Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Gentlemen Officers of the NWC:

A recent investigation was concluded based on the suspicion that one of our members was operating under several separate identities within our club. It was conclusively proven that this was indeed the case. A vote was taken in the Cabinet to determine the level of disciplinary action to be taken against the officer in question. I made a personal argument to allow this officer one last chance to remain in our club, so long as he agreed to abide by the following conditions:

1. He would forego all multiple commissions now, and forever in the future, retaining only one by which he would be known.

2. He would use his real name for the commission that he chose to retain.

3. He would be limited to a maximum of three ongoing games within the club at any given time for a probationary period of six months. Should he maintain a consistent turnaround rate during this period so that his opponents are provided with the game play to which they agreed, consideration will be given to expanding the number of ongoing games that he can have at any given time.

My motion carried in the Cabinet by the very narrowest of margins, passing by a vote of 3 to 2. The alternate solution was immediate expulsion from the club.

My position in this matter is that I considered the officer in question to be overzealous and unwise in some of his decisions. I did not view his actions as being deliberately malicious, although they certainly did cause some problems within the club. The subject officer has been informed of the Cabinet’s decision and recommendations in this matter, and has agreed to abide by the restrictions placed upon him. He is fully informed and aware that any subsequent violations of these restrictions will result in his immediate expulsion from the club. I personally urge each of you to continue to play games with him, up to his limit, and not alienate him based on his past actions. What you personally choose to do is, of course, entirely up to you.

This particular issue has raised my awareness of a weakness in our administrative methods that would allow these multiple registrations to occur. As such, we have revised our methods to be better able to detect these types of actions in the future. We are still working on ideas that will tighten our security even further without adversely impacting any of the normal operations of our members who are properly acting within the parameters of our club rules. Anyone attempting such actions in the future is much more likely to be caught early in the process.

I have been made aware of officers in the past that used multiple registrations on both sides of the club to play fictitious games against their alter ego, thus allowing one officer to improve his battle record at the expense of the other. This is the type of action that I would consider to be malicious and highly disrespectful to all members of the club. I understand this was a big source of contention when it was discovered and exposed, as the subject officer in this case was quite senior and high ranking. Just so you know where I stand, this type of action will not be tolerated by me in the least. Any officer, and I do not care who it is, that is discovered to be acting in this manner in the future will be publically exposed, stripped of his rank and permanently expelled from this club. This is not the case of the officer in question in this posting. I just wanted you to understand my view of the differences in the level of offence and my attitude toward the appropriate remedial action to be taken.

Once again, I would encourage you to give Gary Whalen a last chance to make up for his former indiscretions. I find him to be an enthusiastic officer, albeit overzealous in his gaming commitments, and not a person who intentionally attempted to perpetrate harmful or disrespectful actions against the members of our club.

As this post is intended to be an announcement, and not a discussion, I am going to lock it so that it cannot become a discussion. If any of you would like to express your opinions in this matter, I would encourage you to do so in a separate forum thread. As my office is the only elected position in the club, I highly value the input of the members who so kindly elected me to this position. I always want to hear what you have to say as I fully realize that my job is to work for you. I am sure that, although appointed rather than elected, the other members of the Cabinet share my view. A club, any club, is nothing without its members. Each of you is very important to us.