decisions taken. A calendar should be kept for Actions that have been worthwhile to pursue, even though they resulted in no change for the present. An annual or biennial reminder to be set, to flag to the Board for further reviews.<br /> # Informing the FCA of any significant changes in the company’s structure or management, for example the appointment or resignation of Directors.<br /> # Maintaining the company’s registered office as the address for any formal communications. <br /> # Ensuring the security of the company’s legal documents, such as certificate of incorporation or articles of association<br /> # Deciding on the company’s policy for the filing and retention of documents.<br /> # Ensuring Directors comply with corporate legislation and the articles of association of the company.<br /> <br /> The Board can from time to time vary these. Freegle adds the following to the remit of Society Secretary:<br /> # To maintain registers of members, in accordance with Rules 95 - 97. <br /> # Convene General Meetings, at the request of the Board of Directors, in line with requirements of Rules 22-­49. <br /> # Appointment of Returning Officers and Ombudsman, in collaboration with the Board of Directors.<br /> # Ensure [[New Director Procedure]] is carried out.<br /> # Ensure that an annual confirmation of affiliation process is carried out.<br /> # Be the Board's first contact for the [[Public Interest Disclosure (Whistleblowing) Policy and Procedures]].<br /> <br /> ==Board Secretary==<br /> <br /> Sometimes, some of the duties of the Society Secretary (related to the administration of board meetings) are delegated to another individual, called the Board Secretary. The Board Secretary will be appointed by the Board. <br /> <br /> ===Responsibilities===<br /> <br /> To be the administrative secretary for the Board, particularly in regard to managing Board meetings. <br /> <br /> For more information on specific duties, see the [[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Links:<br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-needs-a-new-company-secretary/7306]] 2024 request for Company Secretary <br /> *[[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/board-secretary/7790]] 2024 request for Board Secretary<br /> *[[Notes on Submission of the AR30 Annual Return]]<br /> *[[Freegle Ltd Annual Reports]] - Directors reports to the AGM<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board]]<br /> *[[Director Handbook]]<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Register of Members and Directors]]<br /> *[[Company Records]]<br /> *[[Freegle Board Meeting Procedure]]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Finance_Role_Remits&diff=56039 2026-06-05T15:18:42Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>This document was adopted by the Board at their meeting of 27th August 2014, and amended in 2026 with adoption of new governance model, agreed by the Board at their meeting of 2nd April 2026.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===TREASURER===<br /> <br /> 1. The Treasurer will be appointed by the Board.<br /> <br /> 2. The Treasurer will remain in post until there is another person appointed to the role.<br /> <br /> 3. Directors have a responsibility to appoint a Treasurer as soon as possible once there is an impending or actual vacancy.<br /> <br /> 4. The Treasurer's role and remit are as described in the [[Finance Procedures]] document and subject to the [[Finance Policy]].<br /> <br /> 5. This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> ===FINANCE DIRECTOR===<br /> <br /> ====Role====<br /> <br /> To oversee all financial aspects of company strategy and responsible for the flow of financial information to the Board and, where necessary, external parties such as investors or financial institutions. The Finance Director will be appointed by the Board.<br /> <br /> ====Primary Focus (additional section added May 2026)====<br /> Financial Stewardship and Risk <br /> • Key Responsibilities: Overseeing the preparation of annual accounts and the annual budget.<br /> o Monitoring cash flow and reserves to ensure solvency.<br /> o Reporting financial health to the Board quarterly.<br /> o Jointly approving unbudgeted expenditure with the Chairperson.<br /> • Success looks like: Financial stability and the Board having full confidence in the numbers.<br /> <br /> ====Main Responsibilities====<br /> <br /> *1. Overall control of Freegle Ltd’s accounting function.<br /> *2. Financial planning and related ongoing advice for the Board.<br /> *3. Providing periodic reports to the Board on the financial plan, including forecasts and variances.<br /> *4. Formulating financial targets and budgets in accordance with the strategy determined by the Board.<br /> *5. Overall control of all financial transactions and accountancy matters, including audit systems.<br /> *6. Corporate finance: managing Freegle Ltd policies regarding capital requirements, debt, taxation, equity and acquisitions, as appropriate.<br /> *7. Preparing annual accounts<br /> *8. Ensuring that the regulatory requirements of all statutory bodies are met regarding all Freegle Ltd’s financial affairs<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Finance and Risk Working Group===<br /> <br /> [[Finance and Risk Working Group]]<br /> <br /> ===Auditor===<br /> <br /> The [[Rules#Audit]] details the requirement for an Auditor. <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Contact Details===<br /> <br /> Contact email address for the Treasurer: [mailto:Treasurer@ilovefreegle.org Treasurer@ilovefreegle.org](the Financial Director will also have access to this mailbox)<br /> <br /> Contact email address for the Finance Director: [mailto:Finance@ilovefreegle.org Finance@ilovefreegle.org] (the Chair of the Board will have access to this mailbox)<br /> <br /> <br /> Relevant links:<br /> *See [[Finance Documents Review]] for the record of reviews and amendments of this document. <br /> *[[Finance Policy]]<br /> *[[Finance Procedures]] <br /> * appeal for Finance Director for 2025 Board Election - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-election-2025-formal-notice/8895/2<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Glossary]]<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *Previous Freegle UK document Financial Management and Controls<br /> *Link to Financial Conduct Authority website. The FCA is the body to which IPSs are accountable [http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/firm-types/mutual-societies/industrial]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]] <br /> [[category:Finance]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Finance_Role_Remits&diff=56038 2026-06-05T15:17:13Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>This document was adopted by the Board at their meeting of 27th August 2014, and amended in 2026 with adoption of new governance model.<br /> <br /> <br /> ===TREASURER===<br /> <br /> 1. The Treasurer will be appointed by the Board.<br /> <br /> 2. The Treasurer will remain in post until there is another person appointed to the role.<br /> <br /> 3. Directors have a responsibility to appoint a Treasurer as soon as possible once there is an impending or actual vacancy.<br /> <br /> 4. The Treasurer's role and remit are as described in the [[Finance Procedures]] document and subject to the [[Finance Policy]].<br /> <br /> 5. This role is subject to the [[Named Role Holder Ending Term of Office Procedure]].<br /> <br /> ===FINANCE DIRECTOR===<br /> <br /> ====Role====<br /> <br /> To oversee all financial aspects of company strategy and responsible for the flow of financial information to the Board and, where necessary, external parties such as investors or financial institutions. The Finance Director will be appointed by the Board.<br /> <br /> ====Primary Focus (additional section added May 2026)====<br /> Financial Stewardship and Risk <br /> • Key Responsibilities: Overseeing the preparation of annual accounts and the annual budget.<br /> o Monitoring cash flow and reserves to ensure solvency.<br /> o Reporting financial health to the Board quarterly.<br /> o Jointly approving unbudgeted expenditure with the Chairperson.<br /> • Success looks like: Financial stability and the Board having full confidence in the numbers.<br /> <br /> ====Main Responsibilities====<br /> <br /> *1. Overall control of Freegle Ltd’s accounting function.<br /> *2. Financial planning and related ongoing advice for the Board.<br /> *3. Providing periodic reports to the Board on the financial plan, including forecasts and variances.<br /> *4. Formulating financial targets and budgets in accordance with the strategy determined by the Board.<br /> *5. Overall control of all financial transactions and accountancy matters, including audit systems.<br /> *6. Corporate finance: managing Freegle Ltd policies regarding capital requirements, debt, taxation, equity and acquisitions, as appropriate.<br /> *7. Preparing annual accounts<br /> *8. Ensuring that the regulatory requirements of all statutory bodies are met regarding all Freegle Ltd’s financial affairs<br /> <br /> <br /> ===Finance and Risk Working Group===<br /> <br /> [[Finance and Risk Working Group]]<br /> <br /> ===Auditor===<br /> <br /> The [[Rules#Audit]] details the requirement for an Auditor. <br /> <br /> <br /> ===Contact Details===<br /> <br /> Contact email address for the Treasurer: [mailto:Treasurer@ilovefreegle.org Treasurer@ilovefreegle.org](the Financial Director will also have access to this mailbox)<br /> <br /> Contact email address for the Finance Director: [mailto:Finance@ilovefreegle.org Finance@ilovefreegle.org] (the Chair of the Board will have access to this mailbox)<br /> <br /> <br /> Relevant links:<br /> *See [[Finance Documents Review]] for the record of reviews and amendments of this document. <br /> *[[Finance Policy]]<br /> *[[Finance Procedures]] <br /> * appeal for Finance Director for 2025 Board Election - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/freegle-election-2025-formal-notice/8895/2<br /> *[[Document Approval Policy]]<br /> *[[Glossary]]<br /> *[[Rules]]<br /> *Previous Freegle UK document Financial Management and Controls<br /> *Link to Financial Conduct Authority website. The FCA is the body to which IPSs are accountable [http://www.fca.org.uk/firms/firm-types/mutual-societies/industrial]<br /> <br /> [[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:Freegle Board]] <br /> [[category:Finance]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=3.3_Practicalities&diff=56037 2026-06-02T17:59:05Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>(Page still under construction}<br /> <br /> As an online organisation, it is essential for Directors to have the IT capacity to attend Zoom and other types of online meetings, and to converse within forums and via email.<br /> <br /> From April 2026 Board Meetings will be held quarterly on the 3rd Thursday of the month @6.30pm, using the same Zoom link each month - https://zoom.us/j/93308199871?pwd=Sk5qeHRlQXRHYVZnZ01SeTEzbTlHZz09<br /> <br /> - The private Board discussion group is - https://groups.io/g/FreegleBoard/<br /> <br /> - The open national volunteer discussion forum is on Discourse - https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/<br /> <br /> Certain expenses can be paid to Directors, the form is ………. (Need new expenses policy and form)<br /> <br /> This Freegle Wiki provides extensive information on Freegle UK and Freegle decisions and resources.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * [[3.1 Board Structure]]<br /> * [[3.2 How the Board operates]]<br /> * [[3.4 Policies]]<br /> <br /> <br /> Link: [[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:3. Directors, Meetings, Policies]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Society_Records&diff=56036 2026-06-02T17:06:18Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Freegle Ltd is required to keep and submit certain documentation. This page gives links to relevant documents and reference sites. <br /> <br /> *[[Rules]] - the governing document<br /> * Freegle registered with the FCA (formerly FSA) [[https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593]] under the Cooperative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS). The registration was made 13th June 2014, registration no. 32410R. The FCA can be contacted at 0300 5000597. The terminology changed for an IPS, and Freegle is now known as a Registered Society.<br /> *The HMRC confirmed charitable registration of Freegle Ltd, using the same reg. no. as Freegle UK - XT32865 [[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDLE82mEn2jUlRONmhMUmoyZHc/view?usp=sharing]] on 11th March 2015. <br /> *[[Updating HMRC Charity Status Process]] - explains the process for updating our status with the HMRC.<br /> *[[Register of Members and Directors]] explains the registers Freegle are required to keep.<br /> * Resolution 8.1 of the [[AGM 2025 Agenda|AGM 2025]] resolved to change the name Freegle Limited to Freegle. The FCA agreed the change on 1st June 2026.<br /> <br /> [[category:Freegle Organisation]] [[category:Freegle Board]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=Freegle_Family&diff=56035 2026-06-02T17:03:19Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>When a community is affiliated to Freegle, all the Volunteers working for that community become part of Freegle. We are all in this together guys! <br /> <br /> If you wish to take fuller part in Freegle organisational activities (voting and stuff), please become a Member of Freegle Ltd - see [[Freegle Membership]] for more details.<br /> <br /> See the page &quot;[[Organisation]]&quot; for how it all works, and, now a bit outdated, [https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/images/Freegle_Organigram_v6bt_Jul13.pdf this 2013 diagram].<br /> <br /> When a [[New Groups Team|new Freegle community]] is affiliated, it is put on the Freegle website with appropriate links and [[maps|mapping]] details.<br /> <br /> We all have different skills and time to offer to Freegle. Please don't be shy about joining in!<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Back to [[The Freegle Organisation]], [[Contacts]] or [[First Steps]]<br /> <br /> [[Category:Contact Details]] [[category:The Basics]]</div>

Jacky https://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/index.php?title=1.4_Legal_Structure&diff=56034 2026-06-02T17:01:55Z

<p>Jacky: </p> <hr /> <div>Started in 2009 as Freegle UK, an unincorporated organisation, we transitioned via a holding company with 3 Directors to Freegle Ltd. The company converted from a Company Limited by Guarantee to an Industrial and Provident Society in June 2014 and 9 Directors were appointed following election by volunteers.<br /> <br /> Freegle was granted exempt charity status by HMRC in 2015 to enable gift aid claims on donations and to attract other external funding.<br /> <br /> On 1st June 2026, the FCA approved a name change, which was voted for at the 2025 AGM, from Freegle Limited to Freegle. [[AGM 2025 Agenda]] Extraordinary resolution 8.1 <br /> <br /> <br /> Now known as a Registered Society, we are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority and subject to our Rules. The FCA is the registering authority for societies. This role is different and separate from their role as a regulator of financial services. They do not regulate societies, societies are regulated by the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014. The FCA Role relates to a society’s compliance with the Act, they don’t regulate the business, financial stability or conduct of societies. <br /> <br /> In-house explanation of a registered society - [[Registered_Society]]<br /> <br /> FCA registration 32410R - https://mutuals.fca.org.uk/Search/Society/9593<br /> <br /> Governing document - [[Rules]]<br /> <br /> Registered Office: 64a North Road, Ormesby, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR29 3LE<br /> <br /> HMRC registration - XT32865 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxDLE82mEn2jUlRONmhMUmoyZHc/view?resourcekey=0-28IAV_sfkZcah2kjzJ4g7Q . The process for updating this is at [[Updating HMRC Charity Status Process]].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> *[[1. What is Freegle]]<br /> *[[1.2 Freegle Objects]]<br /> *[[1.3 Vision, Mission, Values]]<br /> *[[1.5 Our strategic objectives]]<br /> *[[1.6 Public Benefit]]<br /> <br /> <br /> Links: <br /> *[[Potted History]] -chatty rundown of Freegle history<br /> *[[Director Handbook]]<br /> <br /> [[category:1.Introduction to Freegle]]</div>

Jacky