A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Chacal » Sun Feb 06, 2011 12:41 pm

Following discussion in another thread about the need for a councilor of PR or inter-guild relations, here is a proposal for a change to the GoW structure:

It is proposed that the structure of the Guild be modified.

The description of Guild Councilors would be changed as follows:
Guild Councilors

There will be three Guild Councilors.


Councilor of Technical Direction. This person oversees and approves tools, plugins, technical services and servers, and any other technical needs of the GoW. In particular, this person is the editor in chief of the Wiki, oversees the tool development projects created within the GoW, and is responsible for any code the GoW receives from Cyan Worlds. This person may elect to appoint Guild Directors (as defined below) to assist in any of these tasks.

Councilor of Intra-Guild Relations. This person oversees the forums, the wiki and any other community service the GOW uses. This person handles informational releases, events, and announcements to the GoW community regarding such community services. This person facilitataes GoW community projects such as official Age-building projects. This person may elect to appoint Guild Directors (as defined below) to assist in any of these tasks.

Councilor of Public Relations. This person handles the creation, organization, and execution of all GoW public events. This person facilitates communications with other Guilds, the world-wide Uru community and Cyan Worlds. This person may elect to appoint Guild Directors (as defined below) to assist in any of these tasks.

NOTE 1 Each role of Guild Councilor may be assigned to only one person
NOTE 2 A single person may not be assigned more than one Councilor role.


The rest of the section on Guild Councilors would be unchanged.

The description of Guild Directors would be changed as follows:
Guild Directors

The Guild Directors are expected to help the members of the Guild Of Writers. If they cease to be active, they should be removed at the discretion of the Guild Councilors. They are the responsibility of the current Guild Councilors to maintain and pick.
NOTE 3 The role of Guild Director may be assigned to several persons.
NOTE 4 A person (including a Councilor) may be assigned any number of Director roles.
EXAMPLE 1 The Councilor of Technical Direction may appoint several Directors of tool development
EXAMPLE 2 Several persons, including Councilors, may be assigned the role of Director of forum administration.

The requirements below are for the Councilors to follow when picking new Directors.

The rest of the section on Guild Directors would be unchanged.

END OF PROPOSAL

Notes on this proposal:
Notes 1 and 2 provide adequate separation of duties, aka "checks and balances".
Notes 3 and 4 provide flexibility and alleviates the risk of roles becoming vacant because of persons going MIA.

In my opinion, this proposal:
- meets the objectives of the proposal put forward by Hoikas, Branan and other representatives
- provides flexibility while maintaining checks and balances
- provides a structure of Councilors that is aligned with our current needs and our current reality

In the past 3 years the role of Councilor of Artistic Direction has produced no observable result. Clearly any successful community project was due to individual or group efforts coming from guild members. What those members needed was a facilitator. For this reason, I have folded this responsibility back into the role of Councilor of Intra-Guild Relations.

In the initial proposal thread, this was posted by Hoikas:
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.


This IS an issue. Roles and responsibilities should not be made to accommodate personal preferences, abilities or availability. My proposed structure allows Hoikas to keep his role of Councilor of Technical Direction, while also being appointed Director of forum administration by the Councilor of Intra-Guild Relations, which is an elected post. This provides legitimity to the appointment, and also provides checks and balances, which might have prevented two recent situations where consultation and communication could have been better. The principle of separation of duties can be respected with this structure, by separating oversight and execution.
Chacal


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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Branan » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:30 pm

I think it's generally pretty good, Chacal, now that I've read it a couple of times (I wasn't so fond of it at first). I've only got a couple of comments:

I do think merging forum and wiki administration into the technical director is still a good idea - It makes sense to have all the tech-related jobs under one roof, in my opinion.

In return, editor-in-chief of the wiki should be moved to the intra-guild, where it again makes more sense as far as keeping similar jobs together.

And maybe while we're at it, we can rename "Intra-guild relations" to "internal affairs" or something else less silly?
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby OHB » Sun Feb 06, 2011 1:43 pm

Branan wrote:And maybe while we're at it, we can rename "Intra-guild relations" to "internal affairs" or something else less silly?


Either Public Relations / Internal Relations OR Public Affairs / Internal Affairs ETC
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Chacal » Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:42 pm

Branan wrote:It makes sense to have all the tech-related jobs under one roof, in my opinion.

Jobs, maybe. Responsibilities, no.

Branan wrote:I do think merging forum and wiki administration into the technical director is still a good idea

Disagreed: administration jobs are for a Director role. The Councilors should oversee.
Now if you tell me that it would be logical for the Councilor for Technical Direction to also be appointed as the Director of forum and wiki administration, I'd say why not, as long as he's got the appropriate technical knowledge.

What is important IMHO is this: the forum and the wiki are communication tools for the community, and thus should be under the responsibility of the intra-guild Councilor. It does not matter who clicks on the buttons.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Branan » Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:49 pm

Chacal wrote:What is important IMHO is this: the forum and the wiki are communication tools for the community, and thus should be under the responsibility of the intra-guild Councilor. It does not matter who clicks on the buttons.


True, but there's a difference between "clicking buttons" and actually maintaining the backend infrastructure involved to make sure someone *can* click those buttons.

What I'd like to see is that backend technical half of the forums, wiki, and whatever other tools given to technical, and the frontend management given to internal affiars/intra-guild.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Tsar Hoikas » Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:03 pm

I really can't get behind this proposal because it destroys the balance of Art - Tech - PR that we worked very diligently to create when we wrote the current structure.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Lontahv » Sun Feb 06, 2011 3:21 pm

I don't see how internal relations are any different from external relations. As a kind of umbrella organization for projects, I would hope that people inside the guild get the same treatment as people outside the guild. Since the original changes proposed were meant to encourage transparency, I feel that a double standard in treatment of people is detrimental to this goal.

This proposal would split the administration of the website in an unnatural way. The grand administrator of a PHPBB board is the head of the moderators. They hold all moderatorial power plus access to the databases (and possibly SSH access to the servers). The councilors are meant to be equals, they all hold power but in different ways. Making a chief of moderators would essentially upset this balance and cause one councilor to be under another councilor.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby kaelisebonrai » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:47 pm

I personally feel many of these changes are arbitary, and are done for the reason of "/just because/".

For example, /why/ is it an issue for the councilors to do the admin jobs of the guild?

the entire structure is currently based around the existing system.

And, in any case, the other suggestion was purely to make the structure reflect reality, not to actively change much at all.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby OHB » Sun Feb 06, 2011 7:26 pm

kaelisebonrai wrote:...the other suggestion was purely to make the structure reflect reality, not to actively change much at all.


Not weighing in on this debate either way, but I would like to point out one thing from a best-practices point of view:

Just because it is the way now, doesn't necessarily mean that the way it is now is best.

No harm can come from examining a proposal. Maybe there's something to it. Maybe there's not. But you always learn something.
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Re: A proposal for a change in the GoW structure

Postby Chacal » Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:42 pm

Tsar Hoikas wrote:I really can't get behind this proposal because it destroys the balance of Art - Tech - PR that we worked very diligently to create when we wrote the current structure.


That's an interesting point. I hadn't seen that. Please elaborate.
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