TIME, In-World Meetings, Poll Taking, Using Forum

[Ohn Lang]

The fact that Kitely management is willing to work 28/7 (as opposed to 24/7) on making Kitely the best opensim VW around, and spend lots of time with us inworld is absolutely fabulous!! I continue to be stupendously amazed at the wonderful customer service provided by Oren and Ilan.

The fact that meetings often last well beyond 2 and often 3 to 4 hours, omg! painful! For Ilan, I think that often means he is getting to bed at about 5am or worse. For others, it means the kids came home, work calls, spouse is hungry, or i need a shot .

I've got some suggestions to maybe use Ilan's time more efficiently, and our own:

• Publish an agenda a couple of days prior, on the web page for the kitely world. The agenda should include some short period of defined time where people can ask questions or suggest topics for the next meeting. With an agenda, we can all be prepared for the topics to be discussed. We'll know that our 'pet' topic is the 4th thing to be discussed, or not on the agenda, and won't keep asking about it until the proper time (that time where we can suggest new topics).
  
  If there are questions, like "Do you think that options a, b, c, d, and e are the right options for X attribute" or "Which do you prefer: A, B, or C in Z subject" these should be posted as polls to the forum. I believe phpbb supports Polling. People can also follow up after taking the poll with their own comments. If plans for marketplace are preferred to be kept internal, make a private marketplace forum where only registered users can access polls and post topics. This will allow any and all of the 100s of kitely residents to participate, not just the 5 to 12 that are inworld.
  
  In meetings, we can find out that polls will be created and that Kitely needs feedback, and we can discuss poll results, or the fact that the questions require additional discussion in the [private] forum.
  
  Limit the official meeting length to 1.5 hours, with some portion of that being for quick questions or new topics to propose. If the agenda has not been fully covered when the meeting should end, we should either continue the discussion in the forum, or continue in the next meeting. After about 1.5 hours, people start dropping out anyway, and feedback received from just 3 or 5 people shouldn't be considered representative of the whole kitely population.
  
  Start the meeting at the time the meeting is intended to start. (I find myself coming in later, because as far as I know it wont start for at least 5 - 15+ minutes anyway).

The thing is, I think we miss out on valuable input because people leave or maybe decide not to come in the first place because 1) they dread the 3 hours, 2) they don't know what's on the plate for the day. Or, important questions get asked 2 hours in, and people with responsibilities left an hour earlier.

Also, can you imagine what it is like for the POOR soul who volunteers to do the meeting summary? 3.5 hours of chat log?????? come on!

[Marstol Nitely]

I think those are well thought out suggestions Ohn. I agree with everything you said. Especially the part about the Kitely team being "stupendously amazing". I was happy to get out of helping my husband clean the garage today. If I had to do the summary for today's meeting, I might prefer doing the garage.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Ohn,

I work 14-15 hours a day, most of which is between the time my family goes to sleep and the time it wakes up in the morning (10pm-6am). So, while I definitely think we can and should conduct shorter weekly meetings (3-4 hours is way too long) please don't feel bad about keeping me up.

Writing an agenda takes time and I often find that some of the unplanned issues that the group raises are as important, if not more so, than what I had in plan. That said, there are issues I need to get input on so we should begin each meeting by focusing on them before we start discussing other things. In any case, I think setting a 2-hour hard limit is in order. People can continue socializing after I leave but at least that way people will know that nothing official will be discussed after 2 hours from the scheduled starting time.

My hope is that people will read the meeting summary then discuss the questions that I've asked the people who attended. We're trying to get a good idea of how people feel about subjects from a small sample size so, at this time, qualitative research approaches are more useful than quantitative ones. We're aiming to know the reasons people have for their choices. The process of exploring those reasons unearths additional questions, the answers to which can be very insightful.

There is one thing I completely agree with you about, meetings need to begin at their scheduled time. Latecomers are welcomed to join but we won't be restarting the discussion every time a late comer arrives. If someone arrives after the meeting has already begun then he or she can ask someone for the chat log in a private IM.

[Dinero Outlander]

WOWWW!! Three and a ½ Hours?ME FAINTS

My how time flies when your having fun

[Ohn Lang]

Thanks for the feedback Ilan.

[Marstol Nitely]

I almost always enjoy the meetings. Especially the parts where we break down to pure silliness and just have fun between the important decisions. But I often find myself wondering if my opinion represents Kitely's residents or what is best for Kitely. I do know there are people who know far more about some of the questions and categories we discuss than I do. That's one reason why I like Ohn's suggestion about a private area we could discuss things within the mentor's group on the forums and then carry into the meetings.

I also think it would be a good way for us to invite individuals who might have valuable knowledge and feedback to participate if they can't make it to the meetings.

I love the feeling of community and making friends at the meetings, but I think we can expand that and increase our resources.

[Ohn Lang]

I'm with Marstol. I love this community and I love meeting people before and after the meetings.

... I do know there are people who know far more about some of the questions and categories we discuss than I do. ...

We discussed color options for 45 minutes with 5 or so attending. I tend to use text search, and furthermore, I don't actually know what color magenta is (i thought it was pink), so the views I expressed are unlikely to represent 1/5th of the Kitely users in any way, LOL!

After hashing out something for 45 minutes and over 2 hours into a meeting, I find it difficult to muster the energy to try to hash out a dozen more attribute discussions. By that time, I'm inclined to say Yes to just about anything cause I just want it to end It was either that, or the other dozen were really that non-debatable. That's possible.

[Dinero Wind]

Ohn Lang If plans for marketplace are preferred to be kept internal, make a private marketplace forum where only registered users can access polls and post topics. This will allow any and all of the 100s of kitely residents to participate, not just the 5 to 12 that are inworld.

It would be good for more Kitely users to be able to participate in the shaping of our community. Perhaps hosting another assembly on weekends or every other weekend (if feasible for Ilan), could enable a greater proportion to attend. If possible a different time zone would be even better. This could also help with overrun meetings by holding them more often. Additionally, in agreement with everyone else, it would be nice to meet personally a greater portion of the community.

Actually the idea of a specialized area of the forum is a good one, for continuing a discussion. This would also be good for the offering of upcoming topic proposals. Not everyone that attends can make it to all meetings or, stay all the way through. From experience I can say that leaves one feeling like something was missed out on even with a chat-log. An opinion one could have expressed to sway things to a more effective or desirable outcome. A question that was never asked that is important and relevant. Not to mention the group is minus the input, of an experienced and well versed on topics member. In these cases a forum section for, those that are regular meeting attendees, could be a good additional asset.

However forum or blog discussion can never replace the innate spontaneity of town hall meetings. Or the free flow of ideas round table discussion inspires. Before most people click submit, they first reason out an appropriate response. Then proofread the language, punctuation and spell check several times. Finally one last read through to ensure that everything is coherent, as well as inclusive. In active topics quite often when the post is ready to submit, the conversation has moved on, and the time for that input is past.

[*]EDIT: Case in point by the time I finished this post, Ohn had commented again. I had to read her post and see if mine needed revision. [/*]

Plus I have to agree that quality is much more important than quantity. It just follows that someone who makes a point to be somewhere at a certain time on a certain day is more invested than someone who posts in forums / blogs during television commercials. Notwithstanding the fact that there are many who cannot make it at 1 PST Wednesday. Hence one reason for my proposal of an additional conference held at a different time and day. There is the additional profit of spreading the time spent in summaries out to more people.

Polling is always a viable option for many things. Though in my opinion most of the discussions we have are not necessarily easily replaced with polls. Surveys tend to be most effective, for simple ideas. Census questions of a type which can easily be returned yes, no or rated on some type of scale. While today’s subjects might readily lend themselves to these simplified answers, many do not. What could have been settled in a short duration, of an hour or two, can easily turn into a three day forum affair.

Btw thanks for giving us all things to think about, and psssst I didn't know what magenta is either [/color][/i][/b]

[Bladyblue Bommerang]

I make agendas for a living so I know that the agenda posted before-hand keeps the focus. Perhaps something like this can help;

I. Read highlights from last meeting. (10 minutes total)
a. Volunteer follow-up reports. (4 Minutes)
b. Further suggestions on last week's subjects. (3 minutes)
c. Dates for next steps (3 minutes)

II. This week's agenda Items.
a. The development of the Marketplace (10 minutes)
1. Launch of Merchant Dashboard
2. Content Security
3. Events planned to celebrate April Marketplace launch

b. Hypergrid (10 minutes)
1. Development Notes
2. Q&A

c. Other Business (10 minutes)
1. Meeting facilitator introduces new focus.
a) feedback

III. Open floor for new ideas (15 Minutes)
a. Ideas accepted will receive volunteers (if needed), follow-up plan and date.
b. Some ideas floored for next meeting for further development

IV. Create agenda for next meeting
a. Choose who will present what idea
b. Choose who will take meeting minutes next week.
_________________________________________

We also set-up a wiki page that anyone (that logged in) could edit and add ideas that could make it onto the next agenda. People could add things for 4 days and then he complete new agenda (with Items Ilan accepts) will be posted.

[Ohn Lang]

Wow! That's official looking, and very thorough.

Just curious, why spend time on last week's meeting when the meeting summaries of past weeks are posted?

Considering the trend of our current meetings, I'd be happy with a bare bones approach:

• 1. Choose meeting note taker.
  2. Review development and marketing progress since last meeting, and plans for coming week(s).
  3. This week's agenda items:
  • a. Request for feedback: Marketplace search attribute A options.
    b. Request for feedback: Marketplace search attribute B options.
    c. ....
    d. Request for new suggestions to increase sign-ups.
    ...
  4. Meeting facilitator introduces focus for next week.
  • a. Discuss.
  5. Open floor for new questions, ideas.
  • a. Discuss.

Posting the agenda to a forum area (private if needed) would be fine. That allows people to comment on the OP to suggest changes or additions, etc. And keeps the original agenda intact until Ilan elects to change it. At least at this time Ilan and Oren have an ambitious development schedule, with focus on the Marketplace. They desperately need the bulk of meetings to focus on components of the marketplace. If someone suggests something that they feel should have priority, Ilan could update the agenda if he agrees but can leave it as is if not.

In reality, based on Ilan's feedback, I doubt he has any interest in agendas, formal or otherwise.

If people can't attend the meetings, and wish to contribute, I hope they will read the meeting summaries and contribute to the discussed topics via comments, such as http://forums.kitely.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=128for this week's summary. So far I've given feedback on a lot of specific questions that I had no actual strong feelings (had to pick a side), and in some cases, no experience or expertise with. I would hate to have my views given to much weight in the decision making processes that affect the whole population.