TSL Volunteer Text Orientation
The volunteer information on this page is now out of date and will be kept for historical purposes. Please do not update information on this page.
The following is a text orientation for TSL 2.0 Mentors. This text is good for those who cannot attend any of the available sessions for orientation. It is also a good way for experienced Mentors to review!
- If you are a TSL Mentor 2.0 and cannot attend orientation, please read the information below, pick up the folder of information from the stage kiosk located at TSL Volunteer Island and then contact a VTeam Linden.
Orientation
This orientation session is meant to talk a bit about what volunteering means for Teen Second Life and as a volunteer what resources you have available to you.
One of the things that makes mentoring so cool is that you leave a lasting impact on other residents. It is likely that you have had a mentor in the past help you out!
Hopefully you will leave impacts on others in the same way— I’m sure many of you already have!
Making an impact on the community is important, and how to do this may be different depending on who you are and what skills you offer to the community. However, there are some basic virtues that all volunteers must bring to the table to uphold the honor of the program.
Tao of Volunteers
These virtues are broken down into the Tao of Volunteers. Please watch the Tao of Volunteers video located on TSL Volunteer Island or on Youtube here as well as read them here.
- Remember, the volunteer mission requires team cooperation, a focus on goodwill for all, reliability, and FUN!
- Remember also, if you activate your Mentor title, you are in Mentor-mode! Tag down when you are not in the mood to volunteer, and make sure to volunteer only when you’re motivated and happy! What you do as a volunteer can reflect on the whole team.
Resources
Next up we’ll be talking about resources! The major resources are the help menu (at the top), VTeam members (Amber, Blue, Lexie, and Mia!), the blog for global issues, the forums for chatter, and of COURSE teamwork among you all. It’s so important you work together and are respectful to eachother!
- Abuse reporting is the best place to turn if griefing is happening. Please, however, do not patrol. You all want to help out as much as any other, but some situations are not ‘fixable’ by Mentors. You can suggest ways to avoid the effects of griefing, such as sitting to avoid pushing, or adding a name to a land ban list, or disabling particle effects…
- But please, know when to step back. Sometimes putting yourself out there makes you ‘fodder’ to the attacks.
- Stay calm in such an emergency and don’t give any attention to the griefer. DO NOT threaten any kind of action against them, and know, quietly, that you are above their unacceptable behavior.
- If you like, as a resident you are able to abuse report, but this is not something we will force you to do. If you and other witnesses file abuse reports, it may be best once you do this to temporarily leave the area if it is too much to bear while the abuse team addresses the concern.
- In short, the best perspective you can have on griefing is to be a witness and not a victim.
Buddies
Another resource is TSL 2.0 Mentor Buddies (The folder contains information on this also). Buddies are experienced volunteers who are making themselves available to other volunteers to provide advice and direction about volunteering. Buddies are a fantastic resource!
Buddies can also have pagers! This makes it easy to see who is online and available to help. Information on that and it's set up is located here: Teen Second Life Buddy Center
Communication Guidelines
From what we’ve seen TSL Mentors 2.0 are pretty good about this, so we’ll just give it a quick skim through.
- The point of the communication guidelines is to not ‘bog down’ the mentor IM channel with spam. Since the group is going to become larger and larger, it will be to everyone’s benefit if the channel is used only in situations where you can’t find the answer yourself (check resources!). Read the guidelines here
- When you can’t find the answer yourself, ask the mentor channel, but follow it up with “please IM me if you know the answer!” You may get a lot of IMs, but it will be much easier for you to say ‘thank you’ to the ones who replied in IMs than it would having to field the ‘STOP SPAMMING!’ responses in the mentor channel.
Hotspots
This is a notecard you have in the folder of information, which explains a couple of ways you can volunteer at welcome areas.
- The tips include creating a folder with handouts, answering random questions you hear, and overall just having fun. This is an easy way to volunteer and as long as there are newcomers this will always be a great way to have big impact.
Incentives
We have some ideas up our sleeves but we’re not ready to make the big reveal on this one. Just remember we’ll be hosting parties and handing out cool stuff! Keep an eye on group notices for more details.
Graduation
Graduation! Once you have read all the materials and watched the Tao of Volunteers you will graduate!
- Now and then we’ll host big Meet n Greet / Graduation parties for newcomers who have gone through orientation. Keep an eye on group notices for these, too!
On behalf of Linden Lab and VTeam THANK YOU for signing up to be Volunteers! We’re so grateful to have you!!