Revision as of 22:20, 25 December 2011

Officer Duties

There are 10 offices and therefore 10 officers. They are as follows:

2 Recruitment officers (Candidate and Recruit) 2 Resource Officers (Crowns and Materials) 2 Training officers (First and Second) 2 Adjudicant Officers (First and Second) 1 Wiki Officer 1 Officer-at-Large

Recruitment Officers:

The Candidate Officer (CSO) is responsible for contacting potential recruits. At the request of a Veteran or above he or she contacts, interviews, and evaluates the candidates potential to be successful as a GOS guild member. Integrity, generousity, and teamwork should be observed by participating with the candidate in at lest one run by either the Candidate officer or a suragate appointed by him or her at or above the rank of Veteran and not previously a friend to or familiar with the candidate. This is the first "weeding out" and it should not be surprising that some, and perhaps many, condidates do not make the grade.

The Recruit Officer (RCO) tracks each of the new recruits to insure they are progressing at a satisfactory rate. Working with the First Training officer the Recruit Officer makes sure each recruit is trained in tactics, strategy and teamwork to the highest of standards. In addition the Recruit officer will need to insure that recruit has the proper equipment or is makeing the necessary progress toward acquiring that equipment. When both the Recruit Officer and the First Training Officer recommend a Recruit be raised to Member and that Recruit has the proper equipment a GM will be notified and the Recruit will be promnoted.

Resource Officers:

The Crowns Officer (CRO) is responsible for carrying the Guilds purse. All crowns owned by the guild collectively go to this Officer and each transaction is reported to one or two of the GM's. This officer is responsible for protecting the guilds purse and receiving donations and making disbursements at the request of a GM. Nothing is spent without a GM authorization but donations can be made anonymously or not, as the giver desires. Our first report tells us we have 2500 crowns in our account. You might note that when a Veteran does a run with candidates, or any other guild sponsored run, it is proper and right that that veteran be recompensed for the expenditure of crystal energy needed to make that run. At first, until our coffers become larter, it may not feasible to do so but with the generousity of our members and perhaps with some additional fees or dues we can make it so.

The Materials Officer (MAO) is responsible for carrying the Guilds Materials. Materials (or "mats") are used for crafting and it is thought that if we combined our materials we may save each other a lot of time and effort collecting some items. In addition materials have crown value and we can use them to reward good and faithful services rendered.

Training Officers

The First Training Officer (FTO) is responsible for insuring recruits are trained in the strategies, tactics and attitudes necessary to become a sucessful member of GOS. He or she must evaluate or receive evaluations from Veterans or above regarding the recruits level of activity and improvement. With the Recruit Officer he or she recommends or does not recommend the advancement of the Recruit to Member status.

The Second Training Officer (STO) is responsible for advanced training of Members. He or she works with the FTO and veterans to introduce any advanced, improved, or newly introduced tactics and strategies. He or she will also make recommendations regarding promotion to Veteran status or, should the need arise, for demotion to Recruit if a player is in need of remedial training. Together with the FTO and a team of three to five Veterans this officer is responsible for designing the training curriculum.

Adjudant Officers

In every group conflict can arise. The First Adjudant Officer (FAO) adjudicates between members who have a disagreement. He or she interviews the parties, investates the claims as much as necessary, and makes a determination. If the parties are generous and displaying the spirit of cooperation expected of them the matter will be generally settled at this level. Failure to perform as the FAO has determined shold be done may result in the FAO recommending to the GM's that the knight be suspended. Appeal of any FAO's decisions should be rare and can only be done to a GM. A final appeal may be addressed to the 3 GM's as a board. In all cases of appeal if the GM or GM's do not think the appeal has merit they may refuse the case altogether.

The Second Adjudant Officer (SAO) takes over when the FAO is either too closely tied to one of the paries (or both) or otherwise feels he or she cannot be fully fair. The SAO then performs the duties of the FAO in the same manner. Appeals are, as in the case of the FAO, to a GM and if necessary to the 3 GM's. Again, the GM and/or GM's may refuse to hear the case and let the decision of the SAO stand unchanged or they may hear the case and make their own decision regarding the matter.

If the unlikely event that one of the Adjudant Officers is involved in a dispute the case will be heard by a GM with appeal to the 3 GM's allowed.

And finally, if a GM is involved in a case the FAO and SAO will appoint an independent 3 Veteran panel to judge the case and make the final decision. From this panel no appeal can be made. This protects the players from an errant GM and gives balance to the power the GM's have.

Wiki Officer

The Wiki Officer (WKO) is the primary communications officer. He or she posts the official record of things happening, things needed, things done and things left to do. He or she has final approval of postings and is only subject to override by the 3 GM's acting in concert. The Wiki page should, and currently does, reflect the overal needs of the guild and provides a summary of much of the information a member needs to function within the Guild. All guild members, including recruits, are responsible for knowing what is on our Wiki page. We encourage each member to read it at least once a week.

Officer-At-Large

The Officer-At-Large (OAL) is the player assigned special projects and an acting GM if no GM's are currently online and some matter must be decided. This player assists the other officers and does not out-rank them except, as stated above, no GM is available and the matter must be decided immediately. This Officer's decisions should be treated as a GM's when they occur, but can be appealed if necessary to the GM's. From time to time the GM's may assign a special project to the OAL but overall this officer is responsible for taking some of the burdens off of other officers.

Final Remarks

These are the officer duties as we understand them today and as I envision them to be. Some positions have been filled at least temporarily while others await volunteers. It may be that you are an officer and do not wish to take on any of these responsibilities. It may be that you are eager to do so. In either case please contact me regarding your desire. Those officers who which to be demoted to Veteran status may do so without prediduce. Those who have other ideas about officer duties may certainly make suggestions. We will listen. And those who wish to take on any of the specific responsibilites listed above may notify me of their desire.

Officers duties are not easy. If you are not an officer you may want to encourage and support whatever officer you come into contact with. Praise and "thank you's" are always welcome.

AJ

Addisona -

Wow... that must've taken a long time to type. In the future we will want to abridge it. The following edits (to the policy) seem logical to me. Please take them as my personal opinion, they are not an absolute truth.

1. Merge the resource officers with another officer. It's a really easy duty. A job for the GMs, maybe?

2. Let members (not recruits and members, members) recommend new people. I know we discussed this, but the 3-step process seems overdone in hindsight. Kind of state bureaucracy-style inefficiency and excessive attention to detail.

3. We should make up for the loss of veteran power (due to previous edit recommendation) in some way. Ideas?

4. Add another candidate officer

5. Get rid of the first training officer and recruit officer, replacing them with more player-specific mentors (possibly 3 of these). The mentor would stay with a player until they became a veteran. The mentors would rotate having new members join their group of proteges. They would go on training runs and recommend equips for specific players, allowing more player-focus, and giving new people someone they know in upper management.

6. Get rid of the second training officer. There are no high level techniques to learn that shouldn't have already been taught by a mentor, and the only thing that a T3er won't already know is how the new levels work, which should be taught by whoever is with them at the time.

7. Okay, I'm not sure about this one, but I really don't see why we need a court system (Adjudants). Why not just have the available officers talk about it? Or, in the case of large disputes, they could wait for a guild master.

8. Get rid of officer at large. We don't need a constant source of authority, and the officers can, once again, just talk through any issues, and wait for a GM in the case of major ones. Also, this would just add another source of authority, it wouldn't actually ensure constant figures of authority being on.

9. I may have more. If we are to make all of these changes, we may want some more officer roles, but bear in mind that they should not be there simply to add more officers; we should only have as many as we need. And my job is pretty easy; we should find me another duty to do as well.

Response to Addisona's Comments

1. Good idea. My concern is with insuring the GM's don't hold all the power and are free to step in where an officer is weak/uncommitted. Perhaps one GM could replace the Crowns and the other the Materials Officers.

2. The three step approach is, in my mind, the equivilent to a screening process. Elite means high standards. We should not expect every interested player who might want to join will be allowed to join. We, in fact, should expect most to "wash out." As for Members recommending..not a problem. I can agree to that easily.

3. If we lose officers because they choose not to particpate at that level then we gain Vets. I assume that some of the officers will want to "step down" and some not. Elevating Members to Vets can also occur if we are diligent in our efforts.

4. Agreed

5. I really like this idea. Mentors from the Officer core would add a lot...especially if they take the role seriously. I also like the suggestion that the Mentors have several recruits and members they are working with. We might also consider moving recruits from one mentor to another with each mentor working on a specific area-- tactics, weapon usage, defense, etc..

6. You are probably right about the second training officer. I do think there may be more tactics and strategies to be taught at some point but for now the higher training officer is not needed.

7. One of the reasons is that occassionally people get so ticked that they need a formal method of resolving issues. On the otherhand I suppose the 3GM's could take charge of this, hopefully rare, occurance.

8. Actually, I'm embarassed to say this office was presented just to fill out the 10 officer quota. I suppose that if a GM is not around when things need to be done we can count on the officers to do the right thing, whatever that happens to be.

Finally, one wonders if your job will always be so easy. After all, if GOS members actually get involved there might be a lot more to report. Time will tell.

In the end this reduces the Officers to about 7: 2 Candidate and about 4 Training Mentors, and 1 Communications Officer. We currently have 10 Officers and if we get them together and ask them to fufill one of these roles we will probably lose 3-5 who would rather be Vets and help out once in a whils. At least that is what I think.

Comments by the manliest guildie 12/14

-Why not transfer all the crown/mat duties to a totally different account whose login would only be shared with officers and GMs?

-Addi, you were NOT promoted to meet a quota. Actually, when we promoted you, there wasn't even a quota to meet. We just thought you were cool. :3

-Why not turn this guild into a training ground, where we can teach new people the ins and outs of various parts of the game. The section at the bottom of this page is a good start. -I agree with the 101 training officer idea, but that would just bring us back to when officer was just a rank everybody had, so I suggest a 1-3 ratio of mentors to new people. That way, we'll have a full party on training runs. Also, we should divide officers by specialties, so we don't end up with swordmasters training an army of Big Angry Bombs.

Response to Arbi's comments and my own (addisona) abridgement of current organization 12/22

1. This would work with the crowns but not with resources, as the resource manager is going to be sending and receiving mail containing items; he has to be a real person. The downside is that multiple people couldn't get on at once and a slip up in promotions could lose us all our cash.

2. I really don't know where this comment was coming from, honestly. No response necessary.

3. The entire guild would not be a training ground, but we intend to help people get familiar with the game and train new guildies.

4. Yeah, we've already discussed the idea of specialties in mentors. And there would probably be more mentors to new people, I'm thinking 1 to 12.

Summary of the guild so far:

GMs: 3 GMs, one holding crowns and one holding materials. Other's duties to be decided (perhaps a recipie pool, where we have a small backup of commonly recipes, so that guildies don't have to pay increased price?). Mat GM would be mailed by people as to what was needed and the mat GM would mail resources back. Mats that cost tokens and are otherwise rare would be personal possessions, not guild-owned freebies.

Mentors: These people would teach new guildies the ropes of spiral knights. This means going on training runs, explaining game mechanics, and recommending equips. Certain mentors will act as different semi-specialists; bombers, swordsmen, gunners, and mixed versions of each. They also keep track of their current proteges, as well as ex-proteges, and try to resolve any issues. Responsible for booting people from the guild, as well as promoting people. Total number is determined by the number of current new people.

Candidate Officers: These guys are the gatekeepers of the guild. They take recommended players (recommended by members and above) on runs to test their merit. Total number is determined by how many current guildies there are (More players means more people recommending people).

Communications Officer: As of now, I am this person. I take care of the wiki and try to organize things. I may need more duties. I am the only one.

Mentor's Assistant: A veteran who is interested in becoming a mentor/wants to teach part time; this person helps out their ex-mentor with their training runs. This person would be exempt from other duties that come with being a veteran (such duties are yet to be decided).

Veteran: Aged member with T3 access. Graduates from being a protege upon this promotion. Benefits yet to be determined.

Member: 3* player who has been around for a bit. Allowed to recommend new people to the candidate officers.

Recruit: T2 player who is a nice person. Access to the mat pool and our community, as well as the mentor program.

Other Important stuff: It should be noted that, given enough time, we will need to open up new guilds to let in more players (no matter how elite we are, this is going to happen, and we never intended to make the guild a truly elite guild, just a restrictive one and an organized one). If this should happen, (It probably will if we stick at it) people will want to transfer guilds from time to time. We should allow them to do this, but to ensure that a guild does not become entirely full, we will want to direct new recruits to the less-populous guilds. We will want to also have a hierarchy of how good you're supposed to be to transfer into each guild, the hierarchy would not be set in stone, but it should be clear which guilds are how good. I have more ideas on this subject but I do not wish to type until my fingers fall off.