[COU] High Councillor Report #1: New Year, New Summit, New GDrive

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[COU] High Councillor Report #1: New Year, New Summit, New GDrive

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Greetings to all Odanites, our allies, and our enemies.

The last half of December and the first half of January have been fairly busy, as you’ll read below. However, the dust has started to settle and I think you’ll see us settle into a rhythm as 2018 gets underway. I want to begin by thanking everyone, both members and summit, for helping me, Blade, and Ranarr make a smooth transition into our new roles. I hope we’ll be able to repay the favor by serving the clan.

Anyway, without further ado...

The Velastari Temple by Maximus Alvinius.

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Odanite News

Changing of the Guard — As you’ve probably heard, we’ve recently gone on a bit of a hiring spree. Blade, aka Aura, has taken on the responsibilities of Proconsul, while Ranarr Kul-Tarentae has stepped in to her old shoes as RM. Both of them impressed me almost immediately with their dedication and energy. Blade, especially, deserves a lot of credit for the way she stepped up, first in hiring her replacement, and subsequently in dealing with the myriad of issues that popped up unexpectedly while I was out of town and unable to give them my full attention. It’s also worth noting that we had some fantastic applications for both positions, showcasing the breath of COU’s talent and our members’ eagerness to pitch in. Everyone who applied has my sincere thanks.

Praxeum Library Opens — At Ozosi’s suggestion, I’ve been working on setting up a repository for member art and fiction, as well as official fictions going back to the HOU days. Previously, if you wanted to see more of a member’s work, you either had to bug them and make them dig through their personal archive, or stalk their competition history to see what was made public. Not anymore. Everyone, welcome to the COU Holocron. That link allows you to view the entire archive, and it’ll be accessible from the clan page on the roster. Additionally, members will be given edit access to their own folders for art and fiction as I continue to roll out access. To give you a quick tour:

  • Art — Each member will have their own folder to show off their artwork.

  • Member Fiction — Likewise, each member will have their own folder to show off any fiction they’ve written.

  • Official Fiction — This includes official clan and house fictions, the official fictions for the club-wide New Order and GJW XII arcs, and legacy material from House Odan-Urr.

  • Resources — This is where things like the updated Lore Guide will live Soon(™).

Tython Squadron Takes Off — Satele Shan’s new battleteam, Tython Squadron, has gotten off to an exceedingly strong start. They’re currently the largest team in the club, and on the heels of an incredibly successful inaugural event, Tython is heading into a co-op event with Arcona’s Battleteam Nighthawk.

A New Generation Rises — December and January have so far seen a stunning four knightings. Everyone congratulate Zeline, Hyle Alihandross, Ozosi Vym, and Plaid Sadira!

It’s Raining Bling! Hallelujah! — The post-war roundup saw a massive amount of promotions and awards. Here are a few of the highlights:

Odanites at Work — Everyone give a big thanks to Esca for two years of service as Praetor to the Herald. But even as Esca moves on to some well-deserved rest, Ozosi has embarked on a new career as the docent for the Leadership, Law, and Communication department within the Shadow Academy.

Len, Tamashi, Alethia, and Edgar by TycheTamara

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Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom

TLJ Spoiler Ban Ends — The official, club-wide spoiler ban for The Last Jedi ends today. If you haven’t seen it yet, and you care about spoilers, browse Telegram and the clan mailer at your own risk! However, to err on the safe side, make sure to wait until the channel’s ‘no spoilers’ tag is removed.

Out with Pazaak, in with Hearthstone — You may have noticed that Pazaak.org went down in December, and hasn’t been back since. Drac has contacted the site admin multiple times to no avail. This left the club without a free, multiplatform option for quick and casual gaming. Per the latest work from Drac, Blizzard’s game Hearthstone is now a supported platform to fill that void. See Drac’s report for details.

The Scimitar of Lord Hoth, by Ozosi Vym

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Ask Arch

Edgar Drachen asks: since taking over the big chair are there any big changes you plan to make and what have been the biggest challenges so far?

The biggest change that I think will impact the average member is a return to regular clan and house events. These used to come out in a pretty steady rhythm, but 2018 got eaten by the Taldryan co-op event, ACC prelims, and GJW XII itself, plus a lot of ’hurry up and wait’ downtime where summit members didn’t feel comfortable launching an event that might be shoved to the side by something further up the food chain.

Currently, Tython Squadron and Nighthawk over in Arcona have a joint BT event coming. The Wildcards are running a BT run-on. As those wrap up, there are some house events in the works for February. A clan event for March is in the early stages of planning. After that, I suspect folks will be ready for a bit of a break, but we’ll see how things go.

Maximus Alvinius asks: theoretically speaking if COU grows very large over the next few years how many Houses do you think would be a maximum viable for CON level to run if participation numbers were well before possibly expanding to a 2nd light side clan opening. I know it’s not now, but growth could continue with the new movies and light side influence.

Fun fact: we’re not the only light side clan around. Taldryan’s allowed lighties since the launch of the new paths, it’s just much less prominent in their culture. As far as I know, there won’t be a new clan opening anything soon, and even if one does pop up, we’ll continue to be the only Jedi clan.

As for the houses, I don’t expect that we’d ever hit more than a CON can manage unless we’ve got some duds in house leadership. I interact with members from the whole clan, but I don’t have to manage them, evaluate them for awards and promos, mediate personal disputes, etc. For now, Hoth and Shan have it covered. I won’t rule out opening a third house down the line, but that sort of thing requires some serious thought.

Turel asks: What are your primary goals for COU for 2018 and what can the membership do to help us reach those goals?

COU has been a great place to be a member ever since I joined in 2015. However, we’re truly exploded in the past year, first in becoming the largest clan, and then in seizing the title of First Clan despite some serious competition. What I want us to do in 2018 is to keep that vibrant spirit going.

What can members do to help? Mostly what they’re already doing. Participate in competitions, plug competitions, run competitions. Be present in Telegram. Stay on the lookout for ways to help your fellow members, whether it’s proofing an ACC post, helping them bounce around ideas for character development, or just being there with a kind word. Be the kind of member you want to see in COU.

Turel asks: Thoughts on having a clan location outside the Kiast system, like a station, fleet HQ or something that could serve as a point of interaction with other DB characters. A place outside the Kiast plot armor.

The particulars are up in the air, but I definitely agree that COU needs a place that’s not hidden behind an impenetrable nova of space elves. Boatloads of Sith shouldn’t be tooling around on Kiast, but at the same time we need a place to interact with the rest of the club. There’s actually a platform in our clan positions that’s earmarked for this, but obviously it needs some work. I’m open to suggestions.

Mord asks: is there any projects that I can contribute to?

One of the items on the to-do list is to develop a nice list of projects that I can use to answer this question. I asked the house summits to starting pulling things together at their level, and Blade, Ranarr, and I will be doing so with clan-wide material. Keep an eye out for announcements.

In the Next Report

  • Odan-Urr’s follow-up to the closing fiction for GJW XII

  • News about our first clan event of 2018

  • Sexy and exciting opportunities for project work

Alethia Archenksova
High Councilor, Odan-Urr

Outstanding report! So excited for COU in 2018. I'm looking forward to the fiction archive even though I'm ashamed of most of mine :p I'll dig some up to share.

Pretty good stuff on the horizon for the Clan. I'm excited to see where we can continue to go and rise to in terms of growth as a Clan.

A great report! :) Looking forward to more from the Clan!

Oh, dat art.

I'm not sure how Esca managed to last X months as P:HRLD. :P

Congrats to your new Summit. Blade will make an outstanding PCON and Ranarr is incredible. I imagine COU will continue going strong in 2018.

Woohoo! Stuff and things. Love the art.

TLJ Spoiler Band Ends

Oh man, I heard that band was great in the 90's.

Next time remind me to ban comments. :P

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