Spring 2012 Admin Meeting
The 2012 Admin meeting was held after the Eleventh Anniversary Party. For the first time, the Agenda was released ahead of meeting and comments invited.
Contents
Amyrlin
Admin meetings will now be held twice per year via web conferencing. The Amyrlin will conduct a Town Hall meeting 3 months after each Admin meeting to solicit member feedback. When Admin Meeting notes are released to members, they will be released in a discussion forum.
The History Lesson and/or Public Service Announcement (PSA) project will be implemented to allow for greater transparency, educate members on our history and culture, and to answer members' questions. These will be published as global announcements to allow the greatest visibility and will be published monthly.
The idea of a continuously open forum where members can debate administrative policies was discussed at length but was ultimately not adopted.
The idea of roleplay forums was discussed but was not adopted.
A lengthy discussion was held about long-term site goals, changing our membership structure to ensure long-term viability with the release of the final book, and ways to increase membership engagement. While no changes were adopted at this time, all possibilities remain on the table and this is something that will be closely examined in the future.
Keeper
The transition away from the Department of Community Development since last year has been successful. The changes will remain in place.
The Keeper will begin writing an Operations Manual. This project is designed to flesh out in detail the expectations of each job on the site to allow for better understanding of roles (especially when new volunteers are transitioning into a role) and what each person does. Additionally, the Operations Manual will outline in further detail the expectations of job performance and consequences for not meeting those expectations.
Designed to be a mid-level award between Members Choice and Amyrlin's Awards, the Keeper's Awards will be designed to recognize outstanding service during the past year of our staff and administrators. Nominations will be solicited and then the Keeper, in conjunction with the Amyrlin and Directors as appropriate, will make the final awards. Persons receiving any Keeper's Award will earn a gold merit. Awards will be presented to Moderators and/or Chat Ops, Membership Administrators, Administrators (non-membership), and Staff.
Archivist
Work continues on archiving our old forums and once archiving is completed we will be deleting them.
Members Choice Awards will be handled by the Archivist. He or She will hire a staff member each your to organize and conduct the voting.
The decision to not let people opt out of the Merit program was reviewed and the decision remains the same.
The current Mentor merit was changed to require 5 mentees for a Silver Merit and 10 mentees for a Gold Merit.
The number and type of Merits will be expanded as will the perks available for earning Merits. The Archivist will hold a brainstorming session for the community at large to receive input on the expansion.
Shatayan
The Tower is in good financial shape.
Department of Administration
The yearly reviews for all Director-level positions have been changed to Supervisor Reviews. The 360 reviews for the Amyrlin and Keeper remain in place.
Will create a system for exit interviews of all departing staff, administrators, Directors and Officers.
Will continue to examine the requirements for registration and fundraising activities on a state-by-state basis
An Applicant Tracking System has been created to provide a centralized list of who has applied for what positions in the past. That information is kept by the Director of Administration and information is provided to Officers and Directors upon request when making hiring decisions.
Department of Community Outreach
Work continues on the Servant of All system. We hope to have it launched soon.
Clarified that it is the responsibility of this Department to organize charitable efforts in conjunction with our events such as Anniversary Party. The Director will work in conjunction with the Officers to select a permanent charity that will be supported at Anniversary Party and we will continue to rotate the charities we support at all other events.
Our annual Feast of Lights fundraiser has been moved earlier to the October/November timeframe.
We will begin holding smaller "pop-up" fundraisers throughout the year where we will support worthy causes at a lower monetary amount than in the Feast of Lights fundraiser.
We will move to having two official festivals per year
Department of Events and Conferences
Instead of having one person serve as the Master or Mistress of Revels for Continental Europe events, we will solicit bids every year. Should a viable bid that fits our requirement be submitted and selected, the local liaison will serve as the Master/Mistress of Revels for the event, working closely with the Director and earning credit as an administrator for the event. If no viable bids are submitted/selected, no event will be held.
We are adopting a deposit system (as opposed to merely registration) for all our events to secure your spot of attendance.
Department of Marketing
The Department continues to work on major projects such as the Avendesora Tree, Merit Badges, new Membership logos, etc.
The TVT Planning forum will be made public.
We will create and implement a system print promotional materials in bulk that will be available to be mailed to members attending local events for them to hand out.
Department of Membership
The Department of Technology is attempting to create a custom Membership Tracking program for us; a decision on purchasing software will be deferred to see if one can be created instead.
A new method of mentorship on the male half of the site will be created to better serve the needs of our Recruits, Soldiers and Gaidin.
The number of companies will remain at 4 for the time being.
Ajahs and Comanies will be allowed to create a system for Invited Guests in their private forums. Each senior membership group will be allowed to choose for themselves whether or not it wishes to participate in this program. A poll will be opened in Chambers by the CC/HoA asking whether or not the full members of the group wish to participate in the program. The poll must be open at least 1 month. If, at the end of 1 month, at least 75% of those who have voted wish to participate in the program, the group may participate. If you fail to get 75% and wish to open a new poll after a period of time, that will be allowed but please check with the Director of Membership before doing so.
Once a group elects to participate, the group is responsible for drafting a set of proposed rules and guidelines that must cover:
- How people can become guests of the group
- How the group can kick someone out
- How the group can end their participation in the program completely
- How the group can amend their procedures to do any of the above.
Department of Moderators
The decision to move from Guilds to Discussion Halls was reviewed and the change remains in place.
We will not be creating a Parenting Forum.
We will be splitting the Creative Endeavours forum into two forums: Fine Arts & Literary Pursuits, and Hand Crafts.
The name of the Entertainment forum is changed to Entertainment & Technology.
A Chat Op training manual will be created.
The position of Mistress/Master of Chat has been retired.
Department of Research & Records
The Library continues to excel.
Citizens will be allowed to participate in the Classroom. "Real life" topics (such as crafting, coding, etc) will be allowed to be taught in the Classroom. The position of Head Master/Mistress is elevated to the level of Administrator.
Department of Technology
We will be purchasing and implementing vBulletin as the new program for our site
