Mod
Recruitment
Moderator Recruitment is one of the most important tasks you will undertake as a student leader. The quality of your moderators can have a profound effect on the quality of the dialogue groups you create, so do not take this responsibility lightly!! There are a couple of things to keep in mind when recruiting moderators:
1) Moderators should always be recruited from the pool of participants. Once your program is large enough, mandate that all moderators first are participants in a group, to ensure that they fully understand what a dialogue group must look like.
2) There are six qualities that a good moderator has, all outlined below. Use them as criteria when selecting the right people for the job, and share them with your current moderators so they might encourage their group members to apply!
1. Personality/people skills
Simply put, a good moderator is, good with people, comfortable in a group, intuitive/perceptive of others in the room, one who makes others comfortable/ can put others at ease, etc. Moderators should be fair and unintimidating, and have a good presence with those around them.
2. Ability to take Risks
Moderators must be comfortable asking the uncomfortable questions so that participants will know its ok to make the uncomfortable statements.
3. Able to see both sides of an issue.
Neutrality is of the utmost importance in a moderator. Any person who cannot put aside their personal views for the sake of the group would not be a good moderator.
4. Responsible, organized, and commited
Moderating is a big responsibility. Choose someone who can handle it.
5. Understand SD
All moderators must undergo moderator training with SDCN
trainers so that they might fully grasp the process of SD and the tools required to successfully implement it.
6. Understand the issue at hand.
While we don’t expect moderators to be experts in race, their
familiarity with the issues at hand will greatly aid them in negotiating what are often very tense waters.
After you have done some work to identify strong potential moderators, you should encourage them all to APPLY for the position. This is VERY important. An application process lets the potential mods know that what they are signing up for is important, and should be accompanied by careful consideration. Being a moderator is a big commitment!!
Mod Try-Outs
We recommend a few things for moderator try-outs:
- Moderator Applications: You can add to or take from this sample application (click on Moderator Applications) as much as you see fit—but makes sure you have the moderators fill something out as the first step in their application process. Be sure to include a question about their commitment, and their availability on the day for the actual tryout.
Crash Course in SD: Give all of the potential moderators some simple background SD theory information to read before the try-outs, so they have at least a surface level understanding of what they’re trying out for.
Moderator Try-Out Sample Agenda
Tryouts—Moderator Role: On the day of the tryout, you should spend an hour or so briefly outlining the role and responsibility of a moderator. You don’t have to train them—the primary goal of this tryout is to see what sort of natural ability they have in leading a group. Do, though, give them basic info (be neutral, ask good digging deeper questions, connect themes and stories, summarize, get people involved, etc) so they will feel more confident as they head in to mock dialogues
Tryouts—Mock Dialogues: Pair the moderators; along with a few volunteers from your current moderator body, form groups and have the moderator pairs attempt to moderate a 30 minute dialogue. Current mods (or leadership/executive team) should take notes on which moderators seem to best exhibit the personality, comfort, and insight that a good moderator needs.
Selections: When selecting moderators, take into account the six qualities listed above, especially commitment and responsibility. Don’t forget, though, that you want your moderators to represent the diversity of social identities of your school itself---the better job you can do recruiting that diversity to be moderators, the better your groups will be.
For a more in-depth look at moderator selection, see the Leader’s Handbook!
Moderator Recruitment is one of the most important tasks you will undertake as a student leader. The quality of your moderators can have a profound effect on the quality of the dialogue groups you create, so do not take this responsibility lightly!! There are a couple of things to keep in mind when recruiting moderators:
1) Moderators should always be recruited from the pool of participants. Once your program is large enough, mandate that all moderators first are participants in a group, to ensure that they fully understand what a dialogue group must look like.
2) There are six qualities that a good moderator has, all outlined below. Use them as criteria when selecting the right people for the job, and share them with your current moderators so they might encourage their group members to apply!
1. Personality/people skills
Simply put, a good moderator is, good with people, comfortable in a group, intuitive/perceptive of others in the room, one who makes others comfortable/ can put others at ease, etc. Moderators should be fair and unintimidating, and have a good presence with those around them.
2. Ability to take Risks
Moderators must be comfortable asking the uncomfortable questions so that participants will know its ok to make the uncomfortable statements.
3. Able to see both sides of an issue.
Neutrality is of the utmost importance in a moderator. Any person who cannot put aside their personal views for the sake of the group would not be a good moderator.
4. Responsible, organized, and commited
Moderating is a big responsibility. Choose someone who can handle it.
5. Understand SD
All moderators must undergo moderator training with SDCN
trainers so that they might fully grasp the process of SD and the tools required to successfully implement it.
6. Understand the issue at hand.
While we don’t expect moderators to be experts in race, their
familiarity with the issues at hand will greatly aid them in negotiating what are often very tense waters.
After you have done some work to identify strong potential moderators, you should encourage them all to APPLY for the position. This is VERY important. An application process lets the potential mods know that what they are signing up for is important, and should be accompanied by careful consideration. Being a moderator is a big commitment!!
Mod Try-Outs
We recommend a few things for moderator try-outs:
- Moderator Applications: You can add to or take from this sample application (click on Moderator Applications) as much as you see fit—but makes sure you have the moderators fill something out as the first step in their application process. Be sure to include a question about their commitment, and their availability on the day for the actual tryout.
Crash Course in SD: Give all of the potential moderators some simple background SD theory information to read before the try-outs, so they have at least a surface level understanding of what they’re trying out for.
Moderator Try-Out Sample Agenda
Tryouts—Moderator Role: On the day of the tryout, you should spend an hour or so briefly outlining the role and responsibility of a moderator. You don’t have to train them—the primary goal of this tryout is to see what sort of natural ability they have in leading a group. Do, though, give them basic info (be neutral, ask good digging deeper questions, connect themes and stories, summarize, get people involved, etc) so they will feel more confident as they head in to mock dialogues
Tryouts—Mock Dialogues: Pair the moderators; along with a few volunteers from your current moderator body, form groups and have the moderator pairs attempt to moderate a 30 minute dialogue. Current mods (or leadership/executive team) should take notes on which moderators seem to best exhibit the personality, comfort, and insight that a good moderator needs.
Selections: When selecting moderators, take into account the six qualities listed above, especially commitment and responsibility. Don’t forget, though, that you want your moderators to represent the diversity of social identities of your school itself---the better job you can do recruiting that diversity to be moderators, the better your groups will be.
For a more in-depth look at moderator selection, see the Leader’s Handbook!