Global Scoutlink Council Meeting, 7th of December 2002

 

Present

Jabiru  - CC Australia                    IRON[Fe26 – CC Italy                Bip  - representative USA          

Woody – CC Switzerland               Beluga – RC #francais               no-use – RC #Netherlands/Belgium       

Falcon_tw – CC Taiwan                 nitie – CC Canada                      morfeus – CC Brazil                 

Raydn – deputy Germany              Leon – deputy UK, deputy TT (when Ellie leaves)

Ellie - Tech Team

Apologies Received

Tely – CC NZ                    BigNick – CC UK                       Grandpa – deputy CC Germany 

Coxswain – CC HK

 

Reports from Countries, #youth, Techteam, #irc_help

#Australia

The elections for CC and IRCOPS are finished - you have seen the results.

Its a good thing I didn't make any election promises.. now I won't have to keep them ;o) It might be hard to pay up all the bribes though.  I dont think there's really that much chocolate in the world!

I have some ideas in mind for Scoutlink in Australia.  We have some people who have a lot of energy, and who have the skills and enthusiasm to make some things work.

I want to see Scoutlink promoted and developed in all States, and for SL to be recognised officially by having our people become members of the activity teams promoting internet use.

We could do much better in making people aware of SL, and I want to
encourage someone to do something about it.

As I said, I have some ideas, however I want the Australian chatters and my team to decide how to make SL work better in this country.  I will ask my team to do some planning soon .. probably after New Year sometime.

I want to remind people how physically BIG Australia is. My State Capital city is the most isolated capital city in the world, and I am 1200km away from it. The structure we have (CC + 6 IRCOPS) is deliberately designed to accommodate the physical size of the country and isolation of its component states and cities, and that we have 8 Scout Associations (one for each State)and 8 Guide Associations; and each also has a National headquarters.

I would really like other people to leave us to work the way we think is best for us. I don't tell other countries/regions how they should operate, and I really would like the same courtesy in return.

#francais

a short report (as usual):
-we will try to do a regular special evening with a scout-related-topic (1or 2/month). The first one will be next Tuesday.

-nothing else

#dutch

We had an IRL meeting and a official meeting with our Dutch Scoutlink Group called Slash. New members of the board have been installed and at the moment we have 36 official members of that group who are registered with Scouting The Netherlands.

We are working hard to get Scoutlink promoted, basicly to be present at large camps. I probably will be staffmember of the organisation for our national Jamboree 2004, where also a Internet cafe will be held. These internetcafes are a combined project with our workgroup radio scouting.

Also Reinout (tabaqui) and i are working on the national JOTA/I cdrom with information about jota and joti on it. This is also a combined project with that same workgroup radio scouting.

We have plans for a regular evening, an evening with games and discussions,probably on a seperate channel. I will give space_nl as ircop my permission to open this channel for this evening, as it is a temporary channel.

I have had various question about the loss of #jambo and if and when a international,  multilanguage channel will come back. I have not kept track of all people asking these questions, but imho the number off people asking for the return of such a channel have reached a number where we should react, imho open such a channel.

#deutsch

http://www.dpsg-harburg.de/gregor/sl/deutsch_02_12.txt

#UK

For UK it has been a hectic month, and we have gone through some major changes…. we now have 4 IRCOPs those being Bear, Kendod, Leon and Roger_UK, 2 of whom are members of the Techteam. These will form the main proactive team in the UK to enthuse and involve the members, with a couple of other UK users filling in other positions that will be required with what is detailed below.

 

NYB planning is well underway and Bear is undertaking most of the planning and we are on target for 40 people attending in Glasgow, from all UK, NL, Canada among others.  Here we will host a forum on 1st Jan 2003, which will set out our main objectives for the years ahead, including the adoption of a ScoutLink-UK Constitution which will enable us to function like a Fellowship.  The aim of this will be to convince the UK Scout Association that we are capable of being an active fellowship involved both within Scouting and Guiding Circles.

 

At NYB we will also set dates for other possible gatherings within the UK throughout the year, which will also act as forum style meetings where everyone can have the opportunity to get involved within the UK…..those that can not make any of the meetings will be kept fully up to date through the UK Discuss Mailing List, which is the central point for all communication within the UK

 

Discussion is also underway in order to achieve a major publicity drive at next year’s gilwell reunion, when we will hopefully issue CD’s and leaflets to interested members of scouting and guiding within the UK and BSWE.

 

The CD is actually undergoing some final adjustments before being produced early on next year.

 

Action plan idea has been distributed through the uk mailing list and positive feedback has been given.  This will be discussed further at NYB

 

Finally Buzylizzy will be assisting in order to tackle the Guide Association, as we want to make it known that we exist with both organisations and to keep reminding them what we have to offer.

#irc_help

The #irc_help team would like to say Happy Holidays to everyone. The post JOTI is now cleaned up what a mess everyone left us with, ascii on the channels, alias and popups in the rooms we swept, polished and helped everyone that could be helped..

Everything is back to normal in #irc_help with the helpers working hard at helping everyone that comes in.

Lets welcome Wraith and Pabalo as our newest helpers and say good by to Zorro as he does not come in to help anymore.

Also we want to wish everyone a good and prosperous New Year!!!!

#youth

http://www.lorrionline.com/youth-nov2002.html

 

#TechTeam

http://www.elliesplace.org/TTCreport1102.htm

 

Agenda Items:

 

1.Ratification of AU CC and IRCOPS, NZ CC and IRCOPS, UK CC and IRCOPS, HK CC and IRCOPS and Global Youth Coordinator position as IRCOP as follows:

AU – CC – Jabiru              IRCOPS – Ellie, Jacka, Koolyn, nhulscout and Scout_ben

NZ – CC – tely                  IRCOPS – kotuku and crispy

UK – CC – BigNick           IRCOPS – Bear, Kendod, Leon and Roger_UK

HK – CC – Coxswain         IRCOPS – BBQpit_HK

Global Youth Coordinator – Lorri_Oz

 YES vote carried.

2. Ratification of nitie as RC for North America

NO vote carried

It was decided that nitie will work over the 6 weeks, with the help of the US users, to get a full list of email addresses and officially notify them of the request for another election. no-use has agreed to run an impartial election process. The position of US CC to (hopefully) be ratified at the February 2003 Council meeting.

3. Election of Scoutlink Council positions of Chair and Secretary

no-use accepted the nomination for position of Chair. nitie accepted the nomination for the position of Secretary.

YES vote carried

4. Proposal to elect Tabaqui as JOTI-Coordinator for 2003.

Council voted to appoint Tabaqui as JOTI-Coordinator for 2003. It will be his responsibility to develop a job/position description, which he will present to Council for amendment/ acceptance. It was felt that the position’s responsibilities had not been addressed properly and this caused many of the issues that arose this year during JOTI.  YES vote carried.

 

 

 

 

5. Consideration of #youth-junior channel.

#Youth proposal for a new Scoutlink Channel

for under 11 year old chatters

 

 

 

1,   #Youth has been and since JOTI has most certainly become "the place to chat" channel from a youth perspective as its a channel for the under 21's with games being played etc

 

The numbers and age ranges of youth wanting to chat there and of Leaders bringing in their youth to chat there has steadily increased over the past year.  Through the encouragement of the #youth team, the games, chat content and friendship found on #youth has made it a fun and safe and very relevant place to chat for the under 21's.

 

On the occasions that younger youth have chatted in #youth, it has been successful, but in some ways is difficult for all concerned, given the ages of the littlies, their typing ability and the other chatters already there. #Youth team members and others, directed younger chatters to #miniscouts to ensure they could chat with other similar aged youth at a pace and at a level which suited their needs.  During JOTI  #Dutch has shown that you can differentiate between age groups taking part and that it makes sense to do so

 

 

2. JOTI also showed that the youngest group in scouting is taking interest in this additional part of scouting

 

Since JOTI a number of the children and the Leaders and parents who brought them into Scoutlink have been in contact desiring a location to continue to build on the friendships initiated during JOTI

 

3. Being the youngest group they really need their own protected environment under supervision of adult leaders or experienced leaders

 

Chat for these little ones can consist of games, e-mailed fun sheets, quizzes etc, which are suitable for their age group.  The #youth team can help provide this expertise through the existing #youth set-ups, together with new innovations from Leaders used to working with this age group children.  Support from Leaders and parents for this new service in a number of different locations has been strong.

 

4. In the past #youth has entertained both cubs and beaver groups outside JOTI to enjoy chatting in that channel

 

As noted earlier, with advertising to ensure that there are other youth to chat with, the regular visits of this age group to #youth has been very successful.  The proposal for a regular venue for younger chatters in  #youth via #youth-junior, will enable these chat opportunities, to be more regular, and more suited to the age group targeted.  It is not envisioned that #youth-junior would be a new channel, but rather an extension of a service that is already more than adequately meeting the needs of older youth members.

 

5. As #youth becomes more popular the need for a separate supervised channel for the youngest is self evident

 

Youth aged 5-11 years are still learning typing skills, think slower and react slower than older youth and have special needs.  A specially organised service will help to meet these needs and introduce the concept of worldwide interaction through the Internet to them at even this early age.

 

6. #Miniscouts can't fulfill this purpose as it is a channel for leaders and is organised partly outside SL and away from #youth team.

 

#Miniscouts was created as a venue for the members of the Miniscouts e-group to have a safe scouting environment to chat on a weekly basis and at irregular/rare times in between.  The infrastructure is not aimed at regular young chatters or completely within the Scoutlink framework.  #Youth-junior would not be in addition to #miniscouts as it will be serving a very different purpose for existence.

 

7. Proposal therefore entails to add a secondary #youth-junior channel to #youth primarily intended to accommodate the youngest age group when required; the team operating this channel will be part of #youth team or liaise with #youth team; #youth team will facilitate and help out if and when required

 

The logistics of how this will be achieved can be worked out by #youth-team after Council approves the concept.

 

8. Council is asked to approve this and ask the global youth co-ordinator to take this task to hand and form a team of Leaders/adults that can help set-up and manage #youth-junior in conjunction with #youth-team.

YES vote carried

6. Consideration of ‘International’ channel.

Since #jambo officially closed on Dec.1, 2002 , there have been many queries as to whether we should have an ‘international’ channel. The positive comments were that it could be considered an “entry point” to Scoutlink, a meeting / greeting channel. However, it would be very difficult to monitor because it would be multi-lingual. It could possibly become an ‘idling’ channel with not much chat going on because of the language barriers. Another concern was that the webchats didn’t work because #jambo was the default channel. However users now have the option to join any channel they wish.

Please note the following:

Hiho

 

I have been asked by pompom to make sure that everyone knows his opinion at the council meeting this weekend.

 

He is currently boycotting Scoutlink because of no #jambo – he basically the long story cut short is he doesn’t disagree with #english, but things #jambo should exist too.

 

I quote “present it on my behalf to the council. I do not want it presented as if from you but made clear that it is you presenting it on my behalf.

Thank you.

Andrew

PomPom”

So if you can make sure he gets a mention somewhere in the minutes It would be greatly appreciated

 

 

Many thanks

 

Nick ;o)

 

A proposal was made to create an #international channel.    NO vote carried

 

Since #jambo is officially closed, a proposal was made that the mail list addy was changed from jambo@scoutlink.net to english@scoutlink.net  and mail will be forwarded to the new address.  YES vote carried

7. Changes suggest to ircd

Tech Team proposed three changes to the ircd.

A command called /warnops that would allow regular users to send a notice to all online ircops in the case of flooding etc, We felt that this could be a good command but some were afraid of this being a way to flood IRCOPS. It was suggested that a one minute delay be added to it (like to /nickserv register) and that only registered users can use it.    YES vote carried

A command to allow IRCOPS to change hostmasks of users. E.g. if a hostmask is offensive, after requesting that it be changed with no response, the IRCOP would be able to change it. (it would work similarly to the change nickname command)     YES vote carried

A channel mode that directs a user to another channel if the channel that they are looking for is closed (would be effective for #jambo)     YES vote carried

Thank you’s  to Bob (Jabiru)  for his hard work as Chair and to Davide (Iron[Fe26) for his work as Secretary. (Davide was not able to return for the end of the meeting after disconnection earlier)

Next council meeting scheduled for Friday, January 3, 2003 at 22:00 GMT.