Greetings to all Odanites, our allies, and our enemies. I’ve got a to-do list a mile long, so I’m going to keep this very short.

A Vatali airship by Ka Tarvitz

COU Event: Tipping Point

The COU summer event is over! Congratulations to Jael, Tarvtiz, and Turel for taking the top three places event wide. For more detailed results, check here. I’ll be working on a follow-up fiction incorporating elements of your fiction entries for the September report, and you should expect the summit to start plowing through some award recs.

I’m aware of several pretty severe real life issues that overlapped with this event, including deaths and hospitalizations in the family, fires, illness, moves, and at least one terribly unfortunate wedding. Given all that, I’m very thankful to everyone who participated in spite of all the summer chaos. We ended up with fewer participants than the March event (Consul Bride), but a slightly higher number of total competition entries. I’d also like to give a big shout out to Blade for running the weekend KiastTube competition, and to everyone who was willing to try out something new.

With Tipping Point behind us, I strongly encourage gamers to checkout the Warframe test, and writers to try their hand at the new ACC competition. Otherwise, take a short breather and rest up for November’s Rite of Supremacy.

The assault on Trepus by Jael Chi’Ra_

Open Positions and Applications

Over the last couple of days, Celevon has stepped down and so has Talis. I’d like to thank both of them for their service on the COU summit, especially Celevon, who kicked ass for over a year as Hoth’s AED and later QUA. This leaves us with vacancies for Hoth QUA and Shan AED.

Mauro detailed his requirements in his news post so I won’t repeat them here. To apply for Hoth QUA, send your application via email to [Log in to view e-mail addresses] and [Log in to view e-mail addresses]. There are no specific format requirements, though usually a .pdf attachment looks classiest.

In his last report, the DGM suggested that we need to work on buffing up people’s application skills. “I have seen many applications that just don’t make the cut because they’re stubs of several sentences, or don’t really offer any sort of concept that catches the eye, which goes back to the vision problem.” I’ve hired or been involved in hiring a lot of people and I’ve seen all of those flaws.

So, to try to outline in a little more detail what I want from applicants for Hoth’s Quaestor, this is what I’m going to be looking for:

• Vision

• Seriousness

• Compatibility

• Trust

Really, that’s what I look for in every application for every position, though how much each matters varies a little. I don’t need vision from an AED like I do from a QUA. The bad news is that your app can’t magic all of those into being for you. The good news is that a well-written application is your best chance to advocate for yourself and sell that you have all of those qualities. Whatever you write, Blade and I will read, we will consider it, and we will discuss it.

Vision has a few components for a QUA. In character, Hoth has a planet, military assets, a battleteam, and 20 member characters plus alts and NPCs. Where are they going? What’s tying them together? What about them excites you and what are you going to do with them to inspire your members? Out of character, the unit has strengths and weaknesses and challenges. What’s not working? How are you going to fix it?

One thing that comes up very frequently in almost every DB chat is that X isn’t as good as it could be. No shit. Tearing stuff down is necessary, but it’s also fairly easy. The hard part, the thing that makes the club better, is actually coming up with a workable way to make X better and then doing it.

That segues into seriousness. By this I mean both that your ideas are actually possible and not cool-but-impractical, and that you’re actually taking the position and everything that comes with is seriously. Three real simple, easy ways to demonstrate this in an app: don’t send a stub, and get is proofread for both typos and content, and make sure you actually read and follow the specifications of the job posting. If I tell you not to give me brown M&Ms, don’t give me brown M&Ms.

While longer isn’t inherently better (remember, I still have to like you after trudging through it all), I can write a paragraph in a minute or two. That’s not enough time to actually think through a proposal, or what the reality of being in charge of 20 members’ experiences is like. On the flip side, if you seem like an ideal candidate before the position opens but then you half-ass the app, I have to wonder if you’re going to half-ass everything else.

Compatibility is, unfortunately, pretty much a done deal by the time we get to your application. What I’m looking for is someone who can actually work with my summit. If you hate me and pick stupid, useless fights with me all the time, that very quickly negates whatever value you bring to the summit. Ditto for Blade, and especially ditto for the people on the Hoth summit already, Kah and Kris.

That does not mean you can’t argue with me. On the contrary, I want you to be honest and candid. But there’s a difference between productive arguments and bickering. There’s a difference between disagreeing with someone and hating and mistrusting them to the point that you can’t have a good faith argument. I just need to know you can get along with your members and the summit well enough to do your job effectively.

Lastly, and most importantly, trust. I need to trust that you’re going to show up when I need you to, that you’re going to communicate with me when you’re planning or when you’re dealing with the unexpected, that you’re going to take steps to overcome or compensate for your flaws. Everybody’s screwed up. Most of us have screwed up repeatedly. There are some people I trust to at least attempt to effectively mitigate those issues and there are others who I’m unfortunately certain will keep on repeating them. If you have had any issues, convince me to trust you to overcome them.

I'm not sure if any of that actually helps, but hopefully it does.

Applications are due by the end of server day on 17 September.

Empress Kaltani Anasaye by Janus Stormwind

Something Something, Ji Doesn’t Like It When I Quote Cato

I’ll be back later this month with:

• Clan fic!

• More Tipping Point art!

• You Won’t Believe These Hot ACC Pro Tips!!! Combat Masters hate him!!!

Alethia Archenksova
High Councillor, Odan-Urr