Leadership Poll

[bluewyvern]

Perhaps it's time for a new poll. We got an answer on *how much* leadership we want -- "little" -- now maybe we should be asking, "Is it time to implement a leadership structure?" with options ranging from "Yes! Now!" to "No, let it rise organically as there is the need."

In fact, excuse me while I get started on that. [EDIT: I see this has already been done. Excellent.]

Just judging from this thread, Pryftan seems to be the sole champion of the immediate leadership idea -- is this because it's a minority opinion, or because Pryftan is vocal and others are silent?

Personally, I do tend towards the latter end of the spectrum -- I don't think there's all that much leaders can do to push work along. More effective organization might help channel interest and resources, but I think that could be done with a more streamlined Age development process or a few good cheerleaders, not necessarily by giving someone heaps of speculative power. I think organization on the project development level is more important now than guild-wide, since everything is pretty much in the brainstorming stage (except private projects), but decisions are going to have to be made soon if these Ages are actually to get into production. That basically means figuring out who can say "this is the design we're going with" for a particular project, close the brainstorming stage, and direct work on the chosen design to begin. But that's the job of a project leader, not a guild leader.

I do like the idea of a constitution/charter, but I'm not even sure if we're ready to write that. I guess what we might need most is an official decision-making process that lays out the way ideas are to be presented, timeframes for voting, numbers constituting a quorum and a majority, how to revoke decisions, the establishment of a list of registered voters, etc. That's an initiative I could get behind today.

[Dovahn]

Hey, what about me?

I'm in favor of something done soon, but only because I think it's up to us to take the initiative.

As for the role of the council, it's too much to ask for them to hurry along projects, in my opinion. My view (for this early) was that they would simply be a figurehead, and that they would maintain a list of all projects and all guild members (you know, logistic stuff). I think that's the only job that needs to be done now.

Why can't a motivated individual do this? I don't know; maybe that's the question at the heart of the matter.

Dovahn

[Pryftan]

I'm just vocal, I think. A lot of people who voted early seemed to be in favor of setting this up relatively soon, but they're not on right now. So Dovahn and I seem pretty alone but I know a lot of people would support us if they happened to be here.

[Whilyam]

I agree that I don't think we need someone necessarily to oversee and judge projects. The judging will be done by the Maintainers and Cyan (most likely). That said, I think we do need a center of authority to help pick out and reward talented people. To also co-ordinate with the other guilds and share information on the ages to the Guilds that need it (passing info to the Cartographers to make maps about Ages to be released).