Organizational Spitballing

[Luke Hill]

Hey guys,

Okay, so I've been pondering how we organize ourselves and why, today. This has probably not been good for my productivity at work, but that's water under the bridge at this point. Anyway, bear with me.

First, my goal with this design is to maximize efficiency, in terms of time/energy and in terms of personnel. We have limited human resources, and want to use as few people as necessary, while making the job of those people as easy as possible. So I began with that premise, and the idea that wherever possible we should minimize the duplication of effort and eliminate needless bureaucracy.

To that ends, I propose the following positions:

Local:

* Venue Storyteller - This is the same thing it is now. Elected by players in the venue.

* Domain Coordinator: They manage funds and game sites, do charity stuff, and handle all the things we've come to expect from a DC.Mediates disputes between VSTs. Elected by members in the domain.

(I bet you've noticed the lack of a DST. We'll get back to that, I promise.)

National:

* General Storyteller - This is the lead storyteller for a given venue, for a given nation. It is elected either by the players of a given venue, in a given nation, or by a vote of VSTs.

* National Coordinator - This is the same as it is now, basically, Elected either by DCs or by the members in the nation.

(Second verse same as the first. I'll get to NST in a second.)

Global:

* Master Storyteller - This is what you think it is. They have Global approval authority. They are elected by... things. I dunno. To be decided.

** Assistant Master Storyteller(s) - For each venue currently sanctioned, the MST appoints an AMST. This person has Top approval authority within their venue, and they also have High approval authority if there is no High approval authority within a given nation.

* Club Director / Master Coordinator / Global Coordinator / Guy with a Shiny Hat - You know what this is. I leave the legal concerns of such a position to those with experience and who have more than a passing concern in it (right now that'd be you, Liam. Sucker. :P). Also, elections are a thing but are out of my pay grade.

So, how do approvals work? Like this:

Low ("common"): Your VST

Mid ("city-affecting"): Also your VST, but also seen by the other VSTs in your domain. They have a month in which they can veto that approval. If they don't, then assuming your VST doesn't say no, it stands.

High ("unusual"): Your VST, then the GST of your venue. There is no Mid approval step, so the other VSTs in your Domain can neither see nor veto this. Because that would be silly.

Top ("rare"): Your VST, then the appropriate GST, then the appropriate AMST.

Global ("unique"): As with Top, but it must also meet MST approval.

VSTs report to their GST. DCs report to the NC. GSTs report to their NC. NCs report to the CD/GC/MC/Guy With Shiny Hat(GwSH). AMSTs report to MST. MST reports to GwSH.

So where's Regional? Where's the DST? Where's the NST?

Yeah, Regional is gone. With a small club it's entirely dispensible, and serves no necessary purpose anyway. If the club gets big there might be a reason to insert it, so that pressure is taken off of the NC/GSTs, but until that time it's a position we don't need.

The DST is gone because in a small club, the job of DST is done better and more cheaply/easily by VSTs working together. The same is true of NST. There has never been a coherent National setting that existed in all venues, that did anything but stretch paradigm (I say that having been an ANST for a while). The same can't be said of city-level setting, since we have examples like Chicago, but VSTs can create that by working together if they want. If they can't work together on it, then they probably wouldn't be anything but a roadblock to a DST trying for such setting anyway.

Anywho, whaddya think?

Luke

[Jessi Sauter]

> Local:
> * Venue Storyteller - This is the same thing it is now. Elected by players
> in the venue.
> * Domain Coordinator: They manage funds and game sites, do charity stuff,
> and handle all the things we've come to expect from a DC.Mediates disputes
> between VSTs. Elected by members in the domain.
> (I bet you've noticed the lack of a DST. We'll get back to that, I promise.)

You up the DC's work load tremendously here.

> National:
> * General Storyteller - This is the lead storyteller for a given venue, for
> a given nation. It is elected either by the players of a given venue, in a
> given nation, or by a vote of VSTs.
> * National Coordinator - This is the same as it is now, basically, Elected
> either by DCs or by the members in the nation.
> (Second verse same as the first. I'll get to NST in a second.)

MES left me with a really poor opinion of direct voting where no
vetting of resumes is done. Whoever they vote in should be most
qualified, not most popular.

> Low ("common"): Your VST
> Mid ("city-affecting"): Also your VST, but also seen by the other VSTs in
> your domain. They have a month in which they can veto that approval. If they
> don't, then assuming your VST doesn't say no, it stands.

I really don't like that. Not only do you create massive potential
CoI issues for your VSTs because now they all have DST level
knowledge, you up the amount of database work the VSTs are responsible
for, too. It's also rife for politicking approvals for things that
have nothing to do with the quality of the approval.

> VSTs report to their GST. DCs report to the NC. GSTs report to their NC. NCs
> report to the CD/GC/MC/Guy With Shiny Hat(GwSH). AMSTs report to MST. MST
> reports to GwSH.

GSTs should be reporting to their AMST, not their NC.

> Yeah, Regional is gone. With a small club it's entirely dispensible, and
> serves no necessary purpose anyway. If the club gets big there might be a
> reason to insert it, so that pressure is taken off of the NC/GSTs, but until
> that time it's a position we don't need.

There is a very high chance we're going to have within the first year
both a Canadian and a US Region. Given that GWB is also taking the
reigns on being an incubator for nations that are looking to build up
and then spin off, organizing them as Regions with some autonomy from
the get go is actually going to be pretty important. You're right
about the size of the club right now but we are growing fast and
pre-planning some of that growth is in our best interests.

> The DST is gone because in a small club, the job of DST is done better and
> more cheaply/easily by VSTs working together. The same is true of NST. There
> has never been a coherent National setting that existed in all venues, that
> did anything but stretch paradigm (I say that having been an ANST for a
> while). The same can't be said of city-level setting, since we have examples
> like Chicago, but VSTs can create that by working together if they want. If
> they can't work together on it, then they probably wouldn't be anything but
> a roadblock to a DST trying for such setting anyway.

I dislike the amount of cat herding that falls on the DC with the
removal of the DST gig. DCs aren't always STs. It can be a lot
harder to resolve disputes between STs if you aren't an ST yourself.
Same with setting an NC up to have to resolve disputes between GSTs
(ANSTs), especially in that case because the chances that the NC is
involved enough in the higher level communications that go on to fully
understand the context of the disagreement are low.

I also think we'd benefit from an NST, both because some places (the
UK in particular) have had some seriously amazing National settings in
the past, and because of the geographically nuts nature of GWB. The
NST is going to be invaluable for helping different areas develop up,
which is something you don't need so much in a more traditional
structure because people have neighbors. We also need representation
at global that is more coordinated than disparate ANSTs is going to be
able to provide.

> Anywho, whaddya think?

Some good thoughts. Not sure how they'd do in execution, though.

Jessi

[Luke Hill]

Jessi,

You up the DC's work load tremendously here.

How so? It seems like it mostly consists of being a listmod of a local VST list, and arranging a monthly staff meeting, along with occasionally mediating disputes. Is there something I'm missing?

MES left me with a really poor opinion of direct voting where no vetting of resumes is done.  Whoever they vote in should be most qualified, not most popular.

That's fine. I'm not married to any particular method of (s)election, that was just the former status quo and so what I went with by default. If default sucks, then lets do something different.

I really don't like [Mid approval].  Not only do you create massive potential CoI issues for your VSTs because now they all have DST level knowledge, you up the amount of database work the VSTs are responsible for, too.  It's also rife for politicking approvals for things that have nothing to do with the quality of the approval.

Well, VSTs should have most all of that knowledge now (who has what sanctum/haven/whatever where, where places of power are, and so on) so that they don't inadvertently use the same things or do the same things as each other within the same continuity. The potential for CoI comes with the job. The database work amounts to checking the DB at least monthly, and making sure that nothing wholly objectionable to your venue is happening in some other venue. That doesn't sound that bad to me, given that I tried to check the DB at least weekly. So we're seeing different things here. Could you explain this some more?

GSTs should be reporting to their AMST, not their NC.

Also fine. I kinda wavered on that too. I just figured that National affiliates would want to handle their business in house, and maybe that the NC being the National Prestige Guy would want or need to see that stuff is happening apace.

There is a very high chance we're going to have within the first year both a Canadian and a US Region.  Given that GWB is also taking the reigns on being an incubator for nations that are looking to build up and then spin off, organizing them as Regions with some autonomy from the get go is actually going to be pretty important.  You're right about the size of the club right now but we are growing fast and pre-planning some of that growth is in our best interests.

Okay, I didn't know GIR was the de facto Global right now. If that's the case, then why isn't the GIR NST the MST, GIR NC the MC, and then the "regions" of the Canadian and US nature just be nations when they get to that stage? They're both actually nations, anyway, it seems silly to not treat them that way.

I assume the answer has something to do with the election for MST and MC not having happened yet, and the affiliates that do exist not having weighed in on it yet. That's cool, and it might mean just bumping that up is over-reaching. It still seems to make sense to go from a collection of independent domains within GIR to a Nation, moreso than going from a collection of independent domains to a region that covers a whole nation but is within the ST/Coord chain of GIR.

I dislike the amount of cat herding that falls on the DC with the removal of the DST gig.  DCs aren't always STs.  It can be a lot harder to resolve disputes between STs if you aren't an ST yourself. Same with setting an NC up to have to resolve disputes between GSTs (ANSTs), especially in that case because the chances that the NC is involved enough in the higher level communications that go on to fully understand the context of the disagreement are low.

To what cat herding are you referring? The DC has to make sure that VSTs talk to each other, which they almost always do anyway and should make a practice of doing regardless. When there is a dispute, he mediates, which is more than never but less than always and going to be a pain in the butt regardless of who does it.

GSTs I hadn't seen conflicting on the same level. There is no equivalent of Mid approval at the National level, so the GSTs don't have veto power over anything. I do see that there could be a legit concern that GSTs are using the same place in different ways in multiple venues ("but Peoria is a BSD town in Garou, why is it a shiny fun time seat of the Barony of Fluffy Clouds in Dreaming?"), so I see the concern with the NC having to mediate, but I don't see how that is substantially improved by having an NST mediate instead. The job isn't to create coherent setting, it's to make sure that you're not creating incoherent setting, which is rather a lower bar to set.

I also think we'd benefit from an NST, both because some places (the UK in particular) have had some seriously amazing National settings in the past, and because of the geographically nuts nature of GWB.  The NST is going to be invaluable for helping different areas develop up, which is something you don't need so much in a more traditional structure because people have neighbors.  We also need representation at global that is more coordinated than disparate ANSTs is going to be able to provide.

Eh, ok, I can see that. My experience of National is as US ANST though, and I never saw anything that didn't make me facepalm or headdesk when it came to US National settings released by the NST's office. It was either "Vampire!.. and those other venues too." or it was so broad and generic as to be the narrative equivalent of Malt-o-meal.

As far as representation goes, can't NCs do that? It seems like that should be their job, that if a story isn't being told a storyteller isn't really needed. I say that because it seems like there are a number of ST positions that are primarily administrative, and that seems... sub-optimal.

Luke

Jessi

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[Games Without Borders NC]

> Anywho, whaddya think?

It has some interesting ideas but I think our structure needs to be
reverse engineered and starting from what we absolutely must have.

Cheers,
Liam

--
Liam T. Draper - UK2001061047 - NC Games Without Borders
IRC: Liam-OOC / Email: gir.coo...@gmail.com /
http://gameswithoutbordersltd.wordpress.com
"Whether you like it or whether you don't, it's the best thing going
today." - Ric Flair

[Luke Hill]

*shrugs* Okay. Reject outright then, or are any of the ideas sufficiently interesting that they're worth more thought/development? I don't want to devote effort to something that's just going to be me talking to myself.

Luke

[Games Without Borders NC]

> *shrugs* Okay. Reject outright then, or are any of the ideas sufficiently
> interesting that they're worth more thought/development? I don't want to
> devote effort to something that's just going to be me talking to myself.

It's not an outright rejection. I'll have a draft of something that
will, I think, incorporate some of the ideas expressed so that we can
find an optimal solution.