CITY-Leaders Index

Guidelines and what is the CITY-Leader's List about?

This CITY-Leader's list will be where all the Owners and 
Moderators of CITY affiliated lists can come to get moral 
support, training, guidance on dealing with issues on the 
various lists. 

But more than that it is a place where we can examine the 
process of good leadership.

Too often these Yahoo Groups are lead by people who feel 
that being a List Leader gives them right to be bullies, 
have cliques, be rude, neglect the list if it suits their 
purpose. 

I'd like for this not to happen on CITY lists. It's 
counter productive and what is done on one of our lists 
reflects on all of the lists, reflects on the list family 
at large. 

Here are some issues that have come up on another Leader's 
list and I share them with you. Even negative experiences 
are opportunities for learning something.
 
(1) Leaders sets the tone and tenor of a list. We set 
precedence for the list members. If we do a thing then we 
send a message to the list members that they can do it too. 

For example, I ramble on CITY-o-Clay, examining different 
things that relate to the creative process and life in 
general. I aim to influence the mind set of the list 
members in a positive way. I don't mind if other people do 
for I get to know the list member if they are free to 
express themselves, as long as it is not negative. If it 
is a "pity party" then we need to provide them a philosophic 
point of view and give them an uplifting "now now there 
there" reply. Write to them off list and see if there's 
anything we can do to help them. 

(2) Forwarding email hoaxes to the list, in essence saying 
"the sky is falling".

One of the things we need to do is to 

stop

think

check it out

before sending one of these common email hoaxes to our lists. 

There's a number of sites on the internet where one can 
check the veracity of an email "alert" that we receive 
in our inbox. Just do a search with the title of the "alert" 
and see what the Hoax Sites have to say. 

What we can then do is send a post to the list warning the 
list members of the latest hoax and give them the link. 
That way it stops them from forwarding it to the list and 
to their friends. It's our good deed of the day.

Behavior unbecoming to a CITY-Leader:

(3) Off list negative mail to a list member or a fellow 
CITY-Leader. We have this list to discuss "trouble makers" 
and figure out a plan of action to stop them. We can't be 
one of them. We can't respond in haste or anger to a 
negative post on the list. We can moderate the list member, 
see below for more. 

(4) Acting out in a negative fashion on a non CITY list, 
what we do elsewhere also reflects on the CITY list family. 
Everything we do elsewhere ends up coming back to us, word 
gets out. By taking the role of Leader here means that we 
remember how we behave elsewhere will impact on this 
position, for good or ill. 

(5) Condoning piracy: copied videos, copied sections of 
books we have not gotten permission to use, openly sharing 
software violating copyright laws are not appropriate. As 
Leaders we can't condone that on our lists. We can't 
publicly do that ourselves. What we do sets the pace for 
the rest of the list. I'd like all of us to steer clear 
of law suits. 

(6) FLAMING: Engaging in negative or argumentative threads 
on the lists. If you have a problem with a list member do 
this:

(6.a) Moderate them first, stop the negative energy before 
it contaminates your list.

(6.b) Notify the list that everyone involved in the flame 
war are on Moderated status and are invited to discuss the 
issue with you off list. Let the list know that this topic 
is closed and ask them not to continue the thread for it 
is counter productive to the list.

(6.c)If the flame war gets totally out of hand then put the 
whole list on Moderated status and approve only the posts 
that are peaceful. 

(6.d) Invite those involved in the flame war to a Yahoo Chat 
or exchange email with them explaining the need to keep the 
peace on the list. 

(6.e) Remove the list member who argues the point with you. 
It's not really up for discussion. Keeping the peace is one 
of our jobs, along with encouraging list members to 
participate and have fun. Two sides of the same coin.

(7) Using Sarcasm in our posts when aimed at a list member. 
Sarcasm about religion, politics, belief systems are also 
asking for a flame war. 

sarcasm: A Noun
(1) A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 
(2) A form of wit that is marked by the use of
sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim
the butt of contempt or ridicule

We are here to empower our list members, not diminish them 
so sarcasm TOWARDS a list member, or about belief systems, 
are inappropriate and reflects badly on all of us.

All these guidelines were gathered together here for they 
were miscalculations made by other list members on another 
list family. The result of which that list family is dying 
on the vine. We'd like for our list family to thrive, for 
the list members to blossom. 

If for any reason you cannot agree to these guidelines then 
perhaps you'll have to reconsider you being here. We need to 
all be subject to the same requirements to be a CITY-Leader.