Leading a Community

What is required for a GEG?

A Google Group (or other social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook) with the title "GEG [Name]" that is open for visitors to view. You may choose to approve members but the content of the community should not be private to non-members.

If your GEG does not appear on our Communities Map, please submit your GEG information via this form so we can get you added.

When you join a GEG as a leader or a participant, you are joining a community and like any growing community, a few ground rules about expected behaviour is good for everyone. It's important that everyone in your community sees these guidelines. Feel free to post them to your GEG Google Group for now. Eventually we'll post these on a public website for all GEG members to see.

This guideline covers both online (Google Groups) and offline behaviour (during in-person meetups).

Be nice

We're all part of the same community, so be friendly, be welcoming, and generally be a nice person. Be someone that other people want to be around.

Be respectful and constructive

At times GEGs may be composed of very different types of educators ranging from public to private school educators, to educators from pre-schools to high schools and Universities, so we're not going to agree all the time. Remember to be respectful and constructive with your communication to your fellow GEG'ers. Don't get into flame-wars, don't make personal attacks, don't vent or rant unconstructively. Everyone should take responsibility for the community and take the initiative to diffuse tension and stop a potential flame-war or negative thread as early as possible.

Be collaborative

Work together! We can learn a lot from each other. Share knowledge, participate in the Google Groups, and help each other out.

Participate

This is YOUR community, so be a part of it! Join in on discussions, show up for in-person meetings regularly, offer feedback, and offer to help implement that feedback!

Step down considerately

If you're a leader, or have some form of responsibility in running a GEG, be aware of your own constraints. We all know that life can get busy, so if you know that a new job or family situation will impact your ability to organise your group, find a way to step down gracefully. Make sure someone can take over for you, and transfer the relevant information (contacts, passwords, etc.) for a smooth transition.

In particular, please observe some basic etiquette for online discussions.

Think before you send

Does this message need to go to hundreds of people around the world? Keep off topic conversations to a minimum.

Do not send spam

Do not advertise or promote personal projects which are off topic.

*These guidelines are modelled after the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, and likewise licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

Problem posters

Step 1: Post a polite reminder in the community about the code of conduct such as this...

Dear all,

Thank you for sharing in this community, we hope you continue to share relevant and useful content with each other and share your knowledge and expertise with others looking to gain advice.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone about the community guidelines that guide our use of this community and thank you for being mindful of them when you post and contribute to our community.

Copy relevant sections from above.

Step 2: If self-promoting and sales focussed posts continue you may choose to send the community guidelines directly to a member who is falling outside the guidelines. Encourage them to be an active participant by commenting with suggestions that are not focussed on their own product or services.

Step 3: For consistent posts of self-promotion that are not relevant or useful to the community, they can be removed by owners and moderators of the community.

If you feel you have a more specific issue, please get in touch so we can support and advise on the best course of action.