Mentors Team Report 2016 09

Report for Freegle Mentors September 2016

Mentors currently have 9 members and 1 Board observer.

Mentors are:
Christian, Diz, David, Tom, Cooky, Jo and Alison. Sheila is the team coordinator, Wanda is acting co-coordinator and Andy is our Board observer.

This month has been busy for mentors. First we are pleased to say that Penkridge and Lichfield now has a permanent new owner. Nigel Holloway has taken both groups on. He is still being guided a little by mentors but is mostly independent.

Mentors were asked by Dee from Croydon group to train a new moderator for Tonbridge, which we did. Paula is now moderating regularly.

The owner for Lanark has decided he wants to give his group up, but he has recruited a new moderator to train to run the group. We trained Francis the new moderator to use modtools to moderate, so now she is moderating on the group and she is keen to learn the management side so her training is continuing.

We were asked to take over the Rochdale group for a departing group owner. A new moderator has already been recruited and is undergoing training now.

Bradford Freegle has two new owners who were being mentored. We are pleased that the two new owners are doing a brilliant job and mentors are now after the 6 months of mentoring, leaving the group so they can continue on their own.

Exeter freegle was disaffiliated and as it was a large group that had been busy before it was abandoned, the group was recreated by GAT. The members were transferred to the new group from both Freegle known members and from Trash Nothing in accordance with the new procedure.

http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Group_Membership_Information_Policy

This newly created group has been taken from mentors immediately by Joy and Simon both of whom run groups in Devon already. Mentors agreed that they can run the new Exeter group together and we are pleased to see that a steady flow of messages is getting onto the group already.

We had a request by Leon Chamberlain to take the Cardiff group from the caretaker list as a permanent new owner. The mentor team discussed and agreed that he was perfect for the job and Leon has already taken it over.

Finally we had a request from Suzanne the owner of Buxton and Matlock to help her moderator Lindsay to take on the role of a new owner. Suzanne has decided it is time to stand down and pass the groups on. So mentors are helping Lindsay to sort the groups out, looking over and updating the settings and files and also with helping to recruiting new moderators.

Mentors are a hard working team who are all very stretched and we really could do with some fresh volunteers. All you need is patience and the ability to moderate and help another group owner to moderate, or to run an extra group or two. You also need to be happy to follow best practice guidelines on any group that is nationally owned and to use a fixed set of rules to moderate caretaker groups . If you think you can be a mentor, please get in touch at mentors@ilovefreegle.org

Please bear in mind some of these groups may need long term caretaking as volunteers can be difficult to find.

All Caretaker groups are added to modtools. It takes a few minutes extra each time you moderate to clear the messages on extra groups.

If you have a holiday coming up, please don’t leave your group unmoderated, we are happy to help with cover. Contact us on mentors@ilovefreegle.org we are happy to be removed from the mods list on your return.

We come again to the list of groups under the care of caretakers. If any mod teams local to any of these groups would like to take any of these groups on as permanent new owners, please contact us

• Barking and Dagenham
• Bicester
• Blackwater and Yateley
• Blaenau Gwent
• Brewood, Codsall and Stretton Freegle
• Bury
• Cambridge
• Cannock Freegle
• Chelmsford
• Cheslyn Hay Freeworld recycling
• Derby
• Dudley – Black country Freeworld
• Durham
• Eastwood
• Havering
• Llanelli
• Llyn Peninsula
• Nottingham
• Rhonnda Cynon Taf
• Rochdale
• Scunthorpe
• Skegness
• Skye and Lochalsh
• South Tyneside
• Taunton
• Thrapston
• Trafford
• Warminster
• Warrington
• Wrexham
• Yeovil

The list below is of those who just need a little help or are just being cared for temporarily. We are NOT looking for any new mods on these groups. This list is only to give an idea about what mentors are doing .

• Amber Valley
• Blaby
• Ealing
• Fenland
• Hackney
• Hunts
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Leamington and Warwick
• New Forest West
• Stafford

Mentors are here to help groups any way we can. If you are struggling to cope, please let us know, we are happy to help out.

If you know of any group that is being left unmoderated for long periods, mentors can be contacted in strictest confidence. We would rather help out and get things back on track before a group ends up being abandoned.

mentors@ilovefreegle.org

Mentor team

Links:

• Mentor Team Remit
• Previous report Mentors Team Report 2016 08
• Following report Mentors Team Report 2016 10