The Community Leader Handbook The Messengers of Peace initiative and the community leader basic manual
The Community Leader Handbook for Roverway Finland 2012. This handbook is part of the Messengers of Peace initiative. Copyright World Scout Bureau 2012. Printed in Copenhagen. 1st edition.
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Table of contents Introduction!
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What is a Community Leader?!!
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The goals of the Community Leader Training! !
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Community Leader Basic Manual!
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Introduction The Handbook you are holding is aimed at helping you become a capable, competent and inspiring Community Leader. The Handbook is developed by your Community Leader Trainers who will be with you for the entire Training Event and online after the training to help and guide you. Throughout the Handbook you will be introduced to a series of topics and exercises that will help qualify you as a Community Leader. Â The book is dedicated to your personal learning, and we encourage you to take notes, scribble and doodle as much as you need to. You can do it in the middle of the book or anywhere you like. Make it personal - THIS BOOK IS YOURS TO KEEP!
What is in The Handbook? The book is divided into three parts: The Handbook, Notes, and Activities and Exercises.
How to use The Handbook The Handbook has two front covers and no back cover. If you open it from one end (this end) you will find The Handbook with general information about the initiative and a Community Leader Manual. By flipping the book and opening it from the other end you will find all the exercises and information specific to this training event.
Why a social network for Messengers of Peace? All over the world, Scouts are running projects that help people. You solve conflicts in school by preventing bullying, lead peer education programs, help the poor and the hungry, find solutions for environmental problems, and run countless other projects.
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Messengers of Peace is the initiative that brings all of this work together. The Messengers of Peace initiative relies on a strong global commitment from Scouts and Scouts leaders from all over the world. The platform (www.scoutmessengers.org) is a social network platform through which this global commitment can be built and strengthened. Through the online platform you will be connected worldwide and be part of a strong social network, allowing you to accomplish more and having a greater impact across the world. Projects of great positive impact can be shared and honoured worldwide, giving inspiration to others to copy, and improve other projects in the process, increasing the overall impact even further.
A platform for Community Leaders The platform connects local Scout activities with the global Scouting community and vice versa. The aim is to connect Community Leaders across the globe in a network focused on the sharing of projects, thoughts, stories, challenges and answers.
Scoutmessengers.org Scoutmessengers.org is where you will find the platform (as of July 2012 the new platform is still under construction and is therefore not operational). When operational, the content on this site will be fully generated by Community Leaders and Scouts across the globe. The aim of the platform is to share stories and projects from local Scouting communities with the rest of the world. This can be done in four different ways:
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Projects are where you can share a specific project that you think others could benefit from knowing about.
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Tutorials are where you can add “How-to-guides”.
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Talks are where you can share stories, thoughts, challenges and ideas with other Scouts worldwide. You can also ask questions or provide answers here.
Games are where you can add and explain fun and inspirational games.
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What is a Community Leader? Right now we have just begun our journey together and you are in the process of becoming a great Community Leader. You are the cornerstone of this great movement, and we are thankful for your commitment. As a Community Leader you will work as a catalyst and a facilitator. It is your job to find, collect and share the good messages out there. It is your job to build online communities where Scouts can come together from across the world.
You are
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Passionate about Scouting A conversation-starter and facilitator A great storyteller and communicator Eager to learn A leader
You will be
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Present on social media platforms Building and maintaining communities Guiding and helping others Engaging in conversations both online and offline Learning all the time, and teaching others
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The goals of the Community Leader Training The overall goal of the training is to enable you to become an engaged, active, motivated and competent Community Leader with the courage to be among the first to use and spread the knowledge about the scoutmessengers.org platform!
To accomplish this goal you will need to learn about
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Content and storytelling within social media Social Media platforms Social Media planning How to build and lead an online patrol
More specifically the goal of this training session is the following! !
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Learning how to assemble an online patrol Gaining knowledge about social media platforms Filling in a social media strategy template Finding out the “HOW” and “WHY” to use the Community Leader Zone
The Community Leader Zone As a Community Leader you are part of a group of dedicated individuals who share a passion for Scouting. You are among the first to take on this special task, so it is essential that you share your experiences and help each other overcome the challenges that may occur. For this purpose a on-line Community Leader Zone has been created at http://communityleaderzone.com/. In this zone you will be able to find all the information from our training to help you become a
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successful Community Leader. Moreover, it is a platform where you can ask any questions you might have, and have them answered by fellow Community Leaders and by your Trainers.
The Social Media Strategy Template To ease your workload as a Community Leader it is a good idea to plan your presence and activities online. Together with your future Online Patrol you can arrange who does what, and when. A good way of doing this is to create a content calendar for a specific period and divide your tasks between your team members. During the training you will be asked to complete a template preparing you for your work as a Community Leader following this training session. Â
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Community Leader Basic Manual Introduction The content of this manual is taken from a successful case, where a Scout named Guadalupe Sanmateu united thousands of Scouts in South America around Messengers of Peace using Facebook. Communities are always made up of unique individuals and you should adapt your efforts to the people in your community. What worked for Guadalupe in South America may not be the best solution for you. Just let it inspire you! And most importantly, never be afraid. Have the courage to try out new things and experiment!
Main success factors behind communities
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A strong belief in the Messengers of Peace initiative
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Inspiring Community Leaders; who help and support their community and its members
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An energetic, fantastic and enthusiastic patrol who give their best and their full support
An sound understanding of the online world, and how people unite around a cause
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Six steps to building a community 1. Preparing yourself to be a Community Leader Participate in a training event and use the network of Trainers and Community Leaders. Use the Community Leader Zone http://communityleaderzone.com/ to find answers, guides, blog posts, how-to’s and ask questions in the forum
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Share your experiences, thoughts and concerns with your fellow Community Leaders online via chat, Skype or social media. Perhaps meet some of them face-to-face, if you can
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Always be experimental and try out things you want to be better at Never be afraid to ask!
2. Defining your target audience Your target audience could be all the Arab-speaking Scouts in a certain region, all the Scouts in Japan or only Rover Scouts in a local area - it is up to you!
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Find out which social media platforms are most used by your target audience
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Search for the active groups, blogs, and pages on these platforms
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Invite them to join your Online Patrol as key members, or to start their own Patrol as Community Leaders
Identify the most active users here and a build relationship with them
3. Finding the right people to join your Online Patrol Look for motivated Scouts among friends and strangers both online and in your local community. Look for some of the skills outlined
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below. The main goal for your Patrol is to produce interesting and involving content for your community platform and share this content in other communities. Remember, one person can have more of these skills and that everyone is expected to teach their skill(s) to others. Promoters and researchers
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These members of your Patrol spend time visiting other communities, Scout profiles and websites looking for (new) stories that can be used as content in your community
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Simultaneously, they try to recruit for your community by posting content from your community and drawing positive attention to themselves
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They also try to engage new Promoters, motivate the Project Leaders and Scout Leaders to register their Scouts as Messengers of Peace
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All members of the team including yourself need to have these skills and perform the tasks above to some extent
Writers
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Assists you in writing content for your community using input from the entire Patrol. Input could be images, graphic material, videos, documents, guides and so on
Graphic designers
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They create graphic material and illustrations for the content you find and write
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They help you put a face to your community
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Photographers
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They work in the field documenting projects and events in their communities and among Scouts
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They have a keen eye for finding good images online to be used together with the stories
Video makers
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They work in the field documenting projects and events in their communities and among Scouts with short, fun and informative video clips
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They have a keen eye for finding good videos online to be used together with the stories
Moderators
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They help you with the administration, advice on moderation and the monitoring of your community
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They are the internal Promoters of the community posting content, encouraging activity from members of the community and recognize those who are active and doing good
4. Organizing and motivating your Patrol Create a closed group on Facebook Groups (www.facebook.com/ about/groups/), Google Groups (groups.google.com) or under another free system and invite members to join!
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Use this closed group to interact with your Patrol about everything you can think of relating to building and managing the community
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Create lists and documents with all the possible information that could be relevant for the team and make sure to keep them updated
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First and foremost you should make have a Social Media and Content Plan (This you will learn about at the training events!)
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Use your plan to get an overview of all the details; which social media platforms to use, for what, how and when
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Use the closed group to share all content and information the team produces, so everyone knows what the others are planning and doing - do not waste time writing long emails for everybody!
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To store files and have a shared archive you can use the free service Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com
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Hold face-to-face meetings or real-time chats! They motivate people so much better. Use Skype if you are far from each other, but if possible try to meet face-to-face once in a while
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Most importantly, treat everyone equally, recognize everyone, involve everyone in everything by posting your thoughts and questions in the closed group, talk with every member individually when something is wrong or something deserves recognition. Encourage everyone to help, to share ideas and to teach each other new skills
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Do not forget to have fun with your Patrol members!
5. Setting up your community When choosing the social media platform for your community remember to read the Terms of Service carefully to avoid problems.
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Think about the name of your community as it can often not be changed afterwards. We do not have the exclusive rights for the term ‘Messengers of Peace’ so be creative and link the words “Scout” with “Messengers of Peace” and the name of your NSO, country, region, area, city, special interest or goal (maybe in your own language)
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Provide a good description where you explain the Messengers of Peace initiative (see http://www.scoutmessengers.org/ whats_all_about.html) and the special traits your community can expect to see and interact with
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Make sure you present some clear guidelines and rules for using the community (a link to specific guidelines will be provided at a later date)
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Keep the guidelines in mind at all times and act in line with the Scout Law & Promise
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Before launching your community make sure the community is active by creating content (at least 10 interesting status updates or posts). This will make it more attractive for first-time visitors to stay and engage
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Invite as many friends of the Patrol as possible, people you know and trust, and explain them that they are the founding members of the community. Ask them contribute and help you create the buzz you need when launching your community
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Now you are ready to open the doors!
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6. Launching the community Launch with a bang! Try to gather your patrol offline or online and make an event out of the launch.
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Set some clear goals for your community. The first goal could be 100 users on the community
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Invite your friends and encourage them to advocate about your community
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Be present, respond to questions and create calls to action by posting questions
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Keep your community in the loop and ask them what you are doing well and what you could do better. Get their opinion on the content you are posting and ask them to contribute with suggestions
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Keep your community members safe. It is your responsibility to set a good tone and if someone is not being treated well, report it to those who can help
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Keep the focus on Scout projects and activities - the community content should be fun and involving, but not all jokes and funny videos
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Focus on building your community on engagement; people who really want to make a difference. A few active members are worth more than many inactive members
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Remember to make it clear that your community is about Scout projects and the Messengers of Peace initiative. If people in your community don’t respect that, let them know nicely to have irrelevant conversations elsewhere
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Finally, think of your community as a tool to help the Messengers of Peace initiative: gather Scouts around the world, so we can share all the good stories and learn from each other
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You can get an idea of the result of Guadalupe’s work by visiting her Facebook Groups (in Spanish only): Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/scoutsmensajerosdelapaz - In only 11 weeks Guadalupe and her Patrol got 14,310 members, mostly from the Spanish speaking countries. Facebook Group - Similar to a Patrol group https://www.facebook.com/groups/MensajerosenAccion/ Guadalupe’s personal project called Messengers in Action where 181 Scouts are sharing knowledge about multimedia, graphic design, and viral effects in social media.
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