After much brainstorming, discussion, several gallons of bourbon, and at least three pink Margaritas… Matt and I have hammered out a (s)platform to present to the club.

Rowan and Deads’ Jello Battle Splatform!

Item the First: “We’re On a Mission From God.”

“There are 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses.” -Elwood Blues, 1980.

Matt and I have decided that our first Item of business for the term is to declare all-out, total Jello war on many of you. We may die, but you’ll be taking at least a few shots of Root Beer Jello to the noggin’ before you get us. So shields up, and prepare for boarding action!

This is our way of making it clear that the central reason for this club is to have fun and be ridiculously silly. We want that to be clear right from the get-go. We aim to do some real work, but we want it to be fun for everyone involved because at the end of the day we should be going home to wash the jello stains from our clothing with huge smiles on our faces, wondering how we’re going to explain to our wives, or girlfriends, or husbands, whatever… Just how awesome that Thread was! They’re gonna think we’re nuts. (Cuz let’s face it, you’re a pretend Space Admiral… Or Captain. Or not.)

Item the Second: “DON’T CROSS THE STREAMS!”

“Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light…” -Egon Spengler, 1984

Once we got to discussing various issues, we found that many of the things we feel need addressing seem to tie into at least one other issue, and usually more than one other issue. So we’re going to cross the streams, so to speak, and see if we can’t help with a few different issues we’ve become aware of, by supporting them as if they were connected.

For Item 2, we’ve decided to focus on two areas that we feel can be tied together at least peripherally. We would like to see the CMM position discussed in-depth, and support further growth of that position so as to lengthen our reach in getting the word out about the club and our name out to prospective new members. Along with that discussion, Matt and I feel that a lot of members might benefit from not only more transparency from the Exec and Cabinet but regular updates as to what’s being worked on behind the scenes to better the club. We’d like to implement a monthly State of the Union type event where the Exec reaches out to the club and describes the current projects being worked on, and what that means. This isn’t an original idea, and we don’t claim to be the ones who came up with it in the first place, but we like it enough to work on it. (If this was your idea, please speak up and we’ll happily credit you! Though we might also put you to work on it…)

To further this dissemination of information, we’d like to have a guest spot be part of the “news” event. One Cabinet Position per event will make a statement simply outlining what their job is, their approach to doing that job, and what they’re currently working on. We know Cabinet work is hard, and we don’t want to add to busy people’s plates, but we feel at least a simple statement would be an excellent way for members who don’t regularly participate in command discussion to become familiar with the way the club government works and the process of how we do things.

We feel these also might be excellent additions to the monthly newsletter, though that’s a matter for discussion.

Yet another issue we feel ties into the previously mentioned parts of this item is the Academy. Concerns have been expressed, and discussions have been ongoing about changes to the Academy and Mentorship Program (In case you, dear reader, haven’t been watching the command ship.) Matt and I are aware of the work that’s been ongoing, and we support that and intend to continue to support that work in any way we can. That is to say, we know people had some issues, but we also know some of those issues are already being addressed. We pledge to give updates on this work as part of our Transparency/Monthly News Event.

Item the Third: “Every real story is a Neverending story.”

“If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless…

If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won’t understand what Bastian did next.” -Michael Ende, 1984

There has been an issue the club has dealt with on and off for a long while, involving the shortage of GM’s. Admittedly, we don’t have a magical solution to that problem. However, it’s a problem dear to our hearts because both Matt and I are GM’s, Matt here in the club, and me for a long time in several other games and clubs. A lot of members have come up with various ideas of how we can solve this issue, and a lot of very good and not so good ideas have been proposed…

One of the ideas we’ve been kicking around has been brought up before by others in the club and involves having an RP Environment solely for GMT sims to be hosted. We’re still fleshing out our own version of this idea (Which I think James Sinclair proposed a couple of elections back), but we also feel that there may not be a simple “one and done” sort of solution. With this in mind, Matt and I suggest having a discussion in a long-term format, where people can bring their ideas and work together toward crafting a solution everyone can agree upon. We would love to provide a framework for such a venture, and fully support any efforts in this area, even if it ends up being someone else’s ideas that are adopted in the end. So rest assured we will be giving this issue a large part of our attention in the coming term, whether elected or not. With the goal being that we have not only an avenue of continuing communication where this issue can be addressed across multiple terms if need be; but a continuing record of what’s been tried or discussed in the past, without going back and forth and wasting anyone’s time.

-Matt and Dave, #TeamRootBeerJello
(***If quotations violate any rules or TOS agreements, please forgive me and delete this post. No one was awake to advise me.)