Fall 2018 Executive Meeting
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Agenda
Amyrlin
- Organization goals spreadsheet
- Welcome Jeffan!
Keeper
- Bonding (Also Archivist)
Archivist
- Survey
Shatayan
- Budget
Community Outreach
- How we pick charities
- Scholarship roundup
- Servant of All relaunch
Events and Conferences
- Progress of Fall Ball 2018
- Progress of Anni 2019
- Progress of EuroParty 2018
- Expected attendance for future EuroParty planning
Marketing
- The Four Pillars
- Hiring New SMM
- Transitioning TVT into a Blog
- Review Discord's ToS to see if it's viable for Departmental chats
- Redirecting https://www.tarvalon.net to the introduction/welcome page
- Redesigning the Intro/Welcome page & reorganizing the layout
Membership
- Demotee mentors
- Guidelines for Admins/Code of conduct
Moderators and Operators
- Org design
- Discord
- Religion & spirituality forum
- Site titles (admin status; custom title)
- Membership statistics
Research and Records
- Nothing on the agenda
Technology
- Nothing on the agenda
Notes
Introduction
The Executive team, made up of the Officers and Directors, meet four times a year to make some bigger decisions about how the site is running. Sometimes the changes are big (guesting, merits), sometimes they're just little tweaks that make everyone's lives easier.
The biggest changes this time around are probably in Marketing, because my bondmate likes to turn things upside down and then fix them and make them run better. He's got a really exciting plan for how to market the site, and frankly, some other exciting ideas that may come to fruition soon. (I can be bribed to tell you if you send me my favorite cookie.)
We've got some updates on some longstanding projects, as well, which is exciting to me -- I always love seeing forward progress!
I want to thank all my Execs who were able to attend the meeting and give up a few hours of their day to talk business. A couple were unable to be there, so you won't see updates from Membership or Outreach in the notes.
Finally, please accept my apology for the delay in getting these notes released. I had to talk to the Board of Directors about a few things, and that took a couple weeks because of some family issues. I appreciate your patience.
Feel free to discuss the decisions herein, or email the appropriate Executive to share your thoughts.
Amyrlin Seat
Asandra had the idea of doing "coffee chats" with the Exec team -- short, informal meetings where we can bounce ideas around or pick brains about ideas. I've contacted Roheryn, our Membership Activities Coordinator, to help us coordinate the chats and get them on the calendar so we get reminders.
Keeper & Archivist
keeper@tarvalon.net and archivist@tarvalon.net
Bonding changes! We have not forgotten. Between technical difficulties and personnel changes, we had some delays. Toral & his team are working on getting the right questions about bonding pulled together to go on either the Membership Survey or a separate survey dedicated to bonding.
We're aiming to release the main survey by the end of October. If the bonding questions haven't been formulated by then, we will have a separate bonding survey in January, after the holidays.
Shatayan
The budget was approved and we all got the money we asked for (which is exactly what we needed).
Cassie will be doing a reboot of the Kindergaidin program, wherein new parents receive a onesie from the Tower as a congratulations gift. The reboot is necessary because the spreadsheet didn't tell Cassie when it was updated, so we have a backlog. When this happened previously, we sent gift cards instead of onesies (since a newborn onesie on a three year old is, well, not happening), so we may fall back to that again this time.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors met on October 21 and have a few items to announce.
First, I misunderstood that the scholarship was the Officers' purview; it is the Board's. When we were discussing the budget, a conversation about the scholarship came up. The proposed change from Calen was that we add a third scholarship earmarked for a trade/vocational school or nontraditional student. Instead, the Board asked that we open up the two scholarships already in existence to any post-high school student. Anyone in a course of study that ends in a degree, certificate, or professional license will be eligible for the scholarships.
Second, the Board approved wholeheartedly Jeffan's proposed Four Pillars of Tar Valon (see more in the Marketing thread) as a guiding force for marketing.
Department of Events and Conferences
We had 12 attendees at Euro 2018. We came in over budget for the event. Euro 2019 will be in Belgrade, and the hunt for a location will begin soon.
Fall Ball has 29 people registered, and the restaurant has been reserved. Lireina will be in charge as the highest ranking attendee. We didn't receive any bids for Fall Ball 2019, so we're looking at alternatives to having a local liaison.
Anni plans are going smoothly, with the lodge and the caterer booked. Registration will open in November, and ticket prices are set and released.
There have been concerns that the Euro events are too expensive, but they are comparable in price to the US parties. If the event comes in under budget, that money is donated to the Outreach charity of choice for that event.
As a head's up: Start thinking about how you want TWENTIETH ANNI to look. TWENTIETH y'all. Think about what you'd love to have, and dream big, because it's TWENTIETH ANNI. (Sorry. Got a little excited there. :look)
Department of Marketing
We discussed the Social Marketing Manager position and considered restructuring the position and dividing it into different roles.
The TVT/Blog has been delayed all attempts at making Xenforo work for us were unsuccessful. Deoan is working on a development site where we can test things out; the TVT/Blog will be set up in an internal frame like the library is. We're aiming for the end of the year to have the TVT/Blog live.
We will be updating TarValon.Net to redirect to the Introduction page, which we are working on updating.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are doing well. Tumblr was killed, however.
The Four Pillars concept to use in marketing our community to the wider fan base was approved by the Board. It gives us a good direction to move in, and will give Jeffan a way to focus his marketing.
The Four Pillars of TarValon.Net
- Our Online Community: TarValon.Net has a strong presence online year round. We have forums that get hundreds of posts daily, with a strong community structure, as well as a chat room.
- Our Real Life Community: With members all over the world, we have three official events every year, as well as a strong presence at JordanCon. We also have dozens of local events every year all around the world.
- Our Library: We have a dedicated wiki filled with information about the series that's constantly being updated. Our library was referenced by Team Jordan for quick information when they needed to look something up when finishing the series.
- Our Philanthropy: We have the annual Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship, as well as causes that we give to throughout the year. We do everything that we can to embody the "Servant of All" aspect of the Aes Sedai represented in the novels.
Department of Moderators and Operators
Asandra had a great idea to add three admin positions to her department so the hierarchy is more stepped and less plateau with her overseeing everything. The three admins will be (titles subject to change) Master of Chat/IRC, Master of Moderators, and Master of Chat/Discord.
The religion forum plans are underway. We were thinking of using tags to invite discussion -- for example, marking a thread "Discussion" would open it up for debate. Otherwise, it would be a place for likeminded folks to chat about their topic. The forum will be opt in.
We clarified that the Staff Online box on the right of the forums should include Administrators and up.
Asandra and Deoan will work together to find a framework of how to make custom titles work, and open it up to the Gatekeepers to handle.
Department of Technology
Deoan has created a development server of the entire website that we can use to test and preview changes so the whole site doesn't break and exile us.
It is also set up so that it will be able to host the chat bots on a separately secured segment, and also the test version of the ticketing system (see below) which we will use to divvy up work more evenly / efficiently.
Deoan asked for, and got approved, a ticketing system. This will allow Deoan and the Masters of the Watch to set up a triage system to send tickets to groups according to their ability, and will therefore, theoretically, lighten their loads.