Comments on membership policies

[Lilly]

This is where comments on the membership policies topic should go. as i look over it, i realize it is quite long...sorry about that! Brevity is not one of my strong points (it is, in fact, perhaps my weakest point <grins>) My first comment on the policies is that its all negotiable. the second is that the numbers in it are based pretty much on the size of our clan now (10 members), and are certain to change. One in particular i want comment about is the "standby" period. Do we need to have it? or should we just say that 25% of the clan or more automatically denies a member entry?

[Aerick]

Wow. It all sounds pretty good to me. My one concern is that when dealing with percentages of total clan members, what happens as we accumulate inactive members?

While we will obviously try very hard to avoid inactives, people will, in time, burn out, drop out, and stop caring. And if they never go away, their ranks will swell, and this will screw up all the numbers. I do not have a solution handy, unless we only count the number of votes submitted as the base for the percentage.

[Lilly]

when we start getting inactive characters, then we shall change the system...Hopefully that wont be for a long long time.

[Ender]

I do not like 2. It will not work for most people. or will take them to long to get in those 4 events. if it takes more then 2 weeks to tell if someone is workable into the clan its way to long. I do agree we need not rush things, but more then 2 weeks for one person is to long.

[Aerick]

Interesting. I agree with both of you. =) Making them come to clan activities is a great idea, it forces them to be somewhat active even before joining, and we and them learn of each other.
However, the time needed to make 4 events is substantial. To me, the solution is not to change the policy, rather to double or triple the number of events we have. Let's start pumping out 5 or 6 clan events a week.
(meeting, pushball, 2 hunts, 2 newbie events - for example)

[GrayGradi]

I agree with Aerick -- if there aren't sufficient clan events to make attendance at four an onerous task, then we're doing something wrong (and should we really be dragging another victim into out fold, anyway?)

The thought occurs to me that our scroll home page ought to have a rolling schedule of upcoming clan events. (I say this not knowing at all how gigantic a task I am suggesting to Kiriel...)

As to the policy in general, I think it's great!

[Kiriel]

Having a schedule of clan events posted wouldn't be too hard. I could probably get one worked up by next Tuesday.

I would like to see more clan events- even if I can't make them all (which is likely) it would be fun to do more with the clan.

I hope Lilly that as soon as your membership policies are finalized you can give me something official I can post on the scrolls about them?

[Lilly]

Number 1 and 2 are something I am rather adamant about. As a player I have tried the "instant join" method, and the "wait and get to know your clan" method. In the first method, I have not even spoken with the majority of that clan, never know when anything is really going on, and am barely recognized as even being in the clan at all, despite my efforts to change that. In the other clan, I know everyone, everyone knows me, and we value one anothers opinions instead of putting them aside if they dont agree with how we feel. Having standards and taking time makes a huge difference. I like the idea of having more things available to do as a clan though-that would satisfy the need to have a member feel they worked to get into the clan (making us and them far more respectable) but not leave them feeling like its taking forever. I am going to leave those 2 as they are until we come up with a better way, or i get a ton of negative feedback about them.

[Nunul]

No negative feedback here. I am a firm believer in the theory that you cherrish what you've worked to attain. Its hard to appreciate what you have if it has been given to you.

Who was it that said: I would not want to be a member of any club that would have me as a member? That is as close as I can think I would feel about an organization which I could easily just waltz into. (and I wouldn't therefore feel much remorse in leaving the clan after a Sun Stone had been purchased for me)


Man, but I am in a rambling mood tonight...

-The One & Only Windy Dorf
(for how long the only one I ponder...)

[Konoko]

It all sounds good to me Lai!
Great work...

Kiriel, about this clan event schedule - would this be something similar to the members page where we can add our own info?

Will be able to add events on the fly or send it to you to add?

Making the web mistress job easier is a great goal and if you are able to make all this self-adding stuff for the clan events happen, then it takes the workload away from yourself and splits/shares the load amongst all of us...

Konoko

[Kiriel]

I think I could make it so everyone could add stuff, but I'm not sure how good an idea this is from an organizational standpoint. We could try it and if there were problems I could restrict adding.

[Konoko]

Maybe just for those who would events to add?
Say the secretary (meeting coordinator?), hunt coordinator, pushball captain, clan ambassador (dun'ilsar events), and that's all I think of offhand...

Most of these would be times where we would have to find a time that's good for everyone. Like for pushball and dun'ilsar we'd no doubt go through a process on the forum or whatever determining the best time and then once that was decided we could post the actual finalised time of the event on this web page...

And Kiriel I'll gladly help you out with the web mistress duties, just tell me what areas you'd like help with!

[Farhope]

Lilly,

Thank you for writting membership policies. I think that something clear,even not perfect, is far better than best thing that nobody knows clearly.

I am with you and Nunul for the "slowness" of membership. I prefer to discourage those who are hesitating. Yes, I prefer to only have in the clan those who WANT it. If someone can not wait 2, 3 or 4 zodiacs, perhaps she/he will find a better clan for her/him. I largely perfer a small clan of motivate people than a big one.

If we miss some valuable membership in the process... too bad, but I am ready to pay this price. And I am not sad about these people, they will be great member in another good clan; they will have fun also.

Something important is to make the goals clear to the candidate.
I would like also see a little formal ceremony for joining (remind the goal,... something short) + something after that: a hunt, a game (the first to find Lilly or the new member in town... or in the south forest by night!), a pushball game,... I don't know... something [but I know, time can be a big problem].

[Aerick]

Eeep, this is all getting rather lengthy. Anyway, I have another issue here:
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6f) the voting period shall last from one meeting to the next meeting, and should never be less then 5 ooc days long.
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Why not? What if everyone submits their votes within a day? Do we still have to wait for the minimum five days?

[Lilly]

if we all vote in less then 5 days time, then by all means the voting shoudl be ended. What i meant by that was if, for some reason we hold 2 meetings a week, one on monday, and one on the following wednesday, for example, then the voting period should not be ended.

[Nunul]

Agreed, if voting is done, please clue this little dorf in on the reasoning on prolonging the outcome.

The Windy Dorf

[Lilly]

There are a couple of cases in our current prospective members where they are going to be hard-pressed to manage to attend any of our meetings due to the time they are scheduled. So, I have deemed it time to review our current membership policies. Has having the attendance of 4 clan events been successful in doing its job of letting us get to know whomever is joining? I have gotten the impression that, thus far, they havent really served that purpose, because people get to know a prospective member long before they decide to join. So, I am thinking of removing that part of the policy. The other option to consider instead of policy replacement is to have a second meeting during the week, during the late night ( morning, for European players) because nearly half of the clan is active consistently at that time (as well as these prospective members). or, we could remove that part of the policy, and add this meeting anyways. I would like to hear people's opinions on both ideas before i change anything.

Arteress Lai

[Nunul]

As far as I can tell, the potential members are people whom a few of us are acquainted with..ie: Nuvali and Maxmillian. For exiles as these, I wouldn't think there would be a problem having them join unless someone actually has an objection. For new exiles or ones not known by many, I would ask that they be recommended by members who know them well enough. These exiles have nothing to lose by attending our meetings/hunts and as T'rr'll stated in his post "...if everyone can stand me, I

[Kiriel]

I do think it's valuable to have potential members attend at least 1 or 2 clan events, but I have always thought 4 seemed a bit steep given that we seem to have difficulty having more than 1 or 2 a week. Perhaps we should just reduce the number and make a policy to schedule special events if we have someone considering joining who can't make the ones we've already got.

I also think that our late night Windy Chick hunts should be considered official clan events if at least 3 of the clan members are in attendance.

[Farhope]

As you all know, I am to take time with potential members. I hate when someone comes one or 2 times, joins and after that, me almost never see her/him again. So, yes, I prefer to keep the 4 number.
The problem, as everybody is aware, is that we don't have a lot of events. So 4 events can be 2 zodiacs (meeting and hunt after, every zodiac).

I think that even 4 zodiacs or more to join is not too much for the willing one. If all you want is to join and go your way, ok, maybe it is a bit long :-)