Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Fellow NWC Members,

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am General de Brigade Pierre D. 57 years old, French Canadian, living in Montreal and have been a member of the NWC since its conception. My roots include strong European culture ties and obvious strong American culture exposure. This unique exposure to both cultures provides an immeasurable understanding and compromising deference to both.

My experience with internet clubs is extensive. I co-founded the ACWGC, the club that the NWC is based on, back in 1997. At the time I did not like the Ladders clubs that were on the Internet. There was something lacking in my opinion. I had 3 ideas in forming a club, 1- give points to the winner and loser of games providing a growth path for all, 2- include a Military/General staff type structure (Social structure) to provide many levels of participation for members, 3- Decentralization, allowing many members to create web pages and forums, if any one person interest waned and left it would not mean the demise of the club. I think those foundations have stood the test of time and I still believe in them. There are many sister clubs of the ACWGC the NWC, CCC, MCGC, PZC, covering every war gaming era using that same basic structure. Many people have contributed to the growth and stability since the start of the various Clubs, kudos to all and their ideas that have provided a steady growth to all the clubs.

The NWC was founded in 1998 based on the principles of the ACWGC. I joined General Peluso and started the NWC. My job was to build up the Allied side of the club. Once the basic organization was setup, volunteers allowed me to step down from the Allied command and I joined the French side. I remained in the NWC Cabinet and continued to help the development of the club. Since the start of the NWC I have been maintaining several Club web pages as well as administrator for the NWC forums. Many of the NWC ‘jobs’ have been delegated to others during the period and John Corbin has taken some of the burden by helping with the admin of the forums. Marco has greatly helped with the main club page design and upkeep. I understand that I cannot do it all myself and need the skills and support of many. I perform the same functions within the ACWGC as well as recently joining the ACWGC Cabinet. My loyalty, commitment and interest in the NWC is beyond question.

What will I do if I become President of the NWC? I believe that all organizations need to adapt to current trends and continue to innovate to be a viable entity. As President I will review the processes and procedures of the club and with the help of the Cabinet and the membership to apply any changes that might be required. Some say that if it’s not broke than don’t fix it. That is true however it does not mean that preventative maintenance or upgrades should not be done periodically. With my experience in the various clubs I can bring ideas that work there and see if they could be applied in the NWC. I also hope to expand the scope of the club to cover other games of the gendre. All member interests should be reviewed and supported as the case may be in order to provide a viable and challenging NWC experience.

I hope that you will consider my long term experience and continued support of the NWC and hobby in general as the necessary skills need to be your next Club President.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thanks for choosing the run Pierre. Many years of experience for sure.

I am curious as to know what ideas you wish to import from the other Clubs?

I am also curious as to what games you would suggest for inclusion in the Club?

Finally, how would you encourage more participation & engage the members & commanders in the Club?

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Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

Thank you Sir for the questions.

I am happy to answer them.

One of the ideas is to increase the participation of members in the clubs governance. Only the President is elected at the NWC. Apparently by acclamation for the most part. One of the reason for running was to ensure a level of competition to the process. Otherwise we would not have this conversation. I think that learning about the people who are chosen to govern the club is an important process and an indication of the the maturity of the NWC.

I would like to move the club towards electing Cabinet secretaries. I have no clue how the Leaders of the sides are chosen but that should part of an election process as well. Reasonable terms of service would have to be determined. The voting process and convenience could be greatly improved by using the the forum as part of the voting process. It has been a great success at the ACWGC with a dramatic increase in the voting numbers. The uniqueness of the NWC would certainly be part of the equation in determining any processes.

The other ideas would be to formalize the Cabinet procedures in regards to how ideas are presented and discussed and how the overall Cabinet voting process is handled and presented to the membership. I believe the improved process would increase the professionalism of the club. Another aspect is the transparency of the Cabinet.

In regards to games to include I primarily meant any new Napoleonic games being published. I understand that the main interest are the JT games which are great. I think that one of the roles of the club, to ensure it continued existence, is to provide exposure to as many game interests as possible within the context of the club. Can anyone think of games within the same Napoleonic timeline that includes British, German and French participation? As a club why not provide a path to increase a broader interest base.

I think the above would be engaging and "encourage more participation & engage the members & commanders in the Club" .

As President I would certainly facilitate any Tournaments, as well as provide any of the considerable resources available to me for websites hosting, and the creation of any forums required.

I think that these ideas would improve the overall functionality of the NWC and provide a more professional foundation for the Club.

General,

Being new to the club, would you define what an active member is?

If elected, how will you encourage existing offices to become more involved?

What will you do with "deadbeat" officers who have not done anything for a number of months and possibly years?

Will you make the department of records visible so that members can see the records of other members? I don't think we have anything to hide.

In your election speech you made the following statement: "My loyalty, commitment and interest in the NWC is beyond question."

How will you devote all of your energies to the NWC if you are involved (on the cabinet) in the ACWGC?

I have only been a member since March of this year, why is it that I have seen no posts or even your name mentioned before the nomination period?

What have you done for the NWC in the past 6 months or year?

Respectfully,

It would seem we have two quality candidates for the position which is great! Well done Pierre and Mark the enthuasiasm is excellent. Pierre's experience would be invaluable for the club and Mark's energy equally so. A hard decision my brother officers.

Regards
Colin

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Marechal Knox

Prince d'Austerlitz et Comte d'Argentan
Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

"What is history but a fable agreed upon"

I would say this: I am happy if the President picks his Cabinet members. If all we had was the election of the CinCs and the President that would be great. Thus add in the CinCs to the election and that would work for me.

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Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Prinz Peters von Dennewitz

3. Husaren-Regiment, Reserve-Kavallerie, Preußischen Armee-Korps

Honarary CO of Garde-Ulanen Regiment, Garde-Grenadier Kavallerie

NWC Founding Member

For Club Games: I prefer the Single Phase mode of play. I prefer to play with the following options OFF:

MDF, VP4LC, NRO, MTD, CMR, PR, MIM, NDM, OMR (ver 4.07)

Lieutenant Clawson,

Thank you for your questions.

Being new to the club, would you define what an active member is?

In my opinion an active member is anyone who performs any duties in the club, gaming, any command duties and importantly anyone who want to be part of the club. Life tends to get in the way of your hobby and you cannot always devote time to it. I also don't think we can just push people out because they are not able to participate for awhile. Culling of those who have left and no longer wish to participate is well and good.

If elected, how will you encourage existing offices to become more involved?

This is a social club as well as a gaming club. My goal will be to work with the Cabinet to find ways to improve the social aspect of the club. I think improvements in this aspect of the club will help with participation and especially the longevity.

What will you do with "deadbeat" officers who have not done anything for a number of months and possibly years?

Culling of those who are no longer part of the club should be removed from the OOB. This is a responsibility of the Leaders of the Armies to determine who they are and take action. I would review the process with the CiC's.

Will you make the department of records visible so that members can see the records of other members? I don't think we have anything to hide.

I think it more likely an issue with capability rather than anything to hide. It would be something to look in to.

In your election speech you made the following statement: "My loyalty, commitment and interest in the NWC is beyond question."
How will you devote all of your energies to the NWC if you are involved (on the cabinet) in the ACWGC?


I do not think I can devote all my energies to the NWC. As I imagine most of us have interest elsewhere and like to spend time with those other interests. Being President of the NWC would certainly provide and incentive and interest in focusing on the NWC. I would also like to point out that the problems with the NWC, that have been mentioned in posts, are the same as those at the ACWGC. Any time spent there will be valuable with less time pondering what to do and more time spent on solving issues. This the great value of exprience, not wasting time and getting to the crux of any issues.

I have only been a member since March of this year, why is it that I have seen no posts or even your name mentioned before the nomination period?

First of all banter is not my strong suit. My time is spent in the background with the web pages and forums. I also like to spend some time playing games. I do visit the forums regularly.

What have you done for the NWC in the past 6 months or year?

I have been quite busy with the Forums. You may not have been around but last year we had a crisis where the forums would no longer be supported by the server. With very little loss of time and convenience a new forum was found, members and posting data had to be imported. All this had to be learned. The Forum had to be setup similar to the old one. Moderators, look and feel had all to be setup. This forum is a complex one since it can do many things, much more than the old one. I had to learn it's systems and capabilities. Until John was setup I was entering all the new members. I have completed some improvements if you look at the header to the right of the banner there are links to many of the club pages as well as other clubs. This was put in as a convenience to all. This is an example of time spent on the forums, which the ACWGC uses, can be applied elsewhere. The ability to use the vote system here at the NWC is another. All these efforts are there for the NWC and it has not stopped for 12+ years. I have to believe that this is one of the reasons that the club has been successful a competent and dedicated support team. I currently have to devote time in updating the Forums. A new version is available. I would like to point out that there are many out there that support htis club that do work that is not easily recognized. I would like to thank them for their work to support this club. It takes time away from gaming, posting and their families I am sure.

General,

I am still a bit confused on some of your statements. You say you run the forums, then who did I donate some funds to from Switzerland?
I thought you said you were from Canada.

In requesting what an "active" member is, I did not ask for an opinion. What is the clubs definition of an active member? Are there rules to back up your answer, not just an opinion?

Will you make the department of records visible so that members can see the records of other members? I don't think we have anything to hide.

I think it more likely an issue with capability rather than anything to hide. It would be something to look in to.

From what I understand, the other clubs can see the other sides records???? Since you are member of other clubs you should be able to answer this.

In looking at the website, I see that there are a number of dead links, I also see that for all intensive purposes you really only are active on a small amount of the web pages themselves. I see that many of the commanders have their own page and servers themselves.

And thankfully the final question,

Will you post your records the same way as Colonel Jones posted his?

I would hope Apparently wouldn't be the term used if someone was truly in touch with the Club. John went unopposed for so long, but each time there were open nominations held and no one stepped up, as all generally felt John was doing a fine job.

I find it interesting that you choose to expand the Cabinet based on the ACWGC model. I struggle to think that is the best model. The ACWGC is very rules heavy in how it operates and in my opinion can be very cumbersome and buried in procedural process. Not to mention the opinions felt towards the Cabinet a lot of the time. Is it not better to have a Club that isn't overly rules heavy and allow the people to play the games? After all isn't that why we are here.

I am concerned by your continued use of the term "Professionalism", we are not a business, but a gaming Club. I think if people volunteer there are plenty of needs that can be fulfilled with their skills.

No doubt some transparency is needed, but to be honest, the Club really runs itself, and there is never been a major need for massive, formal processes and structures to get things done. Why start that now? Do you feel the current Cabinet has not done a good job?

Are you aware that we added a bunch of new gamers earlier this year to what is being played? How often do you look into other game makers websites and try to see what people are talking about in the genre?

I am concerned that it isn't the lack of hosting space is the problem, but rather webmasters coming forward to assist in the tasks.

I think the concern should be looking at the bottom of the Club, not the top. I think you need to focus on getting fresh ideas to keeping & expanding the membership, getting folks more active & involved.

If you were interested in transparency, maybe you would be so kind as to make a comment on whether you think officers should be able to see each other's dossiers in DoR? John did mention that Dominik has limited bandwidth, would you, as President make the armies post the DoR entries? All data used to be in the open. I think it'll help people better understand their opponents and even trends in gaming amongst people. Also how should DoR be backed up & preserved in case of an emergency or a crisis that could compromise use of it?

You mention the forum upgrade you did, which was a great job by the way, but that seems to have been the highlight of your recent activity and was done some time ago. Also I have setup similar forums in my time and if it is a decent platform, it’ll only take a week or two at most to get things setup. Also you have “delegated” all of your responsibilities now, John manages the forum in many ways, Marco updates the Club websites and all army sites are managed by others. Besides the forum upgrades, can you discuss any battles you’ve played & results you’ve posted to the Club in the past year to year and a half? I would hope the man who wishes to be President of this Club would also be gaming in it.

On the note of websites, with your website skills, how come they have not been assisting the French Army at all, as they seem to be in somewhat rough shape these days? What effort will you take to ensure that websites, which mind you are our public facing entity, not the DoR, are maintained and even there?

Finally in the spirit of transparency, I’d be interested to see your DoR activity as well. As a webmaster you know, it isn’t hard to take a screenshot of each piece of the dossier and put it together. If you can setup a forum, you can do this in two minutes.

_________________
Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

I wanted to state for the record too, I am not trying to be crude or impolite in my postings, there are a lot of "What If's" in this campaign and I want to make sure that the members have enough concrete facts to make an informed decision, not only about both candidates involvement & management but about their aims and ideas/goals for the Club. It is clear we all feel passionately about what we do here. I think the more specific platform ideas people see, the better they can decide. Ultimately we all submit to the will of the Club, even I am not delusional about that. So let's keep questions coming folks!

_________________
Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support

Trouble is Scott my friend your tone is different for the two candidates

_________________
Marechal Knox

Prince d'Austerlitz et Comte d'Argentan
Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

"What is history but a fable agreed upon"

I would like to reply first to Lt. Clawson.

I have no connection or knowledge about the NWC DoR. I gave you the best answer I could. I am also not involved with the ACWGC DoR.

If there are dead links then I need to be made aware of them. I am not all knowing and all seeing.

If you are concerned whether I participate in the club inquire to my Commander about Muster. I believe I missed very few, if any, in all the years that it has been required.

In regards to the wargame.ch, Alex Cuva owns the domain and pays for the server. He is not involved with the clubs I am.
I do all of the work to support the clubs. If there any server issues he will deal with them. All contributions goes to him to pay for the ISP hosting.



General Ludwig,

As far as work I have done for the NWC whether I spent 10 seconds or 10 hours I have helped the club. Demeaning my contributions with your opinion is unworthy. I know some have done a lot more and some have done a lot less. I do this as a hobby not as a job. I spend as much time as possible. I help with the clubs administration. If that is not enough in your opinion well then so be it.

I do believe there are procedural issue in the club and they could use some shoring up. I do not want to model this club after the ACWGC I just want to share the knowledge/experience and as I said it is up to the Cabinet and members to decide what is best. I would like that there be less rules at the ACWGC and less bureaucracy. I did not create that. I am not in charge of the ACWGC, I joined the Cabinet to see what is going and try to reduce the bureaucracy.

My strong skills are in organizing and facilitating. This is what I will primarily bring to the table. If there are problems with any part of the club I will look into it and help out with whatever resources I have.

I am an avid wargamer and often visit websites. I have most of the games on the market. I help with game testing. I even design my own wargames, Napoleonic, ACW and hope one day to publish them.

I have been playing wargames since the lat 60's and have have hundreds of games,Avalon Hill GRD/GDW, SPI and S&T wargames in my collection. I consider myself a very strong player. Since I have been playing the JT games since 1996 it is very normal that I play less and choose who I play with. It is difficult for me to start games with the newcomers because of the difference in skill level. I was hoping to introduce an advance game course to improve the skill of players. This is something that I have toyed with for some time.

I do dislike the insinuations and tone of last posts. As I mentioned as President I will be motivated to focus on any issues facing this club.

I believe I have provided the membership with a lot of candid info. It is up to them to decide whether I am worthy or competent.

I have to say I agree with Pierre and I thought the Rat's post was poor and had a very negative tone. I am not sure what has brought this on or indeed General Ludwigs similar and somewhat uncharacteristic tone for this normally good spirited gent. .

Sometimes like an email a post does not portray the intended tone. Perhaps this is the case here.
Or I could be completely wrong

_________________
Marechal Knox

Prince d'Austerlitz et Comte d'Argentan
Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

"What is history but a fable agreed upon"

I saw John's post about the DoR. I offered to help with web resources.

By the way Scott I only see one dead link on the pages I am responsible for. Not plural. If I am not made aware of what the link should be I cannot fix it. I am not responsible for all the web pages. Please be more accurate with your venting.

Now I see where you are getting at. You are trying to show/prove that I am not an active member. Scott, in regards to what an active member is you have as much information from the rules as I do. This where the rules would need some fixing I think. The election rules would need some fixing as well. Guidelines are need as some are inclined to abuse the system if they are not there. The fact is that those who abuse the good nature of the club requires that rule/guidelines to be in place. The nature of the beast.

The rules also says that the Cabinet is made up of Senior Members of the Club. What is considered a Senior Member? The definition to some might well say that Mark (~15 months) does not fit the criteria. I certainly am a Senior member, if not the most senior of all current members. The rules say any active member may be the President. Which is it? Some say the rules do not need any fixing!

I want to tell all that I am available to help the club. If you ask I will help I am not always privy to what may be needed. I have the wargame.ch resources at my disposal as well as my web experience. Whether I am President or not I will continue to help. I never left or abandoned the club since it's conception I have always been there. I may have been in the background doing support stuff but I was always available to help and be very responsive. At times I have been more active with games and such. Ask our current President John Corbin whether I have been supportive and helpful over the period of his Presidency, 6 years. I am not inclined to toot my own horn but this format does require it. If I am elected I would be more than welcoming to Mark Jones to join the Cabinet and to continue to work to make this a great club.

I didn’t mean for my previous post to have an accusatory tone. I have no qualms with you Pierre, I know you are a fine fellow, you have done an amazing job with these Clubs. I guess I reacted slightly, because you took a wide swath at the Cabinet, of which I felt was a personal swipe at me as a member of the Cabinet. So naturally I shot back a little.

But all the questions I posed in my post are genuine concerns of mine. Issues that either the Club is facing or could face. I just think the President should be involved in all aspects of the Club. I certainly understand you have a life outside of the Club, we all do. But when you use your time for all these Clubs, how will it be spent. You are a large player in a lot of the goings on of the wargame.ch place. It would be different if the NWC was in good shape, or your only focus, but it isn’t, anyone who spends enough time and examines it will know what shape it is in. Not saying you don’t. But off the bat, this is what the new President will face on day 1:

1.) A leaderless Austrian Army in disarray, low morale and no one willing to take command….a huge crisis there…..

2.) Out of date websites or non existing websites for/within various armies. Again, public sees these, NOT DoR….

3.) Declining enlistment, guess where most of the recruits this year came from and are still coming from, the closure of the iNWC….

4.) Stagnant forum activity…you state you don’t like to participate in banter, but I am sure many would feel that the President should set the precedent so to speak and be in the banter. That’s how you meet the key people to get the jobs done and get to know folks.

5.) Lack of communication at all levels of the Club with officers, especially new officers

6.) Retention issues, where new officers are thrown in a unit and forgotten about, so they leave

7.) Lack of timely updates and notice of officer’s achievements

These are 7 I thought of in less than one minute, there are plenty more too.

I don’t doubt your ability for one moment to be able to handle this, I doubt your ability to devote the needed time & energy that I think the leadership as President requires. In no way anything personal, just strictly job related.

You do playtest, I give you that, that is very critical and I honor you for that. But why has it been since May 2010 that you posted your last results to the Club? Why have you not logged into DoR since October of 2010? To your record though you have only ended two games at the ACWGC in the past two years, so it is not just here. Again, nothing personal with you as a person, a member of these Clubs or even a great leader in these Clubs, I just have concerns about your ability to devote effective time to the task at hand. I know this personally!

Let me tell you briefly, I was in the ACWGC, was Theater CO, AC, then CC, I was leading the British at the CCC, Doing both Prussia & the Cabinet work here, in the MCGC and in charge of the show & updates at the iNWC. Not the only things I did with my free time or online time mind you. Well I started to get burned out from cycling through doing all this work. Guess what, last winter a crisis came with the death of a good coworker & friend, not even a real crisis per say, but she was a big part of my life. Well things reached a three year breaking point, it was too much. So we closed the iNWC, a decision I am still not 100% happy with, but I made the call. I stepped back as CC at the ACWGC, now just a DC, not too much work in that. Still in charge at the CCC British and doing my work here. Guess what, I’ve had time to enjoy my games for once. It has also allowed me to focus a lot more here too, since I play no major part in two of the four Clubs I am in. The iNWC was a lot of work, but it was a relief not to worry about it anymore. The ability to provide effective services there had ground to a halt, much the way things sort of have here. Not all our fault, the economy is a huge factor and that took a lot of talent away. The reason I say this is I don’t want you to spread yourself so thin, it will be a disservice to yourself & those you serve and I don’t mean that in a mean way, I speak from experience.

Again, I don’t doubt your leadership ability, I just have concerns over your ability to effect the real changes and keep services up that are needed to lift this place off of the ground.

If you ask many it is not enough to just muster, a leader needs to be engaged with his forces. Out in front, like Napoleon was. Look at his most marvelous victories, he was right there, leading every detail, with those who served him & he served in all the battles. He charged head long into things, like at Arcole. I would hope the new President would be willing to do that.

Now I will go back and restate the questions I asked above, they are of valid issue.

_________________
Generalfeldmarschall Scott Kronprinz "Vorwärts" Ludwig von Preußen
Kommandeur des Königlich-Preußischen Armee-Korps
Chief of Staff (CoS) of the Allied Coalition
Allied Coalition Webmaster & Club Website Support