I want to give everyone who's joined in the past week or two an official welcome to guild. Normally I post on each guild member's comment box, or PM them, but I do not have the time to do that right now - there have been about 20 new members added in a short amount of time.
What Hopeland is about is building each other up. To that end, even though we have a ton of members and tons of talent, we need "experts" - Gaians, preferably 18 + (I can compromise on this, obviously) who know something really well like how to give fashion advice or run a writer's workshop, etc., and are really good at dealing with people of all ages and abilities. If you know people like this, ready to take a leadership role, or if you think you can handle it, ask and you shall receive.
Stripper has written a beautiful thread spelling out the rules for an avatar fashion contest. If you're interested, make some noise and I'm sure she'll announce the theme of the first contest and we can get judges and participants going.
Two things where I think everyone can take leadership: anyone who wants to recruit need only ask for crew permissions, and I'll let you go ahead and and work for guild. I trust everyone will represent us properly, will work to make this a friendly, kind and thoughtful place both in how it appears and how it is. It isn't just bringing in more members that makes guild work, it's keeping up with everyone. After you've introduced yourself, take the time to get to know your fellow guild members and keep up with them. Sometimes it isn't getting specific help, but knowing other people care, that makes all the difference.
One final note: your active officers, the ones that I consider the people to go to if I'm not online, are Boogie Oogie Man, jjnb11, Stripper, Selfia, Anzu Tenshi and, if she's on, pljunkie. I know a lot of you have done recruiting and have crew permissions (thank you goofyman), and you'll notice Island is Vice-Captain (she's a really good friend, and if she got online again, she'd be one of the best things to happen to us). Those count for something - if someone's crew, they do have power, and I didn't give that away just because.
But I'm going to start putting in place a hierarchy of those who speak for us because the sheer number of you requires it. We might have 200 members soon at this rate: while all of us represent guild, and some do more than others, the ones who speak for guild are going to have to become a bit fewer. This isn't to exclude anyone: officers will rotate when we have enough. My work in political science stems from the Aristotlean idea that political rule is when one can rule and be ruled in turn (Politics Bk 1, Chp. 1). You'll all get your chance if you want it. But if your chance is to count for anything, then we need to have fewer be officers at any given time.
What Hopeland is about is building each other up. To that end, even though we have a ton of members and tons of talent, we need "experts" - Gaians, preferably 18 + (I can compromise on this, obviously) who know something really well like how to give fashion advice or run a writer's workshop, etc., and are really good at dealing with people of all ages and abilities. If you know people like this, ready to take a leadership role, or if you think you can handle it, ask and you shall receive.
Stripper has written a beautiful thread spelling out the rules for an avatar fashion contest. If you're interested, make some noise and I'm sure she'll announce the theme of the first contest and we can get judges and participants going.
Two things where I think everyone can take leadership: anyone who wants to recruit need only ask for crew permissions, and I'll let you go ahead and and work for guild. I trust everyone will represent us properly, will work to make this a friendly, kind and thoughtful place both in how it appears and how it is. It isn't just bringing in more members that makes guild work, it's keeping up with everyone. After you've introduced yourself, take the time to get to know your fellow guild members and keep up with them. Sometimes it isn't getting specific help, but knowing other people care, that makes all the difference.
One final note: your active officers, the ones that I consider the people to go to if I'm not online, are Boogie Oogie Man, jjnb11, Stripper, Selfia, Anzu Tenshi and, if she's on, pljunkie. I know a lot of you have done recruiting and have crew permissions (thank you goofyman), and you'll notice Island is Vice-Captain (she's a really good friend, and if she got online again, she'd be one of the best things to happen to us). Those count for something - if someone's crew, they do have power, and I didn't give that away just because.
But I'm going to start putting in place a hierarchy of those who speak for us because the sheer number of you requires it. We might have 200 members soon at this rate: while all of us represent guild, and some do more than others, the ones who speak for guild are going to have to become a bit fewer. This isn't to exclude anyone: officers will rotate when we have enough. My work in political science stems from the Aristotlean idea that political rule is when one can rule and be ruled in turn (Politics Bk 1, Chp. 1). You'll all get your chance if you want it. But if your chance is to count for anything, then we need to have fewer be officers at any given time.
