In
order to become a Team Leader (TL) a GAB member must hold the
rank of Vice Admiral, be a
member in good standing for a minimum
of 6 months and receive a
recommendation from his current Team
Leader and the Grand
Admiral. Requests to lead a GAB team should be sent to Grand Admiral Mortal Q: mortal_q@gabtraders.com The
basic duties of a TL include welcoming new members, checking
references, record keeping,
answering member questions and keeping
members informed of GAB
policy and procedures. Once
a new TL is assigned to a team he will be given a username
and password to GAB's
database. The TL is responsible for keeping
members' reference files and
information updated in the database.
No special software is
required. The TL may use the database to
send out reference checks,
track references and send out e-mails
to team members. There are
standard form letters for the reference
check email, welcome letter
and promotion notice already in the
database, but the TL may use
his own form letter if he prefers. All
TLs are expected to read the database readme file: http://www.gabtraders.com/databasereadme.htm Any
questions or problems with the database should be sent to
GAB's Webmaster Admiral Yuen:
yuen@hermes.lfc.edu Adding new members to the team database is a simple
procedure.
The TL receives the member's
application from the Application
Team and adds the member to
the team database by copying the application
(from the person's name
through all the listed references) and
pasting it into the "Add
New Members" field in the database. Sometimes on applications new members will put hyphens in
between
the name of their reference
and the email address like this: Bob
Smith-ccgtrader@trader.com and
in order for the database to read the email address correctly
the TL has to either remove
the hyphen or put a space between
it and the email address,
i.e., Bob Smith- ccgtrader@trader.com. The
database will automatically ignore other symbols like <
> or [ ], but hyphens are
used in some email addresses. If
there are any changes to the team roster page (the page that
is viewable on the GAB
website) such as a member promotion, a
new member added or a change
of alias or email address, the TL
must click the "Update
htm file" button that is at the top of
the Team Edit Page; otherwise
any team roster changes will not
be displayed
properly. A team leader
should welcome all new member assigned to his team
within 1-3 days of receiving
them from the Application Team. There
is a standard welcome letter already in the database or
the TL may write and use his
own welcome letter. Custom letters
may be added to the e-mail
function in the team database for future
use. The
application team informs the new member his application is
being processed, but
welcoming them and letting them know what
team they have been assigned
to is the responsibility of the TL.
Unfortunately some TLs don't
do this and as a result the Application
Team receives unnecessary
e-mail from people asking what team
they are on. The most important
duty of a TL is to check member references
accurately and in a timely
manner. TLs should set aside time at
least a couple of times a
week to do reference checks and update
member reference
files. All
replies to reference checks should be read carefully. It shouldn't
be assumed a reply will be a
positive one. All verified references
should be listed as
"Confirmed" in the member's database. Problems
or complaints about a team
member should be followed up. Each
unconfirmed reference should be checked up to three times.
If after the third reference
check the reference is still unconfirmed
it should be listed as
"No Reply". It may be necessary to occasionally
send out more than three
reference checks, but it shouldn't be
routine. TLs
shouldn't let too much time pass between reference checks.
Additional reference checks
should be sent after 7-14 days. The
database automatically "red flags" any unconfirmed reference
ten days after the last
reference check was sent out. If an unconfirmed
reference is highlighted red,
this indicates that it needs to
be updated. References
shouldn't be left indefinitely as unconfirmed. If a
reference email address bounces back, it should be marked
as "Invalid". There
are additional options for references in the
blue "Other" menu
in the member's reference database. Keeping member reference files properly updated is
essential for
running a good
team. A
member's references can only come from people he traded with
or sold cards to over the
internet and the deal must involve CCG,
Sports or Non-Sports
cards. References from card purchases (i.e., the member bought cards
from someone else) cannot be
used. They can be listed on the member's
reference page (as
"Cards Bought"), but they will not count towards
the member's rank. In
GAB, the references have to be able to verify that the cards
were mailed, packaged
properly and were received in the agreed
condition (mint, near mint,
etc.). References from family members and in person trades may not
be
used. Occasionally new members join with references that cannot be
verified.
If after the third reference
check the member still has the rank
of Ensign (0 references) he
should be contacted and informed his
reference(s) couldn't be
confirmed. If a member remains an Ensign
for more than 30 days after
the third ref check was sent out he
can be deleted from the team
roster. The TL should email the member
to let him know he can
reapply when he has new trade references. Number of confirmed references needed for each rank
level: Once
the member has the required number of confirmed references
for a rank promotion, the TL
should send him a congratulatory
note. Members may not
use their own alternate email addresses as references
and will be thrown out of GAB
when caught. If a TL suspects a
member of using his own email
addresses as references he should
contact Admiral LasherMTL of
Internal Affairs: internal_affairs@gabtraders.com
for advice before contacting the member with concerns about possible
phony references. All
e-mails that seem suspicious or are related to the member
in question should be
kept. TLs
should be on the look out for suspicious email addresses that
use similar names, words or
numbers: References that use the same name as the team member may also
point to phony or
unacceptable references. Sometimes these are
the e-mail addresses of
family members and they cannot be used
as GAB references. Many
e-mail servers list the real name in the e-mail header. Sometimes
this is a simple way to catch
a cheater. The
TL should also be on the lookout for reference replies that
come in one after another.
Five replies that come in minutes after
each other (especially if they all
come from free mail accounts)
may indicate a problem. Again
if unsure or suspicious, keep all
those e-mails in case a
report is made to Internal Affairs. Another
thing to look out for is
responses that all sound alike or use
similar grammar, misspellings
etc. Many
traders have Hotmail and AOL addresses, so a large number
of those types of email
addresses on a member's reference list
does not automatically mean
the person is trying to fake his references.
By being alert to the
possibility and asking for advice from more
experienced GAB Admirals or
Internal Affairs, it is possible to
catch the people who are
trying to pass in phony references. To
request new members for a team, the TL should fill out the
form at: www.gabtraders.com/appsform.htm.
Up to 10 new members may be requested at one time. If the form
doesn't work a TL can contact
the leader of the Application Team,
Admiral Kristine Kochanski: applications@gabtraders.com. Once
new members have been assigned to the team, the TL must wait
30 days before putting in
another request for additional members. A team should have
a minimum of 25 members. If a team falls below
25 members, the TL is
expected to contact Admiral Kristine Kochanski to request
additional members. A TL
may have a Section Leader in his team if certain requirements
are fulfilled. The Section
Guidelines can be read at: http://www.gabtraders.com/teamleader/section_guidelins.htm Communication between TL and members is important, and a TL
can
only be effective if he
answers member questions within a reasonable
amount of time. One of the
biggest complaints members have about
their TL's is that they never
hear from them after they join the
team. A TL
should stay in contact with his members and at least a couple
times a year send an e-mail
to members to see if their e-mail
addresses are still working or if they would like to be removed
from the team roster. Team
members appreciate hearing from their
Team Leader and being kept
updated on any changes in the team
or in GAB
procedure. As long as a
member has a valid email address and at least one
confirmed reference, a TL
should not delete a member from the
team without cause,
regardless of the member's level of activity. A TL
may place inactive members in a section designated as inactive
or "missing in
action". Before listing a member as inactive, a
TL should email the member to
try and get in touch with him. Some
members only trade
infrequently and it's not uncommon for a member
to only submit new references
once or twice a year. If a
member has an invalid email address, he should be listed
a "MIA". If his
email address continues to bounce after 30 days,
he can be deleted from the
team roster. If a deleted member wishes
to be reinstated, his records
can be retrieved from the database.
The TL should contact GA
Mortal Q: mortal_q@gabtraders.com to
request a deleted record be reinstated. If a
TL is going to be absent for longer than 1 week he should
inform his team members and
asked them to hold their references
until he's back on active
duty. If
the TL will be away for longer than 3 weeks or needs to take
a hiatus from his duties, he
should inform GA Mortal Q. If necessary
a temporary TL can be
assigned to the team to take care of the
members during the TL's
absence. Grand Admiral
Mortal Q - mortal_q@gabtraders.com Admiral Koshka (Leader of the Hall of Fame Committee) -
koshka@gquan.com:
Heads the committee that evaluates and awards Hall of Fame
recognition.
Admiral LasherMTL (Leader of Internal Affairs) -
internal_affairs@gabtraders.com:
Investigates GAB members who have been reported as bad traders
or have violated the GAB Oath
or Code. Admiral Butterfree (Leader of Inquisitor team) -
inquisitor_team@gabtraders.com:
Investigates bad trader reports about non-GAB
members. Admiral Kristine Kochanski (Leader of the Application Team) -
applications@gabtraders.com:
Handles new member requests and assignments. Processes and checks
new member
applications. Admiral Yuen (Leader of Web team) - webmaster@gabtraders.com or
yuen@hermes.lfc.edu:
Webmaster and designer of GAB The
complete Duty Roster for GAB is at: http://www.gabtraders.com//special/dutyroster.htm
Guidelines
for Sections
Lieutenant 1-5
Lt. Commander 6-15
Commander 16-30
Captain 31-50
Vice Admiral, Admiral
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