Zedling Council Meeting 2019-11-16

Attendance

Council Members Present

Zedwick
LadyBountiful
MasterBoy369 (Host)
KhasOrn
AlyCatMeow
babybop224
Spectatre (Scribe)

Apologies

SooprJ
ABParadigm
Forseth
Memery
Dax23333

No Apologies

SneakySkeleton
Zero0hm
Dave5400
Palvair (Removed from council)
sweetevil39

Visitors

LioSage

Topics

All topics were discussed had been posted in the pre-agenda ahead of time. Yay team!

Topic 1: River Bend Mayor

With a sad necessity, an activity check was done on River Bend's mayor - our absent friend, Aravero. While everyone was in agreement that Aravero has done a great job setting up this warp, and is an exemplary player, her return is indefinite and the town is in need of an active mayor. So, per regulation 14, !lastseen was performed. As this showed she has not been online within the last two weeks, the check will be performed again at the next meeting. If she has still not been online, she will be declared inactive and removed from the position, and an election instigated for a new mayor.
Here's hoping if we don't see her soon, it's because she's having too much fun IRL to hang with us blocky weirdos.

Topic 2: Hosting and Chairing and Elders, oh my!

This has been a topic that's been rattling around the background for a few meetings, but came to the fore with Zed's suggestion at the last meeting, which was placed in the pre-agenda for people to hash out some more, and hash they did.

The feeling was that there is a lot of stuff the host is responsible for - picking or building the meeting place, deciding the order of the meeting, running the discussions, maintaining order - and this responsibility is compounded for new members. They are given first refusal to host when they are elected, and many of the newer members at the meeting spoke of how daunting it can be hosting.

Zed's suggestion was to split responsibilities a little - Host arranges the location and schedules topics, and then a Chair is in charge of order/discipline/keeping the unruly mob focused on the topic at hand.

There was general agreement in this idea, with a bit of finessing along the way:

Should the Chair be an individual? If it is, are they voted in or volunteered? We went with Zed's forum idea - the five longest-standing members of the council are the 'Elders', and can all take part as Chair
If it's a group of Elders being the Chair, could we not just call them 'Elders' and not 'Chair'? Yeah, makes sense
Should the Elders also be there to assist the hosts/offer guidance and training if they get stuck during the meeting? Good question, but we separated it out into a different topic
What if someone is an Elder during a meeting and doesn't feel up to doing that/doesn't want to? They're not obliged to act on things, they're just empowered to do so if they wanna.
How do you work out 'longest-standing'? By the order that they're listed on the wiki page. So, for this meeting, the 'Elders' would have been Zed, Lady B, Spec, Khas, and Aly.

This was the first meeting where the new regulations regarding voting proposals come into force. Now, if a proposal is to come to a vote, the wording is agreed with the scribe to post on the pre-agenda of the next meeting. There it can be discussed further, and then voted on at the following meeting. There was a bit of back and forth, but the wording of the proposal was agreed as below:

"The five longest serving members (by order of the wiki page) present in the meeting form the Elders- they are empowered to maintain order, and are authorised to hand out strikes if there are violations of the code of conduct"

(If this passes next meeting, a 'responsibilities/expectations of the Elders' section would also be added to the wiki, this would flesh out the role and reiterate the 'lack of obligation' component that is implied in the proposal, but for the sake of brevity not explicitly stated)
The proposal will also be on the pre-agenda (as you'll have read, if you've got this far!) for people to discuss further. .

Topic 3: Co-Host with the Co-Most

This was an off-shoot from the Chair/Elders topic! Aly put forward a suggestion of there being 'training' for new council members in how to host, so that they're not dropped in the deep end with all us bureaucratic sharks. While the 'expectations of the host' section of the wiki [clicky] now offers a lot more detail, it can be very daunting hosting your first meeting, as there is a lot to know and remember. Council was generally in agreement that we like it when new people host, and want to make it easier for newer players to get into the hosting circuit - after all, the best way of getting experience is in getting experience.

As this came off the idea of the Elders guiding a new host during the meeting, and it's really during a meeting that a new host is likely to need guidance, the idea of formalizing co-hosting came up. We have had meetings before where there's been more than one host (the previous meeting having two hosts, to great effect). Making it explicitly permitted would give new hosts an avenue to seek assistance, if they desire it. The intention would be that the new player would be the 'main' host, and the co-host would be on-hand to offer guidance if needed. Was also agreed that if a new member wanted a co-host, one should be sorted out for them at that meeting, so they'd be all set to prepare for the next one.

There was agreement it could go to a vote, with the wording agreed as below:

"Any member hosting a meeting can choose a co-host, to assist them in the running of the meeting. New members are encouraged to select a co-host to offer guidance during their first meeting. If a new member states a preference for a co-host, the Host of the meeting should gain a volunteer from members present"
See you on the pre-agenda for more discussion on that!

Announcementz

Zedwork Christmas Dinner - Zed lay down a challenge to council - LVS is hosting the dinner this year, and we gotta build a place to host it in! It needs to have a fancy shmancy dining hall with enough seats for us and ZZ, as well as a kitchen and stage to complete the fancy and/or shmanciness. Last year's ZZ affair included a talent show and multi-course meal. LVS brought ourselves, and also haikus. It was a weird and wonderful time, which we can hopefully replicate!
Next meeting the date/time will be arranged, so it would be good if we also had an idea of a location we could build in! Keep your eyes peeled.

Casual Buildathon - 24th of November 4pm-9PM GMT. Also Forseth's birthday! Many blocky returns

KhasOrn also announced that the Rainbow Shrine is up! It is to the east side of Forest Hills - follow the Rainbow Brick road. After the meeting we went on a field trip to see it - it is a lovely sight, only one of us drowned. Give it a peek :D

Nominations/Next Meeting

There were no nominations, and Aly volunteered to host the next meeting. See you there in two weeks!