Quaestor Report

2008/05/02, 10:00 PM, Quaestor - House Dinaari

House Dinaari Quaestor Report #69 - May 3rd, 2008

Greetings all,

So ends the month of April and what an incredible month it was in terms of member activity. Not only did our overall number of active members increase but we easily doubled last month's activity - and that's not even counting Independence Games activity. Overall Dinaari is looking very strong this year and at the end of the month I will be recommending merit medals to the Master-At-Arms. Several members should be getting some very nice awards so if you want something really good be sure to put in that extra effort this month. As usual Jedi Hunters need to show extensive activity over a fair amount of time in order to be eligible for promotion to Dark Jedi Knight (see my 'closing comments' section for more details on this).

In other news ... the Aedile of House Ektrosis, Vodo, has announced his intention to resign in the near future. Sklib has posted requirements to the Taldryan mailing list and anyone is free to apply as long as they hold the minimum rank of Jedi Hunter and are within the Clan. If you feel like you'd do a great job as Aedile, feel free to apply. I know there have been a large amount of submitted applications from members of both Houses so competition for this position is tight. Again, see the 'closing comments' section of this report for more on this.

Our resident Grand Master has opened "applications" to participate in the Character Sheets Beta 2. Basically you get to see the new character sheets weeks before everyone else does and assuming you don't screw up you might just get a Dark Cross at the end. Keep in mind that this job requires actual work and if you get lazy or are just incompetent there will be consequences. See the main DJB news page for more information.

Not much else to report, really. The Independence Games end on May 14th at 3:00 PM (EST) so I suggest you get your submissions in for that. Enough submissions will not only get you a limited edition Seal (see the Codex if you don't know what I'm talking about) but also will go a long way towards getting a promotion or nice merit medal. Remember to send Halc (CON) a copy of your submission after you submit it to the IG server.

As a final note I should mention that I am running two new competitions this month, the likes of which have never been seen before. Starting next Friday (May 9th) I will send out a weekly list of five (5) events in Star Wars history. Your job is to sort them out in historical order and send in the right timeline. The other submission is my popular "Easter Egg Hunt" - basically, what is wrong with my reports? A swapped image? A link pointing where it's not supposed to? It starts today so look hard!

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House Dinaari and Clan Taldryan proudly recognize the following individuals on their recent honors ...

A bucket-load of Crescents were awarded this past week for competitions that ended. I already announced the winners of my House competitions for last month so here are all the Dinaari members who earned Crescents this past week:

Taig - Ruby, Emerald (x2), Sapphire, Topaz (x2)

Debric - Topaz

Baron - Quartz, Emerald

Havoc - Emerald, Quartz

Sidarace - Topaz (x3), Quartz

Adrian A - Sapphire

Bran - Emerald

Sage - Topaz

We also had a number of Clusters of Fire awarded for members gaming in the ICTEs. If you're wondering where your Clusters are for IG multi-player action, don't worry - those will be awarded when all is said and done. Anyway, congrats to Taig (x30), Sidarace (x3), and Vorhuan (x3).

A number of members were also recently promoted. Well done to Sage Everlight, Randar Fond, and Vorhuan on making it to Novice. The other big promotion is Jerse Remid's elevation to the rank of Jedi Hunter who got it mostly due to completing his Internship. We thank him for his service to the Clan and will take applications at the end of the month for the next Intern.

Finally, we had a number of new members enter the House this past week as well. We welcome Sage and Randar who are brand new members to the Brotherhood and to Zhilvinas who is a Jedi Hunter from the Rogues. We hope they become productive members of the Clan!

A large number of Shadow Exams were also passed but in the interest of saving time and space, I will just list the people who passed exams. Well done to Sidarace, Bran (x2), Adrian (x4), Sage (x2), and Jerse.

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Usually I don't put much in this space as most everything you need to know is printed at the beginning of the report. However this past week there was an incident in our IRC channel (#taldryan) which I feel needs to be addressed. I must admit I've never seen anything like it before in my six years of experience and was probably an isolated incident but just to make sure ...

But before I get into my little speech, I would ask you to please click on this link I have provided - CLICK ME!

That little known thing is the Clan Taldryan Values Wheel. I've been glancing at it a bit more than usual lately and I think we all need to take a look at it once in a while, too.

Taldryan is full of talented people - the best the Brotherhood has to offer. This is why we always take 1st place in the big competitions (Vendettas) and why the other Clans are so envious of us. It is only natural that when leadership becomes available - a rare event in this Clan - that many people will want to help the Clan in all its glory.

However, in #taldryan word was leaked of a member who had applied for Ektrosis Aedile. This set off a flurry of chatter which was designed to ... well I'm not even sure what exactly it was designed to do but it was the single most childish thing I have ever observed in this Clan. The members know who they are but I was amazed at how an open position in the Clan made people stab one another in the back and proceed to "smack talk" their Clan-mates.

We're here to have fun - our Clan Staff does not tolerate such drama that interferes with that fun. Look at our Values Wheel - Respect, Integrity, Excellence, Having Fun, Taking Care of our People, and Building Relationships. That is who we are. I understand people want to get ahead in this club but stabbing your friends in the back is not worth it. It makes everyone miserable and eventually someone will get into trouble.

Do you really want to throw all those values away just to get a position in an internet club? I enjoy being here - it lets me feed/vent my nerdiness in a productive way. Taldryan is a great Clan to be in but it's only as great as its members. Your focus should be to make the Clan great - not yourself. If all you're worried about is glory, ranks, and promotions, then perhaps you might want to think about joining another Clan because we don't want your crap. In addition, I will not promote anyone to Dark Jedi Knight if they don't have the right character/attitude - I don't care if you amass all the activity in the world, I will not Knight anyone who cares more about themselves than the Clan.

Again I believe this was an isolated incident but I wanted to bring it up so it doesn't happen again and to educate you all a little. There's no need to discuss it over the e-group or anything and I will not share details about what happened.

To finish up I recommend getting on Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to talk with your fellow Taldryan members (and the rest of the DJB if you so choose). For our Journeymen there is a wealth of competitions going on right now so if you want to get ahead start participating! Your rank is determined solely by you. Have a great week!

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