Grand Master Report
Report time... a bit long-winded here, so bear with me <p>
<p> I'd like to take a moment and discuss a thing we call 'member retention' with everyone. We ran a report on the activities of last year, and took a good hard look at the promotions and the like that were awarded. We know from 2007, that we had really atrocious 'retention' which is to say that very very few members stuck around after activating their dossiers. That's why we have new members joining with five digit Pins, and yet it seems that we only have a few hundred active members. Anyway, in 2007, we had less than a dozen members that joined in that year make it to DJK, which has stereotypically been the point at which most members actually will stick around and not rogue out permanently. In 2009, we were not any better, with only 1% of our dossier activations remaining on through to DJK.<p> That's a scary thing, considering that we will never have the great influx of members like we had during Revenge of the Sith. We took out a full-page ad in the DragonCon Progress report at a large cost, and we did not see any spike in traffic for us due to it. We saw a higher rate of clicks after we made the site more optimized for search engines, and online links will likely be the route which we push the hardest for recruitment... but all that effort, time and money will be wasted if we only keep 1% of those people in the club.<p> This is not the Brotherhood of 1998, this is not the Brotherhood of 2004. We can not rely on the same tactics as we did back then, and expect it to serve us well now. So, we have changes that we will enact to that end.<p>
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The Grind Path! In news that's not probably terribly important for you if you are past the rank of DJK, we have begun work on the 'Grind Path' and other changes to the entrance method into our club. What that means is that on entry, the members will have a streamlined method to rank up and get indoctrinated into how our club works. We're calling it 'the grind path' because it will enable members to rank up on their own time-scale. The requirements will be in front of them, transparent, and automated...so a member could, if they so chose, rank up to the the end of the grindpath (We're debating what rank it will end at: PRT/GRD or so) in a day's time. We're removing the time in rank requirement for the grind path. We will also allow members who have joined before the path was implemented (and that still are not up to the end-rank of the project) to get in on it, and grind their way up. <p>
"Why are we doing this?"<p>
Because we are competing with things like World Of Warcraft for people's time, we have to look at the things that they do well that we can emulate. Setting it up so that the first couple of ranks are a 'tutorial' of sorts, and make it set up at their own pace is critical. WoW doesn't require someone to look at your achievements and XP to decide if you're ready to get promoted, and neither should we in those early ranks.<p>
<p> Professional Behavior Standards. We're all (mostly) friends here, and we do this for fun, on our spare time. That said, some of our ideas of fun are not conducive to the growth of our Brotherhood. The way we talk on IRC is pretty atrocious, and we have gone around a few times on trying to clean it up, seeing as how Every Clan Agrees that IRC is an important tool for new members, our clan channels should be tightened up a bit. Something that does need to be addressed is our behavior on the mailing lists and on official reports. We have had people in leadership positions using excessively vulgar language and overly sexual discussions that really have no place being put in front of our member's eyes. Keep in mind that not everyone in this club is of age, and we can be called to task on this, especially considering that the Dark Covenant specifically lists this kind of behavior as unacceptable. That is not a discussion that any of us wants to have. <p> There are those of us selected in this club to lead. The position may vary from Aedile, Quaestor, or Consul all the way up to Grand Master. You are supposed to be the best and the brightest among us, the examples of what to do and how to do it. Because of that, you will be held to a higher standard than the rest of your clan-mates. There's been a document put together by Kir that puts it together, and if you want to take a look at it, it's here: link.<p> "Why are we doing this?"<p> Because we have lost too many members because our discussions and attitudes are too much for them to want to deal with. It takes a very select section of the population that joins a Star Wars club that wants to be inundated with profanity, sexual discussions and abuse, even if all these things are in good humor. We can not survive as a club on the backs of that small number of members. We can keep a great sense of camaraderie and friendship without reducing ourselves to these base things, and risking alienating potentially great members.
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<p> Activities. I have had this discussion with a few consuls and all of the councilors. Ever since amalgamation, there has been a shift in what the positions do. With the downgrade of the Order Leaders to the Tribunes, we have not had a driving force for actual activities for the members...which left a gap that the clan and house leadership sought to fill. The problem with that is that the House and Clan leaders have largely lost sight of the true purpose of a clan: to promote friendships and create relationships. <p> Members may enjoy playing in competitions, or may enjoy earning unofficial titles in nobility systems. They may enjoy Vendettas, or multiplayer games. They definitely don't hang out because they enjoy the AWOL checks. They definitely don't enjoy being threatened with rogueing if they do not participate in something. At the end of the day, what brings more and more people back to the club, what keeps the majority of us from rogueing out and leaving for good, are the friends we have made here. And that is far more important that over focusing on what should be taken care of from a DC point of view. While the Clans and Houses are there to create friendships and foster relationships, it is the DCs job to give them things to do and keep things moving.<p> Many have already noticed that I have not put a call for applications out to the Brotherhood for the position of Fiction Tribune or for the more recently vacated Gaming Tribune. There is a reason for that: those positions will cease to exist.<p> Instead of relegating fiction and gaming to the Tribunes, that odd limbo between DC and not, I am creating two new Dark Council positions. The Fist of the Brotherhood will oversee gaming and all of the ways that it interacts with our club, and the Voice of the Brotherhood will oversee fiction and how it relates to our organization. I have updated the DBWiki with details about the responsibilities and scope of influence as well as fictional role for both of these new positions, so that all can take a look at them. I am also officially opening these positions up for applications, with the deadline being the 31st of March.<p> You can see the wiki articles for the Voice of the Brotherhood and the Fist of the Brotherhood by clicking their names there.<p> "Why are we doing this?"<p> By putting new positions on the Dark Council that are responsible for these key activities, and by tasking the rest of the council with running competitions, it frees up the Consuls and Quaestors to do what they really need to do, not what our DC should really be doing. With them being able to focus on interacting with every member, from the guys that have been around since the DB was on AOL to the new guy that joined last week, we can build a stronger Brotherhood, and keep more people around in our great club. <p>
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New Medals. Before Kaek left office, he was working with me on putting together some new medals. While we, as an organization, have moved forward, a lot of our structures that we have in place are still from that old system. These new medals will fill in the gaps where we have been wedging in other medals and they didn't really work...Like Clusters of Fire for ACC matches. There's a handful of other examples, and we'll give out more info as we get them designed and into the rotation....which leads us to the final point that i wanted to lay out there for this report.<p>
The Return of the Royal Guard. There have been people who loved it, and people who hated it. The Royal Guard was closed by Sarin because of the inactivity of the last dozen Commanders of the Guard, which under the last iteration caused it to fail. The newest version of the Royal Guard will be completely automated and not reliant on an active CoG to keep it moving smoothly. The Fist of the Brotherhood will hold dominion over the Royal Guard in a sense, but seeing as it will be completely automated (from the trials of joining the Guard to the elevation in ranks within the Guard with all the perks associated therein), it's not likely to be needing the kind of attention that the GMRG of years past has needed. This version will be a purely Gaming Society, and very competitive amongst themselves. Those of us who will be able to earn the upper ranks in the Guard will have proven themselves as hardcore gamers. <p>
On the other side of things, we will be beefing up the rewards given to the ranks in the ACC, granting better perks and making earning those ranks do more than just add a title on your character sheet. Those of us who loved the Guard, but had no time or ability to rank up in gaming, will be able to use their fiction chops to rank up in the ACC ranks.<p>
"Why are we doing this?"<p>
By beefing up the structures we already have (and automating them), we give you, the members, more stuff to earn for yourselves, more avenues for activity, and hopefully, something fun to do. Sure, it's not for everyone, but it helps broaden the scope of what we as members can do around the club.<p>
So, yeah, they're coming back. <p>
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<p> "So why aren't all the Seals out yet?"<p> Two reasons, really. Firstly, we were hoping for a script to put them in for us, that would circumvent the email alerts. Sadly, we couldn't get that to work properly. Code hates me. Secondly, because we have to put them in manually, we (Korras) is doing it slowly, one week ata time, so that we don't get his email address flagged as a spam provider. That would be bad, considering that the join emails come from his address. So please be patient, and if there's a discrepancy, shoot Korras and I an email, and we'll triple check the submissions records. <p>
<p> TL:DR
*Grind Path for new members
*Leaders need to set a good example
*New DC positions, apply for them
*New Medals coming soon
*Troutrooper gets Dark Jedi Master
*Congrats to Timeros on EQ4
*Thanks, Cethgus, enjoy your Steel Cross.P>
<p> And that's all for this time. If you have any questions, or anything I can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun! <p>
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First.
Fantastic report, Muz. A lot of stuff jam-packed in there, something which I think is well needed at the moment in the DB. Also, nice job on the "Professionalism and Brotherhood Leadership" Kir. I'm definitely on board with what the document holds.
Overall, awesome stuff here. Also, does that armor come in pink?
Fist and Voice? I like. Huzzah for Legacy!
Seconded- some very good stuff which should definitely help with what is a fairly important problem. Furthermore: Professional Behaviour.doc = absolute truth. :D
About time! Good job automating the lower ranks, it was something that was sorely needed. Also, now that my son is getting to the age where I'm thinking he might join, its' good to see that leaders and members be held to a higher standard.
You got my brownie points all around, Muz. =)
I noticed that the Voice includes duties involving a lot of ACC stuff. Does this mean that the Combat Master is merged into that post as well?
Vivackus - I can actually answer that for you, using a quotation from Kir when he responded to my PCON report:
"The Combat Master will become a subordinate of the Voice - the position will likely still exist, but their control over the ACC will be reduced to a sort of "staff manager". Hopefully this will prevent the frequent ACC rule/rank changes we have with each new CM."
Hope this helps.
Speaking of the ACC, could someone judge the final RoS battles? It's been over a month and a half since the last active battle was completed.
With all due respect, I am a little skeptical of these new DC positions. It seems that they are just "reincarnations" and consolidations of previous failed Dark Council positions, Lord Hegemon, Order Leaders, etc. Those positions are no longer around for their own respective reasons, but it seems that recently it has been a name game. Many of the responsibilities remain the same (though some are added with each new position), but to me it seems as if the problem still exists.
The activity level, in my opinion, should be addressed at the lowest level possible, starting at the House level. Finding ways to engage members in the early stages of their careers in the Brotherhood is essential and House level activities is the way to go. Lets face it, many newer members may not stand a chance in a Brotherhood wide fiction event compared to the seasoned veterans we have in this club. House competitions offer opportunities to learn and grow, many times I've gotten feedback about the fiction I had submitted or the ACC battle I participated in. Throwing massive DB wide Monthly Fiction events do not offer that (or haven't that I know of).
Like I said, this comment was not meant to be disrespectful if It appeared that way to anyone.
_OP Gaius Julius Caesar Says: The activity level, in my opinion, should be addressed at the lowest level possible, starting at the House level. Finding ways to engage members in the early stages of their careers in the Brotherhood is essential and House level activities is the way to go. _
Great idea, but it's easier said than done. I've been an AED, QUA, PCON, and P:HM, every position requiring me to work directly with the memberships on the newest level. Those house competitions you're talking about? Yeah, they aren't working. There's only so much "Graffiti the AED" people can take.
When Aabs and I wrote the Grinding Proposal, this was part of our concern, as slowly our membership is dying out with the traditional ways.
And voicing your opinion in a respectable forum/approach is always welcome, imo. :P
To Timeros Arconae, Congratulations on a well deserved, hard earned promotion to the top of the Equite Tier. You're almost to Elder, keep at it!
Oh Taig, you silly person. They didn't work because everybody hated you.
My question is, why does my post get an awesome designation after I leave it? Because Muz is a meanie, that's why! Mean mean meanie!
Disclaimer: It's not unprofessional, it's poking someone. :P
Vardar, feel free to apply for it. :P
Gaius, we tried that. House and Clan summits have been running the lion's share of competitions for the vast majority of the time for the last however-many years. This has been a distracting element of the job for these people, where the rubber meets the road for our new members. Making the DC do what they are supposed to, by generating content and hosting comps, frees up the house and clan people to not only participate themselves, but also get in there and create great relationships with their members. This is something that is much much harder to do when they are trying to manage a house feud and a dozen other competitions at the same time. This is proven, give the horrible retention numbers we have been putting out. One DJK per clan per year is absolutely rubbish and unsustainable, so we have to change things to fix it. So this will make it so that they don't have to rely upon form-letters that get ignored because they are impersonal or AWOL checks to see who is active.
Having said that, I can understand your fears that new members will get lost for recognition when competing against the heavy hitters in the club. That's because in the past, the comps run by the DC have been open to the entire Club. Going forward, that won't always be the case, with journeyman-only level comps as an example. Don't think that this is going to be more of the same. The same didn't work, so we're changing it up.
As far as it being the same old thing, well.. no. Tribunes have had a pretty poor time getting the respect that they deserve without a DC vote, and their scope of influence was very very narrow. The Order Leaders were much better for it, but they had a LOT of overlap (and people did not like getting rid of them). This is more of an activity leader sort of position, something that we really haven't had, but should have. Taking our top two activity spheres off of the DC has been a bad idea, even admitted by Jac, who engineered the Amalgamation. We had to try it, though. The DC had gotten way too bloated with the advent of positions as you had mentioned. We're not bringing those back.
I hope that explains my point of view a bit better.
Sure thing, Muzzles, let me just get a .doc and start typing out an application..
..oh wait, that'd involve effort..
I maintain that you are a meanie. :P
"Why are we doing this?" asks Muz.
Why? Because Kir is gay. THAT'S why.
Pole posting makes this all better.
I'll reserve judgment on the actual details of the changes until we've got some time to see them in action (Hey, I can't tell the future), though I must say I'm personally encouraged by what I see. However, the thing that impresses me most is that the people in charge are taking a long, hard look at those things that make the club work on a fundamental level and trying to come up with a way to make those fundamentals work for us better. Even if those ideas don't work out to be the best changes in the history of the world, the fact that the leadership is ready and willing to explore those changes is in and of itself a good thing for all of us.
Well said.
Fist and Voice. I like 'em. I'm happy they aren't in Latin, Greek, or some form of ancient Sumerian either. They're just plain words.
I should buy an add in the newspaper or craigslist lol
Regarding the change between Tribunes and Councilors...
"As far as it being the same old thing, well.. no. Tribunes have had a pretty poor time getting the respect that they deserve without a DC vote, and their scope of influence was very very narrow. The Order Leaders were much better for it, but they had a LOT of overlap (and people did not like getting rid of them). This is more of an activity leader sort of position, something that we really haven't had, but should have. Taking our top two activity spheres off of the DC has been a bad idea, even admitted by Jac, who engineered the Amalgamation. We had to try it, though. The DC had gotten way too bloated with the advent of positions as you had mentioned. We're not bringing those back."
What Muz said.
Having seen what's happened since Jac and I got rid of the Order Leaders, I'm afraid it's a fair gone conclusion by now that we made a mistake taking them off the Council level. Why does that make any real difference? Well, I think the best way to explain it is to look at governments in real life; departmental duties often get shuffled around to suit the needs of the time. If we ignore the stupid cases in real life where it is just a new letterhead; in this case, what we're lacking are those regular DC competitions, and those can--as Muz says--only come from DC level administration.
So why can't Muz and Sarin or [inserrt GM and DGM as appropriate] run just as many comps as before?
Man hours, basically. Simple as that. If we look back at the past, we usually had about 3 DC comps on average a year, that'd mean perhaps a GJW, and a couple of Order RoSs. (Back then that was usually the between the types: GJWs were usually club wide; RoSs were Order wide, so "a third"). That was quite easily done. The SHW ran a Sith War. Then the GM did a GJW. Then the KHP might do a Krath RoS, etc. That meant three good DC comps a year, with the GJW still as the "big one". And in between a Clan might squeeze in a big house war or something if the felt so inclined--though in my experience (and I don't mean to knock people here) I've always felt it's the minority of houses that organise those.
The unfortunate consequence of when we got rid of the Order Leaders, which we did when the Orders ceased to be defined by gaming or writing so it didn't seem right to have the people running the comps split the same way, what has happened is what we know: the Tribunes have never really become what we'd hoped. We'd hoped they'd continue the days of Order Leader RoSs... but that's just never happened. Like Jac, I also accept the blame for that, so it's good now to see Muz putting things right.
So what do Voice and Fist mean? Well, they mean we once again get DC level competition managers whilst still not regressing back to Order platform problems; you could say that years ago we should just have docked the "Order" part of their names and just had HW, HC and HP... but like everything, it's easier to see where we made a mistake in retrospect. In any case, having more DC comps a year should now be a good thing, and like Muz also says, apart from the main GJWs the other events are (presumably similar the old "Order platform" events) likely to be more "targeted" as the Voice will run fiction comps and things and vice versa with the Fist running gaming related stuff--so rather like back when we had KHP as opposed to SHW/OHC. So if you're not a writer, you won't need to feel you have to bust a gut 24/7/365 all year round because of the never-ending round of the Voice's comps; vice versa with the Fist. (Which by extension hopefully means more targeted small scale events, so like Muz said: Journeymen only comps and things; take the recent RoS to a certain extent: you only ever competed against 1 clan.)
I dare say this'll still mean you'll be able to fit a few more niche Clan things in between (I sure plan to :P) as that was always the case in the past even when we were having like three big Order Leader comps a year, just there won't now need to be 1 or 2 year lulls between GJWs, but can be more regular activities. So the next time there's a big GJW, it won't be a case of all the people under DJK saying "I've never taken part in a big event before", which is what I've noticed the past two. Instead, hopefully people will feel more confident, they'll have more support from the GRDs and JHs who have taken part in one in the past, etc, etc. And it's always better to be getting support from your friends who are also eager to take part, than only having the crusty old guys who were there last time barking at you to take part.
Anyway, that's just my two cents... but in recession economics I'm going to cut that to one cent.
~ Resident Crusty Old Guy
...okay...
I don't know what the hell happened there... oh well, that was the final sentence anyway. I think I wrote something along the lines of:
I dare say this'll still mean you'll be able to fit a few more niche Clan things in between (I sure plan to :P) as that was always the case in the past even when we were having like three big Order Leader comps a year, just there won't now need to be 1 or 2 year lulls between GJWs, but can be 3 big DC managed comps a year. Which can only be a good thing. I remember the last couple of GJWs I've noticed most Journeymen mentioning "I've never taken part in a big comp before, what do I do?". Now, they won't need to rely on a bunch of crusty old elders barking at them to take part, but will have their actual GRD and JH friends who were around for the last big comp, and who can help them get involved more directly.
Anyway, that's just my two cents... though due to the recession and the website hating me, the first time round you only got the one it seems.
~ Resident Crusty Old Guy
Question: Muz said, "hardcore gamers"
Does this mean just the games that DJB supports, or console games...?
It means just the games that the DB supports.
Odds are, if you have to ask "hardcore gamers?" then it means "not you." Or it just means go visit #taldryan and get molested a few more times before you understand. Shadow will teach your wang.
And if our gaming doesn't change, they'll be the only "hardcore gamers" left.
PVP in The Old Republic should change that :P