Caretaker Groups

These are groups that are handed over to Freegle to be run centrally by Mentors because the owners no longer want them and there is no-one to run them. The intent is always to find and train a new mod team, but due to time constraints these groups can remain in Mentor hands for a long time.

A Mentor is allocated as the caretaker owner, with a second member of the mentor team acting as a back-up owner as a safety measure, and the names of the groups are added to the caretaker list. This list is available here [1]

Best Practice guidelines are followed by the Mentors when running a caretaker groups:

Development Group agreed (9th August 2015) the principle that caretaker groups should be managed in a consistent way to simplify moderation, embed good practice and make it easier to pass onto a new mod team. So, for caretaker groups:

1. Mentors should adopt a common set of basic rules - Caretaker Group Rules
2. Mentors should use Modtools with a standard configuration
3. Individual mod groups should be set up to archive messages sent to members.

Note: All currently available posting methods will be added on adoption of the group.

Links:

• Glossary
• Mentor Team Remit
• Document Approval Policy (This page is treated as a Guideline under this Policy)