Winter 2024 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 January 27 for our quarterly (Winter) strategic update meeting of 2024.

The members of the Executive team in attendance were:

• Cassie Dainar as Amyrlin Seat
• Erin al'Denael as Keeper
• Tree as Cordamora
• Owena al'Saturni as Shatayan
• Toral Delvar as Archivist
• Ahmyra al'Ruley as Director of Events and Conferences
• Siera al'Cere as Director of Marketing
• Roheryn ni Galghandhrei t'al'Djinn as Director of Membership
• Adina al'Mari as Director of Online Events
• Siusane al'Cuyler as Director of Outreach
• Ilverin Matriam as Director of Research and Records

Notes

Amyrlin Seat

We discussed member memorials and decided that we are going to create a "memorial garden" section in the City portion of the forums. As part of this forum section, there will be included a sticky with guidance for how a membership group, bondmate, first sibling, or actual family member of one of our deceased members to submit information to be added to the individual's library page. Additionally, the threads from Site Announcements will be moved to this section of the forums after they have been posted for approximately one month. This will allow individuals to learn of a member's passing in Site Announcements as done at present, and then allow for the thread to live in perpetuity if anyone feels the need to post memories at a later date without needing to dig through pages of announcements. I hope to have this forum created in the next few weeks and work to get as many memorial threads moved from Site Announcements as I can.

We also discussed the occasional confusing duplication of acronyms. As a team Exec will try to ensure we don't use the same acronyms for different items. For example: CC stands for Company Commander but has also been used for the City Council and Community Council. Going forward we will try to ensure we spell out the two councils instead of shortening them to CC. Other examples are VC and DM which are both companies but also used to refer to voice chat and direct message respectively. We have all gotten into the text shorthand, so I expect there will be lapses. But please simply point them out if we make this mistake so we can edit to correct them.

Keeper

The Exec team is working to finish up providing information for the 2023 Annual Report. Once we get the data compiled and organized the Annual Report will be shared with the community.

Cordamora

Several items of note are in process or planned for discussion in the Community Council.

• Mentorship Program: Discussion has been ongoing and plans are to develop and announce a new program which will hopefully improve the mentorship experience for Tower Initiates.
• Merits: A discussion will be started for the Community Council to discuss with input from the Archivist and Directors for changes, additions, or deletions from the merit program.
• Accessibility: A discussion will be started to gather ideas and input for best practices.

Community Council process was discussed and a form will be created similar to the Suggestion Box form for identification of topics that might benefit from discussion in the Community Council.

After discussion, the team also decided that it is time to allow for more weight to be given to participation in the Tower Discord as well as on the forums. New members will still need to create an introduction post on the forums. However, participation in the main Tower Discord will be considered equal to activity on the forums when an individual wishes to advance in the Tower. Participation in private membership group discords will not be considered for general activity with the exception of the final raising to Tower Sworn. More details will be provided as they are worked out since this will require changes to the membership manual and other informational posts.

(Note: I'm not including anything on the discussion about Board Member's holding positions in the Tower since that needs to be finalized with the Board as well. Once I've had a chance to consolidate information and discuss it with the Board it can be shared separately if applicable)

Events and Conferences

The Events team has selected a location and tentative dates for Anni 2024. They are currently working with Outreach to determine a charity focus and working to obtain a contract for the venue and selected dates. Once the contract is finalized more information will be shared with the community so everyone can request vacation and make travel plans if they wish to attend.

Online Events

The Virtual Events forum has been moved. Previously, it was embedded under the Olde Warder and Hen, and is now located under its own Virtual Events forum, below In-Person Events, to increase visibility and ease of access.

The current expectation for Virtual Events Merit Tracking is for the event to be reported by the host. Going forward, if there are multiple hosts, or if the host is unable or unwilling to perform the reporting, someone should be delegated the task of providing attendance information.

A reminder to those hosting events: Even if you are not interested in receiving credit or merits for the event, please ensure the events are recorded as those attending deserve to receive credit for their participation.

Technology

(covered by Keeper)

A survey for the membership on the changes made to Discord is being created and should be published in the near future.

A hiring post will be going up soon for the Wansho position, so keep an eye out and poke your friends who may have an interest in the technology department.