Emissary 2.1: Member Mentions and Feedback Forms

2024/02/02, 9:27 PM, Emissary - The Council

Emissary 2.1: Missed Thanks and the Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form

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As I said in my recent report, this post will go into more detail about the Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form. Because...

... there's a lot to unpack here.

But first, I forgot something in yestersday's report!

Thanks For Your Input!

A big shout-out to Jon Silvon, Jasru Lakca, Ikarri Itinen, and Xantros for their submissions to the Emissary Staff Suggestion Box. We'll get back to each of you directly as soon as we have the chance.

Okay, on to the form.

The Need for Feed(back)

Like I said in my report, engagement is supposed to be a two-way street. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood, has been pretty inconsistent at taking member input in the past. Unit leaders talk with their members, and the Council runs surveys and provides feedback boxes for their specific areas of expertise, but there's been a lack of focus on the relationship between the Brotherhood's leadership and its members.

The Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form is meant to help address that lack of focus. We've designed the form to let members offer their thoughts on how their interactions with leaders in the Brotherhood, both club-wide and within their Clans, influence their experience as members.

What This Form Is

The Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form is the Brotherhood's version of a customer satisfaction survey. We designed it to give members a way to talk about their interactions with Brotherhood leaders, good or bad, at all levels of the club.

One of the first concerns that came up regarding this form was how it would fit into the club's current feedback ecosystem. Most club-level leaders already have mailing lists and/or suggestion forms where members can offer ideas and proposals. Members can already contact their Summits directly if they have concerns about unit leadership, with the expectation that those concerns will get sent up the chain of command. So, why do we need another form?

There's a gap in current feedback options. Club-level leaders take feedback about their area of responsibility, but there isn't really a way for members to give their input on "member experience as a whole" directly to a club-level leader. They can send it to their Clan Summits, but...
Feedback doesn't always get where it's supposed to go. Leaders are people. They can get busy and forget things. If the process for a member is "contact your Summit and they'll send it up the chain of command", that leaves plenty of opportunities for the message to get lost or garbled.
There might be legitimate reasons for not following an existing process. If a member has had a bad experience with a leader in the club, they'll probably be hesitant to raise their concerns with the same leader. If a member has made the effort to follow the chain of command (as noted in the Covenant) and their concerns haven't been addressed, this form gives them an alternative.

With all that said, the Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form is meant to collect feedback on how leaders interact with their members. In a perfect world, that feedback would all be positive, like "my Quaestor is really good at making me feel like part of a community" or "this Council staffer went above and beyond with giving me advice for my Aspects". However, since we don't live in that world, the form is also meant for concerns like "I emailed this staff mailing list two weeks ago and never heard anything back" or "we haven't seen our Consul on Discord in ages".

How It Works

Submissions to the Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form go to the Emissary Staff. (The Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and Justicar also receive notifications when new feedback comes in.) Once the Emissary Staff have sorted it, the feedback goes to the relevant leaders to be handled appropriately.

Exactly who the "relevant leaders" are will vary from situation to situation. Clan-level feedback will normally be sent to the Clan Summit, or to the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master if there are concerns about the Consul. Brotherhood-level feedback involving a staff member will be sent to the leader in question, the Grand Master, and the Deputy Grand Master, or to the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master if it involves a club-level leader.

If you prefer not to reveal your identity, this form does take anonymous feedback. However, we encourage you to include your Brotherhood contact info so we have a way to follow up with you. Knowing who submits the feedback also helps us to see when multiple members share the same opinion. If you do include your identity, the Emissary Staff will make every effort to keep it confidential, within the bounds of the Covenant.

What This Form Isn't

To avoid any confusion, here's a quick list of times you shouldn't use the Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form:

Potential Covenant violations. If you believe a leader has violated the Covenant, please contact the Chamber of Justice. The Emissary Staff don't have the authority to take action in those cases.
Any feedback that already has a different submission method. As we noted above, most Brotherhood leaders already have mailing lists and suggestion boxes set up for their respective offices. If you submit your proposal through this form instead, it won't get passed along.
Asking the Emissary Staff to intervene with another leader. If you feel a leader treated you inappropriately, we can take that feedback and pass it along, but we don't have the authority to reverse another leader's decision.

Closing Out

Part of my job as Emissary is making sure our members stick around for the long haul. The relationship between the Brotherhood's members and its leadership—at all levels—is a critical part of member retention. It's also something that, frankly, we've historically overlooked in favour of "give them more stuff". The Brotherhood Leadership Feedback Form won't create engagement overnight, but it's a step in the right direction.

If you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to leave them in the comments.

See you all next time!