Minutes of Staff Meeting 3rd November 2008

Minutes of Staff Meeting 3rd November 2008

PRESENT: Dragon Shichiroji; FireStaar Frye; Elborath Gelfand; Arawn Spitteler; Brunnar Sopwith; JohnnyHealingWolf Allen; Sara Long; Jophiella Willis; Syth Smythe; Manon Clary; Top Golden; Baji Bourjade; Nayade Rhiadra; Sheena Fairey; Draig Belgar; Geni Figaro; Scott Boronski.

AGENDA

1) APOLOGIES

2) NEW STAFF

3) HALLOWEEN EVENT – FEEDBACK

4) HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

DATE AND TIME NEXT MEETING

The Meeting opened with Johnnyhealingwolf Allen talking to the group talking about animal AVs and AOs. Having an animal AV or AO can be a way of working with your spirit guides. A question was raised about Johnny’s profile description of himself as a black arts performer. Johnny maintained that black arts such as magick, necromancy blood magick, sex magick, others are all equaly valid traditions and are thought of as evil but aren’t. Working with the spirits of the dead could be called necromancy which is thought of as a black art – FireStaar said the same can be thought of the Samhain ritual which is honouring the dead. FireStaar pointed out that they can be used to heal or harm. This topic might make an interesting open discussion in MA.

JohnnyHealingWolf Allen said ppl ask him about AO's and he creates and stacks them for animals, humans, etc He was hoping to help whoever had questions about animal AV’s and AOs. Johnny has experience of design of non human AVs and AOs and is willing to offer his services as a resource to our members. He can ‘fine-tune’ AVs and AOs members may have or he can desigen an AO with appropriate animations.

1) Apologies: StarRose was not present at the meeting – it later became known that she had RL issues that meant she could not be in SL.

2) New Staff – in StarRose’s absence the introduction of new staff was deferred until the next meeting.

3) Halloween Event: The Halloween Event was a great success and thanks were given to the DJ’s – Manon Clary, AlienShaman Constellation and Sara Long who hosted three rocking discos. Also thanks to FireStaar for conducting the moving Samhain ritual and to StarRose and Draig for conducting a very succesful séance. Thanks too to GreyWolf Frye for following the séance with a cool gig at her club. Thanks also to Draig for providing the carousels and prizes and all those others who
contributed.

4) Human Rights Festival: Elborath told the group of a cross sim Human Rights Festival planned to begin on the 10th of December. The principle organiser is any1 gynoid. Elborath’s contact for this event is Geni Figaro who joined the meeting to tell us about the festival.

Geni told the meeting that the idea started with some discussions about social justice and the basic human rights of freedom, no cruel or degrading treatment, food, shelter, no discrimination - people were very keen to do something in SL that would have an impact in the real world. 10th December is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it seemed appropriate to host some kind of event in part celebration but in part a highlighting of human rights issues and the commitment to making available to all.

Many people are interested - Amnesty, peace organisations, women's groups, development groups – every group sees something specific but in SL we share something bigger so the plan is to coordinate and publicise a whole range of events, exhibitions, concerts and discussions with a travel HUD and website Concerts are also planned.

Mystic Academy was one of the first groups Geni joined in SL and she feels it is a natural place to be part of the event. So far ideas include artistic events symbolising imprisonment and the free spirit inside and other ideas feature very factual themes like the situation of women experiencing violence. It is hoped Camp Darfur and Wallsickness will be included which mix fact and symbology and there are many musicians who want to contribute.

Dragon summed up the part MA can play in this multi-sim event as helping to market, give creative content and to showcase events during the festival.

There is a notecard which can be filled in and returned to the organisers of the event which is self explanatory. Elborath will send that to the Staff Members and asks for ideas for MA’s participation. ACTION: Elborath

Ideas for Mystic Academy’s contributions include music items with images - like a video slideshow - personal bio's of people such as MLK, Gandhi - a short 30 minutes about a person and some comments. Human Rights of the Disabled - lead for this being Draig Belgar - perhaps a case study of someone who has done much as a role model. Arawn Spitteler belongs to a Helen Keller Group – Dragon asked him to call in any contacts from this group and pass them onto Draig. Dragon sees MA taking a personal approach - showcasing some of the famous world leaders - and some specific music /video slideshows. Dragon would like to work with Scott to create music project on human rights and asked Baji if she would conduct a short guided meditaion on universal human rights. ACTION: All Staff – and initially Arawyn, Dragon, Scott, Draig.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

i) Arawyn asked what had happened to the bridge over to the Bazaar. Dragon reported that the land parcels are being joined for future development. Arawn wished he had known about it before the developments started. Dragon acknowledged the need for a sandbox but we are a bit low on prims at the moment. Arawn said the sandbox is useless where it is and suggests moving it to between the Castle and the Bazaar, so building students can wander off into both. Manon would rather not have the sandbox over the Bazaar. Manon and FireStaar will be redeveloping the land.

ii) Dragon thanked Elborath for the new home page on the website. Sara queried the colours of the website (the background is black) as she believes that a spiritual website should not include black in its design. Elborath pointed out that light is viewed against dark and that the website uses a template provided by Drupal (the programme the website is designed in) so it is not possible to simply change the background. Dragon said the design of the website is not changing anytime soon – and re-iterated to change the background the whole website theme would need to be changed.

iii) Dragon asked Geni to talk about how she is using Jungian psychology for leadership training. Geni’s explanation is found by following this link Jungian Psychology and Leadership

DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING

Monday 9th November 2.30pm SLT