Best Practice Notes

This page gives further explanation and information about the agreed Best Practice we have for running Freegle groups.

Background

Freegle promotes reuse. In doing this we:

1. Keep goods that still have life in them out of the waste stream.
2. Promote community spirit by sharing between local people.
3. Provide people with an opportunity to help the environment.
4. Look after each other as Volunteers by offering support if needed.

We want to do all this as well as we can, so we need to make sure that using Freegle Groups is as quick, easy and enjoyable as possible for us and our members.

Many of us started our Groups several years ago. Reuse was a brand new idea in 2003 and the rules and ways of working that evolved were aimed at trying to keep groups safe from possible problems, and we didn't know much about how people behaved online. Since that time internet use has increased substantially and we have learned a lot more about online behaviour. There have been many developments which mean that members now expect to be able to do things very,very quickly. There are also many other ways now of reusing items via the internet. We now know that if a Freegler encounters barriers they are likely to be put off from using our Groups, so we need to strike a balance between ‘protecting’ our Group, and making it welcoming for members. Experience shows that groups who have restrictive rules are unlikely to thrive, so all volunteers should think carefully about these best practice suggestions.

The Freegle Volunteer Agreement outlines expectations of Freegle and Volunteers. The intent of this is to support Freegle and group members, and to safeguard our reputation. All the advice below is within the context of the Basic Requirements of a Freegle Group#Local Rules.

Emergency arrangements

Best Practice:

To safeguard your group, there needs to be back up arrangements in place, so

• Have at least two volunteers with owner status/full privileges..
• Make sure all of your Volunteer Team know they can contact Mentors to get some help - email mentors@ilovefreegle.org

Because:

• Having at least 2 volunteers with owner status/full privileges means if there is a problem with volunteer availability, all your hard work doesn’t goes to waste as service can be maintained for your members.
• Volunteers with owner status/full privileges don’t have to all be active moderators, they could be:
  • moderators
  • backup moderator - steps in and runs the Group immediately there seems to be a problem
  • a volunteer who does other work in running the group, eg publicity, tech etC

• All of your Volunteer Team should have the interests of the group members as a priority, so should be competent enough to basically moderate messages and memberships, answer emails to the owner address and, most importantly, know who to contact in Freegle nationally if they need help.
• Making sure all volunteers know they can contact Mentors to get some help - email mentors@ilovefreegle.org - means you all know there is somewhere to turn in difficult situation. All volunteers can join Freegle Central so please come and join your fellow volunteers! It is the easiest way to communicate with other people around the UK and to ask for help.

First impressions

Best practice:

Your group’s home pages (FD, Facebook etc) should be welcoming, quick and easy to read and understand, Make sure you have set up the FD page with a logo, tagline, welcome message and group rules. To do this go to Settings in FD..

Because:

• Your Group is autonomous so and your homepage content is your choice and helps to emphasise the community nature of your group by giving it a local feel.
• Keeping your home pages up to date also keeps your current members interested, so review regularly.
• There is help available:
  • The Mentors or Support team can help you update your homepage(s), email mentors@ilovefreegle.org, or support@ilovefreegle.org

New Freeglers need an easy start

Best practice:

• Use open membership to keep your joining process as quick and simple as possible. *Ensure all posts, especially first posts, are dealt with swiftly and sympathetically.
• Don’t overwhelm new members with lots of admin emails.

Because:

• The less time and work there is for a new Freegler to use your Group, the more likely they will be a contributing member.
• Open membership with new members being moderated is an easier and more welcoming experience. Approving new members is an obstacle to participating - research by Freegle and elsewhere has proven that the more steps someone has to take to join and use a website the more likely they are to abandon doing it.(1)
• New member moderation will pick up spammers, especially if you use the ModTools.
  • Avoiding rejecting first posts if you can, amend them to suit if possible and only send them back if accompanied by a kind and friendly email to say why. No-one likes to be told off or have their first efforts fail.
• If you must approve members do not send long questionnaires or request personal information as that can be very offputting.

Quick posting

Best Practice:

Ideally, moderation of messages needs to be at least every few hours . Put members who correctly format their messages on Group settings (unmoderated) as soon as practicable for your team.

Because

• You will lessen the time you have to spend moderating.
• Messages will be posted more promptly on your message board, which is good for the person posting as well as those that respond.
• Moderating once a day is the absolute minimum for a group to survive.
• Members are adults, and you can always put them back on moderation if they slip up.
• The fewest obstacles put in the way of speedy messaging will enable the maximum items reused.
• Your team can have confidence that your group is efficient with moderation taking place throughout the day, which you can make happen by having a rota or system in place to support the aim to keep delays to a minimum.
• Help is available - Mentors are available for holiday/emergency help mentors@ilovefreegle.org.

Simple and minimal rules

Best Practice:

Keep rules to a minimum to enable the smooth running of the Group. A lot of Groups impose rules that members have no idea existed! Try to apply them fairly with flexibility where appropriate. Because:

• The fewer rules you impose, the less work it is for you to moderate your Group.
• No-one is keen on reading or remembering lots of rules, so too many just means that your members don’t know what they are.
• The Disclaimer statement covers legality, so there is no need to duplicate that with a long list of illegal items.
• The fewer barriers in place for people to reuse items the more effective we are.