Greetings everyone and welcome to my #36th report as Grand Master of the Dark Brotherhood. This report will cover a few quick updates on Grand Master policies, Fleet Points, and gaming for fun.

Administrative Changes

1) The Justicar has recently released results of several trials that were long overdue. Unfortunately, the results led to several demotions and the establishment of several probationary periods for our members. Over the past several years we have accepted these penalties and our members have continued serving in positions that they may have held at the time of their conviction. I have decided to return to a policy that I used in 2007 and my predecessors used before me. This policy will see the removal of members from their leadership positions if they are convicted and I will not consider those members for additional positions until their probationary periods have concluded. I have discussed this policy in depth with Jac and even dusted Firefox off to gain his opinion. We all agreed that this was a fair course of action and set a standard for our leaders moving forward.

I'd also like to thank Jac, Monty, and Halc for handling these older cases in a timely and extremely professional manner. I thought their work and the cooperation of the defendants was exceptionally well done and I am greatly appreciative the cases remained civil in their tone.

2) Aabs has updated the Legacy Title policy for our members and our DAs can now establish their own legacy. In just a few hours we have had some extremely interesting submissions. Rather than smack them down with the standard ball of hate from the MAA, we have decided to allow everyone to have their fun. Keep in mind that we are reviewing all of our policies on a continuous basis and that "Bassmaster 74000 Lasersauce PWN Sith Juggernaut" could lead us to think about placing more restrictions on the titles. Don't ruin it for everyone :p

Appointments

1) Slags has been appointed as the new QUA of Ajunta Pall. Everyone take the time give Slags a congratulatory slap on the back.

2) Ji has been selected as the QUA of Satele Shan. I have no idea what species he is and how to congratulate him. Maybe feed him a cracker. Regardless, congrats Ji and welcome back to DJB leadership.

Featured Project: Fleet Points

Where are my Fleet Points?!? Great question! I have decided to freeze fleet points at their current rate and not award new points for the GJW results due to several reasons.

1) All DJB systems moving forward are going to be synchronized. This means that possessions, fleets, fictional way ahead, and a host of other small systems need to work together. Rather than adhoc fleet points and then crush everyone's dreams in a few weeks with a new system, I've decided to pause with what we have now.

2) A series of club wide decisions and discussions are rapidly approaching us over the next few months. Those discussions will provide us a more holistic look at how we implement new systems and how those systems will work together. Be on the look out.

3) As mentioned above, our fictional universe remains a concern on my part and I want to ensure that our fleets mirror our current or fictional reality. Shad + Mav + I have a working document that spells out some of the events over the next few months and our plans for (re)shaping the DJB Universe. This isn't some super secret ninja stuff, it is a large group of us leaning towards the Canon Universe as our way ahead. This is something that is open for discussion and as mentioned in #2, that discussion is coming.

Gaming: For Fun

If you have not had the chance to check out Bubbas recent news post concerning CFs and degrees, please take the time to look it over. There is a lot of good conversation on that news post relating to what is and what is not fair concerning CF requirements.

Many of you know that I am an avid gamer and play across the Xbone, PS4, and PC. My weapon of choice depends on the game that I am most interested in at the time. I like to think that I am one of our better gamers or at the very least, one of the most prolific: My Clusters.

So, as always I'd like everyone to know that they are more than welcome to play with me in D3 (Pravus#1986) where I and a select few others are nearing the top 1000 players in the world in our respective classes. I play D3 multiple times a week and have enough knowledge to help any newb/medium level Barbarian out. Grab me in game.

I'd also like to invite everyone with an XBONE to play in the DJB Grand Theft Auto V Online Crew. We have 0.0% intention of making this game a Cluster Earning Game, but it is fun. A lot of fun. I'm always interested in gaming with our members inside and outside of supported platforms and quite frankly, we need a few more crew members to pull off successful heists. My Xbox Gamer Tag remains the original GM Sarin.

I encourage everyone to remember that the point of gaming in this club is fellowship and community, not Cluster of Fire farming (That is a side effect and easy for me to say...because I have a swimming pool filled with them).

Conclusion

I like to end my reports on a positive note, but there is one quick thing I'd like to address. I hate nonsense. What is nonsense? Nonsense is sending emails to a large group of people and complaining about the rewards you have not received, yet you have never engaged me on the topic. People forward me emails like that all the time and I end up finding out anyway. Trust me friends, just send me an email and explain your concerns. I'll respond in a timely manner and tell you my side of the story. Don't back door things because it just results in wasted time.

Nonsense is also being overly combative for no reason at all. Check it out, this is a Star Wars club for people who want to write, game, and hang out. If you are negative and combative, please evaluate why you are here. Typically, if you contact the DC with a request and ask to work through any issues you may have, we are going to be exceptionally receptive. We talked about this several months ago and the "Good Dude Rule" was quoted. Just try to be a good dude and your experience in this club will generally be much much better.

And on a super positive, note, we have a lot of things in the hopper and coming soon. I'm working to ensure everyone is aware of those things and look forward to all of your feedback. The DC and the Clan Leaders are doing a fine job right now and the club is in a solid position for improving over the next year. Optimism!

Have a great week!

Grand Master Pravus