Solution Exchange - Joining a Community

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Joining a Community

How to Join The Rules we Follow Staying Connected

Joining a community is free, voluntary and open to all development practitioners interested in contributing advice, experience and expertise for use by others, or for adapting others’ advice, experience and expertise for their own use:

Government officials and NGO field workers implementing development projects and programmes
Service delivery administrators at State, District and community level
Community leaders and activists
Political authorities, planners and policy makers at all levels of government
Entrepreneurs promoting economic opportunities for poor communities
Donors, charitable foundations and other sponsors of development initiatives
Researchers and academics
Members of the media looking for first-hand material on development issues
Other individuals involved with reducing poverty in India

You are welcome to join as many Communities as you like. To better manage your participation level, however, it is advisable to limit membership just to Communities in your key areas of interest. The cross posting facility enables you to dialogue with members of other Communities on issues of wider relevance.

To join click on the Sign Up page, select the Community of your interest, and complete the "sign up" form. The Community’s Moderator will then contact you to learn more about your interests and explain how you could benefit from membership. After this the Moderator will subscribe you to the Community’s mailgroup and send you a welcome message containing the basic information and tips on how to participate effectively.

The Rules We Follow

Solution Exchange Communities are UN-sponsored forums that are anchored in the relevant United Nations Office and moderated by a professional employed by the UN. Before becoming a member, participants must agree to a Membership Agreement to ensure that Solution Exchange continues to provide a positive and constructive service to all its members. The seven basic rules are as follows:

1. Members contribute to share advice, experience and expertise relating to development challenges and not for promoting or advocating particular views, opinions or political positions.

2. Solution Exchange Communities are networks of professional peers and not organizations. Therefore, messages posted to Solution Exchange represent members’ personal views and not positions of their agencies.

3. Contributions should be provided in a positive and constructive manner, and not intentionally defame or discredit the views of another individual or group.

4. Contributions to the mailgroup become public property and are freely available for others to cite or use as they choose, although members are encouraged to acknowledge the original contributor as a courtesy. Attachments or citations offered with these contributions retain the permissions associated with the material unless they are archived in the Solution Exchange repository, where they acquire the rights associated with Solution Exchange material as indicated in the Membership Agreement under the section on Terms and Conditions for Membership.

5. To ensure adherence to the above rules, the moderator first receives messages sent to the mailgroup, and is responsible for reviewing and approving messages for posting and thereby reserves the right to edit and/or withhold messages found inappropriate for posting. However prior to heavily editing or with holding a message, the moderator will notify and/or consult the sender.

6. In posting edited and unedited messages or incorporating the messages into synthesized responses, the UN accepts no responsibility for their veracity or authenticity. Members intending to use or transmit the information contained in these messages should be aware that they are relying on their own judgment.

7. Users also agree to adhere to the legal terms and conditions associated with using these mailgroup forums, the Solution Exchange website and material contained therein as spelled out in the Membership Agreement under the section on Terms and Conditions for Membership. Users are also encouraged to view the section on Privacy Policy, describing how the information that you provide to the mailgroup forums or websites are used.

Staying Connected

Solution Exchange encourages interaction between members of a Community, to promote familiarity and trust and strengthen Community identity. The main ways we do this are:

Regular Updates. Members are invited to post announcements of interest to members on the Community’s home page – events and awards, publishing, partnering or training opportunities, job openings, reading of interest and updates to profiles. Every two weeks, the Updates are compiled into an e-mail format and circulated to members.

Annual Forums. The highlight of the year is a Community’s Annual Forum, specifically designed to emphasize networking and collaboration. The first Annual Forum is a "Visioning Workshop" hosted by Solution Exchange; subsequent forums are hosted by Community members’ organizations, offering a chance to showcase their work. Annual Forums feature three top-priority challenges for Community members to work on over the year, a "Knowledge Mela" to gain new insights from peers, and an awards ceremony to recognize top performers.

Regional Workshops. Community Moderation Teams are available to help organize meetings in your region or your organization to bring potential members together and encourage wider participation. Contact your Moderation Team for more information.