/bump above kaiann muahahaha

::BOW::

Greetings everyone,

Let's get down to business.

In my first act as Grand Master of the Dark Brotherhood, I decree the following: Dark Jedi Master Kaiann is to be moved from the position of Headmaster and placed into a new Dark Council position as detailed below. Krath Epis Spears of Clan Tarentum is hereby to be placed in the position of Headmaster in Kaiann's place.

For many months, DJM Kaiann has been deeply involved in the aspects of the Dark Brotherhood that revolve around Role-Playing. Kaiann has been instrumental in developing the systems that will be put in place upon completion of the new website, and has been a constant help in the organization of that project. This is where Kaiann's passions lie within the Dark Brotherhood. He has served well as Headmaster, but being that we need to focus on further Brotherhood developments, he is now going to be moved to a new Council position that will be created specifically to work with the RPG. Kaiann has been given the opportunity to choose the name for this position and has chosen that it will be called Lord Hegemon. His duties will be to work with myself, the SCL office and the rest of the DC to finish the RPG system, implement the new rules and ideas, and to help in the development of the vast resources we will need to run the system. Kaiann will do well serving in this capacity.

In his place, I have chosen the long-time Praetor to the Headmaster, Spears. As many of you have noticed, Spears has been recently promoted to Krath Epis for his contributions to the Shadow Academy and to the DB as a whole. Spears is one of the finest DB members I know, always willing to assist in whatever way he can. He knows the Shadow Academy like the back of his hand and has demonstrated to me that he has the proper vision to proceed with the Academy's development. I expect great progress from his leadership. He will definitely be able to take the Academy to the next level.

In my second act as Grand Master, I hereby call forth Telaris "Mav" Cantor to stand at my right side as Deputy Grand Master.

Mav and I have been working together for a very long time now. When I originally returned to the DB, he was my Consul in Taldryan. Through the good and the bad, Mav has always been steady at my side with the best advice, the latest news and the best of attitudes. I have always felt that I needed someone at DGM that will push the envelope, but also be a good friend. Mav fits the bill, much like Khyron did in my first tenure. In his position, I am giving Mav the authority he needs to make decisions without me on many aspects of the DB. I trust his judgment in everything, and when dealing with the day-to-day issues of the Brotherhood, Mav will be able to make decisions in my stead.

Under Mav, the office of the Deputy Grand Master will have a new variety of duties. Many of these are still in the process of being discussed as we move around duties on the DC, but I will mention some specifics now. First, Mav will still retain his role in dealing with other clubs, like he did as LCH. We will both be working to keep these alliances up-to-date, and Mav's first-hand experiences with many of these leaders will remain invaluable to that process. Mav will also be taking an increased role in Clan management. He will be working in stride with Consuls to help them in whatever way they need. Further, Mav will retain control over the Order of Battle and the Brotherhood System Dominion.

In my third act, I hereby dissolve the position of Lord Chamberlain

As discussed above, most duties will remain with Mav as DGM. One exception is the development of the Inter-Club Academy. This will be undertaken by the Headmaster

In my fourth act, I hereby dissolve the position of Chancellor

Flech has been a great service to the Brotherhood over the last year. More than many other Chancellors that have served, Flech was always good about checking on the awards and denying them when necessary. He caught mistakes and was always timely. I will always appreciate his efforts in his position.

However, it has become quite obvious that the Dark Council is simply too large to be efficient. In a good look at the council, I have decided that I want to cut some positions off and re-align some duties in order to give people a bit more to do, and to keep the number of members down to a minimum. Chancellor, although a worthy position, never gave way for any great innovation, clan involvement or the like. Frankly, the position breeds inactivity. By removing it and moving the duties to another position, I hope to eventually eliminate the stigma that goes along with the "button-pusher" positions. The duties of the Chancellor will be combined with the duties of Competition Approval, formerly in the DGM office. This will allow the person who is approving the medals for competitions to use the same judgment as he would when approving just general medals. I believe this will help solve some of the problems that occasionally arose, and will help lead the way for the eventual implementation of Prestige and Credits. These duties will be moved to another council position. Which one is a matter of discussion now. I am looking into the various options. In the meantime, I will be handling the duties.

And in my fifth Act as Grand Master, I do declare the following: The Seal of Loyalty will now be given out one two dates. First, it will be given out yearly on the anniversary of the Split, and second, it will now be given out yearly on the Sixth of November. This is in commemoration of the date that Lord Firefox assumed the title of Grand Master almost three years ago.

What can I say about Firefox that hasn't already been said? He is a great friend and a better mentor. I miss him already. We will always honor the day that he took command of this club and lead us through to independence.

There will be more changes like this soon. I will post them as they are finalized.

And now, for some talk.

I begin my tenure as Grand Master by giving you a number: two thousand four hundred and eighty-one. 2481. That is the number of Clusters of Fire that are going to be given out for the second, third and fourth chapters of the Great Jedi War. That is going to be spread among 133 different members, averaging out to 19 per member.

I am impressed by those numbers for two reasons. First, it demonstrates to me that despite the inherent sloppiness of the Vendetta, the Brotherhood is still proud and willing to participate. Second, it shows me that we still hold onto a solid and active base of members.

I will be the first to tell anyone that this club is not perfect. We have a lot of problems. Some of them obvious, some not so. However, we are not lacking in competent people that want to advance our interests. My point: some say that the problem in this club is activity; I say the problem runs much deeper.

There are fundamental structural and mental problems in the Dark Brotherhood that need to be addressed. We recognized many of the problems a year ago with the inception of Project: Rebirth. However, due to many of my own personal failures, we have not distanced ourselves from the club we were under the EH as much as we should have. I stand behind the principles of Rebirth and what we are working to accomplish there, but I have come to realize that the problems of this club aren't all going to be solved by fancy new systems. Sure, it will make things easier, but it will still gloss over our fundamental flaws.

What are these flaws and where are they? Well they are all over. They stem from the DC down to the Battleteams. From the Grand Master down to the regular member. What are they? I've narrowed what I want to focus on down to three main things: Teamwork, personal responsibility, and accountability.

For far too long, members of the DB have been divided by personal problems. It has always amazed me the amount of true back stabbing there is in online clubs sometimes. There are members who will do anything for their own personal gain, and if it means tearing down or taking advantage of someone else, then so be it. As Grand Master I am not going to allow this to occur on the Dark Council, and I am going to expect Consuls to do the same with their leaders. I am going to run things as a team leader. For a year, we have had a functional Dark Council, but in many things we have been divided. We never functioned as a true team. I appreciate the differences between people, but too often we lose sight of our goals.

Even I do sometimes. The other day, when things for me were particularly down, Pyralis pasted to me the stated DB vision. "The Dark Jedi Brotherhood will set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, allies, and the online communities in which we reside, providing the highest forms of entertainment value, social interaction, and fun." I realized that sometimes I just take things too seriously, and in doing so, I undermine what I am trying to achieve: fun. This mistake runs rampant in the DB. Overreaction to simple statements, assumptions of malice in a simple mistake, simple miscommunications gone bad. There are a lot of times that we all just need to step back and laugh at ourselves.

I noticed this first when Goatham stepped down as SHW. For some reason, everyone was at each other's throats. Goat and myself weren't getting along, and after reflecting on it, I couldn't place why. We were on the same team, yet were not acting the part.

I am committed to keeping that from happening again. As a leader, I must make the example and be a team player. I must keep my council involved in everything. I must be the focal point of communication. I must never assume and always treat others with respect. As Grand Master I am going to lead a smaller, more effective and tightly knit Dark Council. Things will not be kept secret and teamwork will be the leading principle.

Teamwork is nothing though without personal responsibility. As I addressed in my last report, I am the first one to admit that I have some problems. I have never been perfect in this online world, and sometimes RL gets the best of me. However, as GM, I must be responsible for all aspects of the DB, and my personal flaws need to be defeated. People must be responsible for themselves. They must be responsible for getting their jobs done, but if they can't, they need to be responsible and let someone know ahead of time. I know first hand that I have disappointed some people, some more than others. I take responsibility for that and try to correct my mistakes. At the end of the day, that is all we can ask for. We members we must look at a situation before us and first address it by looking in the mirror. What can I do better? That should always be the question on our minds.

It is the failure of personal responsibility that leads to the need for action. People need to be held accountable for what they do and don't do. As GM I will be fair in all of my dealings, but I am going to be frank about performance. Especially from the Dark Council, I expect 100%, and when we don't reach that point, I will step in to see what's wrong. Continual problems are going to lead to action. It will be a fair action, though. I will never resort to astatine-ish "no report, you're fired" actions, but I will be firm with my team that they need to pull their weight.

I will lead the Dark Brotherhood with an open and fair mind. I will lead it knowing that I must be at the forefront of the activity. I will lead it knowing that the Dark Council should match that activity fully. I will lead knowing that my activity will trickle down to the lowest roots of the brotherhood.

I don't offer to you a vision of a problem-free brotherhood, but I do offer you one of freedom, teamwork and stability. This club has the potential to be anything we want it to be. I intend to make it great. With a new website, character-driven systems, top-down performance and a atmosphere promoting the fundamentsals of a good busniess, we can do whatever we want.

This is my second time in this job, a dream of mine since the day after I retired the first time. I am excited for this opportunity and understand that I am here to serve you. Together, I know what we can do.

The Brotherhood is strong and growing stronger. I intend to be a catalyst of change that will bring forth the best of what we have to offer.

As always, my door is always open for ideas, concerns, questions and comments.

Let us now go forth and execute our vision and mission.

::BOW::
- Jac