Scholars, assemble !

Rennek is very busy and cannot take care of the Scholars Guild. I wanted to help, so he made me administrator of the forum (Paul also is). He also asked that I assemble a group of people to manage the Guild.

Therefore I'm calling for people of good will that want to lend a hand. I would prefer people with high activity and who were recognized for the quality of their articles.

I propose democracy. Why ? Because only democracy will allow the level of strife, bickering, vanity, never-ending discussion and malfunction that is usually associated with academic pursuits.

Therefore I propose to create a Guild Board. Most members would just be Member of the Board. A few would hold special positions : Dean (set the course), Standards Keeper (nazi grammar), Purser (collect and holds the donation), Security Head (members might be in danger), Public Relations (face). Everyone would have one voice.

Scholars, assemble !

Comments ? Opinions ? Ideas ?

Good idea.

Perhaps the standards keeper could be the "Marshall"?

Dunno. Isn't Marshall a little military or policeman ? At first I tried Quality Assurance Head, but I found it ankward.

The idea is to have someone responsible of helping people to correct their typos, their formatting, but also to make more interesting articles. And of course he would have to propose which articles could be integrated to the Library (and then we vote). What about Librarian ?

Ah! that's better. I just offered Marshall because I know that is the name of an official position.

I know Belloq and Sorta are active. anyone else?

I am willing to be more active in the Guild if it helps. I am a very experienced writer around SWC both on the GNS and elsewhere and haven't gone inactive in three years of playing.   

I have been fairly active in my five years of playing but I am rather new to the Guild.

Let's wait the next two days for more people to volunteer.

I don't mind helping out if I'm needed either. New to Guild but have never been inactive in 2 years of SWC. In real life I work for a college and part of my role is to check spelling, grammar etc. I also quality check student files.

Any support that I can provide to anyone, then I will.

I am around as well and always willing to lend a hand.

I should be able to help as well.

The first board will be :

Ashura Harma
Paul Luz
Torc Tarmin
Thali'a
Talyn Xam
Srota Ron

Now we shall process to elect people to the five positions : Dean, Librarian, Purser, Security Head and Public Relations.

Would you like the vote publicly or privately?

I would love to help, but for the next few months, my time is being sapped by a lot pf previous writing commitments. But I'll do my best to lend support.

One comment is that Librarian, coming from the root word "libri" or book in Latin, might be a term that is sliding into disuse. Perhaps a better term might be Archivist?

Marshall would also be a good substitute for Security Chief, since the Guild would probably not have its own security force.

As for Dean, which has lost a lot of its original influence, might you also consider Chancellor, which now carries more of a feeling of authority that Dean used to convey?

Just some thoughts.

Also, should we announce for which position we desire to run?

All good questions and suggestions.

Archivist vs Librarian : for me Librarian has an air of antique and noblesse, where archivist just smell like rotten paper.
Marshall for Security : sure.
Dean : still used in european universities. Chancellor looks like ... Palpatine   !

All those questions should be put to vote by the newly elected council.

I suggest we vote for position one at a time in the order I listed them. People interested in one position should announce it.
When we know all contenders, I'll open a poll topic so we may vote.

First vote to go : Dean. People have to declare their candidacy before friday, vote occurs saturday and sunday (is that ok or is it too quick ?).

I am candidate for the post of Dean.

I'm happy to second you for that position Ashura.

Ashura also has my vote for Dean. I think he is already working in that capacity.


As a side note I made a list of recommendations that I sent to Ashura for each position. As each position comes up I will make my nominations known.

Well, thank you, but for the moment I would like to know if they are other candidates   .

I have no real interest in being dean, but i would like to volunteer for the position of security head.

I have no interest in being a Dean either but as with Srota I am rather interested in Security Head.

I have to be honest, I hadn't expected there to be so many people interested in the Security Head position.

Here were my nominations for each position, I am happy to discuss my reasoning if folks are interested.
Dean: Ashura Harna

Librarian: Srota Ron

Purser: Paul Luz

Security Head: Talyn Xam

Public Relations: Thali'a

I am thinking you don't have any opposition for the Dean position Ashura.

I'm fine with the librarian position.

Ok. If nobody posts a candidacy by tomorrow, I'll consider myself elected as Dean.

Ok, I consider myself Dean then. Thanks for the confidence.

Let's file the other roles now. So far here are the candidacies :

Librarian/Archivist : Srota Ron ?
Purser : none
Security Head/Marshall : Srota Ron; Torc Tarmin
Public Relations : Paul Luz

Any role that has only one candidate will have that candidate elected. I'm not adverse to election by the way, so if people want to compete for the Security Head role, that is fine. Very fine indeed, as the candidates would then post their plans and we would have a discussion.

At that point, I tought I might expand a little of what I'm looking for in each role.

Librarian : the Librarian will have the burden of maintaining quality standards. That means it should be a native English speaker. He should help people correct big grammar errors, and more importantly help with the formatting of articles. No need to be a nazi here, but that would mean a lot of work nonetheless. He would have the privilege to choose which articles are put to vote to be included in the Library.

Purser : the Purser will have to keep the Guild money. His main quality is honesty. We don't want him to go away with the cash register. The Purser will have to pay the bills, and so he decides the amount of funding for each project. He can (but is not forced to) invest the Guild money in real estate (facilities). He collaborate with the PR to collect money from our generous donators.

Security Head : this role has to ensure the security of the guild members. Given that we are in factions who do already that (for most of us), his duties will be light. In collaboration with the PR, he will negotiate access to restricted site that a scholar need to explore for his researchs. He will check security for special in game missions (like is there a risk to arrested, how, ...).
In case of RP involving the Guild, he will have probably a major role, as I'm sure those nosy scholars will get into trouble.

Public Relations : anything involving contact with other entities. That will include (but is not limited to) : collecting money (with the Purser), negotiating authorization (with the Security Head), recruiting (with the Dean) and publishing in the press (with the Dean).

Anyone want to reconsider   ?

This looks fine to me, excluding the empty posts. should the Dean open a thread with a poll, and where candidates may make their pleas?