This is a short proposal for standardizing certain documents and guides across all teams.
Currently, Teams have a great deal of unilateral control over how they function. This is by design. It allows for different styles of leadership to be used, and it keeps us from forcing a lot of square pegs into round holes in an attempt to make the dynamic field of a chessboard into something as simple as checkers. However, it does have a few problems which have come up in the past.
First, new and potential members rarely have an idea exactly what they're supposed to do outside of a "responsibilities" checklist written by myself and Moose two years ago. Second, the policies that teams put in place are usually informal/not clearly documented, leading to a good deal of confusion for new people and volunteers about exactly how things are done. Third, the change in staff activity makes note that each individual team should make sure its reserve members know what their responsibilities are. By crafting a few policy documents and including them in the HUBs, I hope to alleviate these three issues and make adding new members, rapidly educating people who have been away, and clearing up confusion for other staff a much simpler process—namely, a link with all the necessary data.
I would like to propose that each team create and post to their hubs the following documents:
- A tab laying out the basic responsibilities. This doesn't mean copy/pasting the list that Moose and I wrote a few years ago. This is looking at that list and extending it from snippets to the full reality of what that control implies. For a good example of a hub that's done this, take a look at the Rewrite Hub document or the License Experts Reports: Team Responsibilities tab. In short: This is a document which looks at the list of responsibilities as dictated by the admin and explains what they mean to the team.
- A tab laying out the processes which are used by the team and how they handle problems/information/duties. For a good example of a hub that's done this, take a look at the Anti-Harassment Team: Anti-Harassment Team Processes tab. In short: This is a document that actually explains how to carry out the responsibilities you have.
- A tab laying out the team member goals. For a good example of a hub that's done this, take a look at the Site Criticism Reports Hub: Site Criticism Team Structure tab. Keep in mind that this one does not, at the current time, have a section dedicated for Reserve Staff or Junior Staff distinctly, though certain elements almost certainly qualify as such. In short: This is a document explaining what exactly you do as a member of this team.
If you couldn't tell by this example, most teams already have part/most of this crafted, but having a standard for it across all teams would go miles toward making the site's newer users have a better idea of what's going on.
Are these documents clear enough? Do they have a wide/narrow enough scope? Should more documents be added to this list? What do new members need to function best?
Discussion concluded.
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