Avalon College Notes
A Quarterly Newletter for ACDS faculty and staff
Volume I Number 2 - March 2006
Violá!, the second issue of Avalon College Notes, our quarterly newsletter to keep us all up-to-date on what is happening at the Center, upcoming deadlines, policy changes, and news items submitted by the members of the faculty. The photograph above was taken by our own Astrocelt and is a picture of a wizard in a pointy hat looking down from the top of Snowdon onto the magical Welsh lakes. Thoughts of the warm Summer in Britain! I hope your Spring is progressing nicely. Here in Minnesota we have been shoveling about two feet of snow this week but were rewarded by clear skies for a spectacular lunar eclipse on March 3rd.
While meditating on peace and watching the shadow of our Earth move over the face of the dear goddess, I was struck by a feeling a deep awe. How would our druid ancestors have interpreted this strange moonrise? Expecting the full Moon, instead a thin crescent rises over the Eastern hills. Slowly the crescent grows, as if in accellerated imitation of the Moon's phases. Only the crescent begins on the lefthand side of the Moon and waxes towards the right - just the opposite of the waxing moon as she moves through her monthly cycle. How eerie! How symbolic of a strange reversal and abnormality in that beautiful presence.
Eerie, and yet I take it as an omen of beauty. Her message to me was that marvelous things can occur very very slowly, and even if they seem to be running backwards from what it normally expected.
501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Application
The latest news on the IRS front is that the gentleman who is working on our file sent a letter asking for some clarifications. I replied and in a phone conversation in the last week of February, he indicated that we could be considered a school and did fulfill the letter of the Revenue Code which stipulates that a school must offer "regular" classes, have "regular" students, and "regular" faculty. I pointed out the ambiguity of this phrasing but at last discussion he seemed to feel my assurances regarding the regularity of our students and faculty were sufficient. Still remaining is a small official matter of publishing a notice of our non-descrimination policy in the local newspaper. Publishing it on the worldwide web is apparently not good enough. The law on the books stipulates that the notice must run in the newspaper. So, I am setting out to pick up that loose end. Equally amusing is the stipulation that we send the actual page from the newspaper to the IRS as proof that we have complied. So quaint and curious.
Following on those last jots and tittles, I hold out hope that we may have status as an Exempt Organization before March is out. Or at any rate, before the anniversary of our filing our paperwork with Internal Revenue. And a good thing too, as it is time to do that taxes again. Our Bursar, Cythia Miller will be working with me and our tax accountant to file our return. The only sad thing about our tax return is that we have so little income to show, far below our cheerful projections on the application to the IRS. Non-profit indeed, but still growing at oakspeed.
Public Relations
A gentle reminder again to take a few hours out of your busy schedules to network for on behalf of the Center and to post notices about your upcoming Avalon courses everywhere you can, on and off the Internet. If you want some brochures to distribute locally, just contact Cindy Miller or Alferian. A reminder also that we need faculty articles to send to the journal Imramma which has offered to give us advertising space in exchange for regular quarterly article submissions. Astrocelt is the point-man on this project, so you can send your articles to the office (Alferian) and I will pass them on. Articles for Imramma should be around 1500-2000 words in .rtf format. Volunteer for a particular quarterly issue in this thread on the forum (in the Faculty Senate message board): Avalon Commitment of Articles to Imramma
In addition to the Imramma partnership, Astrocelt has offered to collect the articles from faculty members in preparation for the start of our Annual, The Silver Bough, which we hope to put out next year with a collection of articles by faculty members and scholars from the Center.
The Silver Bough is Budding!
I am happy to announce that Brenda Wiliams and Provost Rzepka (Seeker) have volunteered to get the Silver Bough started. No schedule yet, but the editorial team is coming together and there is hope that ACDS will have a journal before 2007 is out. The vision for the Silver Bough is to be both a scholarly journal and an impressive PR piece for the Center, demonstrating our seriousness and high quality as a scholarly center for druidic studies. Articles, poetry, artwork, all would be welcome. At present the editorial board is gestating within the Marketing Team circles. If you are interested in contributing an articles, new or old, or if you are interested in volunteering your talents to help produce the journal, let Alferian know.
This journal will probably start as a web-based publication but the plan for it is to produce a paper version of it as well, possibly through Cafe Press or Lulu.com, on-demand publishers and get it out on the shelves of metaphysical shops in the states and the UK.
From the Dean's Office
I'm still occupying several chairs at the office (figuratively speaking). I haven't had much to do as Registrar in the past two quarters with so few students, so I am working out some process and procedures for the Dean's Office. Ultimately, I want to had this job over to someone else (unless the Governors find someone else who would make a better Chancellor and want me to be Dean...). The Dean is essentially the guiding adminstrator on the Admin Council for the Faculty. Among the Dean's duties are searching for and interviewing prospective instructors and professors, and keeping track of each faculty member's Course Rotation Plan (CRP) -- Not to be confused with crop rotation.
In the weeks and months to come, I hope to get the CRP's sorted out so that we know clearly which courses should be offered in which quarters of the year. This planning and coordination is necessary if our students are to have an orderly progression of program requirements. It is part of the growing and branching we need to do to fully develop our catalog and curriculum. And it is a solid and well-organized curriculum which, I hope, will attract students to Avalon's programs.
Also in the offing is my attempt to offer my Avalon courses (or some) in the classroom space at Magus Books in Minneapolis. By breaking down a ten-week class into shorter workshops of one or two sessions, I hope to offer students in the local area the chance to take a part of my course Druidry Today in Bealtaine quarter. Students will be able to enroll through Avalon Center for credit taking the whole course, or they can pay $40 for one Saturday workshop that is the equialent of about one week of lecture and discussion face-to-face and over a cup of tea.
Finally, I will say that we've had some tantalizing nibbles from prospective instructors in music, ecopsychology, natural history, and language arts. Nothing solid yet, so keep your fingers crossed. The Dean is doing some networking and making progress on that front to connect with other local people interested in Celtic studies and the Arts. I am working on making connections to possible instructors in practical magic and alchemy too. The process is a bit like cultivating a garden - researching the seeds and then planting them and watching for sprouting. Appropriate work for this time of year.
Mailbox Policy Reminder
We are tightening up our email address policy. Please use only your college address for student correspondence. Mangan has suggested that faculty mail boxes be treated as mailboxes, not as forwarding addresses because if a student's message to you leaves our system, we have no control over its security and student mail should be treated as secure and confidential. So, if you have not already done so, familiarize yourself with Squirrel Mail and use your avaloncollege.org mailbox. Mangan has some improvements in mind that will give us a web mail system more user-friendly than Squirrel Mail, but until then, it is a serviceable system. Here is the access point, which you should already have bookmarked:
https://webmail.avaloncollege.org/src/login.php
If you have problems or questions, please contact Mangan (mangan@avaloncollege.org)
Meet the Merlin
If you didn't know it, Avalon Center has a Head of Information Technology, the Merlin for short. Mangan Tairis (Darren Meyer) is serving in that position, which is part of the Administrative Council. Our Merlin is working hard to upgrade our system in many ways, including switching us to the course management sofware known as Drupal. Mangan heads the Technology Committee which consists of Blaine Cross at the moment, and a few other peripheral advisors in the wings. If you have webmastering or design experience, and wish to assist the Technology Committee, please contact our Merlin.
Faculty and Staff News
Sadly, Bill Dunlap of our Magical Arts Department has decided to leave the Center to pursue other obligations. Let us all wish him well and many thanks for all the contributions he made while he was with us. Magical Praxis and Runelore are up for grabs.
Stephanie Osborn continues on sabbatical and we hope for her return to resume teaching in the Natural History Department and Language Arts.
Jeffrey Kupperman (Ildanach) who is a member of our Advisory Board and can be found here and there on the Avalon forum, has just had a baby girl. He posted a notice on the forum in the pub with links to photos of the wee lassie. Congratulations to mom and dad, and the new little druidess!
Flidais Airmid will be taking a sabbatical so that she can focus on her masters degree of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. She is about a year and a half into the four year program and will be taking her first comprehensive exams in April.
Bealtaine Quarter
Bealtaine quarter starts April 30th and faculty must have courses for that quarter completed on Moodle by March 15th. Please call or contact Alferian if you need assistance. Courses that have not been completely written up on Moodle by the deadline will not be offered. We need to maintain our quality control and we've had one or two slips with faculty presenting students with incomplete courses. That is very bad PR for the Center as well as simply unethical. It is imperative that we all conduct our classes with the highest integrity and respect for our students, and that includes giving them prompt grades and feedback on assignments, substantial discussion in the classroom forums, and that courses finish on time.
Course Review Committee
As noted in the Faculty Senate forum on the message board, the Course Review Committee is moving ahead to give constructive feedback on the way our courses are written and conducted. This will be the virtual equivalent of having a colleague sit in on your class and offer you a fresh perspective. Our goal is that all new courses will be reviewed by the committee before being offered to students. Substantial revisions to courses should also be reviewed but you will have to let the committee know that you have made changes and would like fresh feedback. Once more, for this to work, it is essential that you have the course completely laid out in Moodle well in advance of the start of term.
Double-Check your Course Offerings
Please look at the list of courses on Moodle under Bealtaine Quarter. If you don't see your course listed there and you want to offer it, let Alferian know. You can move your course into that section yourself by going through the backup and restore process, if you feel comfortable with the software. Courses, once they have run and grades are turned in, are retired to the Archived Courses section. Courses which have not been completely Moodled by the instructors should be kept in the "Under Development" section. If you need assistance, please contact me or Mangan (mangan (at) avalloncollege.org).
Submissions Encouraged!
Please submit your personal news items and notes for inclusion in the next issue of Avalon College Notes. Submission Deadline is January 30th for the Imbolc Quarter issue.
Avalon College Notes. Volume I: Number 2
© March 2007 Avalon Center for Druidic Studies
