Summer 2020 Executive Meeting

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General

The Summer 2020 Executive meeting was held on June 6 and it discussed a lot of upcoming changes to the organizational structure at TarValon.Net while putting separate department updates on the back burner, therefore only the major changes were included in the current notes.

The members of the Executive Team in attendance were:

Announcements

  • Staffing changes - Welcoming (back) to Exec - Erin as the Director of Community Outreach and Atarah as the Director of Research & Records

Amyrlin and Keeper notes

Community strategy document

2020-Community-strategy.png

The vision is an aspirational projection of our future, The mission statement clarifies our current purpose, and the cornerstones (Philanthropy, Online Community, Real Life Community, and Reference Library) are the *how* - they are the four areas of focus to bring that mission to life.

One new product is listed under Real Life Community – “Authentic Wheel of Time costume guides.” This is a new idea intended to harness the passion in our community for cosplay while also providing a mechanism for real-life engagement throughout the year in addition to our key real-life events. This will include contributions like patterns for shawls or regional dresses, but will also look to partner with the library to develop the leading costume guide that can help draw new fans as we have costume examples from the upcoming show.

Plan for Department Goals

Each department will develop goals which support our strategy. The Goals should include specific, measurable targets.

Revised Code of Conduct

  • Code of Conduct will be mandatory review & accept for new registrations
  • Religious & Political forums will move to a limited moderation model – The Current Events forum will be archived, in its place there will be a News & Politics forum and there will be a new Spirituality and Religion forum. Both new forums will be opt-in, but people who have previously seen Current Events will need to opt in anew to see the new forums.
    • Opt-in is necessary to both *view* and post in the forums
    • Must be 18 years of age or over to participate (adult content)
    • Political & Religious positions should not be considered when evaluating raising, though how someone conducts themselves should be
    • Will apply to both Current Events & new Religion & Spirituality Forum

Organization Structure Changes

202006-organizational-structure.jpeg

The following changes are planned to better support our strategy and streamline work across multiple departments.

Retire Department of Moderators & Operators

The Mods & Ops workload is reduced with increased spam filters in place and the Workload is to be further reduced with changes to CE/Religion forums. Therefore the following changes will happen in the next months:

  • The roles of various existing staff members across departments will be expanded to include moderation of forums they own/are actively engaged with. - the Membership Admins who are consistently in certain forums will become moderators for some forums
  • We will have a few Floating mods who will be mods for the Discussion Halls, Book Discussions, General, etc., but the rest will be retired from their positions.
  • All staff that has moderation abilities are responsible for removing any spam that does get through in a forum they have mod powers.
  • Floating mods & Discord ops will be shifted to the Department of Technology under a new Master of the Watch position described in a section below
  • The Spam forum will be moved from Mods forum to another admin forum so all admins are able to respond to issues in their respective forum (please continue not to Report in private forums)
  • Mafia Admins will become Game Masters and be shifted to the Department of Community Outreach
    • Additional responsibility: Mod for Frivolous Fun, make sure there are some active threads in there
  • Shifting from a culture of "moderation" to "mediation" in order to facilitate better communication among the community

Changes to Dept of Technology

  • New Master of the Watch position to be created - This will be a non-rotating admin position, hiring post coming soon. The new Floating Moderators and Discord ops will report to this person.
  • Master of Chat role will be retired, as the new Master of the Watch will essentially also be the Master of Chat/Discord.
  • IRC will be retired as an "official" chat venue, though it will not be closed immediately.

Changes to Dept of Membership

  • New Tower Mediator position to be created - This will be a new non-rotating admin position for Department of Membership
  • Mediation system will allow for Tower Mediators to lead members through conflict resolution in an effort to improve communication
  • There are upcoming updates to the disciplinary system - We are updating and revising our discipline system to improve the way violations of site rules are handled

Costuming Team

We will be introducing a costuming team to the site to support our updated Vision. The general idea is to create guidelines for Wheel of Time cosplay, shawl tutorials, etc.

We don't have any details for this yet, but will post an announcement when we do. We are focusing on the other changes before introducing this new team.

Feedback Discussion Topics

Membership Manual Updates

The Archivist has been updating the membership manual to make things easier to find and more clear. The updated MM will contain the new mission statement and code of conduct. There are parts that you only need to know if you are joining The Tower, which not everyone does, so those will be indicated as optional knowledge when you first join, but will still be available as a reference. The intent is to provide the critical information that someone needs when they first join, so they aren't overwhelmed by info but they still get what they need.

Merit Updates

  • Da’covale merit to be retired - Donations of services at future events will be recognized as in-kind donation with Avendesora leaves
  • Virtual Events Merit – a new merit is considered. Virtual events will recognise the work people put in into hosting Virtual events during the time when RL events are impossible. Suggested types of Virtual Merits include:
    • Chat/meeting (Host 10 chat/meeting events for a silver merit)
    • Online watch party (Host 5 watch party events for a silver merit)
    • Games or Trivia (Host 5 game/trivia events for a silver merit)
    • Epic Event (Host 1 for a silver merit - must be approved in advance) - Example: TarValon Next Top Gaidin, Summer Olympics
    • Gold merit levels are planned and will be determined in the future when more data is available
    • Participation merits are planned and will also be determined in the future

Qualification of event to count to merit:

  • Event must be posted in the online events forum in advance
  • Event must be open to all Tower members
  • Event must have at least 10 people attend
  • Event must be in addition to official events (an event run by community outreach dept would not count)

To receive credit the host should completed the google form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vVIf3ZEbGuEFp7LOKQ_c8nrKZTB1p-eFxanujDw0pU4/prefill )

  • Screenshot of attendees preferred, provide list of names at minimum
  • Each event can be credited to only one host

Next Steps: Marketing team to design badges and generate fun names

Welcome Back Committee suggestion

It was suggested that a committee be created intended to re-engage existing/lapsed members and get people back to the boards. It is suggested that this committee be lead by the Department of Community Outreach but tied to the Department of Marketing as it will also include work outside the forums

Director of Technology presents Shared email inboxes

Problem to be solved: Google has increased enforcement of one-user mailboxes. Causing locked mailboxes for shared/team accounts.

Possible Solution: Shared accounts will be replaced by group accounts - users should “reply all” to keep all informed of all parts of the conversation. Essentially distribution lists.

  • Users must use a tarvalon.net account to connect
  • Users should delete access to the account at the end of their term

Director of Community Outreach presents The Great Charity Hunt

Group based, year long charity endeavor the goal of which is to get people fundraising for the Tower as a whole.