Romanum Senate meeting 11JUN minutes

SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUM

SENATE MEETING 11JUN MINUTES

Present: Emperor Stephanus Galtier, consort RegulusAntius Rufus

Proconsuls: Ausus Equitius Calx, Wolf Confero

Senators: Cato Leone Elen, Tybalt Caproni, Januarius Vindelici

Citizens: Cosmos Lux Aquillius, Derek Lyons Aquillius, Aurelius Romanov-Phoenix, Leo Verus Aquillius, Leon Sirius Aquillius, Rasberia Daciana, Strymon Odrysius Parthicus, Alexi Romanov-Phoenix, Kylv, Hunter Parthicus, Colton O'Neill, Lohan, Qarbon Karmala Particus, Zarek Antonius, Venetius Metellus, Krystian St Augustine, Bambi Panius-Serafin, Zakros, Xanthus Phoenix, Lesly Lyanoy Phoenix, Skip Scipio, Ilyas Riina, Gaius Antigos, Dray Wolf, Josh Argenteus Aurelius, Misk, Tiberivs Hadrianvs, DrAliBaba, Wes Baiae Etchegaray-Drake

Apologies: Rad Parthicus

I. IMPERIAL APPOINTMENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

- Cato Leone and Miles Maximus have been appointed Romanum Senators

- Special guest attending

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: I want to introduce a special guest here with us today, Minister Zakros from ALEXANDREIA.

Zakros: Hail Caesar, avete omnes, xairete. It has been my greatest honour to attend the meeting of Romanum Senate. I bring you the greetings and best wishes of Queen Kleopatra and the city of Alexandreia.

- Decree of an Imperial Anthem and new Imperial Flag

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: Yes, I have decreed a new flag for our Empire and for the first time an Imperial Anthem. Our event coordinators, Januarius, Markus and Kaeso will be determining a date in July when we will unveil these things in a glorious celebration to celebrate the Empire's 900th year.

Januarius Vindelici: For the Celebration of the flag and anthem the Legion and Gladiators are working together to give a spectacle showing the might of the Empire. Plans will be subject to Imperial approval. We anticipate that it will be the weekend of 15 July, and Neptunalia the following weekend. Anyone who has ideas for either is encouraged to contact the co-ordinators. Planned events can be “branded” or themed to fit with the festivals.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: I will shortly see some fireworks Crito has developed for the celebrations times with the music of the anthem. I will discuss with Januarius, but I and Regulus have a prior engagement on July 15th, but not the whole day.

- We have many new citizens in our city lately and have had some beautiful weddings. I hope we are all taking a moment to welcome and congratulate them.

II. ROMANUM REAL ESTATE INCENTIVE PROGRAMME

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: So lately, due to the tremendous growth of our Empire, we have had quite a few empty lots. As you all can imagine, keeping our lots full and occupied not only makes our Empire look better, but brings in critical income to those who own the Sims needed to pay the monthly LL land tiers. Let me interject something about Sim finances from the perspective of another place altogether to demonstrate how important it is. We almost lost a treasure to the ancient SL world, the Spartan Empire. They were prepared to close tomorrow due to constant income shortfalls. That was after 9 years of existence. Many of you know of King Jaen and Queen Till. King Jaen was there for me and Romanum and the very beginning mentoring me and helping us. Queen Till has been there for us as well. I was horrified when I heard we were days away from their closure. But fortunately King Jaen's dire announcement of Sparta's future caused a huge influx of income. He will not close Sparta THIS month. But what about next month? That is the constant concern of Sim owners. It is a large financial burden. Some of you are helping me try and find Sparta cheaper land. But anyway, my point is made. By the way, a further side note: For those who have not known, poor Queen Till has been forced to retire from Sparta due to a horrible RL accident, she fell down a flight of stairs. So let us remember Queen Till. She is recovering, but very slowly. It was a very bad accident. She is an older woman too. But King Jaen has lost a steadfast companion in Sparta. I have been able to speak to both of them directly, which is good. So, what about Romanum? As I said, we have quite a few empty unsold lots. Now, many of you know Romanum is not the cheapest place in SL. That is by design. First, the Sim owners provide a very rich roleplay environment for you all to play in. I can brag a bit, but we are one of the richest most beautiful roleplay Sims in SL. We may be getting too big for our britches though. But our price for lots also takes into account we do not expect 100% occupancy. So it buffers us sim owners. Yet, we have had way too many empty lots lately. So we came up with an idea to help sell the lots: a landowner incentive program for the month of June. It is two parts. Part One gives our current citizen a chance to earn a little money helping us find new citizen landowners. If a current Romanum citizen helps us find a brand new Romanum citizen who buys a lot, that current Romanum citizen gets a finder's fee up to L$1000. Part Two is for those who actually buy a lot. This applies to anyone who buys a lot, current citizen or not. If a man buys a new lot and does not give up a Romanum lot he already owns, he gets one week free rent added to his 4 week minimum payment or 2 weeks free rent added to his 8 week minimum payment. I am pleased to announce we have 3 new land owners as a result and one citizen received a finders’ fee.

Wolf Confero: I would like to add, to keep in mind the season we are in. Rentals historically go down thistime of year. I’ve had many come to me nervous about the state of the Empire and the open rentals, but asone of the sim owners, I’m here to tell you I am not worried. This is a normal phase and I am confident Romanum will get through it as we always do.

Zarek Antonius: 1) have we put a hold on any new sims being brought to Romanum? And if so, does that apply to all sims or only those that would/could have rentals - meaning if someone wants to bring in a sim but not have rentals on it, would that be allowed? 2) Is there a policy about rentals (in terms of numbers) in total for the empire on the whole and if not, should there be (I realize this is Sim owner business but it seems the market got flooded and perhaps something needs to be put in place to prevent that from happening again in the future.

Wolf Confero: We have put a hold on new sims being added, in entirety. No new sims, period, at this time.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: For now, we have a moratorium on any new Sims, even those that are not selling lots. We may or may not reconsider that last point in the future, but 15 Sims is a hell of a lot of sims. As to some sort of overall plan among Sim owners on the number of lots we make available, we do not have that, but perhaps we should.

Cosmoş Łūx Λquilliůş: Just wanted to know who is responsible for paying out the incentive?

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: Regarding the so-called finders’ fee to a citizen who helps bring in a new landowner, the Sim owner pays that incentive. As to the Part Two program, that is not really a payment per se. It simply means we add one to two weeks free to a new landowners lease. This incentive program does NOT apply to current landowners paying rent on their current lots, only if someone buys a new lot and does not give up their old lot, if they own one.

Hunter Parthicus: I was just curious if there were donation boxes thru out the main sim to help with costs maybe. Any citizen or friend could donate.

Ixion Parthicus: Now that Romanum is classified by Linden as a mini-continent, does that come with any advantages in service terms. i.e. assistance with promotion, extra discounts, etc? It’s in their interest to keep this place going too.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: No.

III. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

- Animalus Parco

Cato Leone Elen: As some of you may know, Romanum XV was added to the Empire. This sim was brought into Romanum, so we would be able to have a place for the Candy Boy Allen's Animalus Parco. It has been on a long road of redevelopment, and I am very excited to have it come to reality. We are looking to have the grand opening on the 15 (next week), time to be announced. A GREAT big thank you to Gaius Aquillius for making this possible. There also will be an adopt a Zoo Animal program put out, Information will be located at the current Candyboy Allen's Animal Park Gift Shop in the Forum (which has never really even made it into a gift shop). This will help us offset the cost of feeding the animals.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: Candyboy Allen has been a part of the Romanum family since we opened. He is a sweet guy who can sometimes be a tad affectionate. Without revealing too much, he is a young man in RL with a very serious illness. But his RL family runs a zoo, of which Candyboy plays a role. So we thought it would be nice to have a zoo in Romanum in his honor, and that is why we are doing this.

- SL Pride

Cato Leone Elen: SL Pride begins the 23rd of June. Thanks to the generous donation from ClintKock the shop was paid for. And Petrius donated for the needed materials. PLEASE send me full perm textures for advertising you Sims clubs, shops etc. or any ideas you would like to see in our stall.

IV. ISSUES FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS

- Romanum road signs

Ixion Parthicus: It was suggested to make road signs more roman-like, with penis designs.

Hunter Parthicus: I can help with the signs if no one else is.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: So Ixion, that means erect penises right?

Ixion Parthicus : Yes, pointing in the right direction.

RegulusAntius Rufus: Oh and you can have balls that hang right and hang left.

Wolf Confero: Lets determine for sure if this is already being worked on before asking for others to do it. Let’s please add to next agenda and do some research in the meantime on who is doing this.

- Proposal to promote Romanum on youtube and such

Hunter Parthicus: I wasn't aware this was going on but someone showed me a video on Romanum recently they did to be used with 3 D visors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cKu0MDC7Dw&feature=youtu.be

Tybalt Caproni: Willow has done several films on youtube at the time of the new installation. He’s done well! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_I0s5rj77M is what Crito & I have worked on with the Gladiators. The video person is Susie Anderton and would do more for us & Crito is her contact as needed. As far as I know no other films are in the works but she & Crito were wonderful to work with if you have ideas.

Wolf Confero: Do we have a link from the Romamum website to some of these videos?

Ilyas Riina: Two suggestions: Twitter and Patreon, if anyone is up to take care of the social media part of Romanum. That’s besides YouTube. They might worth a try.

Ixion Parthicus: The video links have been posted on the Romanum Facebook page too, I recommend you become members.

Cosmoş Łūx Λquilliůş: Regarding videos I would like to see more chariots being filmed and highlighted more often it seems to take a back seat compared to the gladiators. Chariots were not recorded in any way in Olympics either. Now that we have the new beautiful hippodrome it should be recorded in my opinion.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: I added a Photo and Video page to the website. But I have not yet collected everything I have. Perhaps someone can volunteer to do that, collect photos and videos we already have. Also regarding YouTube, I have been YouTubing a lot lately and I think Romanum should have its own channel. And yes, we can have a Patreon income source from donations. But I think we need someone in charge of our YouTube channel. And not only to display videos of events but a whole marketing approach about ancient Rome as displayed here, role playing, etc.

Januarius Vindelici: Re chariots etc Willow volunteered to film some of the Olympics. We were dependent on when he could attend.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: Willow did a great job and, remember, he was a volunteer. But I take Cosmos' point seriously. I think we should appoint someone Romanum's Media Director. They would be responsible for our YouTube channel, our website media content and media during events. That person would not necessarily create media. He would be in charge of the enterprise. This is a huge task. He would bring in media content people as needed. Now, as I speak I know to ask people to do this for free may be a bit much. So we would need to consider if they deserve a salary.

Wes Baiae Etchegaray-Drake: Emperor, the media director is a very good Idea but as you mentioned this is a large undertaking. I would like to volunteer to help, but it will need a team of many to cover events as some run on schedules that either Europeans or Americans cannot make.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: Let me and the Sim owners discuss this idea of a media director. Then if we decide it is a good idea we will define the duties of this person and we will send out a job requirements and take interviews.

Ilyas Riina: If you ever think about doing a Patreon account, you can attract more than people interested in SL. because, as an addition, short videos about the Roman world and civilization can be added, with little curiosities and funny things about that time period. That will attract more than just SL users.

- Protocol development for the use of both Romanum groups and events/announcement tags at the start of Group Notices

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: I want to thank Zarek for this idea and his concern. After much thought I have decided it is not practical at this time. But thank you.

V. FURTHER BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR

Wes Baiae Etchegaray-Drake: The next event I have planned as Mr Romanum 2016 will be an auction and will be different from any we have had before here in Romanum. This will be a LIVE SENATOR AUCTION and Formal Gala Dance at the Etchegaray-Drake Palace. All the Senators participating will be able to set limits of what they are willing to do as they are auctioned off. Each Senator will receive 10% of his total bid. The rest will go to Cash prizes for Wrestling, Gladiator and Chariot Tournaments. Plus with the possible Youtube we can put some of the moneys to it. When? July 30 Sunday afternoon.

Zarek Antonius: As the Emperor already pointed out, the Vizir of Alexandreia, Zakros, is in attendance today (motions next to him). After visiting my ancestral homelands in Egypt, I invited the Queen of Alexandreia, Kleopatra (who attended the Gladiator fights last week-end) to visit our lands. Additionally over the last few days, the Vizir of Alexandreia has been visiting our fair empire. We hope this will lead to more visits and stronger relations between our two great lands. Please welcome the citizens of Alexandreia to Romanum as they have been most welcoming to all those who have visited their beautiful land.

Zarek Antonius: The Antonii are planning several events over the coming months to introduce everyone to Capri, our family home and sim off the coast of Pompeii to the south. Half the land is public and the other half is our private villa (“guards” will let you know when you have crossed into the private areas. We welcome all to come visit the public areas at your leisure and will have upcoming events to show off our villa and all it offers - specific details will be forthcoming. If anyone wishes to tour our villa privately, please contact me and we can coordinate it.

Emperor Stephanus Galtier: I want to say again how pleased and proud I am that our Senate meetings are so well attended. We started with over 40 and still have 30 after 90 minutes. Kudos to you all.

Colton O'Neill: As an extension to the previous comment I would like to suggest to the floor and more specifically the villa and estate owners within Romanum to hold more events within their villas. This suggestion is to help foster the community of Romanum as well as to showcase the incredible buildings that populate the city and the surrounding lands. Each month a Senator would open up their villas or estates to host a party of their own choosing and time. This would allow others in the Romanum community to see a more private side of Romanum and learn more about their neighbours. These events could be in or out of RP or a mixture of both. This would be at the host's discretion.

Januarius Vindelici: I was going to ask “I would like to know – Is there interest among homeowners to have the occasional house party. The co-ordinators will be happy to help arrange notices and DJs. If so, please contact me.” It’s good to see some are already eager.

Wolf Confero: I personally would love to see some parties take place in some of the homes around Romanum.

Ixion Parthicus: the Parthicus estate will see an opening party soon.

Next Senate meeting Sunday 9JUL 11:00am SLT

Gratitude,

Ixion Parthicus

Senate Scribe