Admin Responsibilities Summary - Guide

The guides below are published here as an open source community guidelines and the admin team here is free to update this first post.

Feel free to copy, modify and post to your HQ group, but please include credit.

Version 11/3/2019 (Club Admins)

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/admin-responsibilities-summary-guide

Admin Responsibilities Summary - The short version

1. Set up a HQ for swift seamless communication. 

2. Decide who is doing what. Have a discussion with them and don’t just dictate.

3. Be prepared to have the occasional disagreement.  You are all human. 

4. If you have rules in place, ask the other(s) for feedback. Cooperation is a 2-way street.

5. Don't tell your admin(s) one thing and do something else. Mixed messages lead to confusion. 

6. Have fun. You are all volunteers at the end of the day. 

Admin Responsibilities Summary - The original and longer version

1. Keep members safe: monitor content

Monitor that posts on group notes, forums, news and team match pages does not violate the rules of your club. Either delete inappropriate posts or ask the user to do so. Either way, best to communicate to user in PM about why his/her posts violate chess.com community policies or the rules of your club.
https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/chess-com-community-policies-5

You may wish to have admins from different time zones so you have some admin coverage through the day.

2. Recruitment of more members

Use invite feature to invite more members to group. Some groups may wish to attract high rated players, some active members (points measure posts and such). Another thing to look for would be a person who is not already member of too many groups. Finally, some groups have a rule that you need at least 30 day's history on chess.com before you can be invited or could join.

3. Organize Team Matches, Tournaments and Vote Chess

Some groups focus on discussions and may not have these. If you have team matches, fun to post group logo and battle cry to team match pages. Same for tournaments which also allow for custom trophies to fit your team's theme.

4. Keep group alive

Make regular posts to group notes and forums to keep group alive and encourage same for it's members. As discussed elsewhere, if you copy a forum from another group, ask for permission first and give credit.

5. Welcome new members

Not necessary, but nice that every time someone join an admin greet and welcome him/her on group note. Some groups use the "welcome to our group" fun trophy or post to the new member's personal notes.

6. Collaborate with other admins in HQ

Best practice is to have a separate admin Head Quarter (HQ) group where logistics, strategy and conflicts within the admin group can be addressed.

7. Recognize contributions by other admins and members

Consider things like congratulate the first member who wins a game in a team match. Further, a good idea is to give a fun (personal) trophy or post on someone’s personal notes if they create a new nice forum or make other contributions to the group.

8. Monthly newsletter

Very few groups have this, but if you do it will make your group stand out. Topics could include call for joining vote chess and matches, match statistics, reminding members of group philosophy, mini bios of members, jokes, etc.

9. Do not get burned out

If you have a day job, remember not to get overly involved and obsessive about all then group's details. It is supposed to be fun and it may be more so for everyone if you are relaxed and accepting.

10. Share responsibilities within the admin team

It may help to have different admins be responsible for different areas such as "Recruitment", "Team Matches", "Vote Chess", etc.

11. Cross Train

Be sure admins can cover for each other during sickness, vacation, etc.

Thank you! 

Yeah!

thanks for sharing!

Helpfully post

Very great suggestions.  Really like number 9.  It is important and vital that as a team we support each other and do not burn out.  It is so easy to do. 

I think that is why for a club we have a separate admin HQ.  Admins need each other and need to support each other.  

Apart from 1 or 2 grammatical errors this guide seems to cover it all ... 

Thanks VKJ

If you are struggling to do the team "jobs" alone then there is good and bad to this. 

You get to make ALL the decisions and all your hard work is rewarding when your team achieves something.

Down side is you are doing it ALL and you run the risk of burn out quicker. It can also be laborious doing it all day every day. 

If you choose to have admins:

So you've taken the decision to have someone (or multiple) to lighten the load.

1. Set up a HQ for swift seamless communication. 

2. Decide who is doing what. Have a discussion with them and dont just dictate.

3. Be prepared to have the occasional disagreement.  You are all hooman. 

4. If you have rules in place, ask the other(s) for feedback. Cooperation is a 2 way street.

5. Don't tell your admin(s) one thing and do something else. Mixed messages lead to confusion. 

6. Have fun. You are all volunteers at the end of the day. 

+1

@blackfirestorm, I like your shorter version so much that I have included it in post #1 as a shorter and alternative version. Cheers,

Wow thank you  

Aww looks like the beginning of a beautiful bromance 🙂

Is it ok with two versions and admin have two to pick from or modify or should we merge to one version?

2 is a good idea ... individual clubs can then choose 1 or both .. 

Looking good.  

Most Concise Admin Guide: 

Have fun, do as much for the team/group as you can, don't be a jerk, and treat others as you would want to be treated

I would recommend admins from different time zones if possible, especially about 12 hours difference or at least 8 if possible for hopefully obvious reasons.

Very good point, @Howdy_folks. 

I updated the longer guide with your point in #1 and replaced the link to the chess.com user agreement to chess.com community polices:

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/chess-com-community-policies-5

For what it's worth:

#1 - Club activity is paramount. If there's no activity the club is dead.
a) I acknowledge all new members in club notes.
b) I start a new Vote Chess game each month in each club. This usually results in ~6 VC games concurrent in each club. I keep my members active but not overworked.
c) If someone wants a team match, I will appoint them Coordinator.

#2 - Members
a) I do not recruit or invite new members. I want members who join my clubs because they want to participate in my clubs. If they leave, that's ok, it's their choice, I cannot hope to please everyone. I don't follow those who leave unless they have left their keys in the back of the couch.
b) My clubs are about Chess; not politics, not religion, not lifestyle, not dating, just chess.
c) I used to require 30-90 days on the site to join, but no more. People get removed for bad behavior. If they come back with a new ID and the same behavior, they will get kicked again. If they behave they are welcome.
d) It is called offensive language because it is offensive. Don't offend people.

#3 - Other Admins
a) I have noticed that the most successful clubs are successful due to the person who does all the work; usually the creator of the club.
b) I didn't become a a Super Admin because I wanted to be a Super Admin. I became a Super Admin because there was something I wanted to do.
c) When I first started doing this, I wanted everything to be done like a Democracy. I found that the only people who actually participated in the Democracy aspect were those who wanted to tell me what to do and how to do it.
d) There are 3 kinds of Other Admins;
1 - those who want to be Admins
2 - those who want to change what I'm doing
3 - those who help me get things done.