2010 Admin Meeting

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The 2010 Administrative Meeting was held at the year's Anniversary party

The following changes were decided upon

Executive

The goal this past year of incorporating was achieved. The goal for next year is to get and maintain non-profit status.

The position of Amyrlin (President) and CEO are currently held by one person, but it has been clarified that these are two separate positions that are not irrevocably tied. The Board of Director positions are not tied to the Executive positions, though someone can be both.

Administration

Confidentiality Agreements and Conflict of Interest Agreements were reviewed. These will be signed, once implemented, by the Board of Directors, Amyrlin, Keeper, Directors, Membership Admins and anyone who handles either cash or sensitive personal information in the community.

Expected response times will be clarified in the membership manual.

Annual report progress. Done, for the most part, including summaries for each of the years where we missed a report.

Transparency was discussed, which we hope the new blog will help with when our new site goes live. Between that, Site Announcements, the TarValon Times, our news feed page, and announcements on Twitter and Facebook... we're probably communicating in as many places as we can. The blog will be different as it will be written from the author's perspective and perhaps give some insight into how things work.

Community Development

Merit Badges

One major point of the Admin Meeting was the creation of the Merit Badges system.

Guilds

Guild membership was opened up. Members may be members of more than one guild. In addition, guilds will be open to all TarValon.Net members to post in, and create topics in regardless of membership.

Events and Conferences

Animal Policy

Animal policy was enacted for official events. Only certified service animals will be allowed attend events.

Tenth Anniversary

To reflect the magnitude of our Tenth Anniversary event next year, the traditional Winter and Summer Euro official events will be combined into one – “Tenth Anniversary – Europe.” This event will be the first to reflect the standard cost model. The timing of the event is still being determined, but we expect it to take place closer to the fall to promote attendance at both our Tenth Anniversary celebrations in Chaleston and Europe for those who are able.

Executive Attendance

As decided in last year's Admin Meeting, Executives will attend events in Europe. The Keeper attended Summer Europarty 2009, the Director of Events and Conferences attended Winter Europarty 2010 and the Amyrlin Seat will attend the Europarty held in 2011.

Standardized Cost Model

  • Cost model is based on two-night event. In the case that the event is longer or shorter, appropriate percentages will be applied.
  • Ticket cost will approximate the rack rate of one night’s stay in local moderately priced hotel. This will not only standardize expectations across our regions but also help to regulate relative geographical/cost of living expenses, as well as potential currency issues.
  • The funds collected via the ticket payments will be budgeted into the following expenditure categories: 30% Lodging, 25% Food, 20% Committee Budgets (including entertainment, safety, decorations, awards, welcome, errands, etc.), 15% - Insurance, Fundraising, Tower costs, 10% - Facility fees, taxes, misc. All percentages to be kept +/- 5% depending on each event’s needs.

Forums

The E&C department will stabilize the availability of planning message boards. The Dragon*Con planning forum and the JordanCon planning forum are combined into one “Official Conventions” board. This board will be available throughout the year and will include high-level information on each of the conventions we attend as an official group, but most threads will focus on planning the soonest upcoming event. (This will be posted soon and the current JordanCon board will be removed when appropriate.)

As new boards are added for each event, they will be kept year-round and updated as appropriate

Marketing

A proposal was received for creating a Department of Visual Resources. In the meeting, this morphed into a Department of Marketing. The department is charged with the visual identity of the site, including the soliciting and creation of logos as well as general consistancy of design. Other marketing tasks will be inculded as the department develops. Retail efforts and Tower Voice (social networking) were restructured to this department.

Membership

The Hall

The Hall's purpose broadened to include various aspects of Philanthropy. Voting on the scholarship and on people who need emergency loans. The Director of Philanthropy was given access to the Hall in order to facilitate these philanthropic services.

The Hall shifted in the Chain of Command structure out from the Dept of Membership into a general staff position under the Officers.

Ajahs and Companies now be choose their own representation in the Hall.

Bonding

The procedures for bonding still apply.

  • Each Company can bond one Aes Sedai
  • Each Ajah can bond one Gaidin
    • Greens can bond two Gaidin
    • Reds cannot bond

However, in conjunction with the merit badge system, people with exceptional contributions will have a chance to "Pull a Cadsuane" and bend the rules.

If a member has a 5 year Sr. Member Merit Badge, as well as 4 other Badges in any other catagory, they will be allowed a +1. That means a Red could bond 1. A Green could bond 3. A Gaidin could bond 2.

ANY multiple bonds (and this includes Green's traditional second bond) will require a written petition not only from the two bonding, but from anyone else bonded to those parties.

First Siblings

First sibling relationships are outside of the jurisdiction of the Tower. They are not officially recognised. The Tower no longer presides over or puts limits on first sibling recognition. They will no longer be part of official ceremonies, though the ceremonies will be available in the library for anyone wanting to hold one. They may be mentioned in signatures.

Demotions

Members may now demote even if they have gone through guesting. These members will have a longer waiting period. Currently such decisions are taken very seriously by membership and that level will be maintained.

Rotation

The rotation system was reviewed and reconfirmed.

Junior Member Punishments

Junior Members may no longer be sent for "punishment" by Senior Members. Jr. Member's Membership Admins and those they report to (CoR, CoS, MoN, MoA, Mayor, Dir. of Membership, Keeper, Amyrlin) are the exception. Membership Admins for these groups (especially Novices and Recruits!) are encouraged to keep up the fun/play aspect of this.

Moderators

Current Events Forum

The Current Events forum was made it into a view only forum. Posting in the forum still requires a written application.

The use of tags was implimented. If something is a news item, it is to be labled NEWS. If something is a debate, it is to be labled DEBATE. If a news item devolves into a debate, someone will create a new thread to discuss that debate (with the label) and take the debate out of the news thread. This is to keep the philosophical debates clearly labled, and the news clearly labled.

IRC

Putting IRC Ops on a rotation basis was reviewed, but decided against at this time. The Director of Moderators will keep an active tab on who is available, and add or remove permissions as needed based on activity.

Philanthropy

Emergency aid

  • recipient must be a member in good standing (not on probation), and must be either a resident citizen or Tower initiate. They must have been a member for at least 6 months. The emergency must be an actual emergency (unplanned/act of God, etc.). It may not be used for things like payment of electric bills, or other things that you can see coming.
  • These will be now given on a loan basis
  • Taking an emergency loan will put the membership on probation until it is paid back (they cannot take another loan, run for a new office, or attend an event).
  • If someone has paid the small loan back in full, they are no longer on probationary status and, if need be, could apply for another emergency loan.
  • The situation needing the emergency loan will be presented to the Hall for decision on whether it should be granted (except in cases where immediacy is critical, where the Amyrlin may chose to grant funds). The Board of Directors in conjunction with Director of Philanthropy (and Director of Membership and Director of Administration if they are requested/needed) will determine the amount of funds to provide and due date of repayment.

Examples of emergency loans (based on actual examples) include: emergency medical care, emergency transportation from a dangerous situation, money for food after Hurricane Katrina

Helping Hands

Helping Hands will be for helping others in non-emergency situations. It will be an ongoing thing, and not specifically tied to any time of the year or event. Nominations and applications to be considered for Helping Hands will be accepted by the Director of Philanthropy.

Retail

The retail sections will become the responsibility of the new Department of Marketing, until then it will reside in the Department of Philanthropy.

Community Service

We discussed adding a community service (physical irl community) requirement for raising, but decided it was not something we should add.

Allocation of donations

Members must specify at time of donation if they wish their funds to be allocated to a particular fund, ie Scholarship, Helping Hands, general donation.

Philanthropy at RL Events

Philanthropy will continue to persue ways to raise funds both to help our organization and others. Where culturally understood, we will continue with Da'covale auctions. We will continue to hold raffles and door prize events. At each real life event, we will arrange a fundraiser for a local charity (i.e. book drive, coat drive, etc.) and make arrangements to send extra food to a local shelter or food bank.

Tax Receipts

At the end of the year, members who attended an event (as well as those who have donated) will receive a receipt for tax purposes. If an event ends up with some surpluss funds, these will be divided by the attendees and added to the receipt as a tax-deductable charitable donation.

Servant of All

The Servant of All system will be combined with the Merit Badge system in some form or another to recognize many different levels of participation and service.

Scholarship

The Annual Scholarship will now be open to all Wheel of Time fans. This is a big step for us, especially as we try to move more into the realm of being the recognized WoT service organization. It allows us to be a leader in this area, but also allows us to solicit donations from more than just Tower members for the Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship. We're glad to be its steward, and we are excited to open it up to all fans. We will still grant on an essay basis, and essays will still be chosen blind (no names attached) by the current elected Hall representing our membership.

Research

Formerly known as the Department of Research and Communications, this department was renamed to the Department of Research, as the position of Tower Voice was restructured into the Department of Marketing.

Technology