SI Yorkshire: Guidelines for the use of Social Media
SI Yorkshire welcomes all members to its Social Media groups.
Currently SI Yorkshire uses Facebook and Twitter and has a WhatsApp group. These guidelines are intended to apply to all of these and other media that come into use or be developed in the future.
The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that all Social Media messages posted by Yorkshire Soroptimists:
a. Support the fundamental Soroptimist principles as set out on the SIGBI website
b. Support the Soroptimist Vision and Mission
c. Enable all Soroptimists who engage with each other on Social Media to be confident that they can do so in friendship and with mutual respect keeping in mind that SIGBI is a multicultural, multiracial organisation.
The fundamental Soroptimist principles state that in order to achieve our fundamental Soroptimist Principles we will:
- Treat all with dignity and respect;
- Be non-sectarian;
- Not have any party political affiliation;
- Work with all who share our objectives.
SIGBI is an international, multicultural and multiracial organisation
Our vision and mission apply to us as we work together within our Soroptimist community as well as to our outward facing work
Vision
Women and girls will achieve their individual and collective potential, realise aspirations and have an equal voice in creating strong, peaceful communities worldwide.
Mission
Soroptimists transform the lives and status of women and girls through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities.
Introducing ourselves: Just as we consider it a matter of Soroptimist custom and etiquette to always introduce ourselves to each other by name and club when we speak in person we should ensure that we make ourselves known to each other in the same way in all our social media conversations – generally this will be by ensuring that our name and our club are identifiable on all messages.
Moderation:
- New members of our social media groups will be invited to read our social media guidelines and confirm that they have done so and accept them before joining SI Yorkshire social media groups.
- Members may use the guidelines to start a conversation about any posts about which they feel uncomfortable.
- On the rare occasions that posted material falls outwith our Soroptimist Vision, Mission and principles the moderator will politely remind members of them and ask that the relevant post be removed or if essential ask the group administrator to remove it.
These guidelines are intended to assist Yorkshire Soroptimists who take part in our Social Media groups. They complement but are in no way intended to replace the Soroptimist Code of Conduct and the SIGBI Dispute Resolution Procedure.
Definitions:
Group administrator: ensures the group functions effectively from a practical perspective and in particular admits new members ensuring that they meet the criteria for membership of the group e.g that those admitted to the SI Yorkshire WhatsApp are members of a Soroptimist International club in the Yorkshire region.
The administrator will also remind new members that they are committing to post in line with the Social Media guidelines set out above.
Administrators are able to remove posts when this is deemed essential in the light of these guidelines.
Moderator: monitors posts to ensure that those which have the potential to offend are addressed, usually in conversation with the member concerned.
These roles may well be ‘job-shared’ to ensure that the work entailed is manageable.