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Thanks to everyone who attended the 25th Dunes Council meeting!

Attendance

• Dunes Council
  • Present: CadrienK, Darbooma, Mjfurman16, nmjk, Obsidious_D, vK_InFaMy
  • Absent (IRL): AnvilFrost, DrLolzworth
• Visiting Council
  • AmarielSilme (Grove)

Agenda

1. Meeting introduction, guidelines
2. Council elections next weekend
3. Beaver Day!
4. Cross-District meeting: Sand Dunes books
5. Builder of the Week (Info)
6. Announcements
7. Welcoming new residents
8. Q&A / Community Issues

1. Meeting introduction, guidelines

Business as usual. Confirmed that the required numbers of Council and residents were present, so the meeting is legal and official.

2. Council elections next weekend

#DunesVotes! Next weekend, April 11-12, is the next round of Council elections! Submit your candidacy or see who's running here!. The general process will be this:

• Sunday (April 5) through Friday
  • People who want to run for Council comment in the Council Elections post
  • Residents of the Dunes read all the comments and, ideally, try to meet the candidates in-game to get to know them or ask questions
  • Election officials are chosen from outside the district to ensure that everything is handled fairly
• Friday
  • The ballot is created on Google forms
• Friday night or Saturday morning
  • The official "go vote now!" post will be made on this subreddit with the link and instructions
• Saturday and Sunday (April 11-12)
  • Everyone votes!
• Monday
  • Election officials collect and confirm the voting results
  • Results are posted on this subreddit (hopefully Monday, but depends on election officials' schedules!)

Q: How will judges be appointed for the new Council term?
A: Judges are appointed with each new session of Council, but that happens after Council is formed. A post will appear here on the reddit asking for applications and sometime betwen April 13 and 18, the new Council will appoint the next round of judges.

3. Beaver Day!

... was held the day after the Council meeting (Sunday, April 5), and it was a huge success! The epicly difficult parkour took hours before a winner emerged, but it was fun watching.

Results:

• Parkour winner: Tripleat
• Costume Contest:
  • 1st place: Castform
  • 2nd place: Mouseconfident
  • 3rd place: Mobarhan

Thank you to everyone for visiting and participating, and to all the hard working beavers who pulled the event together!

4. Cross-District meeting: Sand Dunes books

On Friday, April 3, the Grove hosted the most recent Dong Dank Cross-District Meeting. A lot of good discussions took place, many of which concerned how Dong Dank can welcome new migrants (many people say they have heard of a new wave of migration on their way to our fair lands). One idea that had a lot of support was that of District Books, to introduce newcomers to each district, its community, and the best it has to offer. Ideally this collection of books would help new people decide where they want to live. Each district's leadership has been asked to write a couple of books with that type of information.

However... we don't want to do it on our own! Over the next couple of weeks, we would love for all of YOU to write books introducing the Dunes! We'll collect them at the Dunes Embassy (424, 650) in the donation chest in the lobby, and we'll edit the submissions together. After all, the Dunes has always been about ALL of us... not just a few people on Council. We look forward to reading what you love and know about the Dunes!

Q: Are Dunes residents the only ones allowed to write books?
A: While we imagined it would mostly be Dunes folks, because Dunians know the culture here, any submissions are welcome!

Q: Will the submitted books be public while (or after) the final book(s) are being written?
A: Since we're expecting people's submissions by books it would be hard to make those public. People could, of course, post imgur albums of their books in comments on the Book Submission reddit post. We're also hoping to have a small library on the Dunes guild plot (if we can get bookshelves), so submissions could of course appear there.

Q: Where will the final district books be? Will they be in a Welcome Centre in each district, or all placed in one location?
A: The discussion at the Cross-District Meeting concluded that the final books would be submitted to Lord Nisovin, who has been collecting peasant-written books about Dong Dank for the new welcome building at the Market. We're hoping he will take all of the District Books and create a section for them there. We'll have our book(s) in our Welcome Centre too, though!

5. Builder of the Week

This week's Builder of the Week is Mjfurman16, at West Purple 2, at x:430, z:560. He also wins a 5 gold bar award! Make sure to stop by and check out the build.

Mjfurman16: "Even though I pay rent etc. on the plot, it's a plot for you guys [the Dunes], so if you ever want to come to me with suggestions, feel free!"

Want to know more about Builder of the Week? Information here!

6. Announcements

• ret1ar1us is now hosting a Dunes radio station! Tune in and check out what he's got playing.

7. Welcoming new/returning residents

Council welcomes new residents each week! We'll do our very best to include every new Dunian resident at each meeting. If you see these folks around, make sure to welcome them!

• Aer0Naut1, Karnitor (East Yellow 2)
• fromtopoflung (Southeast Yellow 1)
• Vanessa_Ward (North Yellow 4)
• BRB2187 (West Red 5)
• Red_Fix (North Orange 5)
• DarkMotron (West Orange 3)
• Asidor (East Yellow 1)

8. Q&A / Community Issues

Q: There have been some occurrences near the guild plot lately concerning the Sun God, including a missing temple and what looked like it might be a grave, and a sign that said "the price has been chosen". Has anyone been reported missing?
A: (Answer not recorded, nmjk temporarily lost consciousness.) ooc: my game crashed!

Q: On April 3, someone shapeshifted into the appearances of Emmia, Darbooma, Dapper_Bunny, and Snuggles. They then impersonated them and attacked people. Do we have rules regarding impersonating other people?
A: We don't, but it's something worth addressing. Warning, stepping out-of-character! Each player in LoM/Dunes is a person too. Whatever goes on with the characters, it's still a person's access to the community. It might seem interesting and fun to use another character for roleplay and suchlike, but if the person behind the character isn't fully on board, you're affecting their ability to participate in the community. It could feel like harrassment or impersonation; it could lead to mistaken identity and reputations being affected, which we've seen before. It's really important to check with people, out of character, before using other player's nicknames or skins (or variations thereof). Fun is great, but if it affects someone's ability to be part of Lords, then that would really suck.
A: Beavers are slightly different. There are tons of them in the Dunes with almost the exact same skin as Obsidious_D (the original) but they all have their own spin. Even if your skin is generic, you can still make it your own, so there's no excuse for people having the same skin as each other. (Also, there are people in Dong Dank who can make/edit skins! Ask around for help if you want.)
A: If in doubt, ask someone if you can use their skin, name, or a variation of their name.

Q: Is p_o colourblind? He seems to think something is going on regarding purple...
A: Maybe check with an optometrist? When DrLolzworth returns perhaps he can help! (ooc: This was probably regarding some roleplay that was going on toward the end of the meeting... ^_^)

Q: Beaver Day is taking place on the Dunes' Guild Plot, right? Should we be concerned about the weird temple stuff north of the guild plot affecting the event?
A: The DTF will be looking into everything that's going on, and will be keeping an eye out during the event.

Q: What can we do to appease the Sun God?
A: The sun god is pretty easygoing... (according to the High Priestess of the Temple of the Sun)...

Questions? Corrections?

Please let me know! And watch for the meeting/agenda post for next week's meeting, coming soon.