The Future of RID (warning: long read)

[Kurke_Aumea]

Hello everyone.

I know my post "What's Wrong with RID?" was harsh and disturbing, but what was said in that post had to be said. There were some errors on both the leadership of the guild and its members and through it all, it seemed like we were beating around the bush on who to blame. I admit, the post was rather negative in content, but it needed said at the time. However, I think the thread as lived its life. It is time to move on.

(In case you hadn't guessed yet, this is gonna be long, so grab a snack)

It is my intent with this post to lay out a vision plan for RID in the coming weeks and months. What I plan out here is something that will take a while to properly accomplish. At the same time, the majority of what I say in this is up for debate in the guild.

It seems like the recent debacles with members leaving is a result of a few things. First, some of those who left, removed themselves due to their immaturity. Second, there was a failure of the leadership to control the situation. And third, some members of the guild have yet to learn how to deal with certain situations which lead to such debacles.

Now, to address that first issue. Immaturity in members can only be handled so far before it just becomes too much to take care of. Leaders can only snap someone back in line so many times before that person should just be kicked out. To remedy this we can do a few things. One is to create a three strike rule of sorts. Third strike and you're out. But, is such a rule too much of a hassle? We could go along with using member suspensions, but what do suspensions really accomplish? What do we do to those who are on suspensions? The end result is that excessively immature players should be removed from the guild. There is more to this, but I will get to it later.

On to the leadership. Now, not everything that happened can be blamed on Lexx or anyone else. The whole leadership of the guild failed at one point or another and this has lead myself and others to conclude that something must be done to correct this.

I think that it has been agreed by many people in the guild that our current command structure with the 6 divisions has worked out as good as planned. It looked good on paper, but we screwed up in execution. In an attempt to simplify command, we ended up diluting the leadership once again. So, in the past week or so, I have been consulting members of RID about how they feel about our command tructure and what they think we should do to correct this. The main conclusion that I wa able to draw from everyone is that thigns are still too confusing. Who is in charge of this division??? Who is in charge of that squad??? Which squad is in which division??? If the older member thought it was hard to learn, then new members are completely lost.

But, how to fix it all? Some members have proposed going with a "one group for all" theory. Basically, everyone in the guild belongs to one central group run by a council of 6 members and Lexx. Understandably, this works best with a small guild (which RID is turning into rather quickly). But, at the same time this plan fails to address one of the reasons some people left the guild. Some people cited that they couldn't advance within the guild under the current system. A "one group for all" plan leaves little room for advancement. After you reach the one and only rank of "council member", where do you go after that? Better yet, what do "council members" really do in the guild? If they are there to simply make judgement calls about who does what, then we actually already have that with the current division commanders. Now, don't let all of this make you think I am bashing the one group for all theory. In fact it does have its little bonuses. First, it does work best with smaller groups. It leaves fewer people in charge, yes it is an easy way to maintain order amongst a smaller group of people. Second, it creates a closer guild. Under this command struture theory, guild members are forced to work and communicate with other guild members.

I personally think that the command structure for RID lies in a modified heirarchy structure. Allow me to explain this. Basically I want to modify the system we already have in place by making it easier to understand. It was originally thought that moving from 10+ divisions to 6 would be much simpler. How wrong we were. There is still confusion. The confusion in our current system comes from a few things. Starting at the top, we have Lexx and Zeta. Lexx then put Xanus in as his royal advisor, which difintely complicated things in its own ways. After the top of the leadership, we come to the divisions. Here is our first big mistake. We had divisions commanders, but then we added first and second in commands for divisions. At this point half the guild is involved in the command structure at a high level. After the divisions we created squads. The squads can work well if we could execute them correctly. The original plan was to have squads of 6 people. What we failed to specify is who went in what squads and what squads were in which division. We created a SpecOps squad, one humand and one alien. To this day I think Lexx is the only one who truly knows which of these squads go in which division. Now the third mistake is something we really didn't plan for in the long run. What if people wanted to advance in rank? We really had no system for a typical soldier to move up in rank and become s squad leader ordivision commander.

So, if our current system has all these problems, why do I still prefer it over the one group for all theory? Because I think we were on the right track, we just made a few bad choices and executed a few things incorrectly. So, let's tweak things a little bit. BTW, before you get fumed up over the first part of the new proposal, finish reading it. If 6 is too many, how about 3 divisions. I know, it seems like we are covering the same ground and destined for the same destiny, but bare with me. the new 3 divisions will be the Combat Division, the Combat Support Division, and the Crafting Division. Seems simplified already. I know you love your Royal Guards Lexx, but they have yet to serve a purpose and only complicate things. Each division is headed up by one and only one person (division commander). No first or second in commands. Now, the Combat division contains all combatants, Combat Support contains doctors and entertainers, and Crafting Division contains crafters (architects, ws, as, and tailors). Notice that Creature Handlers aren't in Combat Support, but are in the Combat Division. Now, lets look at numbers. The majority of members in RID should be in the combat division. There should really only be 5 or 6 people in both the CS Division and the Crafting Division. Do we really need 10 crafters? Only if RID goes commercial. And if we did that, we might as well be a neutral guild.

Now, on to the Combat Division. This should be the one and only division with squads. This way, when someone asks, "Which division is this squad in?" you can simply reply with Combat Division. Each squad contains 5 soldiers and 1 captain. Squads will have no racial boundaries. Squads will also contain an even mixture of professions. Any problems within a squad will be dealt with by the captain of the squad. This will give captains a bigger role. Two players in your squad can't get along, you (as the captain) must deal with it. If it escalates to a point beyond your control, the division commanders step in and deal with it. By doing this, the role of division commanders is getting reduced by a degree and involving captains more. Another thing we will do with squads is number them. No fancy names like SpecOps or something else, just a number. You belong in squad 1 and he belongs in squad 2. THAT is definitely much simpler.

So, to summarize:

- Leader = Lexx
- Second-in-command = Zeta
- 3 Divisions = Combat, Combat Support, and Crafting
- Only Combat Division has squads
- Squads contain 5 combatants and 1 captain
- Squads are numbered now, not named
- Squads have no racial or profession boundaries

Now, does this truly eliminate confusion? On paper it does, but that doesn't mean much if we execute it wrong. If this is to work correctly, Lexx and the 3 division commanders will have the most work to do. While Combat Support and Crafting Divisions can pretty much run themselves, the Combat Division is where the most effort must be put forth in running. To set it up, we will examine everyones prefession template in the guild. This way we can assign people into squads so that the squads have an even mix of professions. Some people would say to have one squad be BH and another be TKM. Simple, but remember that the most effective combat groups are those who are diverse. OK, what happens if someone changes profs? Well, we can do one of two things. One, we can leave the squad go and see how things pan out. Or two, Lexx and the 3 Div. Comms. conduct monthly squad reviews to determine who should be in which squad, who should advance, who is inactive and needs replaced, etc. This creates a high level of involvement between leaders and soldiers. Which is good because there are times when our leadership becomes seperated from the guild.

OK, I can hear people arguing the benefit of squads.... LOL

Here is another reason why I think squads are good. By having squads, we have created a way to set up simple war games in the guild. We can have Squads 1, 2, and 3 play capture the flag against Squads 4, 5, and 6. We can have more war games too can create a War Game Tournament. Winning squad for the month gets faction furniture or something. Or we can use squads to more effectively assualt rebel bases. Squad 1 attacks 4-8 rebel NPCs to create a distraction. Squad 2 moves in to take on turret defenses. Squads 3 and 4 are reinforcements for Squads 1 and 2.

Of course, to make squads work, we need some rules:

- Captains must have a master combat profession of some sort
- Captains must be one of the more active members in a squad
- Monthly reviews will be conducted of each squad to determine who should be promoted, demoted, added, or removed due to inactivity or change of profession.
- All squad members must remain active to some degree. Any member found to be inactive for over a month, without notice, will be removed from the squad and possibly the guild.
- Captains are responsible for the actions of their squad. If a squad member screws up, captains feel the wrath of Division Commander, but gets to punish the person who messed up.

These are basic rules and we can maybe add some more if we absolutely need more.

OK, I think that is it on the command structure. Phew....

On to guild conduct. This seems to be a big issue lately. Recently some of our members got angry over the promotion of a newer member. This caused a slight uprising. Instead of consulting their superior, they had hissy fits in guild chat and removed themselves from the guild. I thought we were more mature than that RID!

Come on everyone, if you have a problem with someone, talk to your superior about it. If all else fails, go directly to Lexx and alert him to your feelings about the members or situation you have an issue with. We can't help you if you get angry and leave without letting us know what was wrong.

Aside from this advice, the only other alternative is to remove problematic members from the guild and that is not a fun thing to do.

This brings me to the next point of RESPECT. Every member of guild deserves respect, whether you like it or not. From the lowest sldier to the highest division commander, each deserves a degree of respect. Of course, all members in RID should and must give proper respect to the higher ranking members of RID. I don't care if you hate a division commander with a passion, but you WILL respect that person. Anyone who disrespects or does not recognize a leader in the guild will be dealt with properly (i.e. demotion or removal). I think there are members in the guild (young and old) who forget what respect is and it is time to remind them.

It also seems like RID's numbers are dwindling due to inactivity of players. Now, I don't know who is on vacation and who isn't but it is frustrating to scroll through the roster of 40 members and not be able to come up with even 20 people who have been on in over a week. This is why I think we should implement an absentee policy. Anyone not active within 30 days will be removed from their leadership position/squad. Anyone not active within 60 days will be removed from the guild. Now, I do know it can be hard to track the activity of people, but we need everyone as our eyes and ears on this topic. On the other hand, if someone leaves a notice of absense either by guild mail or the message boards, then we really have no concern unless they are gone far longer than their posted return date.

I also believe that members should poke their heads into guild chat on a rregular basis. I know, some people prefer the tranquility of spatial, but a lot of interesting and important conversations happen in guild chat. It has also come to my attention that newer members to the game/guild have no clue what guild chat is. So, all of you nice people out there, please inform your fellow noob members.

What else can we do as a whole to become better??? Many things. To start, we need to become more efficient with letting people know of times and places for events. There should be at least a 1 - 2 week notice of tiems and places to ensure the maximum number of people attand an event.

It has been mentioned before, but I have never been able to come up with a proper way of organizing it. We need a mentoring system of some sorts. The leaders should take volunteers on a monthly basis and post those volunteers here on the message baords and in guild wide mails. The volunteer mentors helps out the noob members by leading low-level PvE missions or by supplying resources to new crafters. The mentoring system can be fleshed out more, but it is something that will dfinitely help us grow.

Recruitment. We need to recruit, but sometimes we recruit for the wrong reasons. I think lately we have been trying to recruit just to get a shuttle in the city. This is wrong. This only leads to members who don't fit in with the other members of RID. We need to recruit dedicated members and forget about city advancement. Also on recruiting, Lexx please give Division Commanders the power to accept members into the guild. I can't tell you how many times we have sponsored someone, but can't accept them while you are on vacation. I agree that members should have to fill out a basic questionaire about professions, skills, and intent in guild.

Also, Divsion Commanders could have zoning rights. This eliminates the need to have Lexx on to place any structure within the city. Makes life a little bit easier.

I also wanted to address Jump to Lightspeed. I have no doubt that a large majority of the guild will purchase JTL. This kind of creates a problem with the proposed division system. Do we create a seperate division just for fighter pilots? Or do we reorganize squads to accomodate those with and without JTL? Or do we create seperate JTL squads? I'll leave this one up for debate, just wanted to bring up the topic.

I want to address the psoposed city move. Seeing as how the initial planning was done while I was on vacation, I missed a few points. Xanus has been kind enough to fill me in and we have elaborated on it quite a bit. If we are to do it, we have come to the conclusion that we could possibly build a city and advance it on Dantooine. Apparently the city number isn't maxed out yet, according to Xanus that is. We have also (OK, mostly Xanus) surveyed possible loctions for a city on Dantooine. This of course is all a proposal and up for debate. If it were done, we need to come up with a plan of cation for this. And this should also wait until after we make leadership changes and what not.

There is a lot more to dicuss in this post and I will always post additional info as I come up with it. Please be constructive in your criticism. I took a lot of time to think and write this all out, so take time to think about your responses. If you don't like my ideas that is fine, but please respect them. I await your thoughts.

P.S.
This might very well be my longest post ever. LOL

[Kurke_Aumea]

BTW, I wanted to mention a few things. Bizob helped me to come up with a basic template for the division system. Thanks Biz.

Also, Aem and myself were chatting tonight and we believe that a squad should chose its leader, not Lexx and the division commanders. This way, it will never seem like the leaders are playing the favortism card.

Post away!!!

[Guest]

Forigive me if you mentioned this in your post, but how will people be promoted in the 3 division system your proposing?

It seems to me that if the command structure is:
lexx>zet>division commanders>squad leaders>soldiers (exclude the squad leader part for the crafting and support divisions)
then it leaves no room for promotions. A division commander has no where to advance to wich means that a squad leader can never become a division commander and a soldier can never become a squad leader. (unless a squad leader or div. comm. leaves or goes inactive)

[Kurke_Aumea]

Once a month the members of a squad (the soldiers) will hold a vote about whether to retain their current squad leader or elect a new one. Squad leaders can become division commanders. In fact, all division commanders should be up for a vote everyone 3 months or so. Every 3 months the members of that division vote whether to retain the current Division commander or to implement a new one.

Why 3 months for division commanders? Because the rank holds more power and by having more time between terms, we can get a better idea of how good a division commander will be in his or her position. The length of time is up for debate, but I feel 3 months works pretty well.

I also think that the General position (Zeta's position) should also be put up for grabs on a possible 3 month basis. Why do I say this? It gives division commanders something to look forward to and work for. Also, I know Zeta has gone inactive for the time being and plans on coming back, but all positions should be up for grabs. Not having Zeta here does hurt us in some ways.

Now, I don't know how closely people follow American politics. But there is a reason why people have terms and must be reelected to office. It prevents one person from getting too much power and it allows the people to elecet a new person to office to inject some freshness into the position. This is why I feel the leadership positions should be put up for vote. That way if you are in a squad and you feel that your squad leader doesn't do enough for your squad, you can elect a new squad leader or run for it yourself. In your divisions, if your division commander isn't doing what you think he should be doing, you can elect one of the squad leaders to that position.

Either way, this election system eliminates what everyone refers to as "favortism". I know the whole thing seems ambitious, but we should either elect an events organizer (or take a vounteer). This events organizer would take care in scheduling major player events and elections such as this. The events organizer would hold no real leadership position in the guild, only to organize and announce events.

Need more clarification??? Let me know and I will try to help you out. BTW, I know I can be a bit long winded in my explanations, but I will do my best to simplify them if you need it.

[Xan]

Kurke you know as well as i do that im all for democratic ways of doing things and voting and the whole thing. But the thing is it just doesnt work too well. Favoritism and other factors play a big role in things. Like i know one good example hypothetically: 2nd in command is a guy named George, now george is an excellent 2nd in command and does everything he should do and does it well, but, there are a group of members that dislike him for one reason or another, this throws the vote off, favoritism and super-ficiality do not consider who is best for the job. Just wanted to put that out.

[Kurke_Aumea]

Ahh, but then you if you just appoint people, you are going to get people who feel the same way Rakuda and them did when you got appointed to your position. I have no problems with people being appointed to positions as long as they do their job. Of course, if you take away the democratic process, how do people advance? I do believe that appointments by Lexx can work with the supervision of the division commanders, but the election process eliminates any possible favortism.

Of course, if a group of people are angry at a person to begin with, does that person belong in charge of a group?

I mean, it puts in the situation we are in now. You, Xanus, are in a high ranking position, but there is a group of people who do not like you or respect you. Mind you this is through none of your own actions, but another's. You are qualified for the position, but someone's actions affected other peoples opinions about you. The end result is there is someone who is running for a position who is more than qualified for that position, but people do not respect him or like with him.

No offense inteded, just wanted to illustrate a point. BTW, Rakuda said he is sorry for some comments or soemthing he said to you the other day. Memory is a little foggy, so I can't remember what it was specifically, but he is sorry.