Gents,
I wanted to acknowledge that things did get a little out of hand the other night. I personally am sorry for that. It was never my intention to make Pierre look bad, just try and show there are serious issues with the Club and that he needs to be aware if he is President, it will require a very hands on approach to the Club and a very well laid out plan.
The troubles of the Club run deep, not anything we can’t fix together, but it will require a concentrated effort! We all must pull together and ensure we find the best solutions for this Club. Like I said before I think we are all guilty of loving this place a little too much, after all there are many good laughs that these virtual walls have seen. Eugene and his Oompa Band, with the great writings that included the Liberace based brigade, to Sir Muddy always talking about his damn horse. This is what the Club is about and this is what makes it fun. I know in my heart this is how all of you feel.
Bill Peters I think hit it on the head the other night: “The office of President honestly is not where the club is run from - it is in the lower ranks where the brigade, division and corps commanders help the members grow. We can have the best President possible but if the lower echelon commanders are not going to work and email their subordinates then things will get out of hand.”
He’s right. We are here to serve the members and the gaming. They don’t care about the politics or who’s in charge of the outhouse or the ditch digging detail, they just wanna play. Sometimes it is hard to remember that when you have been helping run things for so long.
Let me tell you a story….no Sir Muddy, not your turn yet, you can tell yours after I’m done…
As a young wily eyed Lieutenant, fresh out of RMA, I had been watching these sites for almost a year before I joined in 2003. I was nervous, I had never played games online before, I didn’t know what to expect. These places all looked like a big deal for the games I had been casually playing for years prior. I didn’t know if I’d be accepted by them. But I took the plunge and joined….boy I have never regretted it. I came in and there were all these famous names paraded before me, stories and jokes to learn. It quickly became apparent who were top dogs at the time. I had also just started to improve my skills as a webmaster, oh boy more sites to make. I learned the tales of Sir Muddy, Eugene, Roubaud, Bardon, Barrett, Walter to name a very few of a long list. I quickly adapted to the very lively forum and the banter back in forth. Learned the very skilled trade of buying your superiors and your elders regardless of army affiliation drinks. A hedonator, I asked, what the hell is that? Sir Muddy made me drink one, I survived. I explored the old Anglo-Allied Library and saw Waffles, Ensign Frobisher & Neil Henderson, all these legends I thought and to be enshrined long after they were gone. When I transferred to Prussia I explored the vast archives of that army too. How the hell did Rob Hamper ever get an interview with David Chandler & John Etling I thought? I became enthralled by this place. I had only focused on a lot of American History prior in my life, but now was exploring European and discovering a whole new world. I often went to the library and pulled books off the shelf to learn about these men I was playing with in the games. It inspired me a lot. I asked questions about them from members, had great debates back and forth and somehow ended up as the mouth piece of the Prussian Armee… I have loved every waking moment of being here and I serve and do what I do because it has brought much joy to my life. It is the only thing that has not changed in my life for almost 10 years. I’ve done a lot of things, went and earned a couple degrees, dealt with watching divorce, being uprooted and moving for jobs and what not almost 10 times, but I always knew I could escape to this world. My friends always say I am nuts, my parents always said if only you did this for a living you’d be rich… I know I can’t walk away and whatever woman I marry will have to understand that. I have pushed some aside who did not agree with my habit of this…I was too good for them anyway… The whole point of all this is, when you love something and have a certain image of it, both how you want it to look and the traditions and images ingrained in your impressionable mind as a new member, you can be very protective of it. At the iNWC I was known as the “Mother of the Club”, by birth I am a cancerian zodiac, guess what we are the moody caring homemakers as I say. This is my home, all these Clubs are. You get to know the people here like family and that is exactly what we are, a family. I get a little protective of what I care about, again a cancer trait.
I am also stubborn to a fault, I am German Catholic after all by birth and I represent the Prussian Armee here…hmmmm go figure… I am committed, just like the rest of you and Pierre and Mark are to making this a great place. I will work with whoever is President, even a bag of potatoes, to make this an amazing place. You have my God given word on that. Everyone knows I am not a troublemaker I am just a little protective that’s all. I think Pierre is too. This is his baby and it is hard to watch it grow up and let go. Hard to let unknown people run the thing you worked so hard to build. I know that feeling dead on!
I want the new recruits who come in the future to know that same awesome place I came into. Because that wily eyed young Lieutenant is still buried somewhere inside of me…and all of you too…
Godspeed! Now on with the fun…
PS - Check out this post from 2007, the old coding hashes it up a bit, but the content is there:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9201&hilit=hedonator
