Spring is almost over, but my summer has already begun. As a graduate student, I spend my summers writing and working in the lab or the field. This gives me plenty more time for the DB than when I'm teaching a course (as I was through the Spring semester). I've been working through a variety of projects, two of which I will highlight here.

The Last Three Months

There has been a lot of interest lately from several Dark Councilors and assistants on having more ways to track activity at a variety of levels. The outcome of this is a useful tool created by James that tool that gives a wealth of data at the click of a button for a given date range, including useful information about activity, retention, and recruitment by units. Of course, numbers are only one way we can assess units, and we don't plan on ever making decisions based on a set of numbers with no context. But as the Grand Master mentioned, these numbers were used to help remove Tarentum's probationary status, as the Clan demonstrated marked improvement over the last few months in a variety of ways, from activity over various communication mediums to competition and membership recruitment. I wanted to share a few of those numbers here with everyone, collected over the last three months of my tenure as DGM. They provide a useful baseline for the future, and I plan to regularly communicate with summits about what we are seeing DB-wide in terms of activity levels, recruitment, etc.

As a whole, the Brotherhood has had 87 new members pass the Test of Lore in the last a bit over 2 months. These members have achieved an average rank of Acolyte/Journeyman 4. Members and leaders of units have run 330 different competitions, with 239 unique members in Clans participating in those competitions.

Of our Dark Path units, Tarentum grew the fastest, due to active recruitment by the members of the Clan and return of old members to the fold. Tarentum also had the most unique participants per total roster size over the last three months, with 30 members participating in competitions (Tarentum's roster size was roughly 30 for most of the time period tracked, but has risen to 37 recently). Odan Urr and Arcona tied for the most unique participants overall at 43.

When it comes to activities outside of gaming, we also were tracking Clusters. Members of Arcona had the most Clusters of Fire earned in the last 3 months with over 10,000, while Taldryan had the second most with over 4500. When it comes to new Dark Jedi Knights, which are a good indication of how well units are advancing new members over a longer time period, Plagueis and Scholae Palatinae each had 4 new Knights, and every one of our units had at least one member reach Dark Jedi Knight in the last 3 months.

None of the above numbers should be taken as indictments against any unit not mentioned in a particular area; each of our units have their own strengths, and not all strengths can be highlighted easily with simple numbers. Overall, I am pleased with the activity of all of our units right now, and I'll be sharing the full set of numbers with each summit next week and looking for input from them on what else we should look at.

Path and Order Changes

As many of you are aware, we are currently working to redefine Paths and Orders within the Brotherhood to open up more options for our membership and units. In the current Brotherhood, we have only two Paths, Light and Dark, and no real way for non-Force users to fit into the organization. At current, Paths basically just refer to either the light or the dark side of the Force, and that is more or less exactly how it will be in the future.

Paths detail the side of the Force an individual is called to or uses - an individual that taps into his or her anger and hate would naturally fit the dark path, regardless of the reason he or she is tapping into those emotions. We are adding additional Orders and heavily modifying existing ones, and Paths control the Orders one can ascribe to. In addition to adding more Orders, we are also adding an additional Path: the Grey Path.

It is clear in Star Wars mythos that even those individuals that are not Force Sensitive tend to be called towards one side of the Force or the other; as such, our two upcoming non-Force paths, Enlisted and Mercenary, will be open to all Paths. We envision that the Mercenary order might appeal to those motivated by money and fame, while the Enlisted order will be those that have dedicated themselves to serving the Brotherhood or the Clan they are part of, even though they can't use the Force.

The Light and Dark Paths predictably relate to the light and dark sides of the Force. Those that follow the Light Path may belong to the Jedi Order, or be Mercenaries, Enlisted, or even Unaligned Jedi (name subject to change, possibly to Grey Jedi). Those drawn to the dark side may belong to the Sith Order, or be unaligned Jedi (possibly Dark Jedi soon), or be Mercenaries/Enlisted. The Grey Path relates to those individuals that try to walk the balance between light and dark. For the Grey Path, Grey Jedi, Mercenaries, and Enlisted are available.

Some of you may recall this is a bit different than past proposals; we have had a few discussions on the summit lists and decided to go with this option, as it represents the best compromise between flexibility and what we know of the canon from the movies and TV shows.

Units will declare Paths, and following that, new joins will be assigned to units based on these declared Paths. Units will have three total slots to distribute between the Paths they declare, and must substantiate their path choices with unit history, story, and identity There will also be tightly controlled ways for members to propose a reason that they might join a unit that opposes their Paths (assuming the unit accepts the idea), such that members can explore a variety of stories and character options throughout Clans. The exact mechanism for this is something that will likely involve oversight by summits and MAA involvement, and will be determined soon.

Implementation for this system is still a little ways off as there are still some details to iron out, such as exact rank names, and even the details mentioned above could still change a bit during implementation, but no matter the exact details, this system is going to offer a lot more flexibility and options to our membership.

Red Fury and Tides of Change

The Brotherhood has just seen the end of one major co-op competition between units, and the start of a second. It's great to see our units cooperating to create fun and engaging stories and activities for their members, and I look forward to move to come!

• Scholae Palatinae and Naga Sadow finished their Co-Op competition, Red Fury a few days ago. Congratulations to Mayda who took first overall, Anima who took second, and Robert Sadow who took third.
  
• Arcona and Odan Urr are currently running a Co-Op competition, called Tides of Change. Members of the two units should make sure to check it out and participate, and winners will receive a shout out here, along with whatever comes their way through the competition!
  

Voice and Wiki Tribune

I've received a couple questions about when we will be filling these positions. The answer is quite soon! We received some amazing applications for Voice and we are just about ready to announce our decision.

That's it for this now!

TL;DR

• We have new ways of tracking activity across units, and plan to regularly consult with summits about what we are seeing across the club as a whole.
  
• We are implementing a new path: the Grey Path.
  
• Each Path will have access to non-Force using Orders, along with at least one Force using Order.
  
• Units will have flexible Path choices based on unit identity and history.
• Mayda wins first overall in Red Fury, a Co-Op competition from Scholae Palatinae and Naga Sadow. Congrats, Mayda!
  

Telaris "Mav" Cantor

Deputy Grand Master