Well, I’m not that good at making large speeches. In fact, I prefer not to. So let me make a few brief comments and then we’ll move on:

Firstly, I’d like to say thank you to all who have supported me throughout my tenure in the Dark Brotherhood. I’m not going to list names (there are a lot of you) but just know that you have my thanks. Secondly, I’d like to thank Jac for giving me this opportunity and Khan for his work over the last year. Thirdly, I’d like to state publicly that Pyralis sucks. Lastly, I’d like to express my undying love to Halc, Chaos and Tarax. Please note that the listing of those three does not disparage my love from being spread around to the many other deserving individuals (you know who you are <3).

Alright, now that that nonsense is out of the way, lets move on to seriousness.

For those of you that have speculated, I will tell you now that I am making NO sudden changes in any policy set by Khan or myself during the last year. I feel that we have done a fairly adequate job of altering the system and massive changes in the short run would be detrimental to the eventual progress of the Brotherhood. That said, don’t think I’m just going to sit and process requests either. I have a lot of things in mind that will enhance the entire process – as to what those are, you’ll have to wait and see :P

For the time being, I am appointing no Praetor or Magistrate. In fact, anyone who asks me about becoming Praetor will be placed on the evil-Kaek-blacklist and will never be made my Praetor :P No kidding – don’t ask. Hahaha. As to the Magistrate positions, I will make use of these from time to time and you should expect a temporary opening available for some website design in the near future. So those of you who have some skill at web design and might be interested in this job, prepare your applications and/or portfolios. I will provide more information on this at a later time.

I’d like to take this opportunity to reiterate a few things about requests that we have always looked for. Nothing here should come as a surprise to any of you but I urge you to pay close attention since a lot of people have been forgetting these few very important things. First of all, in any medal or promotion request, please cite specific and concrete examples of what a member has done. Flowery words of praise and inexact statements are nice, but they don’t help me at all in my job and I really don’t count them when I’m examining requests (read: you can still have them in requests, I just don’t care about them except for amusement purposes). So, for example:

_ GRD WorksALot is a very active member who contributes a lot to our House. His enthusiasm and willingness to help the House summit with any project speaks well of his future in the Brotherhood._

This is a bad recommendation. It tells me nothing. What exactly is a very active member? How did he contribute a lot to the House? What specifically did he do to help the House summit? A better example would be this:

_ GRD WorksALot has been extremely active since joining our House. He has completed several SA courses, has contributed suggestions for the Battleteam motto competition and has participated in several JO matches earning some CFs. Furthermore, WorksALot has spent a lot of time on IRC recently and has helped guide a few new members in their first stages of Brotherhood life. WorksALot recently presented a proposal outlining several new retention techniques for the members of our House. I feel that he should be promoted to Jedi Hunter._

Much better. But still not the best. It gives me some vague information but is still not as specific as I’d like. I’d probably deny it and ask for more information. Here is a very good example:

_ GRD WorksALot is a wonderful and exemplary member. He has completed 4 Shadow Academy Courses. They are ‘insert 4 Shadow Academy courses here.’ WorksALot has participated in several competitions within the House, like the Battleteam Motto competition (in which he placed 3rd) and our House Run-on. He also played in the ICTE and earned 12 CFs. His IRC activity level is quite good in that he usually spends an hour online every day or so. He is consistently helpful in guiding new members: He carefully and patiently explained how the Shadow Academy works to APP KnowNothing and helped NOV StillLearning prepare his ACC character sheet. WorksALot, while not the House Envoy, has shown significant interest in succeeding to that post later in his career and has submitted a proposal outlining several new retention ideas for the House. His general demeanor and presence is essential to the proper functioning of the House and I feel he should be promoted to Jedi Hunter._

That was an excellent example (barring the Kaek diction). Now, I know not every member is going to do every activity listed but the point isn’t to show what a GRD to JH promotion requires (which is not necessarily anything listed above) but instead to show how a proper recommendation should be written. The key thing to take away here is that I’m looking for specifics.

Remember that this applies to both medals and promotions. Note that I have not merely referred to Clan/House promotion guidelines – don’t do that; I won’t accept that. If you are using Clan/House guidelines, you need to list exactly what was done. As to when I deny things, I will always try to explain why it was denied. Please note that no denial is final and 99% of the time I just need more clarification.

I’ve gone on for too long as it is and I should probably save some of this for later MAA-type publications. I’ll close with a couple of suggestions:

1.) Consider giving someone a medal before promoting them! This is a big one, folks. I see a lot of people who get promotion after promotion after promotion but no medals. That’s fine for the lower ranks but not good for the mid-level to higher ones! I expect members to be getting a few medals around the mid to late Journeyman ranks before they get another promotion.

2.) Proofread your own requests! Not only for spelling and grammar but also for content. Ask yourself “Would I approve this?” If you have even a little doubt, show it to someone you trust and see if they can help you with it.

3.) Don’t exceed your promotional/medal authority! This isn’t because I’m bureaucratic; this is because it causes me (and your associates) a lot of headaches. I don’t want to reward medals on your behalf (don’t even try that again, Jac) and I simply will not promote someone that you lack the direct authority to promote (read: the ability to recommend any member for promotion that is reserved in the Covenant doesn’t mean you make the recommendation directly to me).

Additionally, I’ll point out to you that those that have suggestions for the office or for the medal/promotion/competition/everything-else-the-MAA-does system should not hesitate to email me. I already get a lot of emails so a few extra won’t burden me. Also, feel free to use the MAA Forum on the Message Board for questions or suggestions.

So yeah, I’ve probably forgotten something but this post is getting too Goat-like for me. So I’m going to cut it off here. I’d like to thank you all again and I look forward to a productive tenure as Master At Arms. Ciao!

Sith Warlord Syn Kaek

Master At Arms

Insert a bunch of titles here that really don’t mean anything