Ceara MacDougal Ceara MacDougal

Missive

Greetings,

Since taking office, I haven’t taken a lot of time to write missives. This has been mostly because I have been focused on changes and enhancements to the kingdom site. I am hoping to change this trend as more of the large development projects come to completion. Yes, there are many more changes coming to the site and they will be announced as they are ready for release. My deputy, Kit Marik (webdeputy@northshield.org), has also been instrumental in getting projects under control and is the main reason I can start looking towards more of the administrative functions so soon into my tenure.
That leads us to what I want to talk about, administrative duties. In the past few months, I have learned about misconceptions with the office of Webminister, the largest being that it “isn’t a real office”. I can guarantee everyone that the position of Webminister is very real and needs to be taken as seriously as any other branch office. In today’s world of hopping online to find out what you need, Webministers and their handiwork are becoming a major facet of our Society’s public image. This is one of the reasons why we have guidelines and requirements for “Official Sites” and for becoming/being a Webminister.

The full requirements for an official SCA group site and for becoming a warranted Webminister can be found in the Handbook and Policy documents on my web page, http://www.northshield.org/officers/chronicler/webminister/.

The basic requirements are simple:

  • Be a paid member (required of all officers)
  • Keep the site information up to date
  • Make sure the appropriate disclaimers are listed on the site
  • File your reports on time
  • Make sure that all of your required paperwork is in order

The last two bullets are the ones I’d like to focus on most since they seem to be the ones most forgotten.

When we went kingdom, it was decided that Webministers would report quarterly rather than annually. This was done to make it easier to keep warrant rosters up to date and to increase communication between branch Webministers and the kingdom Webminister. This was a difficult transition for some, but we have been steadily improving with more ministers reporting on time each quarter. At this time, I would like to make it known that Webministers are going to be treated like other officers. If you do not file your report on time and you don’t have extenuating circumstances for the lateness, your warrant will be suspended pending adherence to the reporting due dates. Failure to report or consistent tardiness in reporting is grounds for removal from office.

As with all offices, Webministers have required paperwork that must be kept on file. This paperwork includes all official correspondence relating to your office, permission to publish (articles and personal information), copies of your reports, financial information regarding the site, etc. By far, the most important information is the permission to publish documents. I’m not going to go into the details surrounding all of the rules for these documents since they are in the policies and handbooks, but you should be familiar with the requirements and you should have them readily available should a question arise or audit be deemed necessary.

As a final note, I would like to make it known that group web pages that are not maintained by warranted Webministers will not be linked to from the Northshield web page. The pages also cannot claim to be an official site for a group without a warranted Webminister. The rules regarding site status and warranting have been in place for a long time and it is becoming more important for us to make sure that they are adhered to.

If you have any questions, please contact me so that I can address them.

In Service,
Wulfric


Other missives from the Kingdom Webminister (KLO)
Posted by: Wulfric Ferreter Kingdom Webminister (KLO) on 9/1/2005

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