Proposal development teams are self-managed! Here are some inportant roles the must be performed to help ensure your team's success. We encourage all team members to take an active role in guiding their team. In addition, we ask each team member to commit to at least one team role to help ensure these tasks are accomplished.

Please commit to at least one team role, and familiarise yourself with all of them. It is important that all of the team members are aware of what is required to achieve good team work.

You can commit to a team role by clicking the Please help your team succeed by committing to a team role link or the Team roles & information link under your proposal title in your Online Parliament Home Page. The large link will only appear if you haven't selected a role.

The team roles popup will appear. Select the role(s) you would like to commit to by clicking the I commit button.

 

What does the Moderator do?

It is the moderator's responsibility to help your team sustain a healthy dialogue by encouraging your teammates to engage each other in an atmosphere of respect and diversity of opinion. The greatest accomplishment of a moderator is to create and sustain a welcoming and dynamic space in which all members are encouraged to share and feel heard and respected. Of course you need to do this with a light touch and encourage all team members to be engaged in creating and appreciating this environment. Here are some of the things you can do:

1. Post comments directly in the discussion to help guide the dialogue in a more open and productive direction
2. Coach team members when needed on how to be more effective team players
3. Monitor the various discussion areas and try to redirect conversations into the appropriate sections. For instance discussions about team dynamics should be in the Team discussion section instead of the Goals section
4. Post comments to the team giving regular feedback on how they are going
5. Help ensure that all team members know how to participate and encourage others to assist if anyone needs help.
6. Remind team members about the ground rules if needed
7. The moderator can also send private messages to specific team members about particular problems or issues (This feature will be explained in a future email)
8. You or another teammate should play devil’s advocate when it is appropriate to challenge the groups dominant ideas.
9. Monitor the edit history of the answers to spot violations of answer editing etiquette

Answer editing etiquette

These tips for etiquette are things to keep in mind when you work together as authors:

• Be respectful about what the current author has written.
• Consider the extent of your planned revision: if your changes are very significant or fundamentally change the meaning of the answer, it is more appropriate to create a new answer
• Don't engage in major "back and forth" revisions. If you change someone's answer, and they change it back, please create a new answer and letting the earlier author maintain their preferred ideas or wording.

 

What does the motivator do?

It is the motivator's responsibility to help keep your team members involved and engaged until the proposal is submitted. It is also your responsibility to help the team maintain momentum so they can finish their proposal. Of course you can't do this alone so you need to recruit the other team members to help. Here are some of the things you can do to help meet your commitment:

1. Post motivational comments in the discussions
2. Coach team members when needed on how to be more effective team players
3. Provide members with positive feedback when tasks get completed well and on time
4. Check team members' participation and if one or several team member's participation has started to wane, send private messages to encourage them back into participating
5. Help ensure that all team members know how to participate and encourage others to assist if anyone needs help.
6. Acknowledge team accomplishments such as finishing a proposal section
7. Encourage other team members to talk positively and maintain a productive tone in their discussions
8. Send private messages to specific team members about particular problems or issues (This feature will be explained in a future email)
9. You or another teammate should play devil’s advocate when it is appropriate to challenge the groups dominant ideas.

 

What does the Summariser do?

It is the sumariser's responsibility to make sure that the important ideas in your team's discussions get captured as answers such as Suggest goal, suggested Impact etc. It is not necessarily your responsibility to write every answer. Every team member can create and edit answers. You need to keep up with all of the team discussions, and if you see an important idea in the discussion that no one has submitted as a answer, then you should write it and submit it. Here are some of the things you can do to meet your commitment:

1. Read the team discussions in a timely manner
2. Capture important ideas in the discussion and submit them as answers
3. Encourage your teammates to submit their important ideas as answers
4. Remind people that it is everyone's right and responsibility to suggest answers to the group
5. Ensure that your teammates know how to suggest answers to the team
6. Initiate discussion about the answers that you and others post. Encourage others to join the discussion.
7. Encourage others to help refine the answers, everyone has the right to edit any answer
8. You or another teammate should play devil’s advocate when it is appropriate to challenge the groups dominant ideas.

 

What does the Editor do?

It is the Editor's responsibility to make sure that the answers in your team's proposal are clear, concise, and accurate. Your team's proposal is automatically generated by compiling the answers from each section into a document, so it is important that the answers be well worded. It is not necessarily your responsibility to rewrite every answer. Every team member can edit any answer. Here are some of the things you can do to meet your commitment:

1. Read the team discussions in a timely manner
2. Read all of the answers in a timely manner
3. Post replies to answers and suggest changes to make them more clear and concise
4. Edit the answers to make them more clear and concise
5. Suggest tips to your teammates for writing better answers
6. Try to bring consistency to the style of the answers in each section and throughout the proposal: the answers should mimic each other in construction and style
7. Initiate discussion about the answers that you and others post, encourage others to join the discussion
8. Encourage others to help refine the answers, everyone has the right to edit any answer
9. Monitor the edit history of the answers to spot violations of answer editing etiquette

Answer editing etiquette

These tips for etiquette are things to keep in mind when you work together as authors:

• Be respectful about what the current author has written.
• Consider the extent of your planned revision: if your changes are very significant or fundamentally change the meaning of the answer, it is more appropriate to create a new answer
• Don't engage in major "back and forth" revisions. If you change someone's answer, and they change it back, please create a new answer and letting the earlier author maintain their preferred ideas or wording.

 

What does the Researcher do?

It is the Researcher's responsibility to make sure that there is adequate research for your team’s proposal. It is not necessarily your responsibility to do every last bit of research for your team. In addition to finding resources for your team, you should also consider these tasks:

1. Encourage your teammates to do research and post their findings to the group
2. Ensure that your teammates know how to share their resources with the team
3. Initiate discussion about the resources that you and others post. Encourage others to join the discussion.
4. You or another teammate should play devil’s advocate when it is appropriate to challenge the groups dominant ideas.

 

How can I send messages to my teammates?

Team members can send private messages to one or more team members. These messages will not be displayed as part of the team discussion. We encourage the team to discuss their topic and teamwork openly, but we also realize there are times when private conversations are appropriate.

CivicEvolution does not disclose member email addresses; however, you may disclose your email address to other members, at your discretion. Sharing your email address allows you to communicate directly via email.

Here are the steps for sending a message to a teammate:

1. Click the link Email your teammates beneath your team's proposal title in the Online Parliament home page. You will see this form:
2. Select the recipients for your message. Note that some recipients may have chosen to not accept email from team members.
3. You will always receive a copy of your message.
4. Select the From address. If you use your email address, the recipient can contact you directly.
5. Enter a clear subject line. It should reference your proposal team
6. Enter a message
7. Click Send.
8. Your message will be sent immediately to their email address.

You can only send one message per hour to each recipient, to prevent abuse. So, you can send one message to the entire team, or individual messages to each member.