Minutes of Staff Meeting Monday 21st January 2008

Minutes of Staff Meeting Monday 21st January 2008

PRESENT: Dragon Shichiroji; FireStaar Frye; Sivat Ariantho; Wulf Urqhart; Rian Hirvi; Zena Zemlja; Elborath Gelfand; Arawn Spitteler; StarRose Merlin; Zenny Carpathia; Aesir Aeon; GreyWolf Frye; Charming Westland; Fafhrd Morigi; Gaia Granada; AlienShaman Constellation; Starlyte Aeon; Lizzy Renard; Paige Llewellyan; Iva Bellios; LadyMoon Merlin.

AGENDA ITEMS

1) The winter edition of MA’s newsletter – Mystic Star launched on 18th January 2008. Many many thanks to Zenny Carpathea for her superb editing and thanks to all contributors. There was discussion on how to make the newsletter accessible – it is already on the website http://mystic.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=contentNews.news&directoryId=17145

It runs over two pages and you will find it under ‘General’ ‘Mystic Star page 1’. There is a link at the bottom of page one to page two.

A copy of Mystic Star is available in the library.

There was discussion re making Mystic Star visible to the rest of SL. A copy has already been forwarded to the members of the Spiritual Group Leaders group. Dragon asked all guides to distribute copies to friends who may not be members of MA. ACTION: All guides.

Dragon proposes that there is a shelf in the MA library dedicated to such publications – eg. Mystic Star, Minutes of Staff Meetings and induction materials for new staff and new members. ACTION: Zenny Carpathea and Elborath Gelfand.

2) Traffic: Dragon reported that there seems to be a marked improvement in traffic and group size following the Christmas break. He stressed the importance of putting our classes into the SL events calendar. StarRose reported she had done so for her Dream class with the result she had so many ppl attend that the sim crashed!

3) The Mystic Bazaar: GreyWolf and FireStar have done a great job in setting up the shopping area on the island. All thanks to them. They are also setting up a Bazaar club on the roof of the castle with an opening party on Tuesday 22nd January. It is intended for there to be regular music session up on the roof of the Bazaar with DJs. The opening of the Bazaar has been added to SL Search.

Most of the vendors in the Bazaar are from the group – anyone wishing to add wares contact GreyWolf. The Bazaar not only adds traffic to the sim but also contributes rent which helps with overall tier.

GreyWolf and Fire also thank Zena for her invaluable contribution to setting up the Bazaar.

4) Curriculum: Dragon expressed thanks to the guides for the hard work they put into preparing and running their classes and commented that the curriculum now has a fantastic range of subjects being taught. Fafhrd would like to see focus on mysticism in the form of devotion as he/she sees the discipline of devotion as an underlying principle – Dragon suggested Bhakti Yoga. There was general discussion on the suitability of devotion as a teaching subject – Sivat feeling it would be difficult to teach particularly if ppl were not initiated. Dragon commented that it would be difficult to teach but it could be facilitated. Fafhrd thought that on reflection a class might not be the right route. Dragon asked Fafhrd to discuss the idea further with him and see how it could be done.

5) Griefing: There were further griefing attacks over the weekend one of which targeted Starlyte’s healing class. Dragon drew the parallel with RL saying that if someone disrupts a classroom they are ejected. The rule it not to tolerate disruption and to eject offenders as soon as it starts. The comment was made that they then go on to harass via IM and Group IM. Dragon told the guides to advise griefers to contact him via notecard if they feel they have a grievance.

StarRose commented that griefers are after attention. The group agreed so after ejection any harassment by IM or group IM is to be ignored as far as possible.

The point was made that griefers after a ban can simply rejoin as alts. This led to

6) Policy for joining Mystic Academy: Many people have used self-enrolment. Dragon asked that we try closing self-enrolment for a week to see what affect this has. Zena pointed out that any member can invite someone to join and proposes that only Staff should be allowed to do this. For her own group she has closed self-enrolment and membership is by invitation only from herself. This has worked well and she has increased her membership from 500 to 1000 since doing so. Dragon feels we need a named person that members can contact if they want to invite a friend. Zena thought a team would be more appropriate, so ppl could invite newcomers to their classes if they wished as well as GreyWolf who may want to invite ppl from the Bazaar. Dragon will consider that but for now wishes to see what effect closing open-enrolment has. To be assessed at the next meeting.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Zenny Carpathea: Thanked Arawn for building a newsletter distributor for the library and plans to put another at the island hub. Zenny reported she is a little behind on updating latest info in the library but wants to make sure our newest teachers know they can add their content to the library. Lizzy Renard offered to help her. ACTION: Zenny Carpathea and Lizzy Renard

Elborath Gelfand: Arawn would like a sandbox for his building class – and also suggested that a sandbox would be useful for the Bazaar as ppl could rez the items they had bought immediately. Dragon asked Arawn if he could build a sandbox for the sim. Arawn would prefer to place the sandbox on the front lawn. Although this would not be convenient for the market the location could be added to the tp hubs. ACTION: Arawn

Arawn also mentioned that he is still having problems with his password on MA’s website. ACTION: Elborath and Arawn

StarRose: Asked if anyone had had problems with her security system because she feels she may need to reset the distance. There was no response – but if anyone has had a problem being ejected by StarRose’s security please IM StarRose. ACTION: All members

Elborath Gelfand: Reported she has joined Eventful.com – which is a way of keeping an eye on the events from a number of spiritual groups. Any event posted in SL should show up on Eventful.com Elborath will give her URL when she has ironed out difficulties she is experiencing with the site!!

Elborath Gelfand: Proposes to set up a page on the MA website as an ‘Agony Aunt’ type page. The plan is to answer maybe two letters a week, with the sort of problems ppl write to agony columns about. The idea was well received. ACTION: Elborath.

Zenny Carpathea: Thanked Arawn for building a newsletter distributor for the library and plans to put another at the island hub.

Dragon Shichiroji: Welcomed two new guides to the staff – Wulf Urqhart and Starlyte Aeon. Wulf and Starlyte are working to establish a healing circle. Wolf describes healing as about love for our fellow people and gathering the energy we all give off and sending out to those who need it. He does not see giving classes as the way forward for this, rather allowing ppl to come into the circle and allow it to grow ‘organically’. Dragon also thanked Starlyte for becoming ‘one of our most prominent contributors here’.

Dragon says there is a need for ppl to understand the concept and asked Starlyte and Wulf to prepare some more info about the healing circle and how the process works and how to add someone to it. Could they prepare something for the library and also something to be sent out as a group message. Zenny also suggested a notecard giver in the healing circle. ACTION: Starlyte, Wulf and Zenny.

Zena Zemlja: Has set up an outside classroom on the beach and drew the meeting’s attention to it. Zena explained that she has made a stone
circle with leather cushions to sit on plus a fire with logs. It is called Beach Elements Class Room because she uses the four elements in my
workshops. The classroom is there for everybody to use for classes.

Rian Hirvi: Rian Hirvi: said that we have a lot of prims left and a lack of
money for tier and put forward the idea of setting up a few skyboxes and renting them out.

Dragon pointed out that if we allow ppl to rent skyboxes then they have rights on the land beneath. But he likes the idea of having some small rental spaces for mystics with no home to rent for a small sum. Several ideas were mooted – Dragon favouring the idea of a dormitory type setup. The meeting was then closed with Dragon going to the beach to make the dormitory renting idea a reality.

DATE AND TIME NEXT MEETING

Monday 28th January 2008 at 2pm SLT