Announcement: Group Mod Challenge
Hello Moderator Team
I’ve got a challenge for you! Are you ready?
- Take a look at the communication styles as shown in the image above. Which four of the styles fit your communication style best? Let us know that in the comments below!
- Find a mod to partner up with to go mod and foster healthy conversation in the chat rooms for half an hour at least 6 times in a two-week span.
- Observe and take notes on the communication approach of your mod partner and the mod partner will be doing the same for you. (Please note that communication styles and approaches can and will vary and that’s alright!)
- Participate in the Group Mod Zone Room and compare your notes and share with fellow mods to learn about each others’ communication styles. Also, share the vibe of the room you both were modding to share in the Mod Room. The vibe of the room here means how was the room environment at the start of joining and when you left. You could share it on a scale of 1-10 where 1 would be “Meh” and 10 as “Awesome”.
Your mod partner can be:
- Any community moderator on shift (just let them know 1-1 before you join as a partner with them on their shift).
- A fellow community-centered chat room moderator of the same community who could be present at the same time as you will be able to participate in the room.
- A global moderator who could be present at the same time as you will be able to participate in the room.
To complete the challenge of visiting and moderating the rooms at least six times in a two-week span, your mod partner can be different if the same mod partner can’t be present. If you have more than one partner, you will simply take notes of different mods' communication styles and approaches and share them with them and fellow moderators in the group mod zone.
Every time you complete one session, drop it in the comments of this thread to log your active participation.
The goal of this challenge:
- Identify your own communication approach in the group dynamics and how it changed/evolved as the situation in the room changed.
- Identify how having a partner with you changed/ helped to foster a supportive and compassionate environment in the chatroom.
- What were the challenges? What surprised you? What type of communication approach works best for you?
At the end of this two-week challenge, you will receive information for the next one! And at the end of the quarter, the top 3 chat room moderators who complete all the challenges successfully will be awarded the most prestigious award: Award-Winning Mod!
Criteria of Award-Winning Mod
- Being passionate about group support chat rooms
- Being compassionate and engaging with the community members
- Being professional and ensure the safety of the room
- Using active listening and de-escalation with all chat participants.
- Being supportive to the fellow chat room moderators and room supports
- Being an open-minded communicator
- Being yourself and having fun while being there in the rooms.
Fun fact! To this day, only 12 chat room moderators have earned this exclusive award! And for extra incentive, every chat room moderator will be awarded 100 cheers per activity they complete.
I am signing up for the challenge and I invite every moderator to accept the challenge too! May we grow together as the best moderators of the community!
Activity 2
Partner: @Richuyulin
Session date: April 15th, 2021
Session time: 3:15pm - 4pm
Room: Sharing Circle
Notes: Yesterday Lin & I moderated Support 24/7 together and decided Lin was mostly a thinker and I was mostly a relator. Today, however, I think we were a bit more diverse in the approaches we used. We needed a variety of methods to keep the session as supportive as possible depending on the feeling in the room (which can change quickly as each 5 minute share can be a completely different topic & emotion), but there are also some skills that there's simply not time to use in the SC format (e.g. it's rarely appropriate for a relator to share their own feelings as it takes away from the sharers limited time).
Activity #18
Partner: @Gozzil
Session date: April 16th, 2021
Session time: 3:15pm-4:00pm
Room: Sharing Circle
Notes: Co-hosted a Sharing Circle session with Gozzil today and our approach was different from our previous session in Support Room 24/7. We used a variety of approach depending on scenario we were faced with to help maintain the supportive environment for participants. As Gozzil pointed out, it is worth noting the the structure on SC does limit some styles more than others as each style has it's own strength and weaknesses.
Activity #19
Partner: @CommunityModElliot
Session date: April 17th, 2021
Session time: 10:30am-11:30am
Room: Support Room 24/7 / Member Community Room
Notes: An hour of moderation was quite interesting a involved many different things. Hosting SR Check-in session. Chilling with members in MCR. Switching between rooms dealing with scenarios that arise. Learning to better navigate the grey areas of moderation world. We discussed in PMs and came to the conclusion that Elliot is socializer, and I'm anything other than socializer. XD
Activity #4
Partner - @kindSoul10
Date - 16 april
Time - 6:50 pm
Room - adult support room 24/7
Notes - i feel kindsoul10 is a thinker as well as I am, they use much active listening skills that we learn in trainings, are enough distanced and enforce rules as needed, they take time to analyze the situation before acting. i love working with them.
Activity #3
Partner - @vivelespatates
Date - 16 april 2021
Time - 6:50 pm
Room - support room 24/7
Notes : vive uses their active listening skills and include the group in problem solving. What I liked most was they have been a calm presence and offering a fair amount of focus to all participants. At the beginning I let them (Vive) know I'll be more leaning back with moderation. So we both knew we wouldn't interfere or overwhelm the group with responding to the same issues if something happened. I used gentle reminders when I felt I had to.
I observed myself leaning back and going with the flow of the chat. I shared a resource about mindfulness and asked how people feel about it. Some might look into it at some convenient time.
Vive is a great encourager and mentor. I enjoyed moderating with them.
Activity #20
Partner: @VerseArt
Session date: April 18th, 2021
Session time: 11:30am-12:00pm
Room: Family & Caregivers
Notes: Thank you for co-hosted the pop-up session with me! It was a great session. After a quick discussion, we came to the conclusion that I was a socializer during the session. Which caught me by surprise as I've often been told I'm anything but a socializer, as my usual style is some where between thinker and relator. We also came to the conclusion that Verse's style was between socializer and relator.
Activity #1
Partner: @richuyulin
Session date: April 18th, 2021
Session time: 11:30am-12:00pm
Room: Family & Caregivers
Notes: We organized a pop-up chat with ice-breaker questions. As richulyuin wrote, my role was between The Relator and The Socializer and their role was more of The Socializer.
It was a wonderful session. Thank you for inviting me!
Activity #21
Partner: @CommunityModElliot
Session date: April 18th, 2021
Session time: 9:00pm-10:00pm
Room: Sharing Circle / Support Room 24/7
Notes: During this hour, I was hosting Healthy Habits session while Elliot was leading SR check-in. It was interesting to see how his style of hosting differed from mine when it came to hosting check-in sessions. I still stand by my previous observations of Elliot is a socializer while I'm a mix of thinker and relator. ^_^
Activity #5
Partner: @richuyulin
Session date: April 19th, 2021
Session time: 11-11:30 pm EDT/EST
Room: MCR
Notes: Richy and I have been concerned about inclusivity in the MCR so I'm really glad they reached out and asked if I wanted to help out with an icebreaker session. I think we were both socialisers! Glad to have tried something new with Richy's support :)
Activity #22
Partner: @jovialButterfly6752
Session date: April 18th, 2021
Session time: 11:00pm-11:30pm
Room: Member Community Room
Notes: Thank you for co-hosting fun icebreaker event with me. I'm glad you want to take initiative to help make MCR more inclusive for all the members. We came to the conclusion that both of us were socializers during the session. Which was surprising for me, considering I'm rarely considered a socializer, haha.
Activity #6
Partner: @richuyulin
Session date: April 20th, 2021
Session time: 11:30 pm - EDT/EST
Room: Healthy Habits
Notes: Richy needed a hand so I was happy to jump in and host for a while in the 2nd half of the HH :) I am an assigned SC host so it was nice to do HH for a change. I think we were both relators. Always a good time with Richy :) Grateful for all their support and kindness!