Zedling Council Meeting 2017-10-07

Host: Entity008
Scribe: Spectatre

Attendance

Council Members Present

Zedwick
HOMINIX
Dax23333
ABParadigm
Haztec
Aravero
Entity008
Spectatre

Apologies

Forseth
EmpressBethany
Memery
drbwen
Quicunque
ACERPROSPY
_Swayed_

No apologies

SneakySkeleton
FunkyTechnician
AmirTheTurtle
LadyBountiful (Zed did say 'she's always here'; no-one knew how threateningly to take that)

Guests

No-one D:

My prelude today is only to note that Ent thought it best to mention his meeting room had two pillars of lava and to distance himself from any liability brought about by people deciding to walk in it. He then told zed that his set was standing in the single block space between two said pillars. Many attempted to throw objects at him, but his inventory is full and many entities were lost to the fire. Luckily one of them was not our host!

Topics

I - Nomination Regulation Clarification - ABParadigm

When I first saw ABP drop this topic on the pre-meeting agenda, I was expecting agitation. I was deeply unimpressed at his hesitation at my offer to volunteer him to scribe what I was sure was to be a verbal conflagration. In spite of this predicted situation, it took all of thirty minutes in duration. _{(I'll stop now)}

Luckily ABP had given the council some warning on this topic, as he had posted it in the pre-meeting agenda (y'know, like we're supposed to). There was some good pre-meeting discussion on there which I feel contributed to the speed of resolution at the meeting. People came armed with solutions, and good ones! Details of ABP's main idea and the forum discussion is in the forum thread here

There were two core concerns - reducing pressure on council members to nominate/second players that they may not have otherwise done, and reducing pressure on nominees who may feel they have to accept the position.

The solution, as decided:

Council nominations are now private. Instead of a public nomination needing to be seconded, instead a player will need to get two private nominations in order to be considered. Like votes, these are done by /msg to the host
If a player receives two nominations, the host must gain that player's permission in order to announce them at the voting stage. This will be done by private message.
If a player gives their permission, the host can announce them at the voting stage. If a player does not give their permission, or the player is not present to give permission, their nomination is to be ignored by the host.

For example; Ally, Bob and Carl all get two nominations. Ally gives permission, Bob does not give permission; Carl is absent. The host should only declare that Ally is up for the vote. They do not need to mention that Bob declined or that Carl would have been nominated but wasn't there.

As this involves amending a handful of regulations regarding nominations, voting and player presence, I, for reasons best left to 8:30pm Spec, volunteered to edit the regs and post the proposed changes on next meeting's forum thread so that they could be voted on in the next meeting. NB: the next meeting will on whether to approve the suggested amendments to the regulations, and not to re-open up this puppy for discussion. The puppy has been opened and dealt with.

Side-notes:
-It was agreed the 'responsibilities/expectations' of the host section on the council wiki could use some fleshing out, both in regards to this new procedure and just generally
-Also agreed that those non-members who attend meetings and contribute should be noted, as this may assist in allowing members to see those people who regularly attend and contribute to meetings, despite not being nominated. They are noted as part of the attendance, and are generally listed under 'guests'. In typical LVS fashion no non-members showed up to illustrate this

II - UHC/Buildoffs - Zedwick

I anxiously yelled 'U8C' before zed could talk so that I got the kudos for best title. The reaction was everyone present giving me a standing ovation for my quick wit and totally not zed berating me for stealing his thunder.~

The 8th UHC is on tomorrow, 6pm BST! If sneaky again succumbs to his even-number kryptonite, will mem or etho steal the crown, or will we have a new champion? Be there or be alive!

Our next build-off will be on October 29th, from 4pm-9pm BST. Hoping for a spooky scary theme in honour of its closest spectral holiday? Only time will tell.

Aravero also pointed out something wonderful for all you folk out there who don't operate on zedwork time - the zedwork forums have a server-time clock! If you didn't know that already and don't know how far away you are from greenwich mean time, that might help? It might not, but thought it was a useful tidbit

III - Scribe Lives Matter - Spectatre

Some while back Memery the Bold suggested that the scribe of a meeting be in charge of posting the pre-meeting agenda for the following meeting. This has been an overall success. However, the council regulations still list this as the host's job, which is understandably confusing. This is when I first noticed the travesty - scribes aren't mentioned at all in the council description or regulations. We are the unsung heroes of the council, but this isn't rewarding enough to be that unsung.

While no-one else was particularly bothered at this glaring oversight, Dax gently suggested adding "a scribe takes notes of the meeting, including topic discussion and resolution, attendance (both of member and guest) and then writes these up and puts them on the wiki". The regulation pertaining to responsibility over pre-meeting agenda will also be changed to reflect this. Yay team.

IV - Nomination/Next Meeting

There were no nominations, ABParadigm graciously volunteered to host our next meeting which will take place in two weeks. The business done, several members of the council decided it would be a good idea to try and murder the OP council member. They were never heard from again. Not by me anyway, who ran off as soon as zed didn't express ample concern about hitting civilians with his bow. See you in two weeks!