Culture Minister, and maybe more

[Jamie Palisades]

We've had a number of interesting chats, in various groups, about the best organization for CDS government.
There's a thread on Symo/Pat's idea about an 'economics minister" elsewhere in the Forums.:

Let me suggest a similar but distinct idea, which comes from discussions with multiple neighbors. (Is there any such thing as a "new" idea?)

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_minister

Any such position would need to benefit from the qualities that we need in all effective leaders in a volunteer organization like CDS:
-- Inclusiveness
-- Good listening skills
-- Creativity

It seems to me that the following matters, now delegated to our executive branch, could possibly also devolve into a cultural affairs brief:

-- Arts NGOs
-- Cultural programming budget
-- Outreach to arts and culture groups

Note, though, that not all of our events are "cultural". Many are for the combined purposes of our own enjoyment and new citizen recruiting. So frankly I am mulling over whether a second position ought to exist, for citizen development, with a brief relating to

-- Entertainment events (this reflects my longstanding view that our events sell land and citizenships)
-- New citizen welcome & orientation
-- Governmental relations with other micronations

in BOTH cases, some kind of permanent commission ought to exist, whereby the appointee has a few designated board members or backup resources. (I am mindful of a small RL city council in my area that makes arts grants. There *always* is a squabble over whose project is better funded ... so a small diverse group of creative panelists is probably a better decision-maker, for that sort of thing, than any one creative person.)

I'm likely to propose to the RA that we create these two new positions, and delegate some budget authority appropriately, within 30 days. (As chancellor I can delegate, but to provide a stipend I require RA approval. Also, budget increases require a report to RA, and I expect to want to increase the spending in this area.) Any comments?

Regards JP

[solomon mosely]

these are great ideas. i think you were right in the econ minister thread, commerce is not our niche. the arts and culture angle with forms of education will be a stronger draw. your talk of new tasks seemed to overlap with existing ones.
all this talk of new positions and job descriptions is making me look at existing positions and descriptions. would it be helpful to dump all the tasks we want done, need done, get done, and don't get done, onto a table and see if a reorganization and regrouping of tasks with a discussion of new positions is in order? am i making this too complicated?

[Arria Perreault]

This is not a secret: I am very in favour to have a Culture Minister in CDS. This said, I think that there are two levels:

- RA: its duty is to design a cultural policy. RA can for example decide that culture is a strategic domain for CDS or can choose to encourage cultural events more than artistical creation. It is thinkable to have a member of the RA or a small group specialised in cultural questions.
- executive: the executive branch is responsable for the implementation of this policy. Without a clear cultural strategy, this position has few sense.

I strongly believe that culture is one of the most attractive activities in Second Life, as well as education. In my opinion, economy works at a very different level (with the development of online shops). Culture and education can contribute highly to the image of CDS and make it very attractive. CDS needs to design as soon as possible this policy. And the executive corresponding position can try to work with all active people and to help them to develop their projets and also to make connections outside CDS. There are a lot of groups active in both domains.

What is culture?
This concept can be understood as very general: all what is related to culture as civilization. In this definition: cooking belongs definitely to culture. Better to work with a narrower concept. In this meaning of culture, there is:

- artistic creation
- performances: music, storytelling, theater, ...
- museums and museography
- library

I consider that CDS should be active in all these domains:

- we should try to attract more artists and designers
- we have a good program of events, especially for music
- we have several museums and places where to exhibit. Maybe we should encourage people to make more exhibitions. Our sims are also inspired by rl architecture and are a kind of reconstitution, even we don't play as roman or bavarian people.
- only the Monastery has a Library

The situation is not bad, as we can see. We need more synergy and also we should try to make our cultural activities more visible. This is one of the reasons why I would like to move the Monastery.

Events/visits
One important point in the designing of a cultural policy is the weight we give to events or to visitors. As we know, SL lag doesn't allow us to have more than a certain number of people at the same time on a sim. For this reason, the attendance to a music event is limited. My experience as exhibition curator has made me aware that it is not bad to develop activities which are available 7/7, 24/24. Poeple come alone, in couple or in small groups. This remark doesn't mean that we have to renounce to events (we love parties ). We just need diversity.