Typically, forums change the roles of their members every 12 months. There are a few reasons this is a good practice to do within your forum:
- Some roles require more effort than others, so it’s fair to change things up.
- New people in new roles bring new energy to the group.
- It gives a chance to try new ideas as someone else will bring fresh ideas to their new role.
Here is the process for changing forum roles:
- Review the list of typical forum roles and decide which ones are important for your group, as you don’t necessarily need to fill every role.
- Start with the most important role of forum moderator and see if there is someone who wants to take on the role. Some groups have a succession plan already built in where there is a moderator elect that takes the role automatically. But if your group does not have a Moderator elect, they will have to find someone new. Plus, it might be a good idea to find a moderator elect for the following year.
- Then, go through the rest of the list and fill in the other roles. Keep in mind that some of the roles are easy enough that they should take on two roles.
- Once all of the roles are decided, fill in the names for each role within the forum parking lot document.
- Decide an official transition meeting in which everyone will start their new role.
- Coordinate a connection between the outgoing and incoming people to get trained on how to do the role. You might also coordinate with the managing organization for your forum as they might hold special trainings as well.
When deciding who should take on which roles, some groups choose to play to everyone’s strengths and pick roles based on each person’s strengths. This makes sense because you will get the best person for each role. Another train of thought with choosing roles is to let people pick roles based on their weaknesses and things they want to improve because the Forum is a great place to learn and grow. Either way works; just have a conversation with your group as you decide on the roles.