Mega Members - Introducing a new role for members!
Over the past few months, we have been experimenting with member leadership activities or teams. Some examples of this have been members leading discussions, member forum friends & other group support badges which indicate leadership or excellence from a member.
These teams/ projects have been not been as successful as we would have hoped. Laura & I have been thinking a lot about our dedicated awesome members and how they fit into our ecosystem, project teams, or other structured teams/groups.
We have realized that members & listeners have different levels of ability to participate in the community. One way to think about this is: listeners are in giving mode & members are in receiving mode. Listeners are here to provide support & members are here to receive support. They have inherently different intentions for participating.
On the listener side of the house, we have done a great job engaging listeners to help with volunteer projects which advance our mission & increase support giving across the entire community. We have not done this as well on the member side of the house.
One thing we know for sure, we have some really awesome, dedicated members. Our listeners & the 7 Cups community experience have filled up these members gas tanks enough, so they are able to give back to the community in special ways. They reply to forum threads, they attend group discussions, they have listeners who they chat with regularly, they say hello to community managers, the post on the feed daily, they offer suggestions on how to improve the member community..etc. We have all encountered these awesome members & we love them.
This suggests that members need to receive a certain amount of support from the community in order to start giving back to the broader community.
You may be wondering, why dont these members just join the listener community?
The short is, they arent ready or they have & they prefer the member side of the house. Our hypothesis is: Members need to be proactively & regularly receiving support from the community in order to start giving back to the community in more dynamic ways.
Knowing this, we need to continue to experiment where long term member fit in into our ecosystem. In this vein, we are excited to launch the Mega Member badge. This badge will be awarded to members who have been selected by the community management team.
They are members who are regularly taking growth path steps, talking to listeners as members, but also contributing to the community in special ways.
What will a Mega Member do?
They will keep being awesome. We will not be giving them any formal tasks beyond asking them to intentionally maintain a 50/50 balance between receiving support & giving back to the community.
What will this look like?
Receiving support (50% of the time they are on 7 Cups): Chatting with listeners, attending group discussions..etc.
Giving back to the community (50% of the time they are on 7 Cups): Well ask them to pick one focus areas. It can be anything of their choice. Ex. Feed hashtags, a forum category or a specific forum thread they always reply to, co-leading a group support session with a listener or any other specific item they are interested in. It is up to them to select the area they want to focus on.
How will the Mega members be selected?
To start, since we are still experimenting, Mega Members will be selected by the community management team. We will pick up to 6 for this first group. They are selected based on:
✦ How long they have been members of 7 Cups community
✦ They already have an area of focus or a place in the community they like to give back to
✦ They are known by community management staff & entire community as being kind, trustworthy and loving
In the first 2-3 months, we will be experimenting with this first group. In time, we hope to learn how the mega members take this role on, what they like about it, what they dont like about..etc. With this data, we will improve the application process & encourage more members to join in.
You can nominate a Mega Member by posting to this thread. We will formalize this process soon!
Who ever it is. He / She deserve it. Congrats
@Heather
Hello!
I would love to participate in this as I love 7 Cups dearly and spreading positivity makes me feel extremely happy! I progress on my growth path every day (or as much as i can!) And have made many friends and supported new comers. 7 Cups rocks and I believe that this idea will burst into a joyous celebration of members
Blossom x
@Heather
Sounds like an awesome idea!! xx
I nominate @windflowers
You are such a kindhearted person and your amazing work in the forum doesn't go unnoticed. 
@blossombreathe
omg this actually made my day! thanks so much lauren, you're awesome :)
I second the nomination for @windflowers!
You'd make a great Mega Member yourself, @blossombreathe!
I nominate @blossombreathe
@HarveyM
Awhhh you're so sweet Harvey! Thanks for nominating me. 
*huggles*
I think that @Countrygirl1231 @EssDee @BurkeDennis (If I spelled his username correctly) and @AffyAvos would make great megamembers
@BurningEmber Thank you for the nomination! 💕
I want to be on record as seconding the nomination of @essdee. She's mega beyond belief.
I"m @BurkeDevlin and I approve this message.
Thank you @BurkeDevlin. But I second Ember's nomination for you as well! You are always supportive and amazing to everyone. It's is very inspiring. Thank you for all you do! 😊
@essdee Thanks so much for the kids words. I'm really humbled to even have my name next to the others in this thread.
I sometimes really wish this site and community had been a thing when I was 18. But of course the Web was nowhere near World-Wide back then!
*kind words
@BurningEmber
@AffyAvo
Mega Mega Member? 
@BurningEmber
@BurkeDevlin :) I think you would be great for this
@BurningEmber I...I'm really honored. The amount of time (and love) I see some people - you included - putting into this community is humbling.
I have a place here to say things I've never been able to say anywhere else. I'll always try and give back what I can, when I can.
@BurkeDevlin
You are welcome! And you do very great ^^
I think @Catgirl2015 would be a great mega member! She has done so much for 7 cups and Still does :p
@Heather I want to nominate JaceofSpades and MissZ for the MegaMembers! They are both such knowledgable and awesome peoples :)
@CoffeeDrinker247 but they are listeners, not members !
@TortueDesBois I misread it....my bad LOL
I hereby nominate @captainhowdy. They are always kind, even though they have struggles of their own to deal with every day. They always brighten my day, as well as others I'm sure. Not only is howdy always there for others, other people love howdy too! Please consider giving Howdy a chance to shine :D
@LittleAardwolf That is very very sweet of you @LittleAardwolf, but I would have to respectfully decline such a thing if it were to happen. Simply put I am not able to dedicate myself to the site and tasks that would be asked of such a role. I have to be honest. It really means a lot to me for you to nominate me though. **suphahugs**! :D
@CaptainHowdy
Well it said on the front page they aren't really given any tasks ^^' but okay
I am nominating @blossombreathe !!! Lauren is doing the amazing job as forum supporter and MST team member and I love to see how active she is at 7Cups. Also, she is reaching out the listeners to talk about daily events and to share the struggles. In my opinion, she is the best!
@RaCat
Awh you're so kind Rasa! I do love participating on 7Cups. Thank you so much! I hope you're having a lovely day. *hugs*
@blossombreathe I can see you are enjoying it <3 Yeah I am having amazing day and I hope you do too :)