HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been getting a few pm's lately with some members asking what a Representative's duties and responsibilities are and am wondering if anyone could please tell me? For both regional and junior Reps.

I thought I'd post here in general so that all members can see what the duties/responsibilities are so they can decide if they wish to be included in the election

You are the contact person for the people of your region (in case of Junior Rep, for underage members). Convention organisation may come into this, if enough people are interested. The reps also have mod and admin powers.
The board of directors (=all reps) holds regular (chat) meetings to decide on topics we find important, like for example our rules on winter shipping, finances, advertising on the HCA website (just random examples I remembered now).

How does one become a rep or mod? Can I throw a metaphorical hat into the ring at some point in the future? Can I be the head of "Home-crabitat Security"? I can fight the global war on Terrorist Mites..... maybe fiddler crabs too (i hate them so )

On second thought. Maybe I'm a bit too polarizing of a figure. I have like a 50/50 split of people who like me and people who would want to impeach me. Maybe if i can carry the vote in Florida and Ohio I could steal the election. My election strategy would be to offer every member 40 gallons and a mule..... flawless

From what I can recall when I was a rep, reps do the following:

Hear compliments/complaints from people in their region and relay them to the rest of the BOD if necessary.

Deal with members "personal issues" like flaming, warnings, signatures getting too long, images in signatures, avatars too big, harassment, fights between members, etc.

Approve new members (if they want to, Tech Support does most of that)

Award One-, Two- or Three-year stars to members who have earned them.

Help with Archiving.

The requirements are that, if you're over 18 you must have been an active member here for at least a year. You must be nominated by someone else and then win an election.

Junior reps have to be a member for at least 6 months.

Regular Board members have full Admin privileges, Junior Reps have moderator privileges. Any of those privileges can be revoked if a person misuses those abilities.

I've probably forgotten something, anyone else feel free to chip in!

hc!
Christa

I think you hit on most the areas, Christa, but since I am a newly elected rep, I am still trying to get my feet wet. In fact, at first, I didn't even realize that there was a difference between a "rep" (actual elected board member) and a "moderator" (appointed & approved by the board members.) Moderators and administrators (reps) often share the same duties & work hand-in-hand to keep "a smooth-sailing ship" here.

One of the other things we do, is move threads that are posted in the incorrect forums, to the correct forum. (Moderators do that also.) Some of us shadow the post in the forum in which it was originally posted, but not always. Sometimes the entire post is moved to the correct forum.

We are also able to delete posts, if needed. For instance, if the post or thread is offensive, abusive, or otherwise inflammatory, we can chose to delete the thread (or a post to a thread) entirely. When this is done, the "poster" is generally notified of the deletion.

We can also lock thread to prevent additional postings, if necessary. We are always searching the forums for potential problems with certain topics. That way, the fire can be put out before it spreads too far.

We are the people behind the scenes helping to keep this place the happy friendly place it is by doing the little technical things,and cleaning up when need be...like Christa and Kathy and Jed have said.
Of course you members here have the largest part of that, seeing as how happy ,friendly, and willing to help and care you all are.

Oh yes, since becoming a moderator here, I've seen firsthand that there is alot that goes on behind the scenes.
Sometimes it will appear as if the Reps have all disappeared, but that's not the case at all, it's just at times there's so much for them to do.