Saxons,

I want to start this report by giving credit where it’s due. Thank you to the Clan Summit for their faith in me by selecting me as Battleteam Leader. They’ve put a great deal of trust in myself, and I hope to use this position to the betterment not just for the Battleteam - but the whole of the clan as we set our sights on growing ourselves and reaching the goal of becoming the clan’s second house. It’s bold to think the smallest unit in the club could impact so many individuals, but as I hope you come to see: I believe that Battleteams can be the most important units in the club.

A brief introduction of myself, I have been a positioned member of several different tiers of this club. And while each of them has a certain amount of duty and responsibility attached to them, there will also be an increasing amount of distance placed between the membership and the positioned leadership. While the mark of a good leader is making sure that they are connected with all those in their charge, each step up the tiers makes it a harder reality. When you have five members under your charge, you can commit more time to each individual compared to being responsible for fifty people. Especially when we all serve in a volunteer, part-time capacity.

This is why the Battleteam Leader position is so important.

The position of Battleteam Leader offers a frontline approach to serving the membership. It is a bridge between membership and positioned leadership, and it has the dual nature of being responsible for encouraging the membership and sharing with the summits what direction the membership wants to take. This is why I personally believe it shouldn't be a junior role, but this is my personal belief - and not reflective in club wide structure. Nonetheless, this is how you can expect my term as Battleteam Leader to be run - I encourage you to use me as your confidant, your advocate, your Ace in the hole. I'm here to be the first responder of your engagement in the club and it's my hope to build a small community around this concept and encourage other teams to develop this way. But more on that later…

Moving forward I hope to use my experience and passion for this position to create a staple under the Vizsla banner, however, I certainly can’t do this myself. You may have noticed I referred to summits as positioned members or leaders. This isn't an accident. The most important thing to know about my views and leadership beliefs is that I view leadership as being more than just a position as Battleteam Leader, Quaestor, or Consul. People can be leaders without a title, just as there can be positioned members who aren’t in fact leaders. Obviously, the second should be the avoided but more importantly; the first should be encouraged, celebrated, and promoted. Despite being a growing club, there is only going to be a finite amount of positions but that shouldn’t prevent people from contributing to the unit, making a name for themselves, or creating merit and consideration for the next time they are up for promotion/or a position opens up.

It shouldn’t be all about the positioned members.

I can’t stress that enough. While we do have to recognize the contributions that a positioned member makes, they really are a minority in the club. So our themes, our lore, our activities, and our commitments should be to the membership as a whole. Yet, we can’t do that if the membership isn’t involved in the conversations. Going forward; know that I wish to hear from you, know that I want to help empower you, but also know I need to count on you to share what you are looking for. It really is a two-way street, and I will help share the road so long as you guys attempt to drive on it.

That said, we have a lot to go over and I’m known for my great length - and for writing long reports ;) - so let’s dive in & let’s do this together.

RK

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What this club means to me:

For the past ten years or so, I have gone by the name Raiju Kang. My real name is Brett, and before I rejoined the club as Raiju Kang; I was known as Warhunter back in the days of Clan Satal Keto and the early days of Plagueis. Over thirteen years ago, after my MSN Gaming Zone club, Corellian Knights (CK), disbanded; I was searching through the Battlestats.net (BSC) website looking for a new Star Wars club to join. For the previous four years I had been a top contender in Jedi Knight and through CK I learned of an earlier SW game; X-wing vs. TIE Fighter. These two games are what lead to my passion for all things Star Wars and they are what lead me to start reading the Expanded Universe, which in turn led me to begin writing fan-fiction. At the time I didn’t know there were clubs for this, but again as I was searching through BSC I found this funny image of Fox McCloud (the Nintendo character) with a lightsaber - likely which was an early concept design of our former Grand Master; Firefox.

I ended up going to the club it linked, found this amazing website with many different units (reminding me of the clubs TFA/TRA, who ran BSC), and discovered not only could I play my SW games but I could do fan-fiction with others as well. The concept blew my mind, I joined that day - being placed within House Kirleta of Clan Satal Keto. Within a week, there was this epic event known as a “Great Jedi War” and it was the first to be done in the DJB since some “Exodus”. The energy and hype lead to an incredible time and I was sucked in, there were nights I’d wait until my parents were asleep and then I’d sneak down to the family computer so I could participate - thanks DJB for keeping teenaged me at home and away from such things like drugs….or girls.

I like to think the above does well to pay homage to the Brotherhood that I started with and have since grown up with. This club isn’t just about Star Wars, or gaming, or writing fan-fiction. Often I speak to others about what we do here, and many just don’t get it. It can be a little bit hard to explain the value of pounding out dozens of matches of Jedi Academy, researching trivial pieces of lore, or staying up late to see if GJW scores have been posted - but these are just the surface activities of a hobby that has changed my life in many ways.

Since I joined the Brotherhood, I’ve;

• Taken lessons on a number of topics including conflict mediation, grammar studies, proposal writing, and programming
• Become knowledgeable about countries, cultures, and people from place I’ve never even travelled
• Developed my hard skills in areas like photoshop, MS office, computer sciences, and writing
• Developed my soft skills in areas like teamwork, communication, debate, and leadership
• Been educated on literature, class struggles, and social minorities - having first met an openly homosexual person through our chatrooms and learning about some of the struggles
• Developed myself personally as an individual; growing from a bratty, unworldly country boy to a mature, contributing member of society
• Developed myself professionally; first learning here many of the skills I use as a business consultant as well as an owner

I share all this because I think it is important to know who I am is not a matter of what screenname I go by, what unit I come from, or how many positions I’ve held in this organization. I’m a product of this organization as a whole, who has been bettered by the time I invested in this club. I believe in the product we put out, and think that our time invested in this club is meaningful.

At times this hobby has become dangerously close to a lifestyle for me, but whether you come here for entertainment, enjoyment, or even as an escape (as I did at times); there’s a common connection we share and something we hold with high value the outside world may never understand. This is why we are fitting of the term; brotherhood.

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My relationships with the club:

As I mentioned above, who I am goes far beyond what I have done in this club. For a complete understanding of me; my history can be found on my dossier or asking me since my time as Warhunter isn’t listed.

For those interested, I’ve served in every position from Battleteam Sergeant to Consul - and for most, multiple times. I’ve created successful, long standing Battleteams, founded a House, brought in new members and engaged them as Rollmaster, been both an Aedile and Quaestor of sub-unit houses, been Aedile of an independent unit, and lead separate units as Proconsul and Consul. I’ve also been a Professor for the Shadow Academy, a member of the Appeals Panel, and a mentor of several prominent members of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood - and have grown to call on these people as well as others as a mentor to myself.

Most importantly, I hold friendships with someone from every unit of this club. I like every unit, and don’t believe in the attitudes certain units have had in the past. I do believe every unit needs to have its own theme (not everyone can be [unit] Darkity-Dark) and this should be a recruitment tool. I believe the MAA staff has a standard to protect, and that’s for the betterment for the club; however, I also believe leaders have the responsibilities to insure their members are properly rewarded and must test these standards, respectfully. I believe the Shadow Academy’s importance is downplayed by some, and it’s potential has yet to be fully met. I think all the Seneschal/Herald/Regent teams are a luxury that no other club can compete with, and that some people have taken for granted. I’m glad to see the Fist and Voice replace the duties Order leaders had. And I think the Chamber of Justice is an imperfect system that is a requirement in our modern era.

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Who I am, personally:

I’m a thirty-three year old employment counsellor from London, Ontario. Additionally, my family and I have business ventures in winery and cider. Over five years ago, I developed a (thankfully, benign) brain tumour that has given me a lifetime label as epileptic. The struggle I had with this robbed me of previous jobs, many personal relationships, and prematurely ended my term as Consul. #seizuressuck

To connect back to why I think all this is important, and to justify the length of this section, I share all this because I believe my role is to head the development of our little community. It’s something we have to put into practice, so to better develop our little club within a club - I think it’s important to know why I find this place important, what I’ve done, what I believe, and who I am as an individual. As always, please feel free to connect with me if you want to know more and I encourage you all to learn from each other how we each stand on these topics. #FutureTriviaCompetition

Character Introduction

Touching on the last bit of who I am, I’d like to introduce you to my character; Raiju Kang. For almost the whole time being in the DJB, I have played as my current character. At times, I have attempted to try something new but I’ve always found myself going back to this character. Likely because I play him fairly close to heart in terms of personality. However, also because he is a character that helps me work through issues in a different capacity. It’s a weird connection we have, and I dream of a day I can make him an canon creature in the Star Wars universe ;) This is how I hope everyone plays their characters in some capacity. They may not be true to heart, but that they are a loved individual you have grown attached to in some way. And I encourage you to share with me what your character is like, going forward I hope to highlight what I learn above everyone’s character. #FutureTriviaCompetition

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The Situation

I want people to truly understand where we are coming from and what I hope to be addressing with the summit during my time as Battleteam Leader. To get a complete picture of what we will be working on (and to make good on my promises to several requests) I have made my application shareable and have included the link to it below:

Click Here for Raiju's Application

Feel free to check out my application, and of course; I encourage you to contact me and discuss it!

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For the past week, I have been busy with a lot of conversations. Not only has this been with current Battleteam members, but also with some curious folk from Wren. This is great, lots of interest and hype. I couldn’t be happier.

However, we need some action. I want the Battleteam to be well situated for becoming a House one day. I want us to have a concrete identity to trial against the coming storm and see if it weathers or is eroded; because a grand event like this is a good time to test concepts and themes. But before we get there, we have some clean up to do.

This in mind, here’s a breakdown on what we are working on and I’ve listed our top 5 priorities as a team:

1. Community Creation (Progress: 0/8)
   • Membership Survey to learn about members (Priority #1)
   • Gathering fictional interests & concepts (Priority #2)
   • Understanding these membership ideas for team (Priority #3)
   • Theme Development(Priority #4)
   • Lore Development
   • Increase Our Roster Size
   • Develop Ongoing Saxon-specific Competition Series
   • Create Rivalries with Wren to show how we are different and have fun with it
2. Lore Development
   • Establish Theme (See Priority #4)
   • Unit Fiction Update #1 - Explain how each member came to this shared community (Priority #5)
   • Motto Creation
   • Headquarters Creation
   • Saxon-specific points of interests
   • Wiki Articles (0/3)
     • Unit Article
     • Headquarters Article
     • Saxon Point of Interests
   • Project: Downton Abbey (See Raiju’s Application for hints)
3. Increase Roster Size
   • Establish Community
   • Develop Unique Theme (See Priority #4)
   • Develop Recruitment Campaign
   • Competition Planning

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Conclusion

As you guys can see from the list above, we have quite a bit to work on and hammer out. However, I hope to not be doing this alone. Over the next two weeks, I will be sending out a series of BT updates. These will address each of the priorities as we progress forward and develop our new team. For now, make yourself familiar with this introduction, the renovation list, and I highly encourage you to check out my application so you have a good understanding of where we are going with the team. Should you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding the material above, please contact me directly at [Log in to view e-mail addresses]

Warden Raiju Kang

Saxon Battle Team Leader