Headmaster Report
Report time! What? No Fiction? It's not my strongest ability, to say the least, so I thought I'd spare you that particular torture. In saying that, if someone wants to write Shadow Academy related fiction to be featured in these reports, drop me a line.
Given this is my first report, I guess I should introduce myself.
My character's name is Solari but you'll find me on IRC as Windos. I've been floating around the Dark Brotherhood for nearly nine years now. My history is filled with time spent as the Shadow Academy's code monkey and I've worked under a number of great Headmasters. I was also Wiki Tribune for a short time.
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The A-Team
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I'm not entering this role alone however, I come as a complete package with two very strong and enthusiastic team mates. The three of us are going to be driving projects to help push the Shadow Academy through a time of change.
Firstly, let me introduce Troutrooper. He was once the Headmaster and has some great ideas to improve it now. The first project he has taken on is creating bigger and better leadership manuals. They will contain all the usual info you can find on the wiki for a given position... and some special "pearls" of information you won't find anywhere else with the aim of getting people new to their positions up to speed as quickly as possible.
Instead of sitting in a dusty corner of the DJB site (seriously, when was the last time you looked at the Leadership Manuals? Do you even know where they are?) they will be emailed to people automatically when they are appointed to a position.
It is early days yet, but Trouty is the man for the job.
The final piece of our puzzle is Scelestus. He has been a Magistrate to the Headmaster for five months now and I am very glad to be able to work very closely with him. His first project is directly related to upping our new member retention.
Scel will be working on a system to unify the Rolemasters, and offer them support, guidance or whatever resources they need to aid their new members. Think of it as the old Envoy system, with substantially less eventual failure and no centralized management; House and Clan leadership will always manage their own Rolemaster(s).
Again, very early days. Specifics can (and will?) change. Scel is, without a doubt, the right person with the right ideas to get this project off the ground.
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So what am I doing?
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I could keep going about what the rest of my team are up to, but I guess I should touch on what I am doing.
Priority #1 for me is the Grind Path. This is something that has been mentioned on the main page of this site since early 2010, and I'll be damned if it doesn't get finished while I am Headmaster.
Taigikori and I are working closely to see this project through. At the moment we are working on getting all of the course content written (it's an ambition timeline, but I am hoping to have this stage done by January), once they are done I'll be looking for volunteers to comb through the notes looking for errors or any edits that can be made to improve them.
Look out for the call to action if you're interested in helping out.
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State of the Website
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As Solus Gar reported last week, there has been an issue with the courses on the Shadow Academy website. I still don't know what specifically happened, if it could happen again, or any other details.
For the time being I restored all of the course notes to the backups I had available. This means the notes are now seven months old and potentially missing a lot of edit.
You can now take the courses again... except for the two debate courses and the two ToR courses. Those will be back as soon as possible.
I have all my fingers and toes crossed that we can restore the courses from a newer backup, but if not a new audit may be on the cards, so keep an eye out for the call to action for that.
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A big thanks to Solus Gar
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I wanted to thank Solus for the effort he has put into the Shadow Academy, most recently holding the fort in the space between Ronovi's resignation and my appointment.
For his efforts he earned the Dark Savant: Service degree.
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Have Your Say!
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People (especially leaders) often like to think they have thought of everything, and explored every avenue. I know my team and I aren't perfect, and that we cannot have thought of everything, that we know exactly what the Shadow Academy needs.
We need you. We need to hear what you want and need from the Shadow Academy. What would you change, add or remove to make it a better place?
Click the link, fill out the form. There could be something special in store for you if your submit a truly amazing idea. Something that makes us go, "wow, why hadn't we thought of this sooner?"
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Conclusion
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I'll finish this report explaining why I am being so open about the projects we are undertaking. Often, projects are kept secret, hushed. Progress reports vague. Why? I don't know. To make it easier to brush under the rug when it doesn't eventuate? Maybe.
Being open about what we're doing allows you to have your input, it also makes me and my team more accountable (like having someone you go to the gym with) and it lets you see that we are doing "stuff."
If a project I'm working on falls over or is canceled. I'll let you know why, hell, I'll dedicate a section of my report for the gruesome details if there are people who would be interested in knowing.
That it from me for now. I look forward to working with and for everyone of you.
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