Discussion: Councilor Roles Tweak

[Tsar Hoikas]

Long time no representation, guys!

Today, I did some routine maintenance that included: removing the redacted logo, purging inactive representatives, and removing the "MIA" Councilor for Inter-Guild Relations Kato. The latter two actions were in agreement with our currently approved structure document that states (among other things) that (a) Representatives who have been absent for over 2 months should be removed and (b) that Councilors who have been absent for over 4 months are to be declared MIA and removed.

Now, if you've been keeping track of the official roles, you will note that some of the Inter-Guild and Technical councilor roles have swapped places, and the roles are so muddled up that somehow both jobs have become mine to do. To be quite honest, I am not capable of doing both jobs at the same time any more. I used to be very nice to everyone in this community, but that is becoming an increasingly difficult job for me, as you have no doubt noticed . With all of that in mind, I would like to tweak the two councilor positions' descriptions to the following.

Councilor of Technical Direction: This person oversees tools, plugins, and all technical services (including but not limited to the forum and wiki) offered by the GoW.

Councilor of Inter-Guild Relations: This person handles the creation, organization, and execution of all GoW events. He or she will also facilitate communication with the other Guilds, the community and Cyan Worlds. This person may elect to appoint Guild Directors (as defined below) to assist in any of these tasks.

In a nutshell, these changes move the responsibility of forum/server administration to me. This is not an issue since I have been doing these tasks for quite some time now. I actually enjoy keeping the forum turned on and running smoothly. The Inter-Guilds Councilor now has the official capacity to represent the Guild to the community. I think this is a good thing since we're perceived as just a bunch of dirty hackers. This image is pretty false since most people here are mostly interested in creating ages, not replacing the memorial imager text with "Kilroy was here." I would like to see this image changed; therefore, I would like to see nominations for a new Inter-Guild Councilor. This position is determined by a vote of the representatives only, which we can apparently hold at any time. I'm going to leave nominations up to the rest of you guys--it probably wouldn't be fair for me to nominate anyone anyway.

Did you notice that the position is now called Inter-Guild instead of Intra-Guild? I decided it was finally time to fix that typo.

These changes are the beginning of what I hope will be a revitalization of our guild. Over time, the GoW has slowly drifted away from where it needed to be. This isn't just the time to fix typos...this is the time to remind ourselves what the GoW is, reaffirm our goals and to ensure that we are on the right path to attaining them.

[kaelisebonrai]

I nominate OHB, he's shown great skill at general PR, and etc, and has a spotless reputation in the community. =)

[Branan]

OHB hasn't been around in this forum much, but he's been a constant presence in the writers public IRC channel for months. We need someone who's well-liked, charismatic, and dedicated to helping to maintain a cohesive Uru community. I think OHB is all of those things.

The issue with OHB would be that the Council would then be comprised completely of technical people: Hoikas, Lontahv, and OHB. I think this is actually a good thing. Having the Guild leadership be comprised of technical people moving forward shows that the hackers within the GoW are working on improving relations, rather than perhaps implying that we're being dragged along kicking and screaming through the process. I think that image of a more progressive hacker group is good for the GoW as a whole.

Our goal needs to be repairing GoW relations with Cyan and the rest of the Uru fans. We can do this without any major structural changes - we just need an active council member who has an interest in those relationships. There were some very good decisions made when the current guild structure was implemented.

[diafero]

Putting the forum and wiki into the hands of the technical direction sounds reasonable. As does adapting the structure to the de-facto current situation.

I also agree on what was said about OHB, provided he is willing to take that job.

[Chacal]

I nominate OHB, he's shown great skill at general PR, and etc, and has a spotless reputation in the community. =)

But he's a bot!

[Tsar Hoikas]

Show Spoiler

I could support OHB in the Inter-Guild position.

If we don't get any more candidates, then we can do an "official" poll at the same time as the role change proposal is being voted on. Sound fair?

[Branan]

I think you need to create a "Discussion: vote on OHB and roles changes simultaneously" thread, give us 4 days to debate it, then vote on that, then we can vote on OHB and the roles adjustment together.

[Tsar Hoikas]

Oh forgive me, I wasn't sufficiently clear. By "vote on them at the same time" I mean in two separate polls that are created simultaneously... Not at once in the same poll. I guess I need to go retake COMM 1101 and specifically reference the part about how "the message must be clear"

[GPNMilano]

Forgive me if this comes across as a bit paranoid. But uh...by purging the representatives group it's now down to 24. With only 60 percent needed to pass any proposal, that means literally 14 people together can decide a major decision for the guild. Granted this is the structure we voted on a few years ago, but that's when the representative pool was much larger. With it down to 24, doesn't that essentially mean that a small group of people now basically have the power to decide whatever they want for the future of the guild as a whole? Doesn't seem quite fair to me.

[Branan]

Forgive me if this comes across as a bit paranoid. But uh...by purging the representatives group it's now down to 24. With only 60 percent needed to pass any proposal, that means literally 14 people together can decide a major decision for the guild. Granted this is the structure we voted on a few years ago, but that's when the representative pool was much larger. With it down to 24, doesn't that essentially mean that a small group of people now basically have the power to decide whatever they want for the future of the guild as a whole? Doesn't seem quite fair to me.

There's no restriction on who can join the representative pool. If you're concerned about it's size, I'd encourage you to try to convince newer more active members to become involved in Guild decision making.