Member Spotlight - Headteachers Fee and Calen

Author: Adina al'Mari Published: September 21 2021 - Tar Valon Times Blog Link

Greetings friends!

I have the pleasure of introducing you to our current Head Teachers (or more formally titled, Headmaster and Headmistress)! Calen Velervron and Fee Nicoin were kind enough to respond to my interview request, I hope you enjoy learning more about who they are and why they do what they do. Additionally, if you are interested in learning more about a whole variety of topics, and/or want to teach something for the Tower, you can visit The Classroom forum, and they can be reached at classroom@tarvalon.net. I am sure they’d love to hear from you!

Adina: Tell our readers a bit about yourselves, where you live, and what you do out there in the world.
Fee: I live in Southern Scotland. I have no pets but would love a dog, sadly living in an apartment and working all day is not conducive to having a dog. I am a secondary school teacher (for those not in the UK I teach young people between the ages of 11 to 18.) I teach History and Modern Studies – it is a uniquely Scottish subject – it consists of politics, some sociology type stuffs, and focuses on current and recent events.
Calen: I am from Hot Springs, Arkansas. I am a social worker for the State of Arkansas in the Foster Care system. I started off in investigations, but now I work in the administrative part of the system. I often troubleshoot harder to work cases. I help run a unit that also investigates child trafficking. There is a large amount on I-30 in the US. I have a boyfriend who is fantastic, his name is Joey. I adopted his cat, Jaspers. I have two nephews and a niece that I adore. I am MDD all day long.

Adina: How have you been keeping busy during Covid Times?
Calen: I try and read two books a week. I am a huge fan of Jim Butcher and the Dresden Files. I love a good Dresden quote and can use them in almost any situation.
Fee: I taught myself to crochet during the first lockdown here. I am not very good but I do enjoy it. Apart from that and reading I have no other hobbies. I shaved my hair off during the lock down, I had always wanted to do it so took the chance when I was not physically in school.

Adina: How did you find TarValon.Net?
Fee: I was looking for info on the WoT books release dates. I got the first books from a brother of mine – turns out the series has been a family affair and all three of my brothers have read them. The search led to TarValon.Net — according to the join date I have that was in 2006.
Calen: I think I found the site looking at the Wikipedia whilst reading the books. I stayed because of the service part of the site and the friends I found here. I am happy to say, I have made some of the best friends a guy can have.

Adina: Calen, how did you know MDD was “home?”
Calen: The Company is made up of people that I want to be like. They are smart, witty and loyal. If you need someone to have your back, it’s hard to get someone better than an MDD member. There is also a lot of laughter involved. (Interviewer note- as a long time Bonded guest in MDD, I can attest to the truth of this statement!)

Adina: Fee, how is your Guesting journey going?
Fee: I am not the most active of people and I find it difficult to just jump in to threads, so I am currently an Accepted, and have been since the Callander Europarty in 2017 when Cassie Sedai raised me.

Adina: What made you interested in applying for this position?
Fee: I applied for the role of Headteacher as I wanted to become more active on the site. The idea of the Headteacher role appealed to me as I feel the classroom offers great opportunities to delve deeper into the books, to learn about new things such as rune-casting or even China. The raising support threads are a great place of support if you want to go down the SM path.
Calen: I wanted to apply because one of the first things I did when I joined was started to teach. I think it is a great and unique way to give back. Plus, who doesn’t like to learn?!

Adina: What goals do you have for this position?
Calen: My goal for the tenure is to make sure we keep two rotating classes going, and to develop a system that runs on autopilot for instruction of new citizens.
Fee: In terms of goals [we want] more people sharing their passion and knowledge for skills or topics and teaching classes. So if you have that desire [to teach] email us: classroom@tarvalon.net

Adina: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Fee: Feel free to say hi!
Calen: I am also a mediator and take that job super seriously. I think our site is capable of great things and I have a lot of hopes for what we can accomplish.

Thank you both so much for taking the time to answer my questions, and letting our members get to know you better! Readers, head over at take a class or two, or, teach one. Or both, both is good.