Welcome to our New Headquarters and please welcome Sceneris to our staff.
07/10/2021
Thanks to the generosity of our colleague and benefactor, Pru (Prudence Anton, pictured above), we have a beautiful new HQ. We have vacated the stilt home we formerly occupied and have moved to a property at Winters Elm. The location will be familiar to many BBBug members, who collected the passport stamp formerly issued when it was known as The River House.
Everyone so enjoyed our secret garden at the SL18B celebrations that our Chief Designer Sun (Dark Sunflower) has created a version of it at our new location. It's absolutely beautiful and a perfect place to de-stress after going through the bureaucratic mill indoors!
If, like Dave in the photograph, you are an SL Time Lord you will be able to set the time-space co-ordinates of your Tardis time-ship to Belli BB (in the navigation database for Hands of Omega and Novatech Tardises under the "social" category) and land in the corner of that new garden.
We hope that you will all pay us a visit soon and bring your BBB-curious friends. When you've finished exploring our elegant new offices, please remember to help your friend through the processes of obtaining a Bellisserian passport, drivers licence, house address and motor vehicle registration number! The location photo and co-ordinates have been updated in the Online Travel Guide and in the sidebar to the Gazette so you can find your way to us even if you have lost the LM that was sent to all BBBug members in-world. If you need another LM, just IM one of the BBB Staff (also listed in the sidebar).
Speaking of our beautiful SL18B garden, our editor – Fenella – enjoyed her time there so much that she has rented a dacha (she used to live in Russia) on the Campbell Coast just so she can also recreate it. She will be organising a garden-warming party there soon (also to coincide with her 14th Rez Day) and all readers of the Gazette will be welcome. Watch this space for details!
At last Thursday's meeting of BBB officials, Pru had us pose for this new staff photo for display in our new office. If there were three more of us, we could make it into a clock! The photo will soon need to be updated as our staff is growing. It needs to, because there are exciting new services in the pipeline. Keep reading the Gazette to hear about them here first!
Speaking of growth, please welcome a talented new member of the BBB staff. Sceneris (Pru's partner in Pring Productions, the company that made all your favourite videos about Bellisseria – including the BBB Movie) joins our team of all the talents as Videography/PR Consultant. In addition, Fiona is taking on an additional role as Executive Assistant to our CEO, Boo.
Please check out the updated staff directory under BBB Information in the sidebar for details of everyone's roles. You will find it helpful in identifying the right person to help you with any bureaucratic queries you may have.
Rosie Helendale featured the Bellisseria Passport at her Second Life Vlog here. Do take a look, enjoy and don't forget to share it with all your BBB-curious friends. We at the BBB enjoyed the video very much. We send our thanks to Rosie, both for a job well done and for her commendable enthusiasm for our work! Rosie, on application in-world to Fenella, we will be happy to issue an "approved publication" licence you can feature on your channel.
Rosie issued a supplemental update video clarifying who is entitled to a Bellisserian Passport (see next item). Thanks again Rosie.
WHO CAN HAVE A BELLISSERIAN PASSPORT? WHO CAN ISSUE A PASSPORT STAMP?
At our meeting this week we discussed the continuing confusion among SL residents as to who qualifies for a Bellisserian Passport. There were many questions and discussions about it on our stand at SL18B. Our passports are popular and we receive applications from many non-Bellisserians. Some cleverly get into the spirit of our virtual bureaucracy by trying to claim political asylum for example! We admire their creativity but – in the same spirit – our bureaucratic response is this. Under international law refugees must seek asylum in the first safe place they arrive. That is to say, they must come directly from a place where they are in danger. All of Second Life® is politically a safe place so no arrivals in Bellisseria from SL's islands or its other continents qualify as refugees.
The rules are simple. You can have a passport from us if the avi in whose name you are applying owns a Linden Home on the continent of Bellisseria. We don't recognise alts. If your alt has the Premium account, then that alt – not you – is entitled to the passport. If you opted to use your land allowance on mainland SL instead of in Bellisseria, you do not qualify. Someone sharing your Bellisserian home with you may qualify (even if they don't have a Premium Account) but only if officially partnered in-world.
Locations anywhere in Second Life® can apply for a terminal to issue passport stamps. However the location must be non-commercial. Shops or land rental businesses don't qualify, for example (although a rented home, gallery or other non-commercial venue in such a region might). Again, we have many applicants trying to by-pass this rule. The BBB is a Bellisserian institution run by volunteers on a not-for-profit basis. We abide by Bellisseria's rules, which forbid commerce, so we can't and won't issue stamps to residents who wish to use them to promote their business.
Zoe has final discretion in these matters, so if you are asking her to consider an application that does not fit squarely within the rules, be sure to be extra-specially nice to her! We have also introduced a formal appeal procedure. If your passport or stamp terminal application has been rejected, you may appeal to Ghost. Trust us, not many people "appeal" to Ghost in any sense of the word, so expect a prompt, terse and impersonal rejection response.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
We are volunteers and we know from all your kind remarks at SL18B that you are reluctant to bother us with issues. However we are keen to make sure you are happy with our services so would be grateful if you could complete this survey. We are particularly keen to know how you first found out about the BBB so that we can reach more customers in future. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
There are no new locations to report this week. We have approved some applications but the location-holders have not yet placed their terminals in-world so we don't want to send you on a wild goose chase. There are also many new locations in the pipeline on LDPW land in Bellisseria. That's in the hands of our friends and beloved benefactors, the Moles. So, when you ask us when that will happen, we can only give Patch's standard response to such questions – Soon™
Congrats to Sceneris & congrats on another great issue!
Posted by: Kat Kaos | 07/31/2021 at 07:33 PM
Rosie didn't cause the confusion, to be fair, but we certainly appreciate her helping to clear it up.
We simply don't have the woman-power to issue passports to everyone who wants one, much as we hate to disappoint people who are enthusiastic about our services.
We hope that Soon™ other SL continents on the mainland will issue their own passports using our technology under licence so that ever more avatars can join in the fun. A team is being recruited and trained to do so on one continent right now so watch this space for news.
Posted by: Fenella | 07/12/2021 at 08:22 AM
Such a lot going on! Thanks to Rosie helendale for clearing up the confusion!
Posted by: Boo | 07/11/2021 at 10:13 AM
Bless you Bjoyful. You take the instruction in your own name very seriously! Thanks for your support and for all you do yourself to make SL a better, more fun and more joy-laden place.
Posted by: Fenella | 07/10/2021 at 07:33 PM
Some great news in this issue! This amazing team of Volunteers, each with extraordinary talents, upholding the spirit of fun (and teasing admiration of bureaucracy everywhere) are sure to keep us entertained, educated, enthusiastic and excited to explore and discover the most interesting places to enjoy in our Second Lives. Rewarded with a terrific collection of Passport Stamps to commemorate each adventure!
As an enthusiastic Stamp Collector, Stamp Location and supporter I thank you all for your dedication to making this activity one of the most enjoyable activities I’ve found in SL!
I’m excited to see what’s going to happen next… just how much more FUN can this be? As you have already proven, it just keeps getting better and better! 😎 🤓 🥰 😉 🚗 ⛵️✈️ WoOoOOo HOoOoo!!!
Posted by: BJoyful | 07/10/2021 at 02:07 PM