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Adding Ersatzfriend (EF) as a Backup Owner
*** IT IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED THAT YOU MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A BACKUP CO-OWNER OF SOME KIND LOCALLY. Either have someone not living in your own household locally be a co-owner or, organizationally, you may also use ersatzfriend@freecycle.org as a neutral backup co-owner There are several reasons to have a backup co-owner:
- In the event that your own address gets frozen, bounced, canceled or locked
out, your co-owner can reinstate you under a new address. Without one, your
group becomes permanently orphaned.
- To balance out the workload - it's sometimes difficult to manage a group
on your own, especially if you have a very large group. Share the workload to
make it easier to administer the site and your member list.
- For backup purposes - if you go on vacation or have to take a leave of absence, your co-mod can take over with the same administrative powers that you have. Your CO-mod can also appoint replacements in the event that you take a permanent leave of absence.
If, for any reason you cannot find a co-owner for your group, you still have the option of using ersatzfriend@freecycle.org as a neutral backup co-owner This address serves as a silent co-owner only, and does nothing except to sit there as a backup entity. In the event that you get locked out or have to leave the group permanently, ersatzfriend can reinstate your ownership under a new address or appoint a new co-owner and/or replacement mods to take over in your absence. This saves your group from becoming orphaned.
Philosophically, the larger Freecycle™ concept is about letting go of ownership and the Yahoo phrase seems to imply local moderator ownership rather then viewing us all as stewards of something larger. By adding ersatzfriend as a neutral organizational co-owner, the local moderator is letting go of ownership to a larger nonprofit cause which has no owner and which has as its mission letting go of possessions to others. Again, this is not required.
Here's how to make ersatzfriend a co-owner:
To add ersatzfriend as a backup co-owner**, follow these steps. From the main page, click on Invite and scroll all the way down to the bottom. Click Add Members . Type ersatzfriend@freecycle.org into the email address box. Click Send. Ersatzfriend will be added as a member.
Click on Members and locate ersatzfriend. Yahoo can take some time on doing this so be patient. Click on the pencil icon under the name and options will come up to change the member to either moderator or owner. Click Change to Owner and make sure all options are checked in the radio boxes below to give ersatzfriend friend full access to the group. Both click boxes for mail notification should be Unchecked and the profile settings are Moderated with No Email. Save changes when you are finished.
To verify ersatzfriend as an owner, click on Members > Moderators. Ersatzfriend will have a blue crown icon next to it. Contact your New Group Approver to let him/her know that ersatzfriend is a co-owner
If you cannot click Change to Owner after locating ersatzfriend as a member, send an email to addersatzfriend@freecycle.org and request for the profile to be added. Please include a link to the group in the email. Once the profile has been added, locate ersatzfriend. Click on the pencil icon and Change to Owner. Don't forget to notify your New Group Approver to let him/her know that ersatzfriend is now your backup co-owner
**NOTE** You can only change ersatzfriend to owner if you yourself are an owner. As a minimum, add ER as your Co-Mod to be used as backup in case of an emergency.
*** REPLACEMENT GROUP POLICY *** When a local moderator deletes a group, or abandons a group with no backup moderator or group owner, a team of Freecycle volunteers called Interim Moderators (IMods) can create a new group to replace the old one. Ersatzfriend (EF) is made an owner of these groups. The IMod team will recruit and train new local moderators to take over the management. The new moderator(s) may apply to the GOA for the state or region to have their moderator status changed to "owner" no sooner than six months after the IMod team leaves the group. It is highly recommended that the EF entity be kept as a co-owner on these groups. Special rules will apply to groups that are abandoned, deleted, or removed from The Freecycle Network by local owners or moderators more than once.