Chilbo Town Hall – December 2010
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
The new Chilbo Town Hall decorated for the holidays.
In Attendance: Fleep Tuque, Kristine Kristan, Maddog Easterling, Polenth Yue, Corcosman Voom, ReverendMathias Merit, Stargazer Blazer, Chibi Lexenstar, Emru Rau, Lyn Navarita, PJ Claridge, Malburns Writer, Tara Yeats, Economic Mip, Monarchy Republic, Rah Rehula, Crap Mariner. (Gem Blue and Rachel Corleone stopped by to help decorate following the meeting.)
First Time Attendees (please friend!): ReverendMathias Merit, Stargazer Blazer, Lyn Navarita, PJ Claridge
New Chilbo Town Hall Construction Complete
It took some time to complete, but major construction is finished on the new Chilbo Town Hall! The new Town Hall features a more classic government building style with spacious interior and plenty of room for meetings and information about the community. Upstairs are small offices for Chilbo administrators and a server room for hosting server objects. The major construction was completed by Kristine Kristan, Chibi Lexenstar, Maddog Easterling, and Memorial Dae. Corcosman Voom also contributed a lovely sculpture for the fountain outside. Congratulations to the construction team!
Fleep Tuque Makes Important Announcements About Changes to the Community Governance and Financing Structure in Chilbo
Fleep Tuque gives a speech at the December Town Hall to announce important changes.
(Photo credit: Crap Mariner)
Chilbo Executive Director Fleep Tuque gave a speech to announce several major changes to the governance and financial structure of Chilbo. The speech is reprinted here with minor edits for clarity:
For the past four years, support for most of the land in the community has been carried by the group founders, myself and Cosimo Urbanowitz. This support has made it possible to have the things like infrastructure, public spaces and resources and subsidized housing and project spaces. We have worked very hard and tried to be as generous with financial support and time as possible to help build the foundation of the community we love. Chilbo has become something more even than we originally hoped and for most of us, we’ve called Chilbo ‘home’ for most of our second lives.
The time has come, however, for the Chilbo Community to move to a more self-sustaining model if it is meant to continue. Four years is a long time to subsidize the community at this level and both Cosimo and I are ready at this point to step back and help the community transition to a more self-sufficient system.
To help make this change a reality, we are going to be instituting a number of important changes.
First, if the community agrees, we’d like to appoint Kristine Kristan as the first “Mayor” of Chilbo to manage the day to day operations of the community. In the future, this position may actually be an elected position, but considering this is the first major change to Chilbo’s governance, we hope the community can agree with our trust in Kristine to continue to manage the community with the integrity and honesty everyone has come to expect. She has been filling this role for nearly more than a year, which a fine period of apprenticeship, and she’s now ready to sort of “take over the reigns”.
Second, in order for Chilbo to become truly self-sustaining, the majority of land and prims need to be supported by tier donation by each member for their actual use. For example, if you donate 512m of tier, you should only be using 117 prims. Ideally, residents would also allow for a percentage of their donation to support infrastructure and public spaces, i.e., donating 1536sm for a prim allowance of 351 and then only using 300 or so.
It’s just simple math really, we want to do our best to continue to support Chilbo but over time more folks have joined and more folks are using more prims and.. So we need to make sure that the support for the community is as fair as can be.
Therefore, we’re proposing a change to the rental system. Unless there are strong objections, starting January 1, 2011, all residential starter homes and approved non-profits will have a new rental rate of 2L$ per prim per week. All Galleries and Commercial spaces will have a new rental rate of 3L$ per prim per week. That’s not actual cost even still, but it’s a bit closer to actual cost. And instead of going on a sqm model, it accounts for actual prim use. This would exclude the structures/buildings if we provide them.
In addition, residents who have been ‘given’ space in exchange for community service, etc., will be handled on a case-by-case basis, however unless a specific tier donor allocates to you, you will be asked to begin paying rent or to donate your own tier.
If you are a tier donor who donates more than your own usage and wish to sponsor a particular member, please contact Kristine with the name and amount (in sq. m)
Believe me when I say – This is not an easy policy to implement. I am a terrible capitalist. I would like to give the whole farm away for ever and ever. Alas, reality. ;)
Please remember that you do not HAVE to rent or reside in Chilbo to be a member and part of the community. All members are welcome to ‘set home’ at the community house, use the sandboxes, etc. And, in fact, if you are an infrequent user it is better to do so, so that we may allocate both space and prims to more active members and projects.
Thanks for your understanding and cooperation as we move towards making Chilbo a truly sustainable community.
No objections were heard and the proposed changes will be in effect as of January 1, 2o10. If you have questions or concerns about your tier donation or rental rate, please contact Kristine Kristan for assistance. Note that on January 1st, all rent boxes will be reset, with outstanding days refunded. You will then have to RE-RENT your space within one week (by Jan 7) at the new rate to maintain your space.
Changing Group Roles/Permissions to Streamline Roles & Grant Event Hosting Permissions to All Chilbo Residents
All regular Chilbo residents will be granted the ability to host events.
As part of these changes, the Chilbo Community Building Project group roles are being revised to streamline the roles, reduce duplications, and make it clearer and easier for community members to do what they need to do. For a full breakdown of the proposed changes, see the Group Roles page on the Chilbo wiki. In summary, the new roles, in order from least permissive to most permissive, will be as follows:
- Role Name: Everyone
This role is intended for anyone involved with or interested in keeping in touch with the Chilbo Community. Members of the group who do not wish to receive group notices can set that option in their viewer. This replaces the “Everyone” and “Potential Resident” roles in the previous system.
- Role Name: Resident
This role is the default role for normal members of the Chilbo Community. Residents often rent group land or perhaps own their own land but are generally involved with the community. Residents will now be able to host events on group land.
- Role Name: Donors
Donors are members of the community who donate tier to support group land. They receive additional land and parcel powers in recognition of their contribution, and to help perform maintenance and other community services. This replaces certain functions of the “Contributor” and “Maintenance” roles from the previous system.
- Role Name: Event Manager
These folks run and manage events that take place on community owned land. This role is reserved for people who need the ability to perform certain security functions such as freezing and ejecting troublemakers or returning litter or griefer objects. It is important to note that these powers should not be used for any other purpose than to manage events, classes, or workshops. This replaces certain functions of the “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.
- Role Name: Communications
This role is reserved for members of the community who are authorized to send group notices and announcements. It is a fine line between promoting an event or cause and “spammming” our community members, so folks with this role are expected to use good judgement about how many and how often to send notices. In addition, notices to the community should always use professional language and be proofed for spelling and typos.
- Role Name: Land Managers
This role is reserved for members of the community who are authorized to manage specific parcels of community owned land. It is important that a land manager only exercise these powers on land parcels they have agreed to manage. Even if a particular permission CAN be used on any group land does not mean it SHOULD be used on any group land. This role replaces certain functions of the “Contributor”, “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.
- Role Name: Chilbo Admin
This role is reserved for administrators who are responsible for managing the Chilbo Community as a whole. This role also may enforce CCBP community standards by removing or banning Second Life members who persistently and egregiously violate them. This role replaces certain functions of the “Contributor”, “Maintenance” and “Public Safety” roles of the previous system.
- Role Name: Owner
This role is reserved for the founders and owners of the Chilbo Community Building Project group, Fleep Tuque and Cosimo Urbanowicz.
The changes to Group Roles and Permissions is currently being implemented and it may take some trial and error to get everyone situated into the proper roles. Thanks in advance for your patience as we transition to the new system. If for some reason you are suddenly unable to do something you could do before, please contact Fleep Tuque or Kristine Kristan and we’ll be happy to assist you. Our goal is not to reduce anyone’s permissions from previous levels, but rather to extend permissions and flexibility for our residents where it is safe to do so.
Fleep Tuque to Focus Efforts on Extending Chilbo Community in OpenSim Grids
Fleep Tuque invites Chilbo members to check out FleepGrid (OpenSim)
One of the benefits of Kristine Kristan taking over the management of day-to-day activities in Chilbo in Second Life is that is will allow Fleep Tuque to focus her energies on extending the Chilbo Community in OpenSim Grid. Fleep feels that the use of OpenSim has grown considerably in the last year and hopes to extend our community network beyond the borders of the Second Life world in a number of OpenSim grids. Soon she hopes to add new pages to the Chilbo website and wiki to document our progress and explorations of the OpenSim metaverse. She also invites members of the Chilbo Community to practice using OpenSim by visiting her private test grid, FleepGrid.
To create an account, visit: http://fleepgrid.dyndns.org:8002/wifi/
(Note that accounts must be approved so you should receive an email when your account is available for use.)
Then download a Third Party Viewer client that supports OpenSim, Fleep recommends the Imprudence/Kokua viewer. Enter the following information into your viewer’s Grid Management options:
Name: FleepGrid
LoginURI: http://fleepgrid.dyndns.org:8002
You should then be able to log into FleepGrid and experience the wonders of OpenSim! FleepGrid is HG 1.5 i6 enabled for those who want to explore HyperGriding.
Chilbo Welcomes Insight Virtual College
Insight Virtual College moves to Chilbo!
Though most of the meeting was taken up by the changes and announcements, we don’t want to neglect to mention a very warm Chilbo welcome to the faculty and staff of Insight Virtual College who have recently relocated their campus to the Chilbo Community. Be sure to visit IVC in Kuwol and we look forward to taking advantage of the many terrific classes they offer covering both Second Life and other real world skills. For more information contact the Dean of IVC, Stargazer Blazer. SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kuwol/75/36/84
Public Flurbils Playground Opens @ Mushtopia
Polenth Yue opens public Flurbils Playground in Mindulle
If anyone is into Flurbils, Chilbo resident Polenth Yue has opened a public playground over at Mushtopia in Mindulle. The tiny little furball Flurbils run around and do all sorts of cute things. Be sure to check out all the other wonderful games and activities at Mushtopia, too, including 7 Seas Fishing, a giant chess board, and much more! Thanks Polenth! SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mindulle/181/93/120
Meeting adjourned, next meeting scheduled for: January 8, 2011 @ 11AM SLT
Contribute an Ornament and Gift to the Community Christmas Tree!
Gifts and ornaments are already starting to appear on the Chilbo Community Christmas Tree..
Following the meeting, many residents stayed behind to help decorate the Town Hall for the holidays. Thanks to everyone who helped! As is our tradition, members of the community are encouraged to contribute a (low prim) ornament and gift to the Community Christmas Tree!
Happy Holidays to all!
