American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

As many of you know, the DOR is currently down. I emailed Ernie Sands a few days back but have yet to hear back. The DOR is a great tool that we have used for a very long time. I am hoping it will be fixed and be back online soon. In the meantime, carry on as best you can. Right now we are simply in a holding pattern.

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

<Salute> Sir,

Thank you and noted

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Karl McEntegart
Major General
Officer Commanding
Army of Tennessee





Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.

Thank You

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LT. COL. R.T Coyne
7th Brigade 4th Division" Coyne's Cavalry Rangers"
1st Corp Army of Northern Virginia

Yes it has been out for quite some time now. I know someone is working on it based on emails I have received but this is a critical communication tool for the club which needs to rectified sooner than later. Here is the message you get when you try to access the DFoR:

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Gen. Bill Schwartz
aka Blackrobe
1st Division, I Corps
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

If there ever needs to be any help with a re-write or other things web related, I can attempt and help out. I've got 8 years experience working with web apps

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Lt Keller
3rd Brigade
4th Division
5th Corps
AotP

From Scott Ludwig in his email on the 14th: "Ernie is still recovering from his shoulder surgery, so it's been slower for him to reply."

Please remember to pray that Ernie recovers fully from that and has full use of his shoulder.

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Optional Rules I Use in WDS ACW Games:
(by column from left to right)
Column 1: All ON except for Man. Def. Fire; Column 2: All ON except for Alt Fixed Unit Rel.; Column 3: All ON except for Art.Capt. & Prop.Op.Fire

Had a partial shoulder replacement when I was 62 so if it's something like that that's a couple weeks in a sling or brace with therapy to keep it moving then several months of therapy to restore full function.
I was in a sling that kept my arm against my chest for several weeks, not allowed to drive or take it off except to shower and for therapy.
Was off work for 2 months then on light duty for another 3 months as mine was a work related injury and that was my left shoulder, I'm right handed.
If it's Ernie's dominant arm then he could have it in a sling for a couple weeks, a torn rotator cuff repair is similar as my little brother went through that in his 50's.
Ernie was CO of the AotO when I joined and he mentioned he was a DI when I was a recruit at PI he's a few years older than me and I'm 74.
So we could be looking at a month without the DoR unless someone else has access.

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Gen. Ken Miller



The McKeesport Union Guard

3/1/II
Chief of Staff
AotP

Nothing new to report about the DOR. Ernie Sands is the Admin of the DOR but he is currently MIA. I am sure many of you are thinking, "why is there only one admin?" Well, the answer to that is very long and complicated and I am probably not the right person to answer it. But because nobody can get under the hood of the DOR site... there is nothing that we can do. We are searching for answers but so far we've hit dead ends all around. When I say "we," I mean pretty much every admin person in the Club (and even from other clubs and former members) and not just the Cabinet.

The good news is that the Club carries on. The DOR is a fun tool for recordkeeping but with or without it we still have the games and they are as fun as ever. And that's why we are here afterall.

If I get any news worth reporting I will post it here. In the meantime... all we can do is battle on.

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

The search for Ernie continues. We have numerous leads, addresses, names, and contact info we are trying. Hopefully Ernie is in good health and simply away from his PC for personal reasons at present. Beyond that... nothing new to report. Fingers crossed.

Battle on though.

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Gen. Blake Strickler
Confederate General-in-Chief
El Presidente 2010 - 2012

Gents,

Just to emphasise what General Strickler has said - everyone involved in 'management' here understands the importance of this issue & is working & sharing information to resolve this ASAP. I have a special call-out for General Dortch, whose dedicated efforts here on behalf of all of us have been extraordinary. Fingers crossed we will have a positive update soon.

All the best,

Tom

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Major General TW Marshall

ACWGC President 2022 - 2025

Commanding Officer, 2nd (Gator Alley) Division, Stewart's Corps, Army of Tennessee

Regrettably, I do not think that management does understand the importance of this issue. The issue is not that a dedicated Member responsible for a key part of the Club is unavailable. This issue is a matter of good governance.

A little over a year ago I wrote to one Cabinet Member saying:
"As discussed a long time ago in relation to Ernie and the DoR I think we need to have more than one person in the Club looking after key things. Otherwise, if Ernie (or another key person) gets hit by the proverbial bus the whole Club will suffer a loss of that key aspect [DoR in particular] and it will be a major blow to the good functioning of the Club. Just look at all the trouble following the loss of the CSA forums which has still not been fixed months after they became inaccessible."

Positions on Cabinet are not there for such members to award themselves fancy titles and to collect gongs for themselves and their friends. The positions are there for the good governance of the Club. The Cabinet exists to serve the members; not the obverse.
To rely entirely on one person to operate a key function of the Club and not have someone else available to do that task would be a colossal failure in management. To rely entirely on one 'machine' and not have a plan of operation should it fail would be a huge failure in good governance.

The DoR is critical to many basic functions of the Club including musters, promotions, medal determinations and, of course, to maintain accessible records of the games and their outcomes. Consequently, it was also extremely useful for a statistical analysis of games titles and the Membership itself.

Please tell the Membership that there is a plan and operating procedure in place should the DoR cease functioning and/or a key and dedicated Member be no longer available. What is that plan?

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

Paul,

You know as well as I do that this is a voluntary club. People do as much or as little as they care to. Nobody in 'management' has any kind of power to direct people to do things. We can & do ask nicely, but that's it. Some people share the means to access Club websites; some people don't. Neither one is right or wrong - it's just a different choice.

As it always is, the plan will be determined by canvassing the membership & seeing who is willing & able to do what to reactivate/renew the DoR. It really is that simple. As I said, people do as much or as little as they care to.

Everyone who serves on the Cabinet is doing so because they care about the ACWGC and the people in it. We will continue to do our best to navigate our way through this issue.

All the best,

Tom

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Major General TW Marshall

ACWGC President 2022 - 2025

Commanding Officer, 2nd (Gator Alley) Division, Stewart's Corps, Army of Tennessee

"by canvassing the membership & seeing who is willing & able to do what to reactivate/renew the DoR"

I don't recall the membership ever being canvassed. The trouble is that it's probably a bit late now. I understand that the DoR is an old (outdated) application so someone would need to be taught how to operate it. A replacement would probably cost a lot of money and it would be unknown whether or not the old data could be easily transferred even if that was an option.

There's not much that can be done about historical information if the DoR can't be reactivated. Out of curiosity I used the Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/) and was able to get the familiar page (https://web.archive.org/web/20240529150740/https://acwgcrecords.net/). It even let me enter my username/password. Naturally I then couldn't enter the DoR but got this (https://web.archive.org/web/20080625201857/http://www.acwgcrecords.net/login_process.cfm).

Pending reactivation of the DoR, or a replacement option, there needs to be some action taken now to record Member activities. The longer that no action is taken the more confused the situation will become.
This may have to be done by email. The trouble is that without the DoR I cannot access the email addresses for those under my command. Hopefully someone has a list. Commander emails can be published (in 'Closed to the Public' forums) so Members can submit their reports.
Here's some suggestions:
Games Completed
People need to note the relevant information (Scenario Details, Opponents, Turns Completed, Result) about games completed during the 'DoR Down' period. This information should then be forwarded up the command chain to be collated by those in charge of armies (or their nominee).
Musters
Brigade Commanders can email their muster to Division Commanders. Division Commanders then collate those results and convey them to Corps Commanders and so on up the line.

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Paul Swanson
Lieutenant-General
First Division
First Corps
Army of Northern Virginia

[/quote]

What did saying this constructively achieve? Did it make you feel better? This is as unhelpful as me replying to your following post that "division commanders should be active and communicating with their brigade commanders, not just in the role to display a fancy title and collect gongs for themselves. They shouldn't need the DoR to know the email addresses of the handful of people that they command."

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General Michael E. F. Barycki
Commandant, ACWGC Training Academy
4th Bde, 5th Div, XV Corps, Army of the Tennessee
https://blakeacwgc.wixsite.com/trainingacademy
http://www.civilwartees.com/

General Swanson.

I second Michael's question as to whether you feel better after you post arrogant, destructive and spectacularly presumptuous, righteous, and insultingly inaccurate statements about the motivation and dedication of the Club Cabinet.

The fact is that it has been long recognized that key systems of the Club need to have back up plans to deal with situations such as we face now with the DOR. General Sands has been contacted numerous times over the last several years with requests that he provide several trusted members with information regarding the location of the DOR data and the means to access that data in the event he was unable to do so. He quietly and persistently refused. It is that simple. As Thomas noted, we are presently turning over every stone to determine just what may have happened to Ernie.

In the meantime, your unsolicited and obnoxious commentary serves no useful purpose for anyone other than perhaps yourself.

Most sincerely,

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Walter A. Dortch
Commanding -/4/V AotP
UA Cabinet Secretary
UA Operations Officer
UA Wolverine Team Leader