Geetings all,
As anyone who has been awake recently will know there has been a lot of talk about the relative status of Consuls, how they should be regarded, whether they are subordinate or equivalent to the Councilors, and so forth. This has been an ongoing process for almost three years with the Consuls importance gradually being accepted more and more ever since the Split.
Today marks the beginning of a new era of formal recognition of this equivocal status by granting the Consuls seats on the Dark Council itself, no longer underlings or slaves to the council, nor just comparable in status, but full and absolute equals to the Main Body.
I want to stress this does not change much on a day-to-day level. The Consuls will still represent their Clans in official discussions and the Councilors will still represent their particular departments. The difference is the Consuls will no longer be seen as under (clicky) the Dark Council but directly equal (clicky).
Will this affect you? Probably not. The Consuls have pretty much been acting their enlarged role for over a year now, it just has never been officially recognised. All you might notice is your Consul e-mailing you more often for your views on proposed ideas and changes, as Consuls are likely to be consulted formally over more things than previously instead of the Dark Council just doing things solo.
Is this the end of the story? Not really. We still have some changes to make to the Dark Covenant and I still have plans for after the GJW to initiate more direct member feedback and polling, but this is the first of many initiatives to help restore power to the individual Clans as well as some of the autonomy many have felt they require. Is it just a cosmetic change? In theory, yes, and nobody is pretending it isn't, but it is a much needed formal recognition of a change that has been slowly taking place since the Split. While it is true for the past year Consuls have effectively had this status anyway at times it has been hard to see and we want to put an end to any uncertainties over what the Consuls can or cannot do. While this may seem largely trivial given the present state of things we never know who might end up in charge one day in the future. Moves like this are designed to prevent us ever repeating the mistakes of the past by making it much harder for a corrupt Dark Council to impose its will on the Clans.
Of course everything comes with its own troubles and I'm sure we'll still see complaints when people don't get their way, so do try to always keep in mind while each Clan now has equal authority one Clan cannot overrule five others. Though all things considered I hope this marks the start of a period of beneficial change for the Brotherhood and, to some extents, official recognition of the essence of the Split in that henceforth the Dark Council will not be considered to unilaterally govern the Brotherhood but that rather the Clans shall now have equal power and say in all that happens.
If you're interested in reading it, but haven't yet had a chance to do so, the full proposal is available here.
IMPORTANT NOTE: While these changes are being announced and taking practical effect now due to the highly complex nature of the Great Jedi War plot (due to start next week!) the Consuls won't be fictionally making the move until the end of the war. I can't reveal much more but once you've seen the story it should make sense why the change is more logical after than before.
His Eminence
Dark Jedi Master Xanos Zorrixor
Deputy Grand Master of the Brotherhood
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A few points I didn't want to completely spam the news page with:
Consuls = Councilors. That's it. Simple. There's no hidden message it's as simple as saying the Herald is no longer more important than a Consul. If a Consul doesn't like something their view will be considered just as important as the Seneschal, etc.
Three years ago? No. Yesterday? Yes. But the way it was yesterday has never been safe-guarded in writing. Now, I'm sure it's not going to happen, but if a crazy dictator of a GM took over there are lots of things he might have been able to do by just totally ignoring the Clans.
Yesterday listening to what the Clans said was only a convention, today it is law. If the Consuls vote against something, it doesn't happen, end of story, the Dark Council can't overrule them.
Yes and that is still the case. There will still be some matters the Dark Council handles by itself just like there are some matters the Clans will always manage internally.
In some issues, that's true. For example, the MAA is still in control of who gets a promotion and who doesn't. A Consul can't just say to the MAA "Hey, Kaek, promote this guy, my opinion is as important as yours." In matters of promotion the MAA still has the final say (unless the whole DC overrules him... but that'd be a crazy senario) just like nobody is going to argue with who a Consul wants to appoint as one of his BTLs.
This is what I talked about when I said we still have some changes to make to the Dark Covenant. It's things like this that I would ultimately like to get down in writing one day, to make clear exactly what matters each DC office still retains control over. Another example would be who gets fancy warbanners, that is still the HRLDs perogative unless the whole DC decides to tell him to do it differently, one CON can't demand his Clan gets better warbanners than any other, etc.
Common sense? Yes... but you know what people can be like.
Yes, no... depends how you look at it. The Consuls themselves, along with a few others, brought the issue up, which is why we've taken some time out the last couple of weeks rushing it through. As I pointed out in the original post this doesn't really change much on a practical level, your Consul isn't going to suddenly turn into an evil DC member who does everything you don't want him to do, you can still like your CON and hate the rest of the DC, the only thing it changes is it makes official what the CONs have been doing for months now anyway.
Is there a real threat of another nutcase taking over the DB? Probably not, but it's a reassurance, it makes everyone happy, we can sleep easier at night knowing we aren't going to wake up tomorrow with a new GM who has decided to fire the whole DC, all the CONs, and appoint a bunch of his cronies.
Plus, while, yes, we do waste a lot of time on this bureaucratic stuff, we've also got a GJW starting next wednesday, so it's not as if this is all the DC spends its time doing, we do do other stuff still too... this kind of thing might be a big, fundamental change but all it really involved was a few e-mails.
Not really... Consuls will probably be asked about things more often now, so you might seem them e-mailing you more often for your opinion, but that's about it.
This isn't so much of a direct change as an indirect one that I'm expecting with arise from the fact the CONs will probably be more prepared to criticise things they don't like in the future than they have in the past. That will mean the DC itself won't want to do anything that it thinks the CONs might now like, so I imagine that will result in the DC asking the CONs more often... but it's not a big change. While 99% of the club doesn't see it there is a LOT of discussion on the Dark Summit (PCON+) mailing list already as it is about nearly every major project.
Nothing much. There were a few other reasons for the change. If you're aware of the way the Dark Covenant is structured it refers to the "voting body" of the DB as the "Grand Electorate". This was a pain in the ass every time we had to vote on something as hardly anyone ever rememberd who the Grand Electorate refered to (just DC and CONs). In merging the two we can do away with a lot of the dual-terminology and keep things a lot simpler, thereby resulting in less confusion.
You may also notice on the new flowchart that everything is a lot more basic, DC = CON, P:DC = PCON, M:DC = QUA, etc. The complexity of the old chart was deemed overkill and we just decided to make life easier. This is also to reinforce the point that if you want to get your GLS and DJM you shouldn't feel compelled to have to join the DC, you can manage that just fine as a CON (look at Halc just now!). This might just be more of a pet hate of my own, but I generally dislike the way good CONs end up on the DC even though their services might be better rendered to their Clan, so hopefully this change will encourage more people to stick at the QUA->PCON-~>CON road, and in doing so help improve their Clans, than try and fast-track it to the DC with a P:DC post. The DC might be a good way to get rewarded, but so is CON, and its about time we started recognising CONs on the same level as the DC.
And... that's about it.
Welcome back to the era of Goat-length posts. I did warn you :P
Great information from the Deputy Grand Master, nice work Xanos.
So, looking at the new organizational chart, that means PCON, QUAs and AEDs are now Dark Summit? Does that mean I have to read all that new email? :P
That just means the chart doesn't show everything :P
The best way to look at the chart is in three levels:
Level 1: DC and CONs. The "voting body" of the Dark Council.
Level 2: P:s, TRIBs and PCONs. The "advisory body" of the Dark Summit.
Level 3: M:s, TRIB staff and House Summits. The "non-advisory body" of the Dark Summit.
Effectively everyone on one of the three levels gets the same rights as everyone else on the same level, unlike the old chart where, say, CONs could vote but P:s could, even though they were on the same level.