Adult Mix and Match discussions are here!
Hi everyone!
As you may know we have been trialing the Mix and Match discussion format on the teen side. We are now ready to bring this across to the adult side too!
Please read the announcements here and here for more information about this opportunity.
What do we hope to achieve through this?
- Allow more people to get involved and lead discussions.
- Provide better support to teams with no current leaders and ensure members still receive support.
- Raise the quality of the discussions being led.
- Allow discussion leaders the opportunity to lead discussions on the topics of their choice with less limitations.
- Alleviate the pressure on team leaders.
How do I sign up?
Go to the sign up sheet here and follow the instructions!
What do I do if I currently lead weekly sessions?
Look at the lists below and find out if the room you lead sessions in is participating in mix and match.
If so: You will no longer be leading in that room and you should sign up through the mix and match sheet above!
If not: Continue doing what you are doing!
If you would like to continue to be a part of a subcommunity team you are more than welcome to lead open chats and fun events in the room! Mix and match is run independently of subcommunity teams and anyone can join! If you have any questions about your role you are more than welcome to reach out to me or Fluffyunicorns84
Teams participating in mix and match
If you lead discussions for these team you will now be leading in the support sessions room. Only open chats and fun events will be led in these rooms.
Relationship Support
Anxiety Support
Depression Support
Disability
Parenting and Pregnancy
Family and Caregivers
General Support
Autism
Trauma
LGBTQ+
Personality Disorder
Positivity Corner
Student Support
Self Harm Recovery
Eating Disorders Support
Bipolar Support
Teams NOT participating in mix and match
If you lead discussions for these teams please continue to do so. Nothing is changing here.
50+
35+
Events Team / Member Hangout
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions please dont hesitate to reach out to me. I will be happy to discuss this further. Nothing is set in stone and ideas are welcome!
@fluffyunicorns84 @MrJacob @brilliantTurtle89
@Lorraine234 What does this mean for the SCs that aren't listed?
@AffyAvo for now they will contniue to do what they are doing. We have not finialised all teams yet so this list will update as that happens.
All Adult & ATL Chatroom moderators and Room Supporters are now listed for thier badges / mod abilities to be active in the support session room.
Mods: @Ele @DylanxYuzu @WeGotThis211001 @Freedomtochoose @Charmingtime @Twitch98 @Itskara @VinylFly @TooManyFruits @Nothingisforever91 @Ayla @Smileypower @amiablePeace77 @Brilliantturtle89 @SpringWaltz @InternalAcceptance @younity @Midnightraven999 @caringPanda45 @Amy @Suranta @PamHarley003 @RicochetJaguar @Duckswithmoose @Nenz @LavendarFlower @PenguinPower31 @ToxicUnicorn @VickyP @crystalclearnow @SilverWaterfall @sweetnutella @WeedyGarden @Emsworld @BlindGrapefruit @vivespatates @Oceanchild @AnyaS @HereComesTheSun7 @Hoxenos @saranova @SpectrumforHope @Isentropic @rebecca947 @brilliantturtle89 @RumpleSteeleSkin @DanaMH @smileypower @bear228 @LilyBlossom21 @onedirection1213 Rs: @KindBean2002 @MieraCurie @KatRebane @Nada @Sibafo @gentleSun78 @Angelshealtranquilityprevails @sereneSunshine50 @peacefulBubbles40 @junkiesuperstarislistening @Lostsoul0241 @TortueDesBois @lovethelittlethings @snowneonblues4355 @Mamamel @littleAardwolf @Alia3475 @enlightenedTree32 @Babycakes112 @Peter1447 @RandomAccessMemory @Shivam501 @Softhearted975 @delightfulUnicorn38 @Blaise23Vixiana @Kritikaaa @Mountainmystic777 @SoulfullyAButterfly @energeticSail @hofimon @fantasticWatermelon83 @politeUnicorns47
@Lorraine234
room supporters allowed to lead discussion with mod but i know it is hard to find one free for 1 hour
so how can we solve that ?
@delightfulUnicorn38 hey! If you open the sign up sheet linked above their are instructions. Room supporters are allowed to lead discussions without mods but only for mix and match and only in the support session room. they need to PM the Community Mod on duty and let them know a discussion is taking place and ask them to keep an eye. All sessions that are led outside of the support session room will still require a mod to be present. Does that answer your question okay?
@Lorraine234
how know who is the mod in duty?
why do they not have access to answers to the form from the chatroom rule #24 *.
why they could not help members using the form wanting leading discussions. lets say priority on emergency form of course, but if there is no emergency, they could just check this form as well and help members wanting leading discussions when there is no emergency. The criterias could be either the badges as before the room supporter role, or better, being a room supporter in the room you want to lead which would make them feel as they are part of a team, have advatages to it, but the most important, complete their quotas on their focus room.
those are popup discussions, so can be 15 or 30 min, but not 1 hour long.
* 24. If youre a member and would like to lead a support room discussion, please submit this form to request help.
@TortueDesBois There's a link to the schedule in the description in the Safety & Knowledge SC. Maybe linking in the chatroom rules would be a good idea too.
@AffyAvo okay, i was not looking in right place then,. but still if we have a form for discussions in the rules, it may be great to make better use of it
@Lorraine234 Yay Lor
But ummm you forgot mindfulness is not doing adult mix n match
@Lorraine234
Sounds very interesting, thanks for the information.
@Lorraine234
Thanks for the update Lorraine!
This is confusing!
@cyanPlatypus6370 All this means for the members is that discussions will be hosted in the Support Session room. If you have any questions you are more than welcome to PM me and I'd be happy to explain
@Lorraine234
So in theory because the 'Support Session' room is a pop up, when there is a discussion taking place the main topic room could empty out and people have to transfer to the pop up room?
So for example the Anxiety chatroom which is open 24/7 - there is a discussion so the pop up Support Session room opens and everyone in the Anxiety 24/7 chatroom could leave meaning that room would be empty, and they all have to transfer to the Support Session room?
Listening .... One Step At A Time
@MistyMagic hey! Those that are interested in attending the support session will join the support session room, yes. Those that do not want to participate will stay in the topic based room and have the space to have a more open discussion
@Lorraine234 - Thank you? I do not currently host any discussions but I am a (L) also. Personally, I do not really care *where* the discussion is held as long as all of us (M) and (L) can find it! ~ Platy
P.S. and it is VERY helpful if the Community Calendar is kept up to date! I've had some listeners say well i posted it in the sub-comm or I put it on my page ... one central - here are the announcements about discussions - would be extremely helpful. It is frustrating to carve out an hour or two in my schedule for the day and then get here and find the discussion has been canceled. (Yes, I get that there are emergencies. It would just be nice to know if the discussion is happening or not :\ )
@cyanPlatypus6370 thats the idea! the calendar has been cleaned up and each specific event will be added so hopefully that will help! Thats for your feedback! Appreciate it
@Lorraine234 does it mean I'm no longer supposed lead my regular disability support sessions on the disability support room, there where I have my mod privileges?
@Lorraine234
as i have the requierement to have 3 discussions a month on the disability room but have now to do those in a different room, how will it works for my quotas?
and as I have powers in my rooms only and no privilege in this different room, how it will work on this side too?
Does it mean I will be very limited in topics to those on your sheet, and no longer allowed to go with our regular discussions that we had many choices to pick from, and in a different room?
Does it mean for continuing on disability team, i will have to lead only open chats and fun chats? no more thoughtful and supportive chats? i will have to limit my support sessions on an other room, and then double my tasks as support session leader and moderator for disability, by doing my discussions in a different room and that they dont count in my quotas?
@vivelespatates the mix and match program is not part of the support teams. Its a separate program and we are aware that people will not be able to volunteer for every role and we do not encourage that. If you are wanting to be apart of the disability team you will host your open chats and community building events in that room. These are discussions guided by the members of the community and allow them to share and reach out as they need to.
The discussions on the sheet will be rotated with new discussions once they have been led.
You are not required to lead in mix and match as it is not compulsory. Please dont feel pressured to take on more than you can do.
@Lorraine234 so the support teams are no longer about lead support sessions but about leading open chats? it doesnt make much sense
@Lorraine234 It sounded like at the session that was open to everyone, that how this would affect the roles wasn't going to be discussed there.
It doesn't affect a role I have specifically. This does affect the team as a whole though, as well as just seeking support in the room as a member.
Personally, I would much rather attend a supportive, guided discussion related to an issue than a trivia session in a room. To me, it seems odd that a support session leader wouldn't have a guided discussion count towards what is required of them in a month, but a game or trivia session would count.
To me, this sounds like it might result in less guided supportive discussions and more leaders having the support rooms not really be about support related to the topic of the room.
I do understand the value of having some fun sessions, but the priorities seem off in my opinion. Maybe I'm not understanding the basis for this plan?
@AffyAvo hey affy! The focus is not on fun session but on community building. Allowing the support team leader the time and resources to build up a strong team in order to give uality support to the members of the community. This is to inrease the quality of the sessions that are being led. This is also to allow members to get support even if a team oes not have a leader. The support sessions will still be happening. They will be happening in the support session room, which allows community moderators to help with moderation. This means more people are able to lead as they do not need to find someone to moderate their session for them. The room is still going to be used for open chats that will be facilitated by support session leaders. Support Team Leaders will also be leading sessions in the room still. The rest of the team however will just be leading in the support session room. The is not intended to limit role or support. This is intended to allow more people to get involved and to provide more support of a higher quality. Hope that helps!
@Lorraine234 Why not included the support sessions towards the minimum that support sessions leaders must do though?
If people are feeling overwhelmed already, it would seem like they would drop the extras (like right now guided discussions) instead of what actually counts towards their needed quota.
@AffyAvo they are separate roles. The mix and match program is separate from the support teams and we do not want to pressurise people to do both. Some people would prefer to stay in the topic based rooms and build community, others prefer to be in the support session room and lead guided discussions. They are led by different people and handled independantly.
We still want the rooms to be used and therefore it is separate and people are free to decide where they would like to spend there time. This is to allow the team leaders time to build up a strong team. There is a possibility that once our teams are strong and have enough support we move back into the rooms. This is to allow members to gain that support no matter if a team has support or is struggling.
@Lorraine234 I'm really confused by the changes with what's expect with which role. In the past, it was the support session leaders who ran the guided discussions. The mods on the team were the ones who would be in the room, not running discussions.
@AffyAvo right! Which hasnt changed. We have just taken the workload of support session off the team leaders, and are handling that ourselves for the time being. Which means the type of sessions the support session leaders are leading are different. Like open discussions for example. No changes to the roles or role descriptions right now.
@Lorraine234 So those who lead regular guided discussions are not being encouraged to not do these, and do open chats instead.
The hope is that others will pick up the guided discussions even though so far that's not happening from what I see so far?
@AffyAvo these people are encouraged to 1. Do open chats or 2. Lead in the support session room.
Just for an example im going to share a few stats:
In may, the Disability subcom lead 34 sessions in the Disability room. That is teen side and adult side included. 8 of these sessions were guided discussions and the other 26 were open chats.
In June there were 13 sessions led. 4 of which were guided discussions and 9 of which were open chats.
In July there were 29 sessions led. 11 of them were guided discussions and 18 of them were open chats.
These are amazing stats and the Disability community have been doing an exceptional job. We have few communities who are able to host that amount of sessions. It does however show a pattern and that the majority of our sessions, atleast in that community are already open chats.
The mix and match program has only been launched for 1 week and we would like to give it some time because deciding the success of it. We do not know if this is the answer however we are trying our best to find the best soluntion for the users of our community
@Lorraine234 I can understand giving it some time.
I'm just lost as to why the guided discussions would no longer count. It sounds like if there was a support session leader who has been doing discussions consistently for a while, that if they wish to continue they now need to tack on an extra hour/week to meet their minimum?
@AffyAvo they do not <3 they do not need to take on more. They will just be leading open chats instead of guided sessions. If they choose to sign up for mix and match they can do so and then yes that will be an additional role but it is not linked to their role as support session leader for a specific team.
@Lorraine234 But if they want to do guided discussions, it must be in mix and match and then not counting to their quota, right? So if they wish to do the same activity as before, with the guided discussions, their requirements have just increased.
This is why I feel like the guided discussions are losing their priority compared to the open chats/fun things.
@AffyAvo They are also welcome to only do mix and match, therefore doing guided discussions. This is in no way an attempt to make them less of a priority. In fact they are more of a priority and they are getting the attention to detail and quality that we need inorder to deliver the best support for members. this is the plan. We will see how it roles out and reassess after some time. For now this seems to be allowing our leaders to get back on their feet.
@Lorraine234 If they do that, would they still be considered to be on the same SC teams, or is support session now an entirely separate thing?
I think I'm a bit lost on to what to see from the different roles now, compared to before.
@AffyAvo Mix and match is separate to the SC teams. SC mods, room supporters and support session leaders will support a SC team in that specific room. Any Mod, room supporter or support session leader from any SC team or global are invited to sign up to lead a session when it suites then through mix and match. If any of those people are confused they are also more than welcome to reach out to me and we can discuss 1-1 and more specific to their situation.
@Lorraine234 as by your stats, you see a mix of guided discussions, support sessions and open chats. we want it be this way for answering a maximum of different needs in our community, disability is an unique rooms and our members have needs different from other community. as support sessions, we did alternate between them for answer different needs. have times more focussing on distractions and light chats, times based on supporting members with what THEY want (open chats) and support sessions, aimed to support people throught issues that most of members of our subcommunity face.
With this new system, they are very different things, and we have to pick one between both and focus on it, or double our tasks by doing both and adding the both quotas. additionnally it means that the ones who focus on support sessions for our members with disability are no longer part of our team. Disability support is a very strong team, and by doing it, its sorta breaking our team. if they do regulary support sessions about disability support, they deserve to feel as part of our team. We NEED them. and we dont want them feel as they are no longer part of our team because they focus on support sessions related to disability, instead to do only open chats. You mentionned a lot community building. its really much the concerns here. we dont want break our team of this way.
@vivelespatates our intention here is not to break communities. It is very possible that people share different opinions. That is totally okay. I do want to just remind you that we are all passionate about this community and share the aim of seeing it grow and support the users who visit our community.
Support sessions that take place in the support session room are also there to support specific communities, like Disability. Quality of support is moderated and the calendar can be more reliable. It is allowing more people to get involved and lead sessions which we hope will increase the amount of support we can offer our members.
Nobody has bad intentions and I understand that you want what is best for the community you participate in. I also understand that change is hard. As with all things in communities like ours, change is however inevitable. We problem solve, we brainstorm soluntions and we trial them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and we have to go back to the drawing board and ty something else. All we ask is that you remain open minded and allow the trial to take place. We will then brainstorm further and welcome any feedback and new suggestions.
@Lorraine234 I don't think there is any bad intention, and I'm sure it will help the smaller rooms and teams to grow up, and members to get in more sessions (and seeing quickly the support session room is open then there is an event they can join in if they are fan of support sessions). The same way that support plus team did work well for a long time to help smaller teams to get bigger and eventually go on their own.
otherwise, if a listener want lead regular sessions on a specific topic, I think they should still be able to do it, and particulary feel as they are part of our subcommunity, our team. and not just be part from a different project. they should can benifit of our specific training if they wish lead sessions exclusively on our topic or more than 3 a month. They should also be able to offer both, discussions and support sessions, without have choose between both.
I think there are a few ways that we could combinate the advantages of both, without have the inconvenients to have to pick between, and keep and reinforce the feeling of belonging to a specific subcommunity team, and continue the support sessions on specific topics. having listeners leading sessions on a specific topic and who taken the subcommunity training and who are part of our team are in measure to offer a such incredible quality.
@vivelespatates for sure I can totally see that, as i said we will be open to feedback and suggestions that you have to share! For now though, we need to give this trial a chance to run. While doing that I hope that we can work together and not against each other. We are all hre to the benefit of those that need support and i truly believe that <3
@vivelespatates
My understanding is that some discussions are deemed to be "support sessions," and some are not. The ones that are "support sessions" will go to the other team, but many discussions will stay with Disability Support, and we are allowed to host them and announce them in the Community Calendar. You sessions have a been a CRITICAL part of the team, and we need you! I hope that you will stay and do sessions with approved discussions. I hope that helps.
@BlindGrapefruit its also part of issues, we can no longer alternate between both on a same room, which is very important for me to balance between supportive support sessions, guided discussions, and open chats. which all answer different needs.
I should not have to choose between focussing on open chats for remaining part of disability team as support session leader, and leave our wonderful team for continuing to do supportive support sessions related to disability. or have to pick the third option to join both and be trapped in too much tasks
What is the criteria for getting existing/new discussions added?
@AffyAvo Support team mentors are welcome to have new discussions written by their community and submitted. We have 5 per topic available at a time however we will rotate those as they have been hosted.