Aedile Report

2005/01/10, 5:41 AM, Aedile - Battleteam Acclivis Draco

Good Morning My Brothers and Sisters of House Acclivis Draco and Clan Scholae Palatinae:

I am writing this email as an introduction to the new year and to explain to everyone what I would like to accomplish and see in the coming months. I trust that everyone had a nice holiday season and is looking forward to returning to work, school, play, etc. I am going to apologize at the beginning for the length of this letter, I hate long emails and announcements but some things have to be covered.

With that covered I would like to talk about last year. 2004 was a good year for our House and Clan. We placed amazingly well in major competitions such as the Independence games, and we held our own in the Great Jedi War and the Capital Gains project. Members placed well in many competitions on their own, we saw many members of HAD placing in the Monthly Topics and others placing in the weekly tournaments. All this activity has resulted in an unfathomable number of medals and awards being lauded upon our members. However, when I began to look I saw that the majority of the awards were earned by a very select few of the membership. It is a stated fact that many of our members cannot dedicate as much time to some things as others and we cannot expect every member to give 100% in every event, real life always comes first. However, when two-thirds of the medals are earned by a quarter of the clan (at max) we must begin to question if things are going ill. It is recognized that our House and clan do not sponsor many competitions, a fact we will attempt to rectify in the coming year. But, there are also more Brotherhood wide competitions than any one man could want or do so there is not a lack of possible activities. I urge all members to go out and choose something and get into it, we as members of the summit want to promote people but we need reasons. If all else fails challenge someone in the ACC (I am always available for this despite my RL schedule), all activity is needed. We have an upcoming Rite of Supremacy, this is our time to turn ourselves around and start the new year on the right foot. Let's see what we can do.

Now, it appears to me that many of the concerns about activity in our clan and houses may actually be the fault of the leadership. We have a great Clan summit and excellent Quaestors but we need more than that. CSP has always maintained a casual atmosphere for its members but there are times when order must be enforced. I have always believed that the leadership needs to be in direct contact with the membership. During the last year our leaders have gotten away from the tradition of writing reports. Even if there is nothing to say we as summit members must give something to the brothers to encourage them and keep them active. For this reason in the coming year I will personally submit to this clan no less than three reports per month in an attempt to keep us all informed of current events. And though I do not use IRC I can always be reached by email (I check my account every hour so I will always get back to you quickly) or by AIM (Name: kschamehellan), if I'm not there leave a message and I will answer it. I would also like to see more contact between leaders, especially the summits and the battle team leaders. The battle team is an essential unit of our organization and therefore the leader of each team should submit to the summit weekly reports about the activity and progress within their group.

Next, we must look to the general members. You are the heart of this organization and as such must take pride in it and attempt to promote and sustain it. If you are a new member it is not hard to get promotions and move up the ladder. With the new program that allows someone to reach the rank of Protector quickly through the Shadow Academy we should see no one burning out in the Apprentice and Novice ranks. Each member should also attempt to bring new blood into the House by stiff recruitment practises. Ideally, in this next year I would like all members to bring one new person into this house every six months (2 people per year). You will be rewarded for this effort and the House and Clan will be a far better place and really this can't be that hard since we all have friends in real life who could join or we know other people online that might be interested. All we need to do is ask and things can only get better. We must also continue to work with the Master and Student Program. Several changes have been made to this program to permit its usage by the whole clan (a copy can be found on the CSP website). I would really like to see this get going again. I for one am always ready to serve as a Master, and I know other summit members are as well. Traditionally, if you want to become a student ask the RollMaster to assign you a master or email a Master directly. The program is a great way to advance quickly and build friendship within our organization. Finally, if people do not wish to remain members of the Clan they simply must say so. For this reason I am running a HAD AWOl check. From the date this letter is sent all members have two weeks to email me back so I can see who'se still ticking and who needs to be flushed.

Finally, the end. I have specific ideas and projects in mind that will be going out to the summits shortly and hopefully will soon be realized by the general members. Once again, i would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I am really looking forward to what we can do and become together.