TW Council - UPDATED w/ structure

[qan]

I'm adapting our current polling bot to use TW logins, and once a last call is made for candidates, we will be having elections.

Might have a web-accessible version as well, though a lot on my plate at the moment.

Please keep in mind you will need to be registered for TWD to vote, in order to ensure (relative) vote legitimacy.

[paradise!]

exalt..for real?

[bkgmjo]

Or in short... you can talk a lot but don't want to do anything at all, just command others around and also let them take the blame for your ideas. You might wanna try on other zones staffs.

Sorry for breaking posting rules, delete when you see qan-lord. Had to...

[Crescent Seal]

Yes, that was long and probably tl;dr for most people.

is it ever not?

killing me smalls

[Ephemeral]

Please allow me one final attempt at describing what I think needs to be done to the zone. The leadership of the zone, and the zone itself, needs to have a ‘top down’ perspective. The primary reason the zone has faltered for years is because the opposite was done; a bottom up perspective has always been the norm. This is stopped the zone from moving forward, prevented people from wanting to invest, and burned out many, many good people. So bear with me while I sketch this analogy out.

Say TW is a restaurant. Everyone who comes in to eat has some ideas on how to make it a better place. Some want to add certain things on the menu, others want to change the existing menu. Some suggest that we should update the table and chairs, paint the place, add some new lighting. Others think we could add an outdoor patio. Some say to add some bug busted waitresses in low cut blouses.

All good ideas and some may work; but this is all ‘bottom up thinking’. The last thing this zone needs are more of this kind of ‘good ideas’. We have always had good ideas. But let’s continue to walk through the analogy.

Players are the customers of our restaurant. TW Deans are the guys who own/manage the restaurant. TW lower staff are the waiters. TW Development are the chefs in the kitchen. We can restructure the staff in this restaurant all day long but does that mean that people will like our restaurant and it be successful? No, not if the food still sucks. Not if the place smells bad. Not of the menu is over-priced. Not we have no place to park.

Do we allow the Chefs (development guys) to set our menu? No. The chefs are key to our success, no doubt. They have certain skills and we should use them to the best advantage. But a chef has virtually nothing to do with the running of the restaurant. They do not dictate to the restaurant staff what is going to be served; they cook what the restaurant management says the menu is.

So what is ‘top down’ thinking? First, we figure out what kind of restaurant we are. Are we Tex/Mex? Asian? Italian? Fine dining? A five-star restaurant or a biker bar and grill? Do we serve drinks or wine? What is the menu? <- These are ‘top down’ or ‘strategic’ things. This is what the upper staff of TW should be defining and driving. Once this is set, and only then, can the ‘operational’ things can be figured out.

For example, do we start spending money and time trying to bring new people into the restaurant right now? No. The place sucks, people will eat once and never come back in. Do we spend time tweaking a few menu items? No. Changing a few menu items serves no real purpose if we have left the raw chicken wings out on the counter too long and we get people sick. Do we try getting M_M God to stand on the side of the road in a costume and see if he can wave people in? Good for a laugh but No.

What we need is upper staff to define the zone and make a high level plan. We need to temporarily stop allowing the chefs, waiters, customers from making changes; even if they think they are operating in the best interest of the zone it is really not helping at this point. Operational changes in the vacuum of a plan/direction is not progress. We are only burning through chefs, waiters, other restaurant staff AND customers as they come on board and then give up.

Decide what kind of restaurant we want to be. Define a plan on how to become that restaurant. Communicate to the chefs the menu. The menu should be broad enough to bring in new customers and appease older, existing customers. Prices should be set correctly based upon the plan (which should include the demographics of those who we want coming into the restaurant). Perhaps we will want to redecorate (change Pub), but how we do this depends on the bigger plan. We may want to hang a new sign out front and pave the parking lot, but again we need to do this in the context of the entire plan for the restaurant.

If TW understands this, if this is what TW is headed for, I am in. But if this council is the extent of the changes, I am not in. If this nonsense of making all these bottom up changes coming from disparate people is the direction of TW, I am not in. Only M_M and Demonic have the power to change TW to ‘top down’ thinking. I am willing to assist in any way possible, including doing a lot of the actual work like writing a possible plan, if the zone is willing to stop being so fucking myopic operationally-centric. Frankly I think that I am not the only one might really step up of this happens.
eph

[Crescent Seal]

In-game name(s): cres / crescent seal

Years playing TW, SS: lots

Primary arenas played: TWD/TWL

Short TW/SS Bio in a few words: NC17, pro, bff with Sir spider, we all know about cres and roxxkat's sister, syne, potenza, savanger, wolf, practically already a boss in tw

Why choose you for Council?: self explanatory

Zone issues important to you: all the important things

LOL. no need i think we will be in safe hands with pee pee sock.

[Vatican Assassin]

It would be pretty hilarious if Ephemeral doesn't get accepted to tribal council, guy spends 25 minutes on every post and literally has trenchwars law degree.

[roxxkatt]

and yet guy is still too dumb to figure out his name is next to his posts and says chefs dont know anything about food and dont make menus

[roxxkatt]

http://www.hulu.com/kitchen-nightmares

[the_paul]

Way to get the big picture out of everything Ephe said, captain dipshit. You haven't changed a bit.

[qan]

If TW understands this, if this is what TW is headed for, I am in. But if this council is the extent of the changes, I am not in. If this nonsense of making all these bottom up changes coming from disparate people is the direction of TW, I am not in. Only M_M and Demonic have the power to change TW to ‘top down’ thinking. I am willing to assist in any way possible, including doing a lot of the actual work like writing a possible plan, if the zone is willing to stop being so fucking myopic operationally-centric. Frankly I think that I am not the only one might really step up of this happens.

The analogy that Eph is using is to illustrate a distinction I think he made in another thread regarding the difference between policy and procedure.

Policy refers to the overall goals of an organization -- the top-down, high-level principles that provide guidance and focus ... a direction. It's the what and why behind what the organization is doing.

Procedure is the how -- how do we implement policy? So long as procedure aligns strongly with policy, there is no need to oversee how every procedure is executed.

Of course, there is blurring between the two. To say that Council should only handle policy would imply that it's always a cut and dry difference. And of course, what is called policy often dictates procedure very specifically.


I agree that the first focus should be establishing a clear policy -- however difficult that might be for a video game. (Yes, we're providing a service, but it's a free service, and it's provided courtesy of the dedication of volunteers.)


Without beating a dead horse, I'd like to bring up the very important fact (as a chef) that in this kitchen our wages are rather pitiful. That makes it more difficult to tell us what exactly we should be cooking. (And why the current management-chef system is so ineffective, and constantly at loggerheads.)

That said, I don't know any chefs on board who wouldn't believe that policy direction would benefit the zone. (I think we can all agree on that.) Just: where should it come from? With respect, our managers don't know how to cook; in fact they know only a little more about restaurant management than the average long-time restaurant-goer (and in some cases, a good less about food), and really have no significantly stronger ability than such a person to decide how our group-owned restaurant should be run. That doesn't mean we should leave it all up to the chefs, though, no. (Or to the managers -- who are sometimes even less qualified than the chefs to manage.)

But it does mean that a management team made up of a group of cooperating individuals could really turn around a struggling restaurant -- so long as chefs are still able to operate with some freedom at the procedural level. If you start simply lining up orders and expect them to fill them to exact spec, you might see a very small crew turn into a very no crew. (But this is not what you've ever desired, I know; and you know how unlikely it is to work.) As I've said, the chefs aren't paid. Neither are the managers, it's true; but it's not exactly all that challenging to tell someone what to do, especially when you don't even need to have any reason behind it other than that you're a (very, very green) manager who is really, really important.

This is why Restaurant Council is so important. When we have few people with experience in volunteer management and management of any other game than SS -- that is, close to 0 people in the entire game are individually qualified to be at the top in a top-down structure -- we need quasi-democratic group management to survive. Let's finally work out real solutions to some of the things that have been left up in the air for more than a decade, due to indifference and a fear of making waves in an all-volunteer staff, of being hated on an individual basis for making a difficult but necessary alteration. Decisions on the policy level (and to some extent, on the procedural level) made by a group via majority vote can be respected by almost everyone.


Interestingly, according to this analogy, ThePAP is the new Head of Kitchen. Sorry, fiS.

[qan]

Update

I've completed the modifications to the present polling system that are necessary for candidate voting to take place. (Not yet tested.)


Due to some confusion regarding exactly how long TWL would go -- I was told it would go until the end of February, but it looks like it's much closer to the end of March -- we won't be running votes after TWL ends, but much sooner (I'd like to try starting voting within the next week).

I'd also like to try running votes with a small window of time in which new, last-minute candidates can still be added. Of course, these people (if any take this option) wouldn't have quite as good a chance of being elected, as people who already voted once on all available candidates might not repeat the process just to vote on one or two others. But it would be possible, due to the way the voting system works, so I don't see any reason why not to do it if it can possibly increase participation. If anyone sees something wrong with this, please let me know.

[Exalt]

exalt..for real?

In my defense.. I was really, really stoned at the time. LOL

[oDer]

LOL @ everyone typing their life story

[Reckful]

NOMINATION

In-game name(s): cres / crescent seal

Years playing TW, SS: lots

Primary arenas played: TWD/TWL

Short TW/SS Bio in a few words: NC17, pro, bff with Sir spider, we all know about cres and roxxkat's sister, syne, potenza, savanger, wolf, practically already a boss in tw

Why choose you for Council?: self explanatory

Zone issues important to you: all the important things

How u not mention his roty