Discourse Support Team Remit

Discourse Support Team Remit, adopted April 2021.

This team is also known as Volunteer Support, and was previously called the Central Mods Team.

1. Role and remit

The Discourse Support Team supports volunteers on Discourse and ensures the efficient, productive running of our national Discourse groups.

2. Tasks and duties

The team is responsible for the day-to-day running of Discourse groups and any associated tasks.

2.1 Specific tasks

• Welcome new members to Discourse
• Encourage participation in the various Discourse groups
• Encourage members to follow the Guidelines
• Manage comments, suggestions and complaints from members
• Direct threads to alternative Discourse groups where appropriate
• Identify any groups not engaging with Central and encourage them to do so
• Assist the Tech Team with Discourse maintenance as requested
• Maintain up-to-date membership, including removing members who are no longer volunteers
• Ensure all Freegle-affiliated groups are represented on Discourse, via the Contacting Groups Procedure
• Ensure there's always cover for any work and specific roles within the team

2.2 Additional tasks

The team may take on additional roles or tasks to fulfil its general remit. If an additional role or task would significantly alter the remit, it must first be approved by the Board and/or Central.

3. The team

3.1 Membership of the team

• Central, Cafe and Freestock Group Coordinators
• Tech representative
• Working Groups (Development, Tech, Funding) Coordinators (see the Working Groups Procedure for their work and remit)

3.2 Eligibility and selection

Team membership is open to all volunteers, except for additional roles, which are appointed by the Discourse Support Team.

3.3 Ending team membership

• A role holder can stand down at any time by informing Central.
• If team members feel a role isn't being fulfilled, they should try to work with the role holder to help, or otherwise refer to the Complaints Procedure.
• In extremis, volunteers can call for a vote of no confidence and pass the issue to the Ombudsman.

4. Moderation guidelines for Discourse groups

To keep Discourse a friendly, supportive place for all volunteers, the team will:

• apply only a very light-touch moderation process, prioritising keeping Central as unmoderated as possible
• only use moderation when messages are abusive, overtly aggressive or threatening

4.1 Moderation process

• Each member of the Discourse Support Team can moderate the groups, and can act in an emergency to put a member into silenced status.
• Anyone silenced must be told immediately.
• Silencing is kept as short as possible and lifted once the team is satisfied the problem is sorted.
• The relevant group is told that silencing is in effect, as it also applies in parallel across all other groups.
• Silenced members can only send and receive messages by private message to the team, so the team must ensure they're contacted and the issue dealt with promptly.

Contact

Team members supporting Central and the Cafe groups can be contacted at volunteer-support@ilovefreegle.org.

Links

• Freegle Central Membership
• Freegle UK Central Group
• Freegle Cafe
• Working Groups Procedure
• Glossary
• Document Approval Policy