Meeting 9: 1/6/11 - Announced two new club managers, discussed an upcoming workshop and getting more people to do workshops, a calendar to keep track of dates for the different clubs, a cooking club, a sewing club, and having in person get togethers.

-Talked about upcoming workshop hosted by Dwtim

-Trying to talk more people into doing workshops, specifically shops on toy pouches
-Announced Mistress Kay hosting blogger club and Airen hosting eden lit club

-Public Calendar brought up to keep track of dates for all the different clubs

-BBW Talks Toys brings up the Idea of a cooking club is brought up, come on once a week (or however often) to swap recipes. Possibly even have an 'ingredient of the week' where you then go and make something with that and report back.

-SexyTabby suggests having community members host smaller gatherings around the country/world and have a 'satellite party' with everybody connected probably via skype. Lauren offers to host one for the Illinois and surrounding areas people. A few people are for the idea of optional nametags.

-Kindred mentions a sewing club. I don't think it had been previously mentioned as a club, or that he was suggesting it, but it's a neat idea nonetheless

Meeting 10: 1/20/11 - Talked about the photography club, ideas for the Valentine's Day party, an art club, a music club, and new workshops.

-Gary brought up the Photography Club idea that I had mentioned earlier in the day. He started a thread outside of the meeting to check for interest among the community.

-Lauren suggested a few ideas for the Valentine's Day party. One was to do things similarly to the Holiday party, where there's a “secret Santa” type of exchange of a small gift, as well as a sort of e-valentine's card that one contributor would make for another and then post it when it was time. Her other idea was the e-card thing but for everybody, where there's a thread that people post their Valentine's cards to for the community to see. Thread started to ask the community for their ideas on things.

-Viktor brought up the idea of a general art club. This would not include photography since that would already have its own section, but could use any other media.

-Viktor also brought up the idea of something like a music club. It wouldn't have to be like the clubs we have now, but at least a thread here and there for the musicians of the site to get together, try stuff out on each other, and talk about music in general.

-Dwtim is starting to work on a new workshop for turning dildos into vibrators.

-Alys brings up the cooking club idea, Twisted Finger does too.

-Eden lit: having different categories for members of the community to submit their own works of writing to

Meeting 11: 2/3/11 - We talked about the merge with Liberator, adding a spot to the main page with links to all of the new information for clubs etc, having people as “greeters” to welcome new community members.

-This was right after the merge with Liberator was announced. Redboxbaby asked how it would affect things around the site. - The Liberator / Eden merger as it stand right now is not going to change anything regarding the community, the review program, or how the company operates. The entire internal structure of Eden is intact. However, Fred is now also the VP of Liberator.

-Since I hosted the meeting in Gary's stead, most of it was spent discussing the community in general and the merge.

-Lauren brought up having a place separate from the calendar to have information on the clubs and workshops. At this point there's the blogs, but nothing else on site to share the information she was requesting. Something that breaks down “here are the clubs, this is what they do, here's how to participate” A spot with all the other things on the right side of the main page.

-DeliciousSurprise said it's not about clubs and events but I think that for new members it would be awesome to have a really prominent link (like where the community corner link is on the front page) that said "NEW HERE?" with links to tutorials and info about reviewing and clubs and all that stuff. Maybe something big and bold on the front page, but also available on the community news page. Sitemap accessible from the main page. A banner that links to a set of FAQ's and all that.

-Kindred believes that the community news page needs to be expanded to truly represent what the community now offers.

-Big Brother/ Big Sister was revisited. Some members feel that it would be beneficial to have members who have been here longer message new members right away and welcome them to the community. Others feel as though this might scare off new members. Darling Jen suggested an opt in feature, or a button that leads new people to a page with lots of helpful information. Or there could be an opt out thing. People who wouldn't be comfortable with that sort of thing could just opt out immediately and be presented with the Join The Community Guide and people who don't opt out can be greeted personally and stuff

-from Gary - New Contributors. We have been sending out welcome emails that highlight out community, the Mentor program, as well as other keys points to help them get started. We have also be sending out a follow up email to people who after a few weeks are still not really getting invovled to offer assistance and support

Meeting 12: 2.17.11 - We talked about issues with the mentor program, Eden Gives Back projects, workshop ideas, separating planning holiday parties, a movie club, and the cooking club.

-I brought up Eden Gives Back

-DeliciousSurprise asked if staff could use bold font to ask questions that need answers.

-VieuxCarre asking about a way to prevent students from applying for advanced reviewer status while in class. Gary mentioned that it was a known glitch that tech support was working on.

-Gary brought up the Eden Post Crossing idea that had been going around.

-DeliciousSurprise mentioned the possibility of something like a CD swap where all the CDs went to a central person who was okay with having an address (sometimes they just rented a PO box) listed and that person sent everything to the appropriate places; that way only one person instead of 10 had your address.  Vaccinium brought up KinkyCards as an e-card alternative.

-We talked about starting up the Eden Gives Back club. Vaccinium asks if we have any organized fundraising for cervical cancer. VieuxCarre asks about prostate cancer. BBW Talks Toys says what about supporting local shelters for battered women around the country? Kind of like what happened with the Holiday thing, only for shelters. VieuxCarre also wondered if it's at all possible, we could maybe reach out and give some help to those who are going through unplanned pregnancies and donate some to helping bring more awareness about using protection and safe sex.

Vaccinium had an idea for a workshop on book binding. Dwtim had an idea for a workshop on toy materials and lubes and how they react. VieuxCarre suggest an art workshop where people could discuss different painting techniques, sculpting, how to start with sculpting, etc. Gary asked if anybody had any ideas for more workshops, suggesting that people offsite could come in and do them. VieuxCarre suggested one on how to give blowjobs without choking. Vaccinium suggested the art of therapeutic/erotic massage. I suggested one about makeup; smokey eyes and eyeliner etc. Lauren said she'd love to see an adult star come in and do a workshop on tricks of the trade, a lingerie designer coming in to talk about what designs are best for which body types, etc. VieuxCarre suggested we need someone to come in and talk about how to tell when you need a new bra so the girls aren't hanging down low and wobbling to and fro. BBW added in how to properly fit yourself. Alyjazz suggested a bartending workshop.

-DeliciousSurprise asked if there was any news on the photography club and also brought up how awesome an art club would be.

-Gary brought up starting a holiday party planning committee where we could all get together and plan the holiday parties. He mentioned it would also be good for things like the Halloween contest and the April Fool's Day reviews.

-Pandahb said how about a movie club? The artsy people could draw cartoons for the visuals, people who write well can write be part of writing the script and then there can be voice actors. Then throwing it all together is mega easy with things like imovie and windows movie maker.

-DeliciousSurprise: Oh! What happened to the idea of having a book reader thing, where people read passages from the book club selections? 

-DeliciusSurprise asked about the cooking club and if anybody had stepped up to run one. Vaccinium added The Iron Chef thing could be the monthly contest, and the meetings could be more instructional

Meeting 13 – 3.3.11 - We announced new forum subcategories for Eden Gives Back and Holiday Parties, and discussed a few more workshop and club ideas.

-Gary announced that Art club was being put on hold because Viktor wasn't able to run it any longer due to inconsistent hours. He also asked if anybody would be willing to step up as host.

-Gary announced the new sections for Eden Gives Back and Holiday party planning. He also called for anybody who wanted to step up as manager of EGB who keeps the calendars, events, and club blog updated as well as helps the club members coordinate and put together meaningful charitable events and actions. 

-DeliciousSurprise: I don't know if it's possible but it would be really awesome to have common threads come up before you're allowed to post a new thread. Example: if I start a thread titled 'hitachi vs fairy' it could autosearch the forums and suggest threads that have those as keywords. 

-Darling Jen asked did anything come out of our brainstorming for a "If You're New To Eden - Click Here!" page?

-I brought up a few of the workshop ideas that had been brought up before but nobody had stepped up to run them – makeup, toys with learning curves, etc. Gary suggested Victoria for a makeup workshop.

-Dwtim brought up maybe having one of the guys do a prostate workshop. Kindred suggested perhaps a shaving or grooming workshop. Eyebrow plucking or waxing is one, or beauty tips in general. Shaving designs into patches of hair. I'm thinking an additional one for hair styles maybe?

-Gary asked what people thought of the clubs so far. If they thought there were too many, what days of the week were they willing to attend, what times (in eastern) were they willing to attend, and if there were ideas for some that people would like to see but don't want to run. Illusional suggested an Anime/Otaku Club!(Which can be culture, cosplay and hentai!). Kindred suggested Art Club.

Meeting 14 – 3.17.11 - We discussed April Fool's Day reviews, a few contests, how to nominate for Contributor of the Month, and a welcome program.

-Gary reminded everybody of the Eden Gives Back and holiday party planning meetings

-Dwtim asked about doing April Fool's Day reviews and videos

-Vaccinium still wants to do the canned ham genitalia contest. BBW suggested a genitalia contest of any medium.

-Gary brought up changing the requirement for nominating a Contributor of the Month to letting everybody nominate. There were no objections.

-Gary: I am now working on a proposal for instituting a sort of 'Welcome to EF' program for contributors who just hit the sign up button and don't know anything about the community or the Mentor Program. I have a few ideas I am working on for how it will function (usage vs programming), but I would love to hear some feedback from you guys. 

The basis is the Big Brother / Big Sister program. Contributors volunteer for the program, and then when someone new signs up, they get paired up to help the new contributor get started. It is a little like the mentor program... but its main focus helping people right away. BBW asked if there'd is there going to be a rule on how long you've been in the community or if you've gone through the mentor program as a baseline.

Meeting 15: 4.7.11 - Announced Eden Flicks and Name that Toy contest, discussed Porn Club and what could make it better, the welcome program, more workshops, and adding time frames to polls.

-BBW announces Eden Flicks.

-Gary talked a lot about Porn Club, what could make it better, etc. He asked the community in general, and people said that while they could see how it would be nice if the conversation could slow down and etc, that it wasn't very feasible.

-Dwtim asked about the Big brother/big sister program. Gary says: BB/BS update: Ok development is a tricky thing, nothing is done until its done. And sometimes projects get bumped for a million and one reasons... so I don't want to / can't really say too much. 

However, the idea has evolved into a bigger help system that would be useful to / and usable by everyone.

-Alys mentioned that she'd be interested in doing a workshop on wine. Vaccinium mentions doing one on beer.

-DeliciousSurprise asks about adding time limits to polls.

-Pleasure Piratess said it would be a great idea if there was a big blurb on the mentor program page that better highlighted what the program was. I remember when I first signed up I wasn't even sure what I was signing up for. Couldn't that help while BB?BS is being organized?

-Gary announced the Guess that Toy game on the Roundup.

Meeting 16 – 4.21.11 - Announced the new forum calendar, discussed how to get new people to the meetings, having some of the meetings during the day, how we could possibly change the Name that Toy contest, sticky threads, and safety videos.

-Vaccinium asked the community in general about how we might go about getting new people to attend the meetings, since the same cast and crew was appearing at each meeting. Dwtim brought up that a lot of the meetings had seemed pretty sparse as of late. Pleasure Piratess suggested having a list of topics that we'd be discussing at each meeting as part of the post.
I brought up the possibility of having meetings during the day to try and bring in a new crowd. Kindred suggested having the meeting threads be an ongoing thread where people could drop in suggestions at will. Maybe starting the threads with an open topic asking for specifics would entice more people to comment. He also suggested maybe cutting back on the meetings.

-I asked about the new Name that Toy contest. The general consensus was that while it was neat, they didn't think it was doing necessarily what Gary had hoped it would. Kindred suggested instead of guessing a picture, what if guessing were based on verbal clues, and each day a new clue could be released. This would keep it really nebulous and maybe keep people guessing.

-Sticky threads got brought up again.

-Kindred suggested removing points for voting in polls to reduce the random pointless voting polls that kept being brought back up.

-When asking a newer user (karakaten) what would have helped her out, she said Hm. I suppose more advertising would have snagged me earlier, for both EF and CEC. The one main difference I've found about CEC is that it's a bit vague in describing what the club is. 

I mean, Porn Club, Naked Readers Book Club, those are pretty self-explanatory. "Community Events Commitee" sounds like party planning, whereas the posting makes it appear more like a "city council," where users talk about how to improve the community. 

I'd also like if most clubs were maintained by more than one person, especially when it comes to memberships. Waiting two weeks to find out if you're even in a club or not can get aggravating. Maybe a public/forum memberlist for the clubs would alleviate that. 

For the timezone issue, what about merging the weekly/biweekly idea with early/late one? - people also want the meetings pushed back later, maybe even to 11pm EST.

-Kake wishes there was an email when you created your acct or something that unobtrusively explained some of these types of features w/ links & whatnot.

-A lot of people feel as though the Community News Page isn't updated very frequently.

-Locking older voting polls was brought up again.

-The new forum calendar was unveiled.

-Emma said “I would like to have some sort of system set up so that when we request push assignments, we are notified when they are assigned or sent out... whatever. I try really hard to keep track of all of my students due dates on their assignments so that I can make sure they remember to start working on them in a timely fashion, and also so I know when they are really slacking. “

-Kindred suggested a workshop of “shake yo thang with Dwtim” as a joke.

-Dwtim brought up doing a video on the strength of glass toys.

Meeting 17 – 5.5.11 - Discussed removing “committee” from the “club” name, adding a place on the main page for the blog, logos for the clubs, the next meeting would be at noon, and forum activity.

-Vaccinium suggested removing “committee” from the name of the meetings, since the term “committee” implies that only a specific group of people can be involved. Newer members have expressed the same feelings. We talked about different replacement names, and eventually took a poll on them.
Sexyintexas suggested maybe making a note on newer reviewers walls about the meetings when they're coming up.

-BBW asked about the big brother/big sister program. Gary says that  the system is more of a general support system that will be available to everyone. So the core concept is the same - but the 'outward packaging' so to speak will have a broader reach than just the initial BB/BS concept.

-Kindred brought up that there's no real statement describing what the meetings are there for, and that if there were people would have a better idea of what the meetings do. Gary said that it was whatever you want it to be (to a certain point). 

-- I get to bring up ideas and get your feedback. Yes, I can do this on threads too but it works differently with the live back and forth. 

-- I can introduce new programs, features, and concepts to all you directly which then helps to introduce to the rest of the community. 

-- We can discuss any ideas or concerns that you have in real time. 

-- What I value the most from the CEC have always been the momentum of brainstorming. Someone starts and idea, and before you know it, it turns into a bigger thing and then changes happen. He also asked if anybody would be willing to tackle the project defining our goals to share.

-Kindred also suggested getting a place on the main page for the blog. Vaccinium suggested that maybe it take the place of the Naked Reader link.

-Vaccinium suggested signatures for club managers. Gary shared that he preformats posts that can be used over and over again as signatures that you manually add to your posts. Gary also said that they were in the process of creating logos for all of the clubs.

-I suggested making the new calendar on the community news page collapsible like the forum calendar was. Kindred added to that asking if we could make the monthly view the default view rather than agenda.

-Kindred has some concerns that community participation seems to be focused on a limited group of people, myself included. I would like to involve more, but the big question is how. Dwtim says that's been on my mind for while. We need some kind of question thread that asks why folks don't join in. I would not know how to word it though so folks are comfortable with sharing why. - I can maybe start a thread asking newer contributors to share their opinions there if they feel comfortable or to email me their ideas if they want to stay more private. - Gary said  Forum activity is at an all time high. 
-- There are clubs and events almost everyday now. 
-- Are the people who are interested, aware of the discussion times? 
-- Some people like to be passively entertained. 
-- As a concept, clubs is still pretty new and has a lot of room for growth and improvement.

-We announced that the second meeting of the month would be at noon EST to try and reach a new group.

Meeting 18 – 5.19.11 - Discussed moving Eden Gives Back meetings back to the planning meetings, how to get more people involved, ongoing projects for EGB.

-This was the first meeting held in the afternoon.

-Vaccinium noted that Gary's threads on the forum change suggestions had a lot of productive replies. There was discussion about the possibilities of different badges for different activity levels or other things around the site.

-Gary brought up Eden Gives Back - Should we move Eden Gives Back discussions, back into the regular CEC so that more people are involved? 

- How to get more people involved? (Of course no one is obligated, but around the holidays so many people wanted an ongoing campaign. Now that we are trying to do that, a few people have been hardcore supportive, and that is about it).  - I think it might not be a bad idea to reconsider now.
Vaccinium said that he liked the idea of some ongoing projects like the clothing drive and some big events separated by a few months. Having a big event (like TacoODoom's thing) going on all the time would probably drain people. BBW says Aside from more people, it's another meeting. Yes I can read back, but I have ideas that don't get live feedback since I can't attend the EGB meetings. I think we should keep the folder there for all the projects.  I said I think we could do something like the clothing drive year round, since it's not a mandatory thing and people can donate multiple times and it's not coming up with a monetary donation but is still helpful. The big projects I think should be spread out. As for getting more people involved, I'm not sure honestly. I don't have a problem moving it back to the CEC. Or maybe we could have a brief section of the CEC set aside for it and go over stuff that was brought up in past EGB meetings? Bunnycups is also for moving the meetings back to the CEC.

-Sexyintexas said we do fund raisers at the local American Legion and benefit rides raising money for the county orphanage and wounded and fallen soldiers. Its very rewarding. I think once people get involved in volunteering, its hard to step away. There are so many in need one way or another. And Gary said I was going to say the next time you do the fundraiser, take some pictures and write a little about it... then it dawned on me... maybe we just need a little momentum. Like, maybe as more people share it can sort keep rolling into more and more activity. That is really the most important aspect of sharing - to inspire others.
Eden Gives Back Paypal account is brought up again.

-Emma brought up a complaint about the new product page layout and the lack of notification of a verified review up front. If we have to keep that layout, can we add the verified tag back in to make it easier for deciding on assignments?

Meeting 19 – 6.2.11 - We discussed Porn Club, Eden Gives Back, forum updates, and the mentor program.

-This is the first 'community planning meeting'

-Gary asked anybody who was at Porn Club the night before what they thought of the new segment in the beginning of the meeting. Kindred said I liked it, but it does make for a loooong evening, especially with the after party. Julia Ann was great, but I think she was overwhelmed with her being the only guest. HHSM loved both! the trivia was great, learned a lot of new things

-I announced that we'd be doing a fundraiser for Joplin through EGB
cherryredhead88 mentioned that she had some ideas for a review template change. Gary asked her to email them to him.

-Cherryredhead88 also asked if there was an update on the forum updates.

-People would like a non social network way to enter the cafe contests. Dwtim had a thought, what if we did some kind of Bingo? You would get a number with each order or even if you participate in one of the clubs or meetings. Gary could make up a bingo card and the first one to get a bingo would win a prize or GC.

-BBW brought up the EGB paypal account.

-We talked about the mentor program and having deadlines for a review to be in. And other ways to combat the people who sign up, get a free toy, and disappear.

-Kindred asked about removing points for forum posts.

Meeting 20 – 6.16.11 - We talked about ideas to help spruce up clubs, and reviews (voting, product pages, etc).

-This is the second daytime meeting

-I gave an update on the Joplin fundraiser

-Gary asked if anybody had any ideas to help bring offline aspects to any of the clubs. Specifically he's looking for ideas that would be fun events/activities for the whole community that go beyond the typical things that would be done in club meetings. Examples: Eden Cooks - what if there was a budget to support coordinate cooking projects within the club? Everyone picks a dish, buys ingredients, cooks while taking a few pics or even video, then you share you summary - photos - & the recipe you followed with everyone else.

-DeliciousSurprise: Is it possible to have more pages added to the recent reviews on the community page?  maybe a separate section below the most recent, showing reviews from the last week on rotation? Or even a “random” button that shows you a review at random when you click it.

-I asked What kinds of things might make you vote more, or might have made you vote more when you first got here?  This turned into a conversation about voting and what's a “good” vote, etc.

-Vaccinium asked for an update on the forum improvements.

-Antipova brought up a point with the new product page layout, and that people would be encouraged to give more “extreme” ratings to make sure that their review was one of the listed ones.

Meeting 21 – 7.7.11 - We discussed Eden Gives Back, the lack of attendance, and ways to update the site.

-Gary asked if we thought people were busy due to the season, or if participation really was just dropping off. The general consensus was that people have different schedules because of school not being in session.

-We updated the community on what we raised for Joplin. I also asked people what they thought about doing the school supply drive.

-Kindred suggested updating the website, making the information for the review program and the mentor program more obvious and up to date. Ivy Wilde mentions that the site is a nightmare to navigate.

-Antipova brought up the new product page review layout again.

-A lot of the meeting was spent discussing the usefulness of certain school supplies vs others and how to get your schools the best supplies they need.

-Dwtim asked Gary to do another novelty review.

Meeting 22 – 7.21.11 - Minimal attendance, nothing of importance brought up.

-This was our last daytime meeting. There was minimal attendance and nothing really brought up.

Meeting 23 – 8.4.11 - We talked about the mentor program, clubs, past meetings, and how to get people more interested in attending the meetings.

-sexyintexas was wondering how long it normally takes to hear back about being a mentor

-I announced that we'd have the art club starting soon

-WonderMom asked about how to get into Porn Club

-I asked what people thought about going down to one meeting a month. There was no objection to going down to one meeting a month, but there was no real urge for it either.

-Kindred asked about past meetings and things that had been brought up. I volunteered to go through all the past meetings and take notes and bring a list of updates to the next meeting.

-Kindred asked for an update on the big brother big sister project. I told him that There hasn't been much direct work on the exact idea, but there has been a lot of work put into developing programs for all types of assistance.

-Ivy Wilde asked Is anything being done to make all the Eden pages more standardized, and to make the overall site, with clubs, community, EdenCafe, Sexis, etc... easier to navigate? The first thing that pops into my mind is to have a drop down menu for the search function that allows you to choose which area of Eden you want to search. Eden's home page is the place to start. It is absolutely horrible in terms of allowing people to find anything EF other than store items. Just redesigning that one page to include better, more intuitive links to other areas of the site would be a vast improvement. Kindred says To me, the website is like a house that they kept adding new wings on. It just doesn't flow well overall and lacks consistency. Having the quick links be in the same place on every page would be a start. But even things like incorporating the blog/clubs better would be nice. It's like EF outgrew the original format that was made. Oldhippy says  would say that probably the biggest drawback is the lack of consistency in the page formatting. Sexis is formatted one way. The Cafe is formatted a different wasy, the Forum is formatted a third way. It is difficult to always figure out how to plan what you are going to find or which way to expect the page to work.

-I asked if anybody had any ideas for getting more people involved in these meetings. Ivy said If you want to get more people involved offer them something for their constructive participation. Recognition, proof that their suggestions are actually heeded, etc...  Even a message from the person who is actually in charge of whatever aspect the suggestion referred to would be something. Actually involving the suggestee in some way or another in creating a solution to the problem would be even better. Someone suggested having minutes from previous meetings. Simply listing who made what suggestions and what, if anything, has been done based on the suggestions, at the next meeting, would give positive feedback to those who offer constructive ideas at the previous meeting, and would encourage them to keep attending and trying to improve EF.  Kindred said rather than give aways each meeting, what if we tally all of the changes implemented and have a vote as to the best idea at the end of the year and reward then. That might give incentive to not only participate but to help implement change. Just an idea.

-Dwtim says it  would be great if it was posted somewhere for all to see, like at the top of the forum page (a link or something), that way all could see what great work can/is/will be done, just by participating in the meetings. Maybe folks would get interested.

Meeting 24: 8.28.2011 - Talked about all of the things that have been brought up since we started having the meetings, the Reviewers Spotlight, possible workshops, updates that people would like to see made on the forums and other places around the site.

-I brought up the list of things that we've covered since we started the meetings, and the current progress state of all of them.

-People want to do something about the influx of new reviews and how long they're visible. Maybe something that lets them randomly view reviews from a certain time frame or extend the amount of “pages” of new reviews.

-We discussed the Reviewers Spotlight and the timing of it, since the most recent one had been a few hours later than previous. Nobody objected to moving the time to be right after the planning meeting rather than right before.

-Sticky threads were brought up again.

-Threads without any activity for a year or more should be placed in an archive.

-Talked again about organizing a get together. Regional meet ups are more convenient than one large meet up.

-Redesign of front page, site as a whole. Things don't flow well and aren't intuitive and could be.

-Possibly a relisting of the forum categories into a list form. (I think we could alphabetize things and that would make a huge difference in and of itself)

-Redo FAQ's, search products for review for products with less than 3 reviews, online/offline indicator on profiles. Similarly, a last logged in date or last date with activity

-Starkiller87 talked about maybe trying to do a 'make your own' dildo workshop

-sewn toy pouch workshop

Meeting 25: 9.8.11 - Short meeting, we talked about changing the most recent reviews to show more of the recent reviews.

-short meeting – only half an hour

-ToyTimeTim asked again about changing the most recent reviews to show more of the recent reviews

Meeting 26: 9.22.11 - We talked about the editor program, parties, a Halloween contest, and Eden Gives Back.

-aliceinthehole brought up the editor program and wondering what was going on with rotations and the like. I told her Sammi was her best bet to ask any real questions, but answered as well as I could.

-I asked if anybody had a problem not meeting on October 6th. Nobody objected.

-We discussed why it was so quiet in the meeting, and possible ways to bring more people in. There was talk of candy, and possibly gift card incentives.

-I announced that we were working on parties and the live shopping help.
We discussed doing another Halloween contest and what, if anything, should change for the rules. We decided we wanted to expand the categories a little bit.

-We also discussed Eden Gives Back, and how we wanted to go about doing things for this (2011) holiday season.

Meeting 27: 10.20.2011 - We discussed things to do for the holidays through Eden Gives Back.

-arewehavingfun? Asked “I just read the posts from the last "meeting" and really like the idea of "Eden gives back". There are so many ways to "give back" as a group or individual. May I suggest the "Salvation Army", which you may or may not have warm and fuzzy feelings about. The reason we always support them is because they were really great to my husband and his family when he was young. He grew up in a family of 13 kids, an alcoholic, mean father and his mom, sweet as she is, was also alcoholic at one point. The SA provided them with emotional support, toys, clothes and one summer they went to camp. I grew up totally opposite, but am very greatful for what they did for my honey way back when. Toys for Tots is also great because they do alot for military kids; it is run by the Marines. My concern about adopting an individual family is that it is hard to verify their need without being intrusive and however the families are nominated may reflect personal bias. “

-Nothing else really big brought up, small meeting.

Meeting 28: 11.3.11 - We discussed Eden Gives Back and private messages.

-Stormy suggested 'I do have a suggestion for the community and I'm not sure if anyone is working on this or if it's ever been brought up before. I think it would be really cool if there was a place on the dashboard that has an alphabetical list of all of our followers (with their avatars) and all of the people that we are following so that we can quickly and easily access their profiles to send messages. 

It can be cumbersome and time consuming to try to find an active link for that person, either via the wall or the little box to the right of our profiles. So, I guess what I'm asking for is something like a "buddy list" a la AOL/Yahoo/Other messenger programs.  “ Kindred followed up with “I generally use the "Compose Message" option and type the name directly. The hard part is when people have strange spellings or use weird characters. What if the compose message option offered suggestions when you start typing a name based on our "Following" list, sort of like with Twitter? “

-We discussed the Eden Gives Back holiday program, and getting it started right away. We also talked about how to split up the funds, and decided that this year rather than have fund raisers for each individual family, we would have longer running donations that were split evenly between all sponsors.

Meeting 29: 11.17.11 - We talked about how to get more people to attend, how to get people to realize what was here to participate in.

-We talked again about how to get more people to participate in the meetings. Kindred suggested “Maybe we should change the focus of the group? It was originally started to come up wit ideas to improve the community. Maybe we can more specifically identify an issue and further pursue it. “ 'Not just compile, but do the work. For example, the whole mentoring program could use a better fact/information page. Also as you've said to people repeatedly, the proofreading page needs updating. We have enough experienced people here to do the work and submit it to EF if you think that would be acceptable. The website is hard enough for beginners, wrong/outdated information doesn't make it any easier. “

-Maybe a thread? Something like "Did you know that you can help improve community?" or something like that. I am just not sure how good it will work. Something that lets the community know what's there that they can choose from to participate in, and something that helps explain the clubs.

-We talked about the clubs blog, and how to get it seen more. Starkiller87 suggested adding it onto the Cafe.

-A stickied post of a list of tutorials

Meeting 41: 12.15.11 - We talked about different aspects of the mentor program and how to possibly make it more effective.

-I let everybody know that the next meeting would have short summaries next to all of the links to previous meetings

-We talked about the money we raised for the Christmas Eden Gives Back families

-Starkiller87 would like a way to opt out of getting fliers in orders

-Antipova suggested putting together something like a tutorial for “how to be a mentor” and suggesting that mentors encourage their students to attend new meetings: "Welcome to the mentor program. Some things that might help you out as you're mentoring: 

-send your student a message before accepting the class to let them know they're really welcome. It can be a good idea to discuss 
_____-whether the class will be fast-paced, slow-paced, or flexible 
_____-how often you want to hear from each other 
_____-whether feedback will be given or not (like I personally give a bunch of feedback, and never touch the review myself, right down to just including a list of typos that the student can fix) 
_____-what aspect of reviewing the student wants to focus on 

-your student will be more likely to stick around to graduation if they're active on the rest of the site, so if the student seems interested, show them 
_____-your favorite parts of the forums 
_____-the Naked Reader Book Club or Porn Club (as their desires lean toward) to help them get extra items to review 
_____-other clubs, like Eden Lit and Eden Cooks, for fun 
_____-Community parties and workshops 
_____- -check how familiar with sex toys your student is, and what their areas of interest will be so you can scope out products for them

Ask if they have questions, have fun, etc
But I think if we changed what they called that---instead of "area to expertise" to "class style", and had all the mentors update their blurbs, it would make things a lot easier for students. 

-Kindred asked about updating information on the pages and/or creating FAQ pages

-Hot 'N Sexy Texas Mama asked about a welcome program or something that the admin could post on “volunteers needed for ___”. people could tell new people where to help out around the community

-Kindred asked about a post graduation mentor evaluation form. What if rather than any kind of scoring/rating, we simply ask students to provide comments such as "Based on your experience, what are your mentor's strengths? Weaknesses?" And then publish the comments under "positive" and "negative" categories. It might provide prospective students a better feel for mentors than a rating. Plus, it would make it harder for mentors to figure out who said what.  If mentors could have the option of checking off certain criteria to "categorize" themselves and allow students to sort by them. For example, some people specifically want a male or female mentor. That would be an easy way to sort mentors.  If mentors could have the option of checking off certain criteria to "categorize" themselves and allow students to sort by them. For example, some people specifically want a male or female mentor. That would be an easy way to sort mentors.