Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

Dear (Allied coalition) officers,

As you all know the Allied Coalition Commander in Chief (CiC) has a seat in the Cabinet, this to ensure that the Allied interest are handled in a proper way.
For the last months the cabinet is working on new club rules. This was about time and long overdue.

The process is as follows:
1. A proposal for a new chapter is written.
2. Then discussed by the cabinet and
3. Voted up on by the 5 members. To make it easier we did this by chapter.
4. When ready the new rules are presented to the complete NWC membership for voting.

Instead of the above, the process was as follows:
1.New rules were written by Mark Jones, our president (which is not against the rules, so all fine )

2.Approved up on by the two French members of the cabinet immediately without further comment. This was strange, but possible of course. But that means that voting was not even needed because the score was 3:2 automatically.

3.Anyway, I forwarded my comments (although useless, but for the records) for discussion.

4.My comments were either neglected or simply ‘disagreed’ up on by the club president who wrote the rules himself and thus, of course, agreed on them. There was no proper discussion possible.

5.Voting was taking place and of course always 3:2 with every chapter.

I started a discussion about the above process but the only remark was that we vote with 5 members and thus we are following the procedure.

There are many things in the new rules the Allied CiC could (and should) not agree up on. But there is no way to even discuss these properly in the cabinet. The response is always a ‘I disagree’ from the club president.

So the only way out is to withdraw the position of the Allied CiC from the cabinet. And that is what I have done today.

There are now only 4 remaining cabinet members and the cabinet is no longer balanced either. Any further rule development is no longer eligible.
The status of the new club rule development as per this date (28-12-2013, time of writing this post) is that the last chapter has not been voted up-on. Thus without the 5 balanced members available the development cannot continue. If the cabinet decided to continue to vote with 4 members there is no purpose of a balanced cabinet and voting in general anymore. Then the membership has to draw its own conclusions.

I stay active as Allied CiC, but outside the cabinet.

_________________

I am disappointed to see this happen. Marco serves the allied armies with honor and distinction. His voice will be missed.

I had hoped that a private conversation between Mark and Marco could have resolved the situation to the club's mutual benefit but, alas it is not to be.

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An unfortunate decision to be sure, but not one that renders the Cabinet incapable of any further action as Marco has indicated. All of the proposed rules revisions were dicussed in detail by the Cabinet members over the course of several months before moving them to a vote. Each Cabinet member freely expressed their desire by the casting of their vote. In general, the tallied votes were 4:1 with Marco invarably dissenting. The Democratic process was followed, and whereas Marco disagreed with many issues, he was freely allowed to express his opinion along with everone else. There was no impropriety in the process.

Ultimately, any changes to the Club Rules will be decided by the majority vote of you, the members of the NWC. The Cabinet will complete what little work we have remaining and present our draft version of the complete set of rules to you in the coming weeks. The club will then discuss the proposed rules together before we call for a vote on the issue. The rules are currently divided into seven sections, and you will be allowed to vote on them by individual section. Any section that receives your majority vote will be adopted into the new Club Rules. Any section that does not receive the majority approval by the membership will be discussed in more detail with all of the membership, revised based on this discussion, and then presented again for a vote of the general membership.

I remain firmly dedicated to the belief that every member of our club should have a voice, and that no one person, or small select group, should control the majority. I believe in the Democratic process, and I believe in the right of our membership to govern their own destiny. I will stand by this conviction on your behalf for as long as you choose to have me. I will never abandon my post under duress, and fling my sword to the ground when things do not go my way. I am here for you because, by your votes, you told me that was where you wanted me to be. I will neither run, nor will I surrender, because to do either would be to betray your trust. I serve you, and I will never do anything different because it is my duty to do so. I truly believe that every individual member of our club is important. I see you as brother gamers, and my love for you as such knows no bounds. I will continue to stand as long as you will have me. I work for you every single day.

Marco's action is provocative, but it is my hope that you will all conduct yourselves as mature adults as we move forward. Everyone has a voice, and everyone's voice will surely be heard. Please be respectful in any comments you make, and always realize that others may not agree with what you say. It is OK to disagree. Never become so concerned with talking that you forget to listen. You may never agree with the opinion of the fellow standing opposite you, but you should always hear him out. Everyone has a voice, just try not to yell.

I see 6 people in the Cabinet:
Club President Mark Jones
Public Relations Officer Andy Moss
Club Secretary Aloysius J. Kling, Sr.
French Empire CiC John Corbin
Allied Coalition CiC Marco Bijl
Non-Voting Russian Advisor Jeka Gulyaev

5 of them are voting and from those 5 only 1 is complaining in public.


Do you imply that the 2 French officers are the President puppets? (I have some doubts about that) Could they not be only simply in agreement with the proposal of the Prez?

Your account of all of it makes it sound like there is a conspiracy to shut-down the ally voice, to my knowledge the Prez is coming from your army.
What about the vote of Andy Moss? What was the opinion of the non-voting Russian advisor?

As a side note, I think it would be great if the representative of our armies were telling us what they are discussing in our respective army forums. The process would be more transparent and would help us give some input during the creation of the rules, instead of having to vote on it at the end.

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Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
--------------------------
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

To clarify one small point... Jeka has not be involved in cabinet for some time.

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There will no doubt be many things said in this thread but i urge all to keep the emotions under control. This issue can, and will, be resolved.

I will post in the french army tavern later this weekend to keep the LGA informed and rest assured, i am no one's puppet

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I fully recognize that I have pretty much disconnected from the club, and because of that, have basically no way of knowing the details of the current situation.

That said, I would like to offer a bit of perspective from a long time holder of the position of Allied C in C.

Without the Cabinet position, there truly is no ACiC office. Unless you have restructured things since I left, the national commanders don't really answer to the ACiC in any meaningful way. Instead, the position was always meant to be the Allied Representative on the Cabinet. Full Stop.

The only time I ever directly intervened in the affairs of one of the coalition armies was to find a willing commander for the Russians, when the previous holder of that position had disappeared. Once that was done, I let him get on with his business.

I point all of this out, because I am forced to ask "if the Allied C in C has left the Cabinet, why is there still an office of Allied C in C?" That may sound a bit odd, but as I said, being the representative on the Cabinet is the entire point of that office.

That said, stepping back and looking at the overall situation, I believe it is time for all the cards to be put on the table. I recognize that the Cabinet may not wish to put the proposed rules out there until they are fully hatched, but with them becoming a public chewtoy, that is necessary. It's time for the membership at large to know exactly what the issues are, where there are agreements and disagreements. What are the issues? Having been inside the echo chamber, it's easy to get wrapped up in there, and think that secrecy is best. Heck, I probably acted the same way. That said, when these kinds of issues come up, openness is the superior policy.

_________________
Feldmarschall Freiherr Gary McClellan
IR44
Portner Grenadier Battalion
Austrian Army

Scenario Designer:
JTS Midway
JTS Seven Years War

Some various thoughts have been expressed, all very interesting. My only one is I hope all the infighting that has been going on in the top levels for the past two and a half years ends soon and we get back to playing games, tourneys and getting new members involved. These issues have cost way too many volunteers and help that this Club will never be able to replace....in the end, no one wins.

Salute!

Gary McClellan wrote: Without the Cabinet position, there truly is no ACiC office. Unless you have restructured things since I left, the national commanders don't really answer to the ACiC in any meaningful way. Instead, the position was always meant to be the Allied Representative on the Cabinet. Full Stop.

You make some interesting points overall about this situation, Gary, along with bringing a unique perspective having served in the role in question.

I would point out though, that according to the Club Rules, Section 3.1.1, it clearly states that the CiC is in charge of the sub-armies, and serves on the cabinet.

I am eager to see what the Cabinet has been preparing for the membership to review and vote on.
But I would not recommend that there be undo haste in the process.

Emotions may be running high right now, but that is no reason to rush forward until everything is properly prepared and ready.

And I am a big believer in openness and am a champion of the democratic process.

Regards,

I put the hedge in that I did for a reason

That said, at least through my time in office, the Allied C in C was exactly as I described, simply the Cabinet Officer, and I say this not only having held the office, but also having been the Austrian Commander while Muddy was the Allied C in C (I took the position when Muddy stepped down.)

In any case, even if you have had the C in C take a more active role in the lives of the Coalition Armies, that doesn't negate the larger point. A key role of the Allied C in C is to be the voice of the Coalition forces on the Cabinet (to my mind, the key role). In that case, doesn't "removing the ACiC" from the Cabinet effectively mean that the job has been resigned?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Marco should be replaced... instead, the ideal would be for him and the other members of the Cabinet to sit down and hash the issue out without any more of these kind of gestures.

Overall, I feel like these kind of public gestures are self-defeating, and bad for the club.

_________________
Feldmarschall Freiherr Gary McClellan
IR44
Portner Grenadier Battalion
Austrian Army

Scenario Designer:
JTS Midway
JTS Seven Years War

Salute!

Gary wrote: A key role of the Allied C in C is to be the voice of the Coalition forces on the Cabinet (to my mind, the key role). In that case, doesn't "removing the ACiC" from the Cabinet effectively mean that the job has been resigned?

According to the Club Rules (Section 3.2 and all relevant sub-sections) the Allied CiC is listed as a member of the Cabinet.

Therefore, despite assertions to the contrary, that position remains within the Cabinet.
A member may not change the rules as they see fit.

Such a removal of the position from the Cabinet would require a Cabinet vote and then approval vote by the membership at large.

This has not occurred, as of yet.

And yes, there is too much bad public gestures as you have put it.

There should be no problem with putting ideas for how the club will function before the membership to approve or disapprove of.

Whenever it is asserted otherwise, beware.

By the way, I greatly admire the description you gave of your tenure as CiC of the Allied Armies.

Regards,

<Salute>

I agreed with Scott on this - I just want to meet those of the French persuasion on the field of battle. I don't know what has been going on and I am not really interested. I joined this club to fight those misguided individuals who fight for the Corsican terrorist.

Scott - I may agree with you but you are toast in our battle - maybe -

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I had put forth a suggestion that Mark and Marco discuss their differences.
privately

Marco was willing, Mark declined sighting that the membership at large will vote in the rule changes.

I suggest when the cabinet minutes are published, we copy all the threads related to these rule changes be posted so all can see and judge accordingly.

_________________

Every organization needs a part of it that runs a club by rules and regulations, it's not that you join just to play. Nay, it's that you join to take part in it no matter what your rank or position. Recruiting, others to build the club or writing enjoyable stories to keep people interested in the club. Now these men who take their time off to run the club makes it what it is not the guy who just plays to have a hobby or something to do. We are a world organization of similar interest, let us come together as one voice and not separated our selves from what we love.