Guidelines for having official meetings and Court online
Update 3/20/2020: These guidelines have been updated. Please see this updated post for the most up-to-date version.
Good afternoon, again, East Kingdom!
In this time of social isolation, groups are using online services to continue at least some business as usual. That’s fantastic!
We’ve received a general variance to hold official Barony/Shire/etc. business meetings and virtual Court, using the following guidelines. Please make sure your group adheres to this procedure! I need to include a list of any virtual business meetings or Courts in my next quarterly report to Society.
Unofficial gatherings can proceed without these guidelines. These are only for official business meetings/Courts.
Please ask if you have any questions,
In service,
Medhbh
KSen
1. ALL official business meetings (populace meetings, baronial business meetings, etc.) and ANY official Courts MUST be pre-approved and scheduled with the Kingdom Seneschal prior to them being announced or held.
2. For a business meeting to be official, at least one B&B, a warranted Seneschal, and a witness/populace member must be present in the online forum or physically present on screen for the entire time the meeting is held. Groups that do not have a territorial coronet must have their Seneschal (and other top-level official, if there is one), and a witness/populace member present in the online forum or physically present on screen for the entire time the meeting is being held.
3. For a Court to be official, at least one of the Crown and/or B&B, a herald, a warranted Seneschal, and a witness/populace member must be in the online forum or physically present on screen for the entire time the Court is held.
4. All meetings and courts are to be announced via the Social Media Officer to all of our Kingdom online groups. The Kingdom Seneschal will publish the meetings in the EK Gazette and on the east-discuss email list. We will attempt to add them to the Kingdom Calendar as well, just to keep the populace informed. The announcement must include: Event Title, Date, Time, and weblink for populace to join the viewing.
5. Announcements must be made at least one week prior to the date of occurrence.
6. Court reports and/or business meeting minutes are still required. A copy of these MUST be sent to the Kingdom Seneschal. This is a requirement of Society and I must turn them in for my next quarterly report to ensure all business conducted and/or awards given are official!!!
7. We are asking that you use Google Hangouts or Zoom as your official web forums. These allow you to live stream with multiple participants logging into the chat AND record what is going on so you may post it to your FB groups and/or websites for those unable to attend. We are open to other web services that allow for the same services. Facebook live stream is not preferred as participants can’t actively join other than to type comments and hope they are responded to. We are asking you use a service that allows folks to login with a mic/webcam to participate in active/live discussion AND messaging. Again, recording meetings if possible so you can post them later!
8. All other populace gatherings, A&S classes, or general meetings that are not conducting official business are not required to be pre-scheduled or announced. Folks may use whatever web service they have access to and my generally announce them as they see fit. Only official “gatherings” must follow the process above.