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Changes to Staff

Discussion in 'Empty Closets Help and Feedback' started by EmptyClosets, Sep 25, 2010.

  1. EmptyClosets

    Admin Team Full Member

    Joined:
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    Hey guys,

    Here's a few updates regarding changes that have been made to the staff team in the last couple of weeks.

    Staff Roles

    Advisors now possess moderator tools and will be able to deal with basic areas of moderation such as post reports, thread moves/removals, and other general moderation. They will be expected to remain up to date with threads in the support forum, and maintain private communication with members.

    Moderators will be expected to patrol the site and enforce the Code of Conduct. They will work alongside Advisors to deal with general moderation, but they will also be required to contact members regarding inappropriate behaviour and rule-breaking, and will issue bans when necessary.

    Member Confidentiality

    Just to reinforce what's been said elsewhere, the EC staff takes confidentiality very seriously. We've always maintained a policy that information provided by members to staff is kept confidential among the staff, but we've just implemented an additional layer of confidentiality for our Advisors and Experts, so now Advisors have a way to communicate with Experts and other Advisors if they need additional help or support resources for a member without sharing it with other staff members. Of course, Advisors generally don't share information a member tells them with any other staff unless they need additional support for an issue a member is having. Now, however, we've established an additional level of communication and support for Advisors and Experts so that when a member needs help, they can get it without worrying about the entire staff knowing what the issues are.

    Community Liaison

    This is a new usergroup that has been introduced to increase the level of support and resources that we can offer members. We currently have a excellent system that allows members to receive support and advice during the coming out process, but we wanted to go one step further and offer isolated members a way to integrate into the gay community and open up some doors for socialising with peers.

    As a result, we have now developed the Community Liaison role. Anybody in this usergroup will be representing a LGBT organisation, such as PFLAG, and will be able to offer members resources on coming out, and also offer information on local LGBT groups that are legitimate and safe. Currently we have beckyg in the group, who is our PFLAG representative. She is able to offer PFLAG resources to members upon request, and can also try and provide information on local LGBT chapters in their area.

    The aim of this usergroup is to provide a range of coming out resources, and to open up new opportunities for members who wish to meet other LGBT peers. It's no secret that some members often feel very isolated during the coming out process and beyond, so hopefully this usergroup will be able to help them.

    Note: This usergroup is not officially part of EC's Staff. The only privileges they have is a fancy user title, and the ability to PM any member regardless of Regular/Full member status. They do not have access to any of the staff forums.

    We are hoping to expand this usergroup in future to include a range of LGBT organisations from various countries.

    New Expert

    The team is delighted to welcome a new Expert to the team named blairSW!

    Blair is a qualified Social Worker located in Canada, and will be joining the staff team to offer his insight and support. He will primarily be working with Advisors to assist them with more complicated issues that they face, and will be lurking around the support forums to offer his own advice when appropriate.

    It should be stressed that Blair is NOT somebody who members can just contact for private support. If that was the case then he'd become swamped with PM's and would not be able to have a life outside of EC. To avoid this happening we have developed a referal system so that the more complicated issues can be dealt with by Blair if needed.

    A member should continue to contact Advisors if they want to have private communication. An issue will only be referred to Blair in extreme circumstances, and it's his choice whether he accepts that referal or not. He only has limited time to commit to EC and that will be primary devoted to assisting Advisors and checking on the support forums.

    That's pretty much it!

    I've been drafting this post for nearly 2 hours now so I'm not going to bother with a fancy ending. If anybody has any questions then feel free to ask. :slight_smile:

    EC Staff.