Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

And semantics are everything.
The words may request are not the same as can demand.

I for one believe that these new rules for determining active member status will affect around 5 - 10% of the club total membership (feel free to triple check my estimations which is off the top of my head and based on my knowledge of LGA musters over the last several years, and what was learned during the club wide muster last year).

When I joined the LGA several years ago the armee conducted monthly musters.
For every one of those musters Corps Commanders and Division Commanders, and HQ staff were sending out emails multiple times per muster to members (and I use the word as loosely as possible) who it turns out have not had a game registered as active in years, and have not logged into the forums in years!

Yet for years we have been chasing them down, over and over.
There was obviously a lack of standard procedure for how to deal with such members for a great length of time, but I am glad to say that the LGA has begun to take steps to resolve this issue.

I believe it is time for there to be a club wide standard procedure - when it comes to determining deactivating a membership - so that all is fair and equal as it were.

The current rule that I am aware of concerning active membership for those of Regimental Commanders (all members below Brigade Command): Rule 3.1.6 states that RC must report regularly to BC (or Brigade Commander).

Now, how much do you want to bet that nearly everyone in the club is in violation of this rule?
For the record, when I joined the LGA I couldn't get my Brigade Commander or Division Commander to respond to me when I was attempting to follow this proscribed procedure.

This frustrating experience led me to form my own organization of officers, Tirailleurs et Dragons!, and well the rest of that story is club history in the making.

Regards,

One of the issues I think is that there are different types of people in the world. There are literalists who follow each rule to the letter of the law. There are also people who can see meaning behind what is written or observe the same sentence differently. There are also casual people who care not for every word as like it is written in gold. There are the flexible who try to make things work every which way to fit the masses. There are the non-participants, who just sit on the side lines. There are the observers, who watch what is happening but don't say anything. There are the vocal and the silent majority. There are a whole host of others too. These traits can either be accentuated or diminished in an online world.

So Todd, you are right, semantics is everything.

Each of these people in their own right add value of some sort to our organization. An example from another club, a positive one mind you. A guy over there is a huge, huge part of keeping things going. He has multiple hats and has done so for many years. But he isn't front & center, he isn't vocal and he hasn't run for a elected position ever. But yet he still adds value to the organization.

I've seen long time members come back and provide years of experience into an organization again. I've seen new members make great new additions and turn around an organization. I've seen people fizzle out over a cause. I've seen people go gang busters for a handful of years and then never heard from again. I've seen the casual member still coming back after 10 years......

We all violate the rules probably more often than we realize. But to try to fit people into categories and start enforcing them will only cause harm.

When I was in the Prussians and when I first started doing admin work for them I was aggressive about discharging people. But I found out quickly how much of a revolving door that became. I had one instance, where I finally remove someone and they'd pop up a month or three later, multiple times. It became less paperwork for me to leave them on the rolls, as long as I heard from them a couple times a year than to remove them. All I asked after a while was just to let me know they were around when I asked. We had guys serving overseas in the military, one guy was a police officer in Germany and busy as all get out, a few were students, some were professors, some were globe trotters, some were members who really were still interested, even expressed playing games again, but had too many real life issues. Some got married and had kids. Some had newer demanding jobs. Many had financial issues and needed to focus on those. I used to hold musters quarterly in the good years. Then reduced, due to my own real life demands, to twice a year and sometimes once a year. I could predict the results every time as I knew exactly where people were from the last one. A few would surprise me and come show up from being dormant, some would hag up the hat. But I heard from everyone. Sure I chased a few folks down each time, but it also got some good guys to come back. I realized it was better to keep that vital link and than lose it. You lose it, you lose an audience about what you are doing. When I mailed out the Newsletters for the Armee, I would start to hear from people again and they were glad to hear from me. Some old timers would even chip in a war cry for the whole Armee to hear, just to raise morale a bit. But everyone always appreciated how flexible we were and how understanding we were.

5-10% may not seem like a lot, but that's pretty much 20 members. That's 20 people who will no longer hear any message from us, no voice at all. You want to know how long it can take, some years, to get 20 members back??

Just so that everyone understands here...

To deactivate a person in our DoR System only requires that you push one button. The officer records remain intact in our database. To reactivate the same person takes simply another push of the same button.

Our forum system works exactly the same, and all prior posts are kept intact.

A person who is 'Inactive' in both of these accounts can still read our public forums where most of our posting activity occurs.

A person who is 'Inactive' still has the same email addresses for all his buddies that he has ever known in our club.

A person who is 'Inactive' can still hit the 'Contact Us' link on the NWC Homepage to contact the Club Administration just like anyone else.

A person who is 'Inactive' can also submit a Recriutment Form with a request for reactivation in far less than five minutes whenever they are feel they have some time to become active in our club again.

A person who is 'Inactive' is neither dead, nor gone, nor abandoned. They are simply 'Inactive'. A person who has not played a game in literally years is already inactive, whether we have pushed those two buttons on their account or not.

Every time the French perform a muster using our forums, it causes a lot of additional work for me. Can you guess why? Because many of those officers who have been carried on the roles for so long without actually being here cannot remember their forum passwords. I am constantly having to reset them so that they can muster.

We have gone to great lengths to create special webpages that honor the members who have significantly contributed to our club in the past. In the French Army, there is a special wing in the Hotel d' Invalides for these men. In the Anglo-Allied Army, it is the Retirement Castle. In Prussia, it is Valhalla. These men are not forgotten. They are instead honored. These men are not buried either. They are all eligible to return when, and if, they are able to find the time to be active again. We are not disrespecting them in any way. They are honored.

Now, I am not going to stand on a soapbox and engage in a lot of rhetorical speech in the hopes of whipping you fellows up into a frenzy. I am not going to render my post in bold text, oversized fonts, or vibrant colors in an attempt to sway your perception. I am simply going to tell you the honest facts of the matter in a calm manner so that you may truly gain a better understanding of how our club actually operates.

It is your club, guys. All it will ever be is what you make it to be. Don't follow the herd, and certainly don't bow down to the Cabinet, or to me. Think for yourselves. Be sure that you have the actual facts, and make your own decisions. Decide for yourselves what you really want your club to be, and then make it happen!

What would the consequences be of declining said request?
Trying to impose what I feel are intrusive regulations on people that you have no legal power over(other than they volunteered to join a club and play games and role play a bit) may backfire in the long run. This "monster" is growing and will reach a saturation point where it will just turn people off. We need order and good sense, not an ever increasing rules manual.

_________________
Maréchal d'Empire Paul Johnson
1er Escadron de Régiment de Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
1ère Brigade
Cavalerie de la Garde Impériale
Réserve
La Grande Armée

Salute!

Captain Noble wrote:

Trying to impose what I feel are intrusive regulations on people that you have no legal power over(other than they volunteered to join a club and play games and role play a bit) may backfire in the long run. This "monster" is growing and will reach a saturation point where it will just turn people off. We need order and good sense, not an ever increasing rules manual.

Actually this club and any other club has legal power over it's members. The club has rules and members are responsible for following the rules.

For examples, in my few years in the club I have seen the Cabinet enforce it's legal authority over the membership in the case of a member caught using multiple false identities, of a member who was cheating in his games (including club sponsored tournament), as well as numerous threads/posts in the forums locked or deleted because the writing therein was found to be rude towards other members.

I would hazard to say that 90 -95% of the membership are in compliance with the rules as proposed. We are talking about the small number who having volunteered to join a club have decided to not make use of it for their own reasons for periods of 6 months to years on end - without having the courtesy of informing the club to which they belong that they are taking a break or leaving for good or don't know when.

Seriously, we are talking about a simple email at any point in time to let the club administration know what is going on. This club and the games we play rely on email or other internet usage.
If a person is unable to do so, for whatever reason, for literally years on end...

I find it patently absurd to think that someone can join a club such as this and at some point disappear for any great length of time only to come back with the expectation that their user name, rank and assigned regiment position is just there like when they left it.

They can certainly come back and rejoin the club - probably have the same user name, but not necessarily rank and certainly not necessarily their former regiment.

Mark Jones clearly demonstrated in a post above that we are talking about pushing buttons to activate/de-activate a membership.

Regards,

Hi Scott, I think you forgot one category: the french !

I have to say that I do agree with Paul, Jeff and Scott on this "active" duties. I can see from my own experience that I could fall on these criterias and be removed as an active officer for some time. The free time I have, I try to dedicate it to my games (and I know it is very frustrating to my opponents to wait for my turn ...) and sometimes I would not have any game on going because I dont have time and I dont want to start something just to send a turn per month. OK, I could ask to be "re-activate" but not sure I will like to do this on regular basis.
What we all want I think (and what perhaps is missing here) is to increase the number of people attending the club. If I want to join and see the rules are very strict and feel like being too much under pressure for duties, I would probably not join this club.

Now that being said, I respect you guys for driving this club and trying to improve it on daily basis.
Just my point of view.

Al, if your comment was for me, yes I have read the rules. I have even printed them and read carefully and I think even if my english is not perfect I am able and old enough to understand the meaning

For the likes of Christophe, how about a provision where the member can let someone know via emai or a post that he will be out of pocket for a while and not be inactivated?

_________________
Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

Haha, yes Christophe how could I forget....

I think simply if a muster reply via email/forum or contact with ones commander when asked where their whereabouts are should be enough. As it stands right now someone has to comply to this rule for being considered active via the forums and a muster reply doesn't count:

Any officer that consistently places four informative or entertaining posts a month (i.e. one per week) will be considered an ‘active’ officer.

Who decides what informative and entertaining is?? Also note it has to be done consistently.

Also there are really only 3 out of 5 for your average member to be considered active. Maintains our Club, or Army, Webpages, Designing New Napoleonic Game Titles and Playtesting New Napoleonic Game Titles is for a very privileged class of people. About 3-5% of the membership qualifies for this from just a rough estimate in my head.

If you want to clean off the rolls, you need have a proper system to do so. Typically a good rule of thumb is allow for at least one year of no activity AND no contact with the person. The commanders should make every effort to follow up with the person. Commanders serve the members and these have been some of the duties performed by them over the years. You can even delegate a clerk or someone who's task is to do that. The CSA in the AWCGC did that for a while.

While we are on the issue of Commanders, when I define commanders I mean from Cabinet all the way down to Brigade Commander. The leadership has to actively engage the members and on a routine basis. It shouldn't be assumed or expected that members are paying attention all the time. We all have real lives to deal with. If you don't routine engage your membership via direct email, all the forum posts, congratulations, chatter and sabre cry is useless at a certain level. Leaders have to lead. A successful army is one that the leadership engages the members on a routine basis. I know if Bill Peters was here (and I am sure he is reading this, "Hi Bill. Hope you are well!" ) he would argue till he turns blue in the face that you have to regularly contact your men, even just to say hi hope all is well. If you're just some name that mass emails them once a year or so, you are not a recognized entity possibly. You have to establish relationships with your men and the members of the Club. When you establish good relationships than the potential for positive replies goes up.

Why do you think I always did custom emails on top of forum announcements?? Because it was direct to the officer who received the honor, it praises them, it recognizes them directly, it shows you know who they are, it is personal for them and for you, it might garner a good response, it shows we respect and value the time of our members. Every time you thank the officers under your command, personally and directly, they gain a better feeling of being a part of something. They may not let you know it, but quite a few do. But you have to build that relationship.

Another example. I do a lot of work for the Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC) our sister Club. Last year I assumed a lot of new duties on top of what I already had. I started actively engaging the membership in semi-routine emails, updates, Newsletters et al, Club wide. I had approval from the other commanders to do so. Folks hadn't heard much for sometimes years from much of anyone. Well what were the results, people who knew me already started to engage with me, after couple of times of doing it folks who were dormant started to engage too, telling me about them, asking what was the latest, stuff like that. We also did/still are running a open format tournament to get the members involved, it has gone generally well. Members who were quiet for years started to come back and engage with the leaders and other members. We thanked them for it, for their time, kept things positive and encouraging and got really good results. I have been preoccupied a bit lately, things have slowed up a bit, but each month I gather up all the names on the list of those who have played games and I thank them all by name in an email. People do appreciate it.

Also people appreciate when you are sympathetic to their hard times. Even as a stranger, it is nice for people to hear. Someone is long term ill, issues at home, having issues with money or the stress of a job, what have you. They are going to get a bad image if you just say oh well and kick them form the rolls. But if you are sympathetic to them, willing to understand and say, "Hey I know what you mean, we'll be here when you are doing better. If you can, when I check in on you, just answer back and let me know and all will be fine." That goes a long way and it shows you respect them and value their time.

So I guess the point is you have to give a little to get a little. You can't just expect the membership to just come and fall into line. You have to truly engage them on a meaningful level and build a relationship with them. I think that is far more important than any rules that can be made.

So finally compared them and they really look could, much more detailed and all holes seem to be close.
First I have some questions/notes to some points I hope someone can help me here:
Section 1.0
"Promotions are based on the number of games played"
Seems to me that it's more based on number of turns or in-game minutes played.

"With several more Napoleonic titles currently under design, the future for our gaming hobby looks very bright indeed"
I currently only know HistWar as game in development, anything else that I missed?

Section 3.2
"Maintains accurate records"
This section mentions again and again that all officer ranks should maintain accurate records but what is accurate enough? Minimum requirements are missing here.

Section 3.4.5
"3. In order to cast a vote, the member must send an email to all five, current members of the Club Cabinet, clearly stating his choice of the candidates currently standing for election."
Wouldn't it be easier to setup a vote thread in the forum and simply allow all active members a single vote there, or is our forum software not capable of doing this?

Section 4.2
"2. French officer promotions beyond the rank of General de Brigade are awarded only to those who assume a command position within the Grande Armee along with the appropriate administrative duties."
Seems to me that this already counts when attaining the rank of General de Brigade and not only ranks beyond it.

_________________

I am not saying it is going on, cripe....it was a general statement about leadership ideals. I was stating some ideas on good leadership and building relationships with the officers, it was an overall thought, it didn't mean it was being used or has been used in any situation. You're reading too far into it.

I provide the information about the other Clubs because it provides a reference point that could be helpful for others. If you don't like it, too bad. Other people might find it helpful, as different places can offer different insight into things.

"If we keep our club active, web pages current, celebrate and reward our members successes, take interest in our members, and giving our the right to choose their leaders ours will continue to grow."

How one does this is the key to the situation.