[GM] #2: Council Structure Changes

Greetings all!

So, this has certainly been a week. We've had the sunsetting of a literal icon of the Brotherhood with Howie stepping down from Master-at-Arms in the most dramatic of fashions: by killing the position itself.

That was not on the bingo card. In fact, it's not the only shake-up this week.

When I was nominated for Grand Master, one of my stated actions in the first year was to review our leadership structure. This was further reinforced by concerns that came up in the questions I received during that period. Prior to this week, the Council stood at almost its maximum Covenant allowed size. Meanwhile, we have only 7 Consuls. That put us in a position where votes could be convened and the Council could more or less dictate the result, requiring only two Consuls to "cross the aisle" and vote alongside us to make it pass. That is hardly a majority of the individuals that are supposed to represent member interest.

And that's important to note. Councillors often stand amongst but apart from our standard member experience. As someone who's been at this level for a long time, I find I put more effort into trying to keep grounded than in naturally experiencing it. Because if we grow too detached we'll start making decisions that harm more than they help.

But I digress. Initially, in this review, we identified two positions that were perfect candidates for a restructuring. What do I mean by this? Well, namely that you don't need a Council position to do Council-level work. In fact, there are positions made just for that: Tribunes. Previously (and as stated by the Wiki that had to be updated to reflect that Tribunes can serve other positions in the Brotherhood structure) Tribunes served Grand Masters directly, acting as elevated GM Staff essentially. What makes a Councillor different is that they have Covenant mandated tasks as well (including but not limited to Votes and running Vendettas). This means split attention and an expanded scope beyond the task they've been given, which is critical and important.

Now, MAA was the first position that we identified. When we brought it to Howie, his reaction was swift and immediate. He called BS on making it a Tribune when it could just die its final death instead. And he was right, of course. My argument was the importance of a gut check to stand as a voice of reason against GM overreach. He called me stupid (as is the Bear way) and that DGM is just as capable of disagreeing with the GM. And so, the DGMAA (I hate and love this so much). I want to once again thank Howie for everything he has done. It was with mixed feelings that we processed his transfer and the deprecation of the position.

That leads us to the second identified position.

The Emissary of the Brotherhood is a critical position in my mind, with its focus on outreach and retention. When Bubba created it as a Council position, the thought was that having it as a member of the Council would naturally show how important we value the position. And that hasn't changed. But with the goal of increasing the voice of Consuls (and our members as a byproduct) in the highest level of decisions in the Brotherhood, that symbolic position is at odds. Reducing the Council by these two positions leads to requiring a majority of Consul agreement for votes. Erinyes has been incredibly graceful in this regard, and I can't thank her enough for making a difficult discussion easy, and not recoiling from this.

The staff was already being reduced with Siv having to step away from Praetor, leaving Erinyes and Kora. We will be moving Emissary into a Tribune position reporting directly to the GM. Within the staff itself, Erinyes will be focusing entirely on retention (that means getting as many of our new joins to JM4 as possible) and will be the annoying angel (or devil?) on the Consul's shoulders working with them and our other officers to ensure clear and understandable pathways to full membership and our offerings. Kora will be continuing to focus on our social media systems where they have proven themselves already adept. Expect more social campaigns involving our member content in the future.

I look forward to what the re-focused Emissary can do going forward. Retention itself is so important to me, as without new perspectives and new members, this place will age out alongside the rest of us. I feels it in my bones.

Erin has my confidence and trust to go forward, a missile homing in directly on our most critical members.

Thank you all.