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Report time. A couple pretty important things in here, so please bear with me.<p>

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We've been looking at a lot of things in the DB, basic stuff that needs to be changed in order to make sure that this club is going to continue on in the future. Keeping those things in mind, there've been a few changes that we've made and are in the process of making.

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The first question that we asked was: How do we get new members? We're being way more aggressive on this front. We've got a full-page ad for the club going into the progress report for DragonCon. There's also plas of doing more real-life recruitment, with booths at the various conventions, and flyers getting put up in all sorts of places. We also have had more integration with our members on the social networking sites, and I have a project with that on the burner that will magnify our efforts a thousandfold. There has also been a fair bit of work between the coders and some of the Tal folks about optimizing our site for search engines. There's a lot that we're doing to get more people to look at the site.<p>

But that's not the only thing. Once we have them looking at our site, how do we get them to join and stay? It seems that we don't have a lot of problems with people finding out how to join... but we have definitive problems with keeping them engaged. To that end, I've put a bunch of new robes and weapons in the selectors for the journeymen to unlock as they work their way through the ranks. The weapons for the journeymen, like the armory saber, get folded under and replaced with the Saber selector once they are knighted. So if you see some journeymen sporting blaster rifles on their dossier, that's what that is about. Ideally, once we get everything sorted, the promotion messages will read something similar to an Xbox achievement. "New robes have been unlocked! New weapons have been unlocked!" We're also playing around with providing what I'm calling a 'Grind Path' through the Shadow Academy. This will consist of a number of multiple choice and automated exams that would teach people the basics of how our club operates, how to navigate our site, how to get on IRC, and so forth...and with automated tests, automated promotions can be associated with them. The rationale is that we have an insane amount of people dropping out at APP. The 'Grind path will likely skew that so that there are more people dropping out at PRT (Or wherever we end the auto-promos), and if it gets us even just a small percentage-worth of people who are hooked in at that point, it will have been worth it. But on the membership side, what it means is that the lower journeymen will be able to come out swinging, understanding who we are and what we're about. Also, it means that members have a few more robes to choose from. ;)<p>

And once they're here, we have the same old structure that we've had since the exodus, really (excepting the Dictum of two skies Plagueis merger). So there's been a shakeup on that front as well. We're taking a page out of our ancient history and bringing things up to date by allowing members to create independent houses again. You can check out the policy here: Doc link. You'll notice a few changes here, and one that explains the MAA run AWOL checks. While we will be allowing the formation of new houses (that may become clans, provided that they meet the criteria), we are also going to be applying the same rules to the existing clans. This will mean that if a clan gets too small, it could possibly be downsized into a house. There's a number of reasons for that, primarily in that we wanted to keep the member to leader ratio appropriate while still offering flexibility in how our units operate.<p>

On the note of Independent houses, we will be making an one-time exception for the petitions to be submitted. Going forward, petitions will only be accepted on the Day of the Fox or Independence Day. Since we're rolling this out a little bit past Independence Day, we will be accepting petitions on July 5th, one month from today.<p>

To help bolster leadership strength, we will be working up a 'Leadership clinic' of sorts, where new leaders will be able to join and ask questions, get answers, and generally bounce ideas off of people in a way that will help them grow and become the future leaders of the club, future GMs and DCers.<p>

We're also working on a series of events that will have some pretty awesome prizes for people. Unique stuff there, and I'll give out more detail as that develops.<p>

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You may have noticed some shifts in the way dossiers and administrative options are laid out. Trying to make everything easier for you is Orv's plan, and I think that it's working. Another neat little addition is the inclusion of 'Customs' into the selectors for sabers and robes. Essentially, if you have a custom saber, it should let you select it on the selector, so you can have a chance to play around with all of the other stuff on your dossier, if you want. There is a minor hiccup with the sabers portion. If you have a custom saber already, but it's not working in the custom slot for the selector, let Shikyo know, and he'll get you sorted out.<p>

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Positions

Vardar named as T:G<p>

Applications being accepted!

Applications are being accepted for Fiction Tribune. Raken is retiring, and after a great body of work he leaves some very hard shoes to fill. First among them is Fiction Tribune. Click here for the wiki page of what the fiction tribune is expected to do. Applications should be sent to Paladin and myself. They should include why you think that you are best suited for the job, what you believe qualifies you for the position, what plans you have for the position, and what your concrete goals would be if hired on. Anyone in the Brotherhood may apply. Please keep in mind that this position will be set to deal heavily on the DC side of things and the successful candidate will be expected to leave clans behind. Applications will be accepted through June 13th. <p>

Applications for Praetor to the Grand Master are being accepted. Click here for the wiki article on Praetors. The definition of a praetor to the GM's postion is not terribly black and white. It's fairly nebulous in scope and responsibility, and the right person should be able to serve as a jack-of-all-trades to some degree. Historically, I've not used Praetors very much, but with this, it will not be a cakewalk position, where you can sit in an office and not do anything. I will be using this person heavily in a number of major DB-enhancement projects, so there's a lot of potential for your work to directly impact the club as a whole. I will be accepting applications for this position through June 13th.<p>

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Since I know how much you guys like to see stuff...<p>

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And that's all for this time. Any questions, or anything i can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!<p>

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