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I'm about a week behind on this, so I apologize. I was hoping to get more stuff to talk about up on this one.<p>

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September. School started a few weeks ago, and the summer's heat isn't quite over yet. People still head outside when they come home from work or school... instead of getting a monitor tan and playing around here. Yup, it's a slow time for internet clubs in general, and there's been a lot of doom-sayers coming around and spouting off like the internets are going to flatline in the next few weeks.<p>

Not very likely. <p>

I made mention of the DB having a cycle, high periods of growth that are bookended by periods of quiet, of rebuilding for the following growth. We're in one of those quiet periods now. It happens. But that is not to say that people are not doing things. I know that there are a lot of plans that are being worked on to keep enhancing and expanding our experience here in the Brotherhood. We're still seeing new joins, we're still seeing plenty of journeyman promotions, and there's still movement going on, and that's good. As a matter of fact, looking at our website statistics, we're getting more new people looking at our site than we did the last year at this time. It might have a fair bit to do with the DragonCon ad (see last report for details), but it's still good to have our exposure grow.

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We're also reorganizing our forums a bit. We got a bit too indulgent with the number of subforums and sub-sub-forums over the years, and it was becoming a nightmare to navigate for the new kids. We're working on it. Also, just as a reminder, our mailer that activates new forum accounts is still broken. Please email or PM me to get your account activated within a few hours of registering...otherwise you'll have to re-register before i can approve it.<p>

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So, what's been going on?<p>

Halc retired as Taldryan Consul. He's served in a number of positions across the club, from Arcona to Combat Master, to Master at Arms, to Deputy Grand, back to Combat Master, and finally to Taldryan. We've joked about Halc taking a lot of positions, but the reality of it is that he really did work tirelessly to try and make the club a better place. A lot of members don't like him for a number of reasons, many just because it was convenient to hate him, but at the end of the day, his work is what made the difference. He's toiled for many hours, in whatever position he was needed in, and he was always universally available to help the members grow and learn about the many facets of the brotherhood that he had experience with. He's probably not going to be reading this, as he's retired to deal with his real life stuff, but he deserves our thanks. As a token of those thanks, I've awarded him with a Diamond Sword. Well-deserved, Halc.

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In Halc's place as Consul of Taldryan, Vodo is the clear successor. after a brief application process, it became all the more clearer that he was the man to follow in Halc's footsteps and bring Taldryan's war face to the coming Rite of Supremacy. I look forward to seeing what Tal can do with you in the driver's seat.<p>

In a little bit older news, Manji Sadow was named as Naga Sadow Consul. Manji's been a strong supporter of CNS for years, and it was finally time for him to step up into the big chair. Everyone's watching, now. Don't mess it up. ;)<p>

In other news, plans are in full swing for the January Rite of Supremacy. This vendetta event will run drastically different from how we have run them in the past. It will allow clans to be more focused in their efforts, and will allow breaks and down-time so that we don't have the typical 'vendetta burnout'. Everything is different...I'd say more, but I don't really want to spoil the surprise.

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And the first edition of the Brotherhood Role-Playing Game guide has been released. With considerable work from Eludajae (the T:F/Loremaster) and her assistant loremasters, this guide is available under the policies and projects page... or you can just click here. It is a PDF right now, and we'll have it set up on the site like the hand to hand and saber combat guides soon enough. But this is a guideline on how the RPG systems can run going forward. If you're interested in having an RP set up for you and your friends, contact Ludy and I'm sure she can get you sorted out. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for regular competitions and events for that venue.<p>

There's a couple other people I'd like to recognize here as well. Next on my list is Kaek. Everyone knows Kaek. He's the MAA, and has been for a little more than a year and a half in this term (he did nine months back in 2006), so he's essentially made himself a fixture at MAA. And despite having a job where he has to tell people 'No' a lot, people miraculously don't hate him. That's impressive. Even more impressive is how much work he has done over time. He's helped to grade events in vendettas, he's reworked the way we do promotion requirements, and he's been working diligently on our mess of a medals system. All solid work...and that's before you take into account how he pitches in almost anywhere, such as how he did work in the ACC when Erinyes was LOA for computer issues. He's also a threat in that he troubleshoots code and works heavily with the SCL staff to get stuff done. Add in the fact that he's doing this while balancing Law School and a RL job and social schedule, and you can see why I sometimes call him 'Mini-Jac'. Well, Kaek, it's been a long time since you've actually been recognized for all that you work on, and it's about time that I remedy that. Today, you are rewarded with an Emerald Dagger as a token of respect and thanks that the Brotherhood has for you.

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And then, there's Aabsdu. Aabsdu is not the loudest among us, but he is the one of the most consistent and persistent that I have met. His projects don't often get a lot of screen time, as most of us veteran members rarely head down to the Shadow Academy for much, but he has done a lot, from categorizing the EPs into professors and helping bring down grading times, to consistently releasing new content and working to rework the SA site code (which desperately needed it). After almost two years with Aabsdu in charge, I can say that the Shadow Academy is a much more effective tool for the new joins than it was previously. And with the work he and his staff have been doing with my plans, it stands to continue improving as a tool in our drive for continued growth. To that end, Aabsdu is to be recognized with an Amethyst Kukri, as a symbol for his work in the Shadow Academy to improve the overall institution and its place in our Brotherhood.

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Questions for the GM!<p>

Jagen asks: Why do the journeymen have crappy robes?"

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Strap yourself in, because here we go... :)<p>

First off, if you're newish to the club, you've only seen what's in the selector now. So here comes a little history lesson. Back before I became herald, there was no robes selector. Everyone got a specific robe based on what order and rank they were. You didn't get a choice. and they looked like this:<p>

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Then I got a bug in my ear and decided that our members needed to have the ability to customize their dossiers with a bunch of different options. Jac agreed and we came up with the Robes selector (we also made a lightsaber selector, but that's another lecture.). And there was much rejoicing. So yeah, I wouldn't say that having ten robes to choose from as journeymen (not counting the exponential increases brought upon by order trim colors and whether you want a robe or cloak over top of them), plus another 5 available at DJK. That's a whole lot of choice available.<p>

Let's look: <p>

Jagen responds: im actually not sad, complaining at all. just saying i would like some cooler robes<p>

Fair enough. We regularly expand the selector. as a matter of fact, this year has been pretty good for that. So far this year, we've added six new sets just for the journeymen. I think what you may be thinking is But Muz, the higher ranks have cooler looking stuff!<p>

Well, yeah. They do. And there's a reason beyond 'They earned it'... and that is to get you journeymen to want to get more ranks, to keep working toward those promotions. If we gave the coolest robes and the coolest weapons to every new join in the club, we'd not have very much reason for people to attempt to rank up. But we don't want you to go without a little bit of cool stuff. That's why journeymen can (and ONLY journeymen) can put blasters on their dossiers. And I know a few equites who still use journeyman robes, on account of liking them more. I guess it's a matter of taste.<p>

So, the short answer is that there's two ways to get more options for your dossier. The Slow Way: wait for the selector to be expanded. The Fast Way: work toward those promos. :)<p>

Ralph Vundu asks: Can you get Jac to marry me?<p>

Nope. Bigamy is illegal where he lives.<p>

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There's some tasty bits out there, like the Jedi Knight games being released on Steam for download. That's pretty neat, especially for those of us who don't feel like digging out and swapping discs a thousand times during vendettas. (i wrote this up a day before Vardar scooped me, but hey, he dug out the link. CHeck his post for that)<p>

Also, Karen Traviss rage-quit the Star Wars Franchise. How do you say 'Temper Tantrum' in mando'a?<p>

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Wrap-up (TL:DR)

**Halc retires, gets DS

Vodo new TAL CON

Manji new CNS CON

ROS coming in January

Kaek gets ED

Aabsdu gets AK

Watch for Muz to do random trivia on IRC. Easy medals!<p>**</p>

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And that's all for this time. If you have any questions, or anything I can help with, pm me on IRC or shoot me an email. Have fun!<p>

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