I wanted to leave a mixed summation of things I & others did in the time here.
I joined the Anglo-Allied Army in April of 2003. I was trained by my good friend Phil Roubaud. I was placed in the them KGL Brigade and made a website for them.
In January 2004 transferred to the Prussians where I wanted to be as I saw they needed help at the time and really wanted to be in that army. Thus my 10 year friendship with Stefan Reuter began. I rose from a brigade commander, to a division commander to a corps aide de camp, to the webmaster to finally the second in command as the Generalquartiermeister der Armee. We took the Prussian Armee from a small army to an army that generally had 30 people in it for most of the time. It dropped to 15 twice and we built it up again.
Stefan and I had were a great team I always felt, Blücher and Gneisenau. He gave me free reign to do as I felt, as long as I passed it past him first. My undying loyalty to him was given in return. We expanded the programs there with Stefan’s authorization, adding new all sorts of new medals, royal titles an expanded OOB. We also had so my inquires from people about ancestor research, I created the Prussian Armee Research Center dedicated to helping people find information about their ancestry and medals they own and relatives who might of fought in the Prussian Armee. That is not as easy as it sounds. I had two guys, one a wonderful genealogist help me find useful sites another a friend from another Club who worked for the Bavarian State Library help me develop it more and give primer information. I also had a listserve message provide a lot of great links too. There also was a one time member who had three ancestors at Waterloo in the Prussian Armee who gave me info to post to the site. His one ancestor is featured in both Waterloo games. That was a fun side project for me.
The Prussian Armee until this year has the same staff of Stefan and me for almost 7 years. Stefan was commander for over 10 years, the longest serving AC in Club history. It has the same website for since about 2004/2005. We ran our own Newsletter, the only one left in print and with all of its records going back to when the Club started. We had our original officer lists and also all sorts of fun nuggets in our Archives & Library. I expanded to add in a section on great Prussian links. The site was passed down from one webmaster to the next and is fully intact still for future members of the Club to enjoy.
A breakdown of work:
We had about 70 recruits in 10 years, quite a few are repeat enlistments.
We expanded our medal set form about 20 to almost 60+.
We created & issued 35+ nobility titles.
We have had over 1,000 games played by our officers.
We created & added in a popular 1813 Korps.
We created & added in a Guard Corps.
We created and expanded a Generalstaff system to run the Armee, that sadly wasn't given the time to take off.
In 2011 when the Austrian Command broke down I worked with Mark & Marco to oversee it and add in the Swedes. The Austrian site got a full makeover, I added in territorial designations to their titles, expanded the OOB, raised the profile of the Armee and we almost doubled in size under our watch.
I also served 6 years on the Club Cabinet where I worked with others to add new games into the Club that we play.
For every aspect of admin work from pushing papers, planning with staff, forum posts, congratulations emails, medals searching, icon creating, OOB developing I have done in 10 years no less than:
18,000 hours of time spent on all aspects
15,000 emails exchanged at least
Over $3,000 of my own personal money in web hosting and other things
I am not inflating things either, I could easily spend 8 hours in one day doing all sorts of stuff for the Club. There are days where I and someone could exchange 100 emails easily in planning et al.
Have I done the most, no, not even close.
Why did I do admin work for almost 10 years? Simple because I realized quick that I suck at the games and I still do. I got great enjoyment for years out of doing the admin work because it justified me doing this, it made me happy with things and I really loved the people I worked wth. I was always proud of my officers but also the other armies too. When other armies picked up and started having great websites and engaging and communicating with their men more, I cheered them on……I loved every aspect of it. In 10 years my life has changed so much. I moved 5 times, lived in three states, got two bachelor degrees and a masters degree, I have 4 different jobs, I’ve had days where I didn’t know if I could buy food and I’ve had days where I had money to splash around. I’ve had many good days and many dark days. But through it all, I always knew I could escape and come here, do my work, have fun, be with friends and laugh a bit. Plus I always had my websites to disappear in to the work. So letting go of it has been doubly hard. But with all things, eventually you've been around too long, things move past you and you become a relic. One hopes to get out before then and I had been trying to build a system for the past year to have a transition, but it kept getting blown apart. Finally I just gave up.
But for every dark day there is an eventual new dawn. For every defeat, there is eventually victory and then peace....my hero Old Blücher knew that.
I have always loved a certain quote in Roger Parkinson's "Hussar General, the Life of Blücher, Man of Waterloo" last few paragraphs say it all:
By the opening of the hunting season on 1st September 1819, the seventy-six year old Field-Marshal lay in bed again. During the first days of sickness he chatted with Nostitz and made plans for his farms. He was worried because the weather had broken and the summer crop lay unharvested. Then came a diversion. Silesian troops were exercising nearby, engaged in mock battle. His servants thought the noise might be too much for him.
"Why on earth should it be?" he exclaimed. "I've heard plenty cannon fire in my lifetime - surely I can stand some more now." The windows stayed open, and he listened once more to the cannon, the musket volleys, the bugles and drums. But day by day he grew weaker and quieter.
"They have learned a great deal from me, " he said to Nostitz. "Now they must learn from me also how to die peacefully." Nostitz noticed how he stared for hours at a portrait of his son Franz (killed in the war), placed near his bed. On 6th September the King visited him. The manoeuvres continued outside his window and the smoke of the guns drifted across the garden, bugles blew the calls for Advance and Charge, and some say Blücher asked them to sound one call rare to his ears, but at last the most fitting - Retreat. During the evening of 12th September he pressed Katharina's (his wife) hand, and he died soon after ten o'clock.
"What is that you praise?" asked 'Field-Marshal Forwards" admist the frenzied hero-worship after the Battle of Waterloo. He answered himself, and summed up his career: "It was my resolution, Gneisenau's wisdom, and the compassion of Almighty God."
No exactly for this case, but the passion is what I am getting at more than the text per say....
Thanks to everyone from the top on down.....it's been a nice time.
NWC
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