Fall 2015 Admin Meeting
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Contents
[hide]- 1 Agenda
- 2 Notes
- 2.1 Introduction
- 2.2 Amyrlin Seat
- 2.3 Keeper
- 2.4 Shatayan
- 2.5 Archivist
- 2.6 Department of Marketing
- 2.7 Department of Events and Conferences
- 2.8 Department of Technology
- 2.9 Department of Community Outreach
- 2.10 Department of Administration
- 2.11 Department of Membership
- 2.12 Department of Research and Records
Agenda
Amyrlin
amyrlin@tarvalon.net
- Review of the last year
Keeper
keeper@tarvalon.net
- No new business
CFO/Shatayan
shatayan@tarvalon.net
- Budget
Archivist
archivist@tarvalon.net
- Welcome to the new Archivist
Moderators & Operators
moderators@tarvalon.net
- No new business
Marketing
marketing@tarvalon.net
- Social Media team leader discussion
Events & Conferences
events@tarvalon.net
- The future of Fall Ball events
- Local Liaison duties and merit recognition
Technology
technology@tarvalon.net
- Raising Test software update/progress
Community Outreach
outreach@tarvalon.net
- Scholarship and Fundraiser wrap up
- Avendesora
- Shaoman and Feast of Lights
Administration
administration@tarvalon.net
- Membership Survey results preview
Membership
membership@tarvalon.net
- Clean up numbers.
- Review of the new Mayor structure
- Plans for a new event
Research
research@tarvalon.net
- Wheel of Time Companion and how to use it
Notes
Written by Rhed al'Tere, Amyrlin Seat, unless otherwise specified
Introduction
Welcome to the Admin Meeting Discussion for Fall 2015!
Amyrlin Seat
I brought up exploring changing bonding rules to allow Aes Sedai-Aes Sedai and Gaidin-Gaidin bonds, but the Executive team is unanimous that even with the changes brought by integration, it doesn't make sense for us to change the bonds right now.
Keeper
Nada! Don't worry, though, Lireina has her hands full with all the departments.
Shatayan
Cassie finalized the budget, and everything looks A-OK for the 2016 fiscal year. 
We have no debt, and we're so much in the black that we're not likely to get below the minimum balance in the bank account to have to pay the fee, thanks to all our generous donors during fundraiser season. 
Cassie will be starting taxes soon (she said after her wedding and she's all married and stuff now so she had to get to work now).
Membership gifts for members who had babies used to be a thing we did, until Rileygate, when we were in debt and conserving money as much as possible. Now that we are financially stable, we were looking at CafePress gift cards... which CafePress stopped doing. So we're considering Amazon gift cards instead, as they're fee-free (unlike a Visa gift card).
Archivist
We welcomed Toral as the new Archivist, and I've already seen that he's willing to jump in with both feet and get to work!
There was some mention of possibly disbanding the Director of Research role, but Toral feels it's still needed (as evidenced by the recent hiring thread 
).
Department of Marketing
- Social Marketing Director
Arie brought up the admin position of Social Marketing Director, and we all agreed that it was a good idea. She is now in the process of filling that position. Tower Voices are going to be moved under the Admin for the Social Team, this way the wealth of the duties can be shared.
- Social Media Team
Social Media Team now has a new color! We want them to stand out as the people that goes out into the world and shares all the shiny things, but also pulls people in. "I know so and so from...etc". Social Media Team will also be gaining a custom title, to be sorted by the team for the team.
- Graphics
Mother requested a subservient Recruit and Soldier emoticon, as we have 
and 
, but no bows for Recruits and Soldiers.
The Marketing team is still working on a Citizen logo, and have started brainstorming with the Tower JMs about a logo for them.
Department of Events and Conferences
- Future of Fall Ball
One of the main problems is that we have so few bids, and we don't feel that the Local Liaison position is irrelevant yet, so we do still need someone on the ground scouting locations and with local knowledge.
Naomi plans to review past Fall Balls and compare locations v. attendance.
We did discuss changing Fall Ball to make it more kid-friendly -- in the past, we've always had adult-oriented events, but if making FB a family-friendly event would increase interest and attendance, then maybe we should look at changing it. On the other hand, including minors at our events could become a liability issue.
- Local Liaison
We do need a guide for the Local Liaison position, and we should have that ready by Fall Ball 2016.
A merit is tied to the LL position, but once we have the LL guide, we will tie the merit to doing the job as laid out in the guide.
Department of Technology
In the past, backups were maintained by Defen on his own server. We purchased our own backup server on April 7, 2015, and we are now hosting our own. At some point in the future, when the services of our Technology team align, we will be running a test to test the limitations of our backup system.
We will be upgrading our server operating system in the future. Before we can do that, Defen is manually going through and fixing/updating vBulletin code so that it will be compatible with this new operating system. Many thanks to Defen for taking on this painful task! Working with vBulletin code can be trying at times.
Once we have the server updated, we will be installing and configuring software to be used for Membership raising tests.
The idea of having customized themes for Ajah and Company groups was brought up. Erin and Arie will be working out the particulars of this with the Site Design team.
Department of Community Outreach
- Fundraiser
The Maintaining the Tower fundraiser brought in $2500, a bit under the $3500 aim.
- Online Events
Shaoman is coming up next week (as I write this, not as the meeting was going ), and the theme is Ghosts Invade the Ball.
We discussed how to better structure the Feast of Lights donation/service so more people will be able and willing to participate.
- Avendesora
Aryawnah also brought up Avendesora, and she's working to get that off the ground. Avendesora is a way of recognizing donors on their Who's Who page.
- Servant of All
We also discussed the Servant of All forum, and how it might be better used.
Department of Administration
167 people responded to the Membership Survey. According to the Membership Clean up, that's about 25% percent of 'active' people. This year's Survey was crafted specifically to focus on a few issues, and to be very short and easy to take, but participation was still low.
Department of Membership
Clean up results are in! 322 members responded on the site, and 32 responded by email. Three took the option to retire. That gives us a membership total of about 400 who responded.
Department of Research and Records
As mentioned in the Archivist section, we talked about the idea of disbanding the Director position, but Toral says it's still needed.
Toral brought up the Wheel of Time Companion, out in November, and how we can handle that for the library. We thought it would be appropriate to use the Companion to get basic facts, like full name and nationality, from the Companion, but not more specific details that we don't find in the actual books.
