Meeting Notes from VATSIM Executive Committee
January 18,2003 2200 GMT
Attending
Kyprianos Biris - Europe Regional Director
Jorge Boardman - Mexico/Caribbean/Central America Regional Director
Terry Scanlan - Oceania Regional Director
Tom Schroeder - North America Regional Director/EC Chairman
Paulo Ungar - South America Regional Director
Attended briefly
Matt Gunter - VATSIM Founder
Roberto Bazzano - VATSIM Founder
Meeting started at 2230 GMT
AGENDA ITEM - Approval of Previous Meeting Notes
The meeting notes were distributed prior to the meeting and a vote was taken in order to approve those meeting notes, so that they may be posted on the VATSIM Executive Committee Website.
Vote: The motion to include the notes was approved 4-0
AGENDA ITEM - Supervisors
There was much discussion centered upon what a Supervisor's role is on the VATSIM Network. While generally agreed that the role is a job unto itself and not necessarily a "reward" for attaining a certain status within VATSIM, a more definitive statement is needed from the VATSIM Board of Governors to clarify this.
ACTION ITEM: EC Chairman to compose an e-mail for the Board of Governors requesting an official statement about the role of Supervisors on the VATSIM Network and what qualifications such a person needs.
There was also much discussion about the speed, or perceived lack thereof, in approving or denying an individual for Supervisor Status. Also, it was mentioned that perhaps allowing RD's to temporarily promote some folks to SUP for a set amount of time may assist in finding out who can do the job and who can't.
There was also discussion about the fact that some current Supervisors do not know that it is a job and thus a different function than in the past. There also is not, to the EC's knowledge, any place that a prospective Supervisor can go to look at the job requirements, which may have an impact on whether or not they would or could perform the duties.
ACTION ITEM: Request that the VP of Supervisors put the requirements for a Supervisor in a location where prospective SUPs may be able to examine the requirements. Also, ask the BoG to possibly reexamine having RDs temporarily naming Supervisors for a probationary period. Finally, it is requested that the VP of Supervisors, if not done already, send an e-mail to current SUPs describing exactly what is expected of them, in order for them to continue to hold the Supervisor rating and position.
AGENDA ITEM - Communication with the BoG
There is currently no official method for the EC to communicate with the BoG. The EC believes this can lead to missed communications and answers not being timely. It may also lead to some BoG members who do not need or wish to see all correspondence from the EC receiving unneeded e-mails. For BoG communication with the EC, it is established that such communication needs to go through the EC Chairman, however there is only an assumed link going the other way through the VP of Regions. This needs to be clarified and made official.
ACTION ITEM: EC Chairman to develop an e-mail asking to establish official lines of communication and establish who it should go through. THIS HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
AGENDA ITEM - AutoATIS
There was an update on the current status of AutoATIS. Since the OZPACK server was lost, as it was at a public University, AutoATIS has gone along with it. There are current negotiations underway between VATSIM and the AutoATIS author, David Kings, in order to hopefully reestablish this utility.
AGENDA ITEM - Use of ATIS for Controllers
This discussion centered around the fact that some Controllers have excessively long ATIS when they are online, leading to part of the message being unreadable by pilots, as it scrolls by too quickly. It was also discussed that ATIS really isn't a proper term for what the Controllers place online as opposed to what a true ATIS is and entails. There was some discussion about possible alternative names for ATIS, which will be discussed via e-mail. A proposal was made to limit the length of a Controller's "ATIS" to no more than four (4) lines, with three (3) the recommended number of lines as a maximum. It was further proposed that the suggested format include the Controller's Roger Wilco frequency (if the Controller is using Voice), and some simple information regarding the airspace they are controlling (i.e. possibly Altimiter, etc.).
ACTION ITEM: - EC Chairman to develop a proposal which will go to the EC for review. At that point it will be distributed to Division staffs for discussion and a vote on the proposal will be made by the EC at a later date.
AGENDA ITEM - Old/New Business
One item in this discussion was surrounding the fact that even though the EC submitted a list of Countries that are in each region, this list, as of yet, has not been placed in the appropriate locations on the VATSIM Web Site (i.e. in the Code of Regulations). Furthermore, the EC is not aware if this has been approved, declined, or even voted upon by the BoG at this time.
A second item is regarding the EC Chairman election. Each EC member is to vote upon who the next EC Chairman will be and send their vote to Roland Collins, who will tabulate the votes, and inform the current EC Chairman about the results. THIS HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
The third item was a motion by Terry Scanlan thanking the current EC Chairman, Tom Schroeder for his time and contributions as EC Chairman over the past year. It was seconded and passed by a vote of 4-0 with one abstention. That vote of thanks is placed into this official record.
ADJOURNMENT - The meeting adjourned at 0004 GMT on January 19th 2003