December 2012 Wrap-Up

Author: Jeffan Caliarthan

December is always a very busy month for the Tower - it's when some staff positions rotate out, as well as a couple of membership admin positions, so there's always a bunch of hirings going on.

It also means that it's time for the Feast of Lights, both the charity drive as well as the event hosted by the Outreach Activities Team. Something that's been a little out of the ordinary this December is the insane amount of raisings that have happened (11, the most since June!), which are always exciting things for the community.

As I mentioned, this month is when our annual Feast of Lights Fundraiser happens, where we sponsor an international charity. This year, we chose Room to Read, suggested by Leora Sedai, our Glorious Keeper. Room to Read is a charity that focuses on the importance of education and literacy, who believe that all children should have an opportunity to learn. I think it sounds like a pretty awesome charity for a bunch of booknerds to sponsor, don't you? Something pretty awesome happened this year, though. We had an anonymous donor pledge to match any donation made between December 20th and December 25th, up to $1,000! Whoever this anonymous person is, you, sir or madam, are totally made of awesome.

Some of you might have noticed that for a long time, our boards were really slow, especially when you tried to look at member pages. However, we got our servers upgraded, so the 3-minute loading times are a thing of the past! Thanks, tech team!

The Department of Marketing hosted a baby clothing contest for the TarValon.Net shop! There's a post in General with more details.

A couple of North American Event details were released, such as the announcement of Fall Ball 2012 in New York City and the 11th Anniversary Party forum being opened! Yelenia's also looking for bids for 12th Anni in 2013, so go see her post in Site Announcements for more information on how you can propose a location.

If you're someone who ventures into our main chat channel, #wheel, any time, then you'll be interested in seeing the stats for the channel, created by Mejjad. He's updating the page with weekly statistics, as well as monthly, overall statistics. There's probably going to be an article in the coming months going into further detail about the stats, so keep a look out!

Finally, Tazren created an incredibly awesome Ajah test a year ago that's recently gotten quite a bit of attention. It is a very, very detailed quiz that will reveal quite a bit about yourself and the Ajahs. Go take the test [1] and then post your results in the thread for everyone to see!

And now, here's our customary list of everything else that's happened at the Tower:

RAISINGS:

Nov 30: Roheryn Galghandhrei raised to Novice

Nov 30: Theolyn Maryash raised to Novice

Nov 30: Arista Belak raised to Novice

Dec 1: Imzadi Hopewind raised to Accepted

Dec 8: Chalisea Ridgedawn raised to Novice

Dec 16: Lauraine alíBerryn raised to Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah

Dec 16: Hanajima alíCere raised to Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah

Dec 17: Pol Rohanson raised to Soldier

Dec 18: Taelinn Dolivras raised to Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah

Dec 19: Dieda Eriu is raised to Novice

Dec 19: Gollaith Sangíreall is raised to Recruit

ASPIRATIONS:

Dec 2: Willow alíMeana (re)aspired to the Red Ajah

Dec 4: Myralin alíSer aspired to the White Ajah

Dec 6: Jasíyn AlíDragoran aspired to San díma Shadar

Dec 17: Sikozu Oímen aspired to the Yellow Ajah

BONDINGS:

Dec 6: Sean alíDragoran of San díma Shadar and Vivianna Líantreau of the Blue Ajah

Dec 31: Baryd alíSyeen of Mahdiíin díma Dieb and Jenalla Selar of the Green Ajah

HIRINGS:

Dec 1: Writers for the Tar Valon Times (applications closed on the 26th)

Dec 4: Captian of Soldiers (applications closed on the 24th)

Dec 4: Company Commander of San díma Shadar (applications closed on the 24th)

Dec 5: Merit Minions (applications closed)

Dec 9: OA Team Members (applications closed on the 26th)

Dec 10: Chat Ops (applications closed on the 16th)

Dec 13: Forum Mods (applications closed on the 20th)

NEW POSITIONS:

Dec 1: Miya Kiyoshi announced as new OAGC

Dec 26: Hanajima alíCere announced as the new Marketing Project Manager

EXEC BLOG:

Dec 2: Spotlight On: Jeral Mazur

Dec 6: Farewell to Darrell K. Sweet, 1934-2011

Dec 20: Spotlight On: Xylina Tyloredrid, Outreach Activities Coordinator

Dec 20: Coming Together as Friends and Family