Update! What the Heck Are We Doing?

Given a few recent happenings, I think another update is due.

We continue to work on the 2017 Annual Report and the Pax Templi documents, and they are nearly complete.

That being said, MadHatter has taken a short break from the Temple and Alexandre Orion is attending to some personal business as well, so the rest of us are covering for them in the meantime. Our Pastor Rosalyn J has also tried to focus more on her personal studies lately, but she can't seem to stay away even when we chase her away with a stick! We don't anticipate any problems, but some requests may take a bit longer to address or you may need to reach out to others in the meantime. Everybody needs a break sometimes, and they have each earned one.

It was also brought up recently that we have some Initiates looking for Knights to partner with for Apprenticeships. If this is you, REACH OUT TO KNIGHTS!!! We don't bite... usually . If you are a Knight, please take a look at the list of Initiates and give their IP journals a quick glance. You might find someone that would make an excellent student for your teaching style. We're also always in need of Knights to review IP journals to determine who is ready for an Apprenticeship. Let's be true to the Knight's Code and give back what we have been given.

If there is anything else regarding Council you may be curious about, you can always reach out to me or our Council Secretary, Atticus (Members, meet Atticus . Atticus, meet EVERYBODY! Sorry for putting you on blast ).

That's it for now. May the Force Be With Us.

~Senan

In addition to what is said;


Interview em all! As a initiate is is your privladge and right to seek ... please if you wish to study here and further your training as a knight in our order .. seek !
Ask questions look us up see what we teach and see what we do here ... your own path can be made as easily as asking... of not asking . Seeking and finding or not finding and not seeking !
Seek happy knights for happy days ! Happy seeking !!

Thank you Senan I appreciate your thoughtfulness to keep us in the loop about the happenings in the council. I appreciate it MTFBWY all.

Thank you for the updates, Senan!! Transparency is what helps to build trust in communities, and these updates have been a nice addition to the temple.

I, for one, hope to see this continue to happen and for them to become a habit for the council. It's nice to be kept in the loop as to what is happening, and this should definitely become a consistent thing.

Thank you for bringing some transparency, Senan. Very much appreciated.

Time for another peek into the lives of your Councillors!

First, the Pax Templi I've mentioned a billion times in these updates has been put into the hands of the Clergy to make any last adjustments and additions. Us Security/Mod types got a little carried away with the lawyer speak, so we're letting our Ministers take a crack at adding some compassion and understanding into it too It will be available for all to review once the Council gives our final blessing.

The 2017 Year End Report has been posted for those of you who want to see a detailed look at what happened in each department last year. You can find it HERE. Special thanks to Adhara for collecting all of the info and herding all of the cats.

Recent discussions in the forum have the Council reviewing who can access which sub forums and why. It was brought to our attention that Guests could see the "Jediism" sub forum but not respond to it. We're working on giving read and post rights to guests for this forum while maintaining the privacy of the "Member Discussions" sub forum for members only. This will require some extra attention from the Moderators and Security Officers to make sure the Jediism forum does not become overrun by trolls, but we're up to the task. It is also a good lesson in paying close attention to which forum you are posting in and making sure we all understand who can read what we are posting. Some business here is private and needs protection, but discussing Jediism doesn't have to be.

The EduAdmin team has been having several detailed discussions about the purpose and goals of the Apprentice program and how it compares to earning degrees. For those of you unfamiliar, this Temple can award degrees in Divinity. The ADiv is an Associates Degree similar to what you might earn from a two year university program. The BDiv is similar to a four year Bachelor's Degree program. These degrees can be awarded separate from the ranks here at TOTJO, but most who earn the ADiv do so as part of becoming a Knight and those who earn the BDiv mostly do so as part of earning the Senior Knight rank. We're reviewing the requirements and points systems in use to make sure we are achieving the goals of our education programs here while also being fair and at least somewhat standardized in the way we award points.

Along these lines, we are also considering ways to improve the IP and also how to better transition members from Novice to Initiate to Apprentice. We don't want people stalling or left behind simply because they have not found a Knight to become their Teaching Master. More to come on this.

That's the big stuff we've been working on. Otherwise, it is the day to day tasks of processing and welcoming new members,moderating the forums, caring for the spiritual well being of the community and working with our own Apprentices.

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, gripes, bitches, compliments or ideas, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THEM HERE!

Enjoy your weekend, Jedi!

~Senan

What a great question! Sometimes I wonder what the heck we are doing in Council as there are so many wheels turning at once that it is easy to get distracted, but here's my latest attempt to share what your leaders are up to.

A common and very important topic of conversation here has always been communication. We've been discussing how we as leaders and clergy can make ourselves available to answer questions and provide guidance to people looking for it. We get caught up in our business threads of the forum that not everyone can see and we sometimes forget to make our public presence known to members looking for help. This especially applies to Novices and Initiates who are studying and wonder what the next steps will be. While not intentional, it is something we are aware of and we all plan to work on it. If anyone ever feels ignored or neglected, please know that you can reach out to any one of us in Clergy or on the Council via private message and we will respond. Sometimes we miss posts to a thread or conversations in chat, but we are pretty good about replying to direct messages. Don't be shy!

EduAdmin continues to work on ways to improve our training and lessons here. We have been thoroughly reviewing the points process for becoming a Knight with the goal of ensuring that we are producing new Knights that have a solid understanding of the commitment and expectations involved with taking on the rank. We've discovered that a lot of new Knights were feeling set adrift without a clear goal of what the next steps should be or how to pass on the knowledge and wisdom they have to share. As Teaching Masters, we have agreed that we need to include some lessons near the end of apprenticeships that prepare our students for what comes next. We also need to make sure our Apprentices are visible and participating in the forums and chat so they will be known to the Temple when they are Knighted. Hopefully this will encourage Knights to continue their paths here rather than feeling lost and disappearing.

The conversation about desired behavior and inappropriate behavior continues, as does the development of the Pax Templi document outlining the desired spirit of this Temple. I know many of you may be growing impatient as I've mentioned this a bunch of times already, but it is coming and I'm impressed with what we have managed to create so far. It won't solve everything, but it will give us something to reference when the water gets a bit choppy around here and we need to calm things down. Despite my own instances of frustration and lacking patience, I still believe that this Temple is full of well-intentioned and intelligent people that want to work together.

I'd also like to take a moment to point out how encouraged I am along with some other Councillors by the participation in various conversations including the Cantina Chats, Knight's Tea, IP Study Hall, and others. It is great to see Novices and Initiates taking the reigns and joining in these very important conversations. The teamwork and friendship building is behavior we encourage here and I love to watch it happen!

As always, I'm sure there are questions you may have about projects we are working on or conversations you may be hearing about. I know not everyone can see all of the forum threads we use to discuss these things, but that isn't because we are trying to hide from you or keep secrets. We just need to compartmentalize certain things to remain somewhat organized as we work across time zones and continents . I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have, and if I can't, I'll find someone who can.

Be well in the Force, and enjoy your weekend!

~Senan