[CSP] An Old Man's Annual Review

2021/12/24, 4:45 AM, Consul - Clan Scholae Palatinae

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Consul Report #3

Holonet - Sithmas Time is Here
Recognition - Rebuilding the military
Annual Review - A year in perspective
Collaborative Conversations - Inquires from the front
Next Steps - What comes next

Kamjin was positively beaming. He stood behind a new magnificent desk that took up the better part of his office. He bent over, stretching with the wood polish, to buff the wood to a radiant shine. The sun through the window reflected off the surface causing Raleien to squint as he watched the Emperor work.

"Raleien, my Sithmas gift came early from the local governors. It's an amazing word of art. I bet you couldn't guess what type of work this is," Kamjin said, as he scooted his way over to continue polishing.

"Looks to be oak, sir," Raleien answered, while shuffling the various datapads the Emperor had refused to let touch his desk.

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"Nope, it's oak," Kamjin replied, obviously to the fact that Raleien had answered him. "This is a stunning work of art. I'd wager that not even Evant has a desk as nice as this one."

"I wouldn't know, Sir. Now, if you have a moment we've caught the bandits who made off with your previous desk," Raleien said, motioning to the guards to bring in the prisoners. The royal red clad guardsmen activated the door as four of his brethren marched in Thran and Rayne. Kamjin put away the polishing rag and stood up. The brilliance of the wood casting an odd glow under the glaring Emperor.

"You thought you'd get away with it. I want you to know I harbor no ill will. After all I have this glorious new desk to show for it, which I'm sure you don't have the ability to appreciate," Kamjin began, in a scolding voice.

"Looks like some type of oak," Thran deep panned back to his Emperor.

"You're wrong. It's oak," Kamjin responded before continuing on. "In the spirit of Sithmas I'll pardon you both. But let it be known that I won't be so generous next time," Kamjin motioned to the guards to release them.

Later that evening...

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A general reminder that CSP reviews activity on a quarterly basis. We've been consistent for the last two quarters in reviewing and recognizing people at the close of the quarter. There's still time to get your last minute Sithmas competitions in. I've also added a new recurring section below for key competitions going on.

Czarnian Knighted!

It is with great pleasure that I congratulate Czarnian on his recent knighthood. This is a major accomplishment for all members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood to reach the end of their Journeyman ranks. Since Czarnian joined us on October 19th of this year he's been a powerhouse of activity.

Below are just a brief summary of his key accomplishments.

47 Shadow Academy courses passed
06 Degrees earned
12 Crescents, including a Diamond Star one
375 Clusters

I couldn't be prouder of him. In addition, I'd like to recognize Thran Occasus-Palpatine for earning his first Scroll of the Master for successfully mentoring Czar.

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Thran Occasus-Palpatine & Rayne Dominance in Gaming

Scholae Palatinae has seen a resurgence of gaming activity over the last couple quarters. This activity has mostly been spearheaded by Thran Occasus-Palpatine and Rayne.

They are both sitting in the 1st and 2nd positions, respectively, for the GMRG Q4, 2021 leaderboard. I appreciate that they are always willing to tackle gaming for our clan members and for others.

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Paltinaeans Lead by Example

This year has seen quite a few opening occur within the Dark Council's Assistants. I'd like to take a moment and recognize all of our members who are pulling additional duties in helping all the members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood improve their experience.

Xantros - Magistrate to the Headmistress
Dek Iron'yikut - Professor of the Shadow Academy
Aldaric - Magistrate to the Fist and Professor of the Shadow Acadmey
Reiden Palpatine Karr - Magistrate to the Voice
Kamjin "Maverick" Lap'lamiz - Left Hand of Justice
Thran Occasus-Palpatine - Praetor to the Regent

I appreciate each of you taking the time to help the whole Brotherhood while still participating with us at the clan level!

TL:DR - Clan is doing great and we now have a credit goal!

For you brave souls who seek to read on, welcome to my deeper analysis of our performance wherein I speak towards our strengths and opportunities. I will lead off by thanking Alethia Archenksova who compiled a lot of this data and saved me the time of extracting and generating graphs myself.

I will not bury the lead, we've had a fantastic year. There are areas for growth and improvement yet there are no red flags that immediately cause me to be concerned with the course we've set for ourselves in 2022.

Please note this Data is from October, 2020 - November, 2021

Clan Size and Composition

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As of November, 2021 we were the 5th largest clan in the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. As I'll discuss next regarding participation I'm fine with a leaner clan given the participation ratio of our members. What I do see as an opportunity is helping to engage with our new recruits and progress them to Knighthood.

Participation

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As I alluded to above, while we have a leaner clan in terms of size, participation has been amazing! Starting in Mid-August we trend above average in raw competitions participated in, participating members (# of members), and percent of the clan participating in competitions.

What this means is that despite our size, in Q3, 2021 76.36% of all members participated in competitions versus the Brotherhood average of 71.79%.

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Now, coming out of that participation the above graphs show the ratio of members earning clusters. What you'll see is we exceed the average...dramatically...in total clusters earned. However, we trend closer to average on unique members earning clusters and only slightly above average for the % of the clan earning clusters.

This is not unexpected given the uptick in gaming that occurred in the last few months. I'll spare you the graphics specific to Clusters of Fire and Clusters of Earth as the above graphs are primarily driven by their activity.

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The above tables do a better job illustrating the next point, versus the graphs. To reiterate, while we are a lean clan in terms of total members, when we look at the impact we make, we're within the top 3 clans in most categories. Below are standings as of Q3, 2021.

2nd in Total Clusters of Fire
3rd in Total Clusters of Earth
2nd in Total Clusters of Ice
3rd in Total Clusters of Graphite

What this tells me is that we have a well rounded membership base engaging in multiple types of activities and we aren't skewing heavily in one direction or the other which would make new members feel like we're a 'one note' clan.

Leadership

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It's only fair to conclude with an assessment of myself and the other leaders within the clan. There are two key metrics we are looking at.

Competitions - How much activity do we generate for the clan
Awards - Volume and Timing of recognition going out

As I reflect upon competitions we've generated a lot of DJB wide competitions, from Xantros puzzles to Czar's Spot the Difference. Where we have an opportunity is generating more Scholae Palatinae specific competitions at both the Clan and House levels. I know Aldaric ran a House Acclivis Draco specific competition but with low participation numbers.

This will be an area of focus as we continue into 2022.

From an Award perspective this matches what I would expect of us implementing a quarterly review of activity for recognition. What you see in the graph is that following the close of a quarter there is an issuing of awards. Q1, 2021 spiked as we worked to catch-up on a backlog of individuals who had not been duly recognition in 2020.

Following this activity we trended at the same pace as the rest of the Brotherhood.

Conclusion

There's a lot to be proud of here and I want you all to know how much I thank each of you for taking the time out of your busy lives to participate with us here. Your contributions have contributed to our clan lore, the direction we're taking the clan in terms of closing out our previous story arc and building our new one, and have developed the quirky, fun, unique community that we call home.

I'll outline a bit more in the next steps section of this report.

Remember to log your questions at #Askkamjin within the Clan Scholae Palatinae Discord channel

What plans do you have to carry CSP into a new year and, potentially, the next Vendetta? And why am I the best? - Atra

I'm going to use this question to answer several questions I received. As I reflect upon CSP's participation, see above analysis, we have a great group of gamers, artists, and writers. While this is great for individual competitions (e.g., Cluster races, Write <prompts> story, or Create a graphic) we very rarely stray into the more complicated competition types.

As I reflect back upon this years Rite of Supremacy we struggled with co-op competitions (e.g., Run-ons) and the least utilized competition type, Battleplans. Which is a shame as we have a great group of individuals to write collaboratively with and, with the inclusion of Roleplaying into our activity base, Battleplans is a similar type of activity.

As such, going into the planning for the final arc of the Dark Times Saga we'll be incorporating some of these lesser utilized competitions into our clan activity. I'm especially focused on Battleplans being utilized now that we've reworked our Fleet and Legion to be a dynamic force equipped to tackle nearly all combat situations.

I hope you're all excited by the prospects of getting to play with our new toys.

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What kind of cookies do you put out for Sithmas? - Archangel

While it's not really the most exciting answer, sugar cookies with frosting.
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Are you excited for the RP and what problems do you think could possibly upset it? - Xathia

I am incredibly excited about the upcoming Roleplaying activity. For those who aren't aware, it's slated to start after the New Year lead by Xathia. Look for updates in #tt-clickity-clack-math-rocks our dedicated roleplaying channel on Discord. Xathia will post preview activities in tt-ooc-chat.

I recently participated in a pilot session lead by Marick Tyris Arconae (aka Wally) that was some of the most fun I've had engaging with my character. I haven't roleplayed (e.g., tabletop) in decades and I immediately felt like I was back in my bonus room rolling dice.

Of course, my rolls were...well, there's a gif that explains it.

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In terms of what could possibly upset it, I'd reply with it will come down to expectation setting. We're across time zones and there may be lulls in activity between spurts of great activity. We need to make it inviting to those who choose to participate and work in such a way that if someone misses a day they're able to leap right back in and keep up with the group.

What are your thoughts about the new Artifacts system? - Raleien

First, if you're not aware of what's happening I recommend you take a moment to read the following reports.

Alright, did you all read up on those reports? Excellent, then don't forget to read the new Artifact Policy.

Artifact Policy

Well now, caught up on all of that? Let's continue on to answering the question.

I like it...

I can't leave it like that. I'll bucket my response into two categories.

Planets, Moons, and Installations - This is a great contribution to evolving the possession system into true world building. This opens a great opportunity for clans to move from just building fleets and armies to making tangible the wealth and infrastructure of the planets we control. I'm excited to see what comes into the stores in the future and how we can progress through the Dark Times Saga to controlling our system and demonstrating that control with various installations.
Artifact Policy - Scholae Palatinae already has a head start on this with our new story arc focusing on seeking out and gathering Force sensitive objects. This possession system enhancement will allow us to make those artifacts into tangible assets for the clan to manage and potentially wager with other clans in upcoming competitions. I promise you I'm doing everything possible to make the Dreaded Holocron of Pantlessness become a real possession of ours!

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This was asked as a question a couple times and I'm incorporating it as a standing section of my reports going forward.

Clan Scholae Palatinae Competitions

It's Sithmastime Again, CSP

Competitions by Scholae Palatinae Members

Spotlight Competitions

Following my last report...well, we're broke(ish) in terms of credits. While we have ~$842M in total assets we only have $1.6M available to spend. For puzzles a week, you could be contributing to the clan being able to purchase a brand new, Immobilizer 418-class Heavy Cruiser.

For the low low price of $49.5M credits. I'll be discussing with Thran in the coming weeks what threshold we should be striving for.

Keep in mind, this isn't enforcing mandatory participation quotas or anything like that. The clan is still a participate as you like as you can type arrangement. What you'll see is me being transparent with our funds, our goals, and what competitions are low level of effort to help contribute to our funds.

As I wrap my last report for the year, I want to reiterate how proud I am in all the members of Scholae Palatinae. This has been an amazing year full of so much fun and excitement. I hope you're all as eager as I am to welcome 2022!

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