Laura's reply to BunnyPants

@bunnypants

Thank you so much for you feedback Bunny. I have reached out to discuss in more detail and hope to have a conversation of some of the problems you see and possible solutions. I do politely disagree with your assessment of our community and specific managers. But I do hear you and understand that you had a specific experience of both the community and individual site managers.

These words "to laura: i hope one day you can find sincerity and practice being open and honest with people. i hope one day you strive to build a community that provides a healthy support network, one in which you guide and help leaders rather than expecting them to figure everything out for you without giving them a say in anything. i hope one day you will understand the difference between volunteers on a for-profit site and slaves."

are harsh. And I wonder why you have come to dislike me/ our community so? I have tried to be there for you over the years, support you, give your feedback and encourage you. I take pride in building a supportive community for all. And I have greatly enjoyed getting to know you! You are an incredible person who I admire.

I do deeply understand the difference between a volunteer and "slave." If anyone is not interested in volunteering, please feel free to leave your roles. I believe you are thinking of volunteer roles from the wrong angle. A volunteer role on 7 Cups is a way to gain experience, knowledge and help the community. There are clearly defined skills that a volunteer can gain from their work here. 7 Cups is and has always been a choose your own adventure experience.

Beyond this, I do think the admin team can do a better job of talking openly about why 7 Cups is not a non-profit organization. In short, being a business allows us to help more people. We are now at the stage where we are able to hire and bring on more team members to help make the site better and help more people. I am sure some of you out there have seen our growing team page! Everyone on the team is here to help you all, bring more support to our members, make the product better, make the app better, make the service better..etc. All money made is being re-invested into our community and platform and I hope you all will start to see more meaningful changes in the next few months and years. I have also shared specifically how the community team will be using our team resources in q1 of 2019. I will be posting these goals every quarter moving forward and sharing updates. I believe more transparency is better and we can alway improve here.

And just as an aside, we will also be using our resources to re-invest back into the community in direct ways!

1) all listeners who have hit a certain level of experience can gift paths to their members !!

2) Leader of the month - 5 leaders nominated by you all are awarded a gift of thanks from the entire admin team

3) we are giving out 10 free 1 month therapy subscriptions to members in need as a holiday gift.

These are just a few of the ways we are putting our users first. We will continue to do this.



Bunny, I am sorry you felt i did not give you enough direction or support. I did try my best, as does the entire community team.

I wish you the best Bunny. And of course, you are always more than welcome here at 7 Cups. We are not asking you to leave. Sending you a hug! I hope to see you around town!

And to echo Bunny, for all those who are reading this...  if you have something to say, please speak up. We look forward to hearing from you! I really love this old post from Glen on how to present feedback and work torwards proactive problem solving.