Folks,
I have had multiple people ask me to post my concept I was mentioning before. The below is a rough sketch that was being considered by a few French & Allied members.....I tabled the topic with them, but post it here now for thought....I highly doubt any of it to be used, but still I think it is worthy to discuss or think about for the future.
It is based on a concept of a Club outline that Walt Moehle and I were working on for a now defunct project. It is a bringing together of ideas and lessons learned from the wargame.ch Clubs and the old iNWC.
The outline of the Club is centered around the Army Commanders & Webteam concept and is an end to all formal governance and elections.
The concept is a Club Created By Gamers....For Gamers.....Simple and Fun!
The outline is as follows:
Dissolution of Formal Club Governance, Cabinet, Management & Elections:The issues in these Clubs is that there are power struggles around the governing body of the Club, which is in a position higher than the members and on it are people who have many ideas for the Club and also personal stakes in their own armies they represent. This creates misunderstanding, which lead to mistrust and then anger, bitterness and failure to make ideas work....
Elections make a contest of things and force contempt along traditional and non traditional lines of the Club. It brings out the worst in these Clubs time and time again.
All major Club issues have been centered around who controls the Club, who can dictate policy and around the Cabinet itself. Until recently only a few people have been privy to the issues over the years unless there is a public outcry. The average member doesn't know, nor does he care per say, but is impacted by this struggle.
The proposal is to dissolve all formal governance, elections and Cabinets in the Club, allow the autonomy of the armies to run things, but also create a few other roles and concepts to assist in a more proper role of running the Club.
It is further proposed a rule is adopted into the Club Rules to never allow the creation of such bodies or elections to be done in this Club ever again.
The new administration of the Club is based along a service concept. The three lines of service are the Webteam concept the Army Commanders and the Forum/DoR Admins.
Webteam:The Webteam is comprised of the skilled webmasters of the Club, who manage and run various websites for the various armies. The Webteam oversees the management of all Club related websites. To this end from now on all main army and club pages are to be housed, managed and maintained on the wargame.ch server. This will allow for the continuation of services and websites when one webmaster leaves and another one comes along. It'll also allow the Webteam to work together to manage websites. All Webteam members will have access to each others sites and if a member is absent or missing another member can fill the void. They will come from all armies as much as possible and will not be affiliated in the Webteam capacity with any one army, even though they might maintain a specific army site. They have NO power over the Army Commanders, who can give the Webteam requests for what they want for their websites. Likewise the Army Commanders have no power or control over the Webteam and cannot dismiss members of the Webteam.
Why the Webteam concept? I personally feel, as a webmaster and maybe the only exception to the rule, that webmasters are technical, collected people who provide a service and enjoy being creative and serving the members with their designs and concepts. They are often A-Political or not interested in politics and therefore will not seek to create friction, issue or fights with others on the team. It is not a rivalry, it is a shared community based duty that directly impacts the members and the health of the Club. By hosting all pages on the wargame.ch server, no Webteam members can hold the Club ransom or destroy an army presence in the Club if they feel slighted.
Army Commanders:Army Commanders are just that, in charge of their own army. They have no say or control over the activities of the other armies, except for where written into the basic, collective Club rules. It is believed an army will rise and fall on its own merits and in such, should be allowed to do so. A good army with the help of the Webteam can flourish, one that doesn't care will flounder. It should be as such. Army Commanders are sought by the Webteam from senior members of that army when the need for a commander arises. The army is free to structure itself as it sees fit, run its own medal system, control its own rank points structure, its own OOB, its own staff and the whole concept of. They are only bound by the basic Club rules that will be outlined later. If an Army Commander goes missing, then the senior members of the army work with the Webteam to find a new one. Army Commanders are in charge of all of the actions of their officers and if needed will discipline their officers when they are being rude or antagonistic. If an officer has an issue with his Army Commander, he should simply resign his commission and transfer to a new army.
Forum/DoR Admins:Forum/DoR Admins are in charge of the oversight of the Club Forums and DoR. They can be AC's, Webteam members or just respected members of the Club who are viewed to have good judgement.
Fourm Admins will be in charge of the approval of new forum accounts and also the oversight of forum discussion. All moderation of rude and antagonistic behavior should be settled between the officers involved and their Army Commanders. If a discussion becomes too heated, any Forum Admin has the right to lock a topic without approval of the others, but all Forum Admins will convene to discuss keeping it locked or unlocking it. No thread is to ever be deleted.
DoR Admins are in charge of confirming the games in DoR. Basically the confirming should not be done by one person, but a set of people, who as they have free time go in and confirm whatever is in there. This will create almost instant results for members, as many hands make the work go quicker. They will work with the Webteam on any need to interpret the scoring rules.
Other Ideas: I think at this point members are tired of the bickering and it might have a good draw....I also think they will find the benefits are in the details of my ideas I am still working on....like I want to use the iNWC concept that you can play any member of the Club on any side and get full credit.....which we kind of have now with the new maneuvers setup, where you get full OBD points, but not VP's or it placed into your results, which is fine I guess.
Make transfers simple, let folks go where they want and take their points with. No halving of points.
Restructure the forums to have the Rhine Tavern, but also have a sections for Mods, historical and book discussions and maybe a few other places. Allow non Club members to be able to post in them. They would have to appeal to the Forum Admins/Webteam for an account and have a reason for one.
Create a generic Gamil account for requests from non-members for forums accounts, checked by the Forum Admins.
If possible, the dissolution of the private army forums.
A Centralized Club Wide Training Academy, with Andy Moss at the head of it, designed with two schools of thought, historical/traditional gaming concepts and whatever the engine allows. Have them ask specific questions of the new members on what type of experience they want. Poll all members to find their fighting styles and then suggest people of similar styles to play each other.
All armies to publish their news and reports in the forums and maybe a Newsletter again if possible.
Three separate pages made from the current rules page....one on scoring of the games, one on ranks and one on the conduct and general rules. I want to see all members be able to achieve the highest rank of their army without regards to command position. This division of the rules will make it easier for folks to read them....A review of the current rules to simplify them.
This is a wargaming Club, where games should be the point, not elections...
I know not all of these concepts will be accepted, but I feel that having the Club managed along the concept of customer service lines and lines of business will create a far more productive, better represented and healthier Club with less bickering and who is in charge of who. Does it really matter to me what the French do with their army? No....it doesn't and it should be that way. The less flare ups in the forum, the better we can present a public image for this Club and the more attractive we will be to new members.
Again this is a rough outline…..food for thought so to speak…
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