Spring 2022 Executive Meeting

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General

The Executive team, made up of the Officers and Directors, meet four times a year to check in as a full group, review our progress together, and make some strategic decisions.

The Directors and Officers met on April 16 for our quarterly (Spring) strategic update meeting and multiple subjects were discussed.

The members of the Executive team in attendance were:

Announcements

The new additions to the exec team were Aintza Bisera, joining as the new Director of Online Events, Ahmyra al'Ruley chosen as the next Director of Events and Conferences, Cahalan Sothron as the Shatayan (then in Training), and Faeril Munlear, the new Director of Outreach. Welcome!

From the Keeper

"At the executive meeting, we revisited the topic of our gendered forums. We had decided previously, at the executive meeting in January, to pursue this action. We decided to solicit feedback from the community on this proposed change prior to implementation. That discussion is taking place in a thread within the Community Feedback discussion forum. If you have chosen not to opt-in to that forum, or you are not yet eligible and have thoughts you would like to share, please email them to keeper@tarvalon.net.

I also want to share some highlights of what has happened since I (along with Morri) was hired in December, in case anyone is curious and/or interested in what has occurred in the past four months:

  • Began a never-ending series of meetings with Serinia and Morrighan, as Serinia worked to provide needed information to the both of us on our new jobs. Cassie joined in once she was hired as Amyrlin. In case you didn't know, we meet weekly (if not more frequently) to discuss, plan, brainstorm, and work out anything and everything related to TarValon.Net.
  • Worked to tweak and release the updated Community Organization Chart, with the changes to our moderation system and the splitting of Community Outreach into Outreach and Online Events.
  • Established an Executive Meeting schedule in conjunction with Exec for 2022.
  • Met with all Directors reporting to the Keeper to get an overview of their respective Departments, including past troubles, current plans, and future goals and objectives.
  • Met with Morri and Seri at Fall Creek Falls, where we were able to have in-person training and get to drive around and see our Anni 2022 location. (It's fabulous! I can't wait for y'all to visit. :D
  • Hired our new Director of Outreach, Faeril Munlear. She's going full-steam ahead on the scholarship-front, and has supported her team throughout the process of setting up the current Ukraine fundraiser.
  • Hired our new Director of Events & Conferences, Ahmyra al'Ruley. I am working with Melisande Arneil to help ensure that Ahmyra is up-to-date and aware of all Director-specific tasks and duties, and working to support the both of them through this transition.
  • Hired our new Director of Marketing, Siera al'Cere. The previous director had to step down due to real-life considerations, and during the onset of that situation through hiring our new Director I have worked to help out our excellent Marketing administrators with whatever concerns they brought to my attention.
  • Answered and responded to over 500 emails during this 4 month time span.

Future projects:

  • Annual Report 2021 (June 2022)

More to come!"

Department of Events and Conferences

Updates
  • Ahmyra has been hired as the new Director, and will be replacing Melisande. Both will be acting as Director throughout the training and transition process.
  • Rhed has been working hard at her new job of Conference Coordinator, and has been sharing information daily about JordanCon.
  • For Euro Party, discussion was had about possibly arranging an Amyrlin's Tournament as Cassie will be attending. If you're going to be attending, make sure to register soon!
  • We are looking at registration for Anni 2022 in May (6 months out). There will be many investitures and possibly even more raisings. More information will come out about this event in the coming months.

Department of Marketing

Director of Research and Records has been given access to the Photo Release Form data in order to ensure that any photos within the library are there appropriately and not against anyone's wishes.

Department of Outreach

The Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship (RJMS) application period is currently open! Applications will be accepted through May 15, 2022. Both Amyrlins will be working to help promote the scholarship within the wider Wheel of Time community.

The Servant of All Team is running a fundraiser to help Ukraine.

The Servant of All Team is going to be working on monthly charity focii. More information will be forthcoming!

Department of Technology

We learned more information about the upcoming email changes, including access to new features for the accounts we will continue to maintain and pay for. Tech is able to directly download content from any users accounts. Tech will also enable a feature that will allow individual users to download all content within their accounts at a later date, prior to deletion.

Xenforo 2.0 Void Dates: coming soon. During the void period, nothing posted will be saved and moved to the new site. (Expect planned shenanigans!) Mendo will be taking time off work in order to complete this. He has people ready and willing to help; if he needs more, he will recruit and hire them on an as needed basis. The TVT will be incorporated into X2, and will not be separate after the switch. MediaWiki will be migrated during or immediately after the void period.

Xenforo 2.0 comes with many different features. It's essentially a new platform, despite having the same name as what we are using now. Many things, such as the moderation system, will be changing. Incoming mods can expect to be trained on the new system.

In the near future, Tech will be adding an additional stickied thread to the Water Cooler for non-Gatekeeper requests. This is in part to help alleviate confusion with what goes where; when the new non-Gatekeeper thread is started, a fresh Gatekeeper thread will be started. Both will clearly state what requests will be handled where. This will help keep requests and changes for moderators in a public record in conjunction with the email changes.

Tech will also be hiring a Mason, the Wansho's assistant as per the org chart, in the near future.

From the Cordamora

Forum Redundancy

We discussed in Exec what has already been discussed in Community Feedback and that is how bloated the forums have become. As suggested in the Community Feedback forum, I suggested that we close The Gardens and add Novice/Recruit to the City/Old Warder & Hen. That would lessen the number of places Tower members are expected to have a presence and hopefully increase engagement with a more focused approach. We will further look at the Discussion Halls in a similar light once the Guilds are ready to launch.

Delineation of moderation

We discussed shifting some of the moderation duties in an attempt to streamline our processes. The moderation setup in Xenforo 2 will be a different system, so any immediate changes will only be temporary.

Quick Recap of my 1st 4 months as a first time Exec
  • Weekly meetings with Amyrlin (Serinia, then Cassie; sometimes both) & Keeper-elect (Erin)
  • So. Many. Emails. Discord chats. Facebook Messages.
  • Complete the organization chart overhaul with Erin
  • Established Exec meeting schedule with Erin
  • Hired Mods/Ops immediately thereafter
  • Fall Creek Falls training weekend with Serinia & Erin on site & Cassie (electronically). Get stoked for Anni, y'all!!!
  • Expanded the Mediator team & hired 2 more positions
  • Finalized the Raising Requirements discussion
  • Restructured & finalized the Accountability Guide
  • Researched and took action on membership issues
  • Provided coverage while Director of Membership was on leave
  • Hired the Director of Online Events and supported her transition from other positions
  • Rotated the Hall
  • Hired the Director of Membership

And there's a few things still on my To Do list! What an exciting few months it has been, but I'm honestly looking forward to a routine & slightly less excitement post-Elect status.

Future plans
  • Work with Director of Membership to further streamline processes
  • Support Launch of Guilds
  • Document the balance between moderation & mediation

Department of Membership

Preparation for the transition is underway. The transition period between Alenya & the next Director of Membership should be brief.

Preparation for the membership admins to navigate through the Google email situation by July 1st is well underway. Membership admins will be provided further guidance by the incoming Director.

Department of Online Events

  • April 22: Online JCon toast on Discord
  • May 14: Online (Discord) presentation of Keeper Awards, as selected by Mieriana for 2021
  • something secret fun during the Void
  • Hire Online Events Coordinator
  • Hire staff positions as Online Events Team as not just seasonal

There was discussion of extending and defining the Game Master's role in Discord to best support the department; topic is to move forward in conjunction with Tech.

Revisited the discussion about Mafia games and the need for a workaround since Quick Topics is no longer available. PM's have been used, but there's nothing static and they can be bulky for larger games. PM's are efficient for mini-games though. After the launch of Xenforo 2, Aintza & Mendo will discuss other potential options.

From the Archivist

One of the things we had discussed was Merits, and that there had been some discussion on the forums about them. We decided against a specific merit focus group for now, but that we can solicit any thoughts people have. All of them should be optional, if you only have thoughts on one area.

Because of this, a form was set up to solicit general opinions and more specific thoughts from those that have them.