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!
Firstly I will nominate Miss @essdee as a mega-member as for what all the people stated. She has been a very kind, honest, vigilant yet caring and a genuine person in the rooms. I think she can do much more as a mega-member and can offer much more.
Secondly, everyone please try to appreciate the love and respect people are giving to the nominees. If they are getting nominated and the other isn't then there is a good reason behind that. Kindly don't make a great fuss out of it as the final decision will come from the community managers. And I don't think it is healthy to use a place meant to nominate, as a boxing ring to jab the others. Please be kind and use logic. Thank you.
I'll pop in about the popularity issue as one of the first Mega Members group.
I can see for some how this can feel like a popularity contest. I've been thinking of people who I would consider nominating. It's not just people that I like. Some of those people are wonder, amazing people but they are here for support, they don't want (sometimes I'm assuming) to be involved in giving suggestions and feedback and being involved in projects. Others do that already, from a listener account and it doesn't really make sense for them to split that between rolls.
There is also the issue of needing to be seen. I know Figgy from quite a while ago when there were only a handful of rooms. I don't see her very often anymore - we just hang out in different places and maybe a different times. I think she would do a good job, but her name didn't come to my mind as I had no idea how active she still is.
I think we would benefit from at least one person from the LGBTQ community. I don't really hang out there, so I can't even be certain if we already have a Mega Member who does hang out there often!
@AffyAvo
wonderfully said !
@AffyAvo, you always bring up such excellent points. Well said!
Hey, just learning of this today....does the winner get a badge?
@berry1900
yeah
Not sure if all of these people would want to, but some names I'll put forward after checking out some profiles to see if they are a good match based on criteria:
@Sasher @TheHuggleMonster @ladylazarus1971 @squib @888Butterfly888 @BridgetAileen @HalliwellSister
I feel like I'm missing some people I've come across in the past and the names just haven't been coming to mind recently. Sorry! If it's something you are interested in, throw your name out here!
@AffyAvo
☺️❤️❤️
@AffyAvo Peace. I didn't even have to ask. Affy, thank you 
I hope you are well?
@AffyAvo Thanks for the nod, honey! I am willing to be as active as anyone will let me be, whether is some kind of sanctioned role, or just as a lone cloud bumbling around in here. As always, just so, so glad to have 7 Cups to call home.
@AffyAvo, awwww...what a compliment! Thank you.
@AffyAvo
I couldnt agree any less! You have selected very good ones for the nominations! I wish all them, a very good luck
@AffyAvo thanks for the nomination :p that was lovely of you xD but a question ummm, how do you know me? xD :p like I have no clue who you are or how you know me but apparently you think I'm up for this :p anyhoo this was nice of you :p hope you're having a good day *huggles* <3 xD :P
@AffyAvo
@WhimsicalDancer
May peace be unto you.
After reading the original post, I'm not sure whether I'd be allowed to carry on doing what I do, or whether more would be expected of me, or fully understand what mega member entails? I like working as a member, because I feel I can be myself, be flexible, work in a situation where there's less pressure to preform, and won't be condemned for making a mistake.
I understand the intention of monitoring, and it's probably something I'd forget about, but I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable being monitored.
@Sasher
There hasn't been a huge difference between what I was doing before the badge and now. We have had a few meetings as well as offered to give feedback on some things. If you have specific questions you can ask and I (and likely the others) will do our best to answer.
If it's not a role you're comfortable with though, no pressure! You can continue on as you have, supporting others as you have been without it. If I could have PMed everyone instead of publically posting I would have.
@AffyAvo Don't worry about it, I don't mind. I thought it was just a mega member room key to be honest, if it's not much different I don't mind but I can't take on to much more responsibility at the moment.
@Sasher @AffyAvo I should of also tagged @Heather in the above post also.
As seeing proactive involvement in the community, I would like to nominate @lucidpanic and @Astrolily for Mega-Member! I wish good luck to both of you! ^_^
I would like to nominate @GeorgeBest for being the most understanding and consistently supportive member that I have seen in the support groups to date.
@Sasher
Thank you :)
you're welcome @GeorgeBest
Peace be unto you all. I would like to nominate @SpinyNorman for guiding members to goodness and @OhanaSystem for being supportive and kind to other members
@ohanasystem
@Sasher
Aww, bless. Thank you, dearheart! <3
@ohanasystem you're welcome
This project is fantastic.
Hey there @Heather !
As myself is a mega member and able to identify members who also are very active, kind and supportive on 7cups, I would nominate @HalliwellSister who is here for a long time now, always welcoming and sharing opinions in different forum categories, such site updates and healthy living categories, and who regulary join the support sessions too. Due to their implications very appreciated on 7cups, and their excellent work as forum member leader, I think they would be very good in this role.
@TortueDesBois
Thank you :o
@TortueDesBois Seconded, enthusiastically and vigorously. @HalliwellSister puts a lot of personal time, effort, and commitment into supporting others and making this site a better place to visit.
@TortueDesBois I agree! @HalliwellSister would be perfect for Mega Member 💙
@essdee
awww thanks!