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Togas
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California
Jun 2002
time: 21:34
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I won't be free that much to campaign. I plan to spend most of my free time this weekend with my girlfriend before she leaves on March 1st. However, I'd like to post this now, and then I'll do my best to follow up with more information early next week.
This is my best time to serve. I will have an abundance of free time and no distractions, and will be able to do my best work for Apolyton. This three month term fits perfectly into my schedule. This is an ideal time for me.
I clearly am not Trip. I'm not as active or involved as him, and I doubt I could ever be. I doubt anyone on our team could be. Instead, I offer a different approach to leadership, one that relies upon the Ministers and Team members to do their job. I am not going to try to micromanage everything, nor will I do everyone's job for them.
As the FAM under this administration, I have been relegated to a 3rd wheel or advisory role. Under past administrations, messages from other teams were passed onto me, and I handled the correspondence and chats, or had ambassadors to do so. Under the current administration, the Consuls themselves simply handled the foreign affairs and occasionally asked for my input. Frankly, my job has become obsolete, as has the MOW under this administration. We haven't had an active MOW in a month and no one even noticed.
E_T has been repeatedly at odds with the Consuls, but has stuck it through. However, it is clear that the current administration appears to prefer their own agenda over his.
BigFree has been publicly harassed and berated, and despite bringing some of it upon himself, his cheif complaint about the administration taking too much power unto itself has been turned into a joke that, frankly, isn't very funny. It has culminated in Trip choosing an avatar of Napoleon crowning himself Emperer.
Is that what this game has come to?
I'm sick of the power games. Sick of the bickering and backstabbing and pettiness of it all.
Being a member of this team has not been easy lately. In fact, it's gone from our unhappiness over the metagame and UN issues to our unhappiness and disrespect of each other.
I cannot promise that my election will suddenly calm things down or offer a change in the way we treat our fellow team members. What I can offer is a different sort of leadership.
Those who have worked with me know that I NEED public input, advisors, and ministers to handle the details of running a team. I'm not detail oriented, I don't micromange all that much, and I frankly hate to do so. I trust and depend on individual experts to work hand in hand, and I work well at managing such groups and providing guidance or support as necessary.
I'm not out for power. I've got three months to use and I'd like to use them in this fashion. I hope that you give me the chance. When I'm done Trip can go back to crowning himself Emperer and running the team for us again if you want him to do that.
--Togas
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Master Zen
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of naughty
Jan 2003
time: 23:34
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Btw, just a comment:
quote:
As the FAM under this administration, I have been relegated to a 3rd wheel or advisory role. Under past administrations, messages from other teams were passed onto me, and I handled the correspondence and chats, or had ambassadors to do so. Under the current administration, the Consuls themselves simply handled the foreign affairs and occasionally asked for my input. Frankly, my job has become obsolete, as has the MOW under this administration. We haven't had an active MOW in a month and no one even noticed.
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During the past couple of months, the ambassadors have been non-existant. Those in charge of CGN or CFC have not been in their chatrooms nor exchanged correspondance with them. If no one does it, someone HAS to do it which is why some of us have done diplomatic duty in the FAM's place. If we don't see an active FAM we are not about to let this team's diplomacy go to the gutter just because the appointed people are not being active.
In fact, the whole reason for the latest round of FAM reorganization was because you and us realized that the FAM was slacking in this regard. Thanks tho these reforms we now have an active CGN ambassador (con) which is perhaps the most important FAM ambassadorial job out there.
Also consider that other than CGN, there really hasn't been much diplomacy in this game at all lately. Why? Because by this time sides have been chosen and alliances forged. Unless the GWT-CGN changes drastically there is really no big reason to attempt to change the status quo. As it stands, this game is turning into a "let's not let GWT win" competition.
quote:
E_T has been repeatedly at odds with the Consuls, but has stuck it through. However, it is clear that the current administration appears to prefer their own agenda over his.
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Hmm, clashes between the MoI and the Consuls are not a new thing. E_T and the previous consuls have repeteadly debated and argued on a great many things (don't you remember the great E_T vs nye arguments in the chat?), many of which ended up being decided by the consuls. The reason it has been more evident now is because we have actually tried to make these discussions public instead of using executive power to get what we want in the chat. Please tell me a situation with the MoI that has not been discussed with the team. Of course we are entitled to disagree, and publically voice our diapproval of some of his plans, but ultimately we have let the team decide, not us.
Ultimately I don't really care if public perception of us is that we diagree with everything that E_T proposes, as long as that disagreement is made public and left to the team to decide on who's side to be on. Do we have a different agenda? Yes, our opinion on what is best for the team frequently differs. There is nothing wrong with that. This is a democracy. Let the team decide, but don't blame us for trying.
quote:
BigFree has been publicly harassed and berated, and despite bringing some of it upon himself, his cheif complaint about the administration taking too much power unto itself has been turned into a joke that, frankly, isn't very funny. It has culminated in Trip choosing an avatar of Napoleon crowning himself Emperer.
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Ok, I admit it, I laughed 
I know that at least one person will disagree with me, but I can say for certain that the things we have done have been to make this a better team, and that through debate have, for the most part, reached something resembling consensus by now. These have been hard days, not least because of the whole UN debacle which wasn't so much our fault but an outlet to let CGN-GWT display their public hatred for each other.
In conclusion, I think you have been a bit harsh in your comments towards "this administration", I suspect that you may be using it as a political campaign ploy, but still, we're not as hungry as some people think we are 
Other than that, regardless of who wins this election, I think we will have a GREAT consul for the next three months. Having served so long in the FAM all I can say is that Togas is an excellent leader, a great delegator, and someone who is a pleasure to work with. Either way, this is one election you can't go wrong with.
Good luck to all.
-MZ
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Arnelos
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of the Free World
Sep 2002
time: 00:34
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I want to remain as neutral as I can in this race, but I am forced by Togas' campaign statement to clarify some issues I believe he is in error on:
MoW:
Concerning the MoW, we have made every attempt to accomodate Aggie's availability problems, but it seems that the game itself simply moves too fast for Aggie to provide turn-by-turn orders. Since turn-by-turn orders did not seem possible, we asked Aggie to instead post a long-term plan of MISSION ROLES for each unit, a plan the Consuls could use as a guideline when playing the save.
That's only be partially workable. When we have searched for others interested in the MoW position, none have responded favorably.
What precisely, are we to do? Just not move our units?
Facing the absence of an MoW and the unwillingness of others to take that job or volunteer to help with it, we have run turn-by-turn military affairs (which right now are pretty simple) by ourselves and given authority on the long-term military situation TO DISCUSSIONS AND POLLS OF THE TEAM (which is where it really belongs anyhow).
Part of the problem here is that Trip did such a fantastic job as MoW that it has been exceedingly difficult (especially in peacetime) to find a repalcement of both his calibre (which Aggie meets in my opinion) AND his activity level for the job.
FAM:
MZ is correct to point out that the problem with the FAM has been the lack of active ambassadors. In this respect, the problems mirrors that with the MoW.
Nuclear Master was given the CGN post and then almost immediately went innactive. The FAM has not posted a replacement. Given this critical hole in our foreign affairs, the Consuls were not about to just let negotiations go lax with them. Trip, I, and even BigFree have stepped in to negotiate with CGN since Nuclear Master went inactive. The recent appointment of conmcb25 to the post has already helped to alleviate that problem.
If ambassadors go inactive, the FAM needs to appoint new ambassadors or, failing that, the FAM himself can become active in diplomacy (or the Assistant FAM, as Master Zen did many times when he held that position). Neither of those happened, so the Consuls did it rather than leave the job not done at all.
Part of the problem, we will certainly admit, is that the FAM has been deprived of some of its people by having us become Consuls and insufficiently active replacements appointed to replace us. The FAM is stuck in this regard much as the Consuls are regarding the MoW... if sufficiently active people do not step forward or are willing to take the job, what are the Consuls/FAM to do but to do the job for them?
MoI:
I'm certainly not going to deny that Trip has a more stormy relationship with E_T than either MZ or I do. They clash often and I think most of us are aware of it. However, the reason for this is that both are talented at MoI issues and clash over creative differences, not simply because Trip fails to listen to E_T (though at times I know E_T gets that impression).
As for MZ and I, really our only beef with E_T at all is that he does not always post his long-term plans where we can easily see them. Sure, most of the time we get turn-by-turn orders from him and we know that takes a TON of work on his part, but we honestly think it would be easier on E_T if he posted his long term plan (even a 5-10 turn plan of what's coming up for each city) and we could look at that to know what is coming rather than being blind.
Thing is, I don't blame E_T in the slightest for the recent problems with that because E_T is a busy person with issues in RL that he needs to sort through, plus he's been rather sick lately. I think we (all three Consuls) are willing to be patient while E_T is having issues in RL. We recognize that he does a TON of work on behalf of this team and we'd be nowhere without him.
But conflicts between the MoI and the Consuls when each turn comes up are inevitable if the Consuls are not being informed ahead of time of the details of the plan so that such issues can be ironed out well in advance. This is why we'd like to see better multi-turn reporting by E_T, but when he finds the time. We're not going to push to hard on that while he's too busy with his personal life.
In Closing:
Conflicts between such a group of highly involved people who are looking at these issues every turn should not be unexpected. Hell, look at this forum in any discussion or poll thread in our history. As a team, we debate every issue, largely because different people see things differently. That's PRODUCTIVE. Debate and argument of such issues help all sides to dig deeper, learn more, refine their arguments, and ultimately make for a better-run game for our team.
In terms of the Consul-MoI interface, I'd say that I'm probably the one who ends up agreeing with E_T the most, Trip the least.  In terms of Consul-FAM, MZ typically agrees with Togas the most, but neither necessarily with Trip or I all of the time. Trip and I clash on military matters more frequently. These creative differences in the leadership are part of what make our team great. They improve our play.
Best of all, typically such arguments pretty consistently make it to the forum, where ANYONE ON THE TEAM has been able to debate the same issues and its ultimately the team that ends up deciding most of them.
That's the way this team SHOULD work! I don't WANT a leadership that always agrees on everything!
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MrWhereItsAt
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New Year's Resolution: 2005 is the year of Where It's At - come get some.
Nov 2001
time: 17:34
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An interesting post from Togas, and one which sadly (and somewhat surprisingly, at least to me) strikes a number of chords within me,
And adding to BF's post, from MY experience Togas will ruthlessly ensure one's duties are not usurped by another without good reason
A little more seriously perhaps (hey, that was serious at the time!  ), as Togas says this is his best time due to RL circumstances. If we want to have a good cadre of potential Ministers and Consuls we need to include as many in the job as possible else we will be left high and dry when all the regulars are busy.
Togas is meticulous in nature, one of the posters who is easiest to deal with (even when you have messed up and offended him) and presents a very high standard of leadership from several other DGs (perhaps more than anyone else active today).. He's a model Consul candidate, having dealt with all past and present Consuls in many roles both in this DG and elsewhere. He'll be ideal. 
I wish however you had chosen another month to run, Togas, as with the choice right now it is not an easy one.
Last edited by MrWhereItsAt on 28-02-2004 at 06:28
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Arnelos
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of the Free World
Sep 2002
time: 00:34
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The Consuls have been doing a good bit of vetting potential replacements for the various ministries behind the scenes just to have temporary replacements lined up in the event something tragic were to happen in the real/personal lives of any of our sitting ministers (preventing them from participating for a short while). Some amount of asking people if they would be interested in the same position permanently if someone resigned or switched jobs also goes on. We're also ALWAYS looking for volunteers. If you're interested PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PM US.
Afterall, at the very least, personally I like to have a TEMPORARY replacement lined up ahead of time in the event of a sudden problem in a minister's personal life or a Consul suddenly dropping in activity or something. People have sudden tragedies in their lives that impact their ability to participate here. We have to anticipate that and plan ahead for it, just in case we need to.
Ideally, we could have stated Deputy Ministers under each Minister, which is what we really want.
Doing that for the MoW and MoI has been very difficult, though. Quite frankly, that's been one of the most frustrating things we've dealt with.
---------
Now, if E_T really does want to retire after the palace jump (we're actualy not SURE about this, but have certainly suspected it... could use some comment from him), then we'll need a capable replacement.
Several people were actually already contacted about that possibility and becoming Deputy MoI and NONE of them gave us a full and complete yes (all were either "I'd rather not" or "I'll think about it"). If someone wants to step forward to be the Deputy MoI under E_T's wing, we're all ears. 
EDIT: Sorry Togas for the threadjack... this really needs another thread. 
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E_T
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Orlando, Florida
Mar 2001
time: 00:34
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It has been getting to be a bit tiresome of late and I'll stay the course until I get us through our GA. After that, we shall see what will come (maybe a Consulship   ).
One of the problems that I have had, is with just keeping up with a lot of things. For me to properly chart our future economic growth, has been having to keep up with the pulse of our nation. Because my job requires me to make sure we are strong and advancing on all of the fronts that we require (the AltSpII speaks of several things), it takes a lot of planning, not just for the next 5 to 10 turns, but 30 to 40 down the road. Some of this I can presently only conjecture, because of what the status of the different cities will be once the REX/Palace move are completed (i.e. final corruption figures).
Wrangling & directing several Settlers from their start to final build sites can be a task at times. Trying to figure where they need to go vs. answering questions as to when such and such site is going to be settled (because it has 2 jungle tiles already cleared for it...or some other thing), can sometimes take a large quantity of the time that I need to do these things.
Granted, I'm one that likes to make sure that everyone knows what is going on, because I figure, that the best way that people can support (and/or critisize) what I'm doing IS with them being as Informed as possible. It's the best way to do things in this type of setting.
My basic philosophy is that things need to go from step A to B to C, BUT, that is all dependant on various factors based on a city by city need assesment. A certain city might get C then F then A and B, it all depends on a lot of things. This also works with the worker assignments, based on priorities that can sometimes be very complex. Sometimes, I run My sim a little bit ahead (when I have it updated) and can have a better Idea as to what the workers need to be doing or what I can do sometimes, when the worker configurations present themselves, like the Forrest chops close to AP.
And sometimes. things DO seem to be a bit strange as to what is happening and to where it's going. That's where, my speadsheets sometimes come into play. For instance, As I was setting up the orders for Dominus, I had 4 paths that I could follow, as to it;s future developement, over the next 30 (or so turns), all depending on how fast or slow I had let it grow (and keeping it within my guidelines for the Palace move). The faster Growth would mean less sheilds (but more trade) towards it's builts (market & Lib after the Settler), or I could go slower growth and faster build times (and less trade), or a combination of the 2 in the middle. After taking my sheets out to turn 190 or so, and looking at the final completion times vs. trade output (with Market bonus after the different completion times) and min/maxing the different paths, the best path, over all thing, was one of the middle roads.
Another thing that I was concerned with, was AP. If we have to add too many workers to get the Palace to move properly, then, when the palace is moved, that city won;t have an effective SPT output, because it will have to work too many of the irrigated tiles and not enough of the mined hills tiles (with all of the specialist that it has to feed). This would require it to spend a very long time in getting it's market built OR have to spend time and sheilds building workers to get it back to a productive state or a combo of the 2. If our Plans to use AP as a Wonder City are to be realized, then I needed to make sure I only have to add as many workers as I really need to, and make sure that that figure (through the efforts to keep the rest of the cities pops down) is as minimum as possible.
Again, these are things that I think long and hard about over time as I work on things, like orders and such. Yes, sometimes, it takes a very lot of work, just to explain why this city is doing such and such now and this later and something else afterwards, for 20 to 30 cities....
And yes, plans do change, like resently, when I had realized that we are much closer to getting the Palace moved that I had first planed for. And then, hours of previous work has to be scraped and redone. Fortunately, with the extra time that we have had, with all of the things that have been going on at the UN (and such), atleast it made up for the lost time I had with my recent illness. I'm very thankful that the 2 events happened at the same time, but then, it still followed one of Finagle's little laws...
But then I digress..... Back to the topic at hand (but I'll still take the praise as unabashidly as I can.... ). I think that Togas would make a great Consul, although he would be taking Trip's seat to do it with. Trip can be a very astute person and had been an asset to Apolyton as Consul. But at this point in time, I beleave that Togas would be a better person for the job. He will bring a different kind of diversity to our leadership, at a time when a lot of critical things are soon to happen. His knowledge and expertise will be sorely needed in the coming months.
E_T
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Trip
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Hunt Valley
Apr 2002
time: 00:34
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I believe it's time to respond to this properly for the sake of this campaign.
quote:
Originally posted by Togas
As the FAM under this administration, I have been relegated to a 3rd wheel or advisory role. Under past administrations, messages from other teams were passed onto me, and I handled the correspondence and chats, or had ambassadors to do so. Under the current administration, the Consuls themselves simply handled the foreign affairs and occasionally asked for my input. Frankly, my job has become obsolete, as has the MOW under this administration. We haven't had an active MOW in a month and no one even noticed. |
The FAM has relegated itself to that role.
We have a number of chats and PMs sent between us and CFC/CGN, however, every time one is scheduled, who shows up? A consul or two, but no FAM or ambassadors. Who is present in the other teams' chatrooms in order to pick up on news? The consuls.
This has been the pattern for the last many months. Read through the correspondance thread. The FAM hasn't been involved in a meaningful way in anything that has gone on since early January, with few exceptions.
Advisory role? Maybe so. But not because of the whim of the consuls. It's because the FAM is not present or active. PMs are posted, discussion within the team held, and rarely does the FAM take action and begin the process of responding. The reason the consuls handle chat and correspondance is because if they don't, no one else will. Is that what people prefer? To limit the power of the consuls, they are supposed to let our friends calls go unheard?
Ambassadors to handle things? There are no ambassadors. Is it also the responsibility of the consuls to prod ambassadors as to their activity level and get them moving again? And to appoint new ones and make sure they'll be doing more than their predecessors? Shouldn't it be the FAM who organizes his department, contacts other teams and posts chats and PMs?
It is not the responsibility of the consuls to have to work their asses off to get the bureacracy moving again. It is the responsibility of the ministers, advisors and ambassadors. They can take as much of an active role as they're willing to assume. I believe I have proved that with my time as MOW. It could have been just a "post orders every turn" position, but I worked hard to make it much more than that.
You offer organization, new blood and structure. But where have you shown this in your FAM role? I see a defunct ministry which the consuls have had to take over in order to keep negotations with other teams running. I see AWOL ambassadors, a disorganized ministry and a FAM which hasn't cared enough to act with motivation and initiative.
Is this what Togas will do if he becomes consul? Fresh leadership... none at all?
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Togas
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California
Jun 2002
time: 21:34
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Well, at least Trip is on topic.
Please, can the Consuls who are not up for reelection create your own thread or something? This is starting to become extremely inconsiderate.
Back to Trip:
While a lack of volunteers was somewhat to blame, my alleged "lack of leadership" is, ironicly, only during the period of time when Trip ascended to power. What he fails to note is that throughout most of our history, things were done a certain way:
Incoming messages received were posted by those who received them immediately. Chats and discussions were held. The matter was then resolved and the ambassador or myself (if there was no ambassador) would then respond or meet the other nations in chat to deal with the situation.
Occasionally, we would be met in chat first. Notice would be given to anyone who was online, an official delegate would be appointed for the chat -- myself or a deputy -- and we would handle the affair and post a complete log.
This game is a year old. This has been the routine for nearly a year. It changed when Trip, who'd be buddying up to miccofl and had joined the CGN C3C ISDG team, started to just do the job himself.
Perhaps Trip assumed that since I wasn't online as much as him that meant that I didn't care. For the most part, the results were positive, so I held my tongue. I was frustrated with the lack of communication but *****ing about it would seem like back in the day when Trip was MOW and would try to do diplomacy and I'd complain to the Consuls about it. It was tiresome then, and it was tiresome now.
But it got worse. More people started getting involved and when those people started bickering I put a stop to it, brought up the issue for a better undertstanding/reogranization, and put things back on track. And I'm still trying to do so.
This office has done tremendously good work for our team in the realm of diplomacy in our past. Innumerable trades, schemes, alliances, deals, negotiations have all resulted in bringing wealth and power and security to Apolyton. All of it was done by a team effort, a group working closely together and operating under a common goal. That method for handling diplomacy has fallen by the wayside.
The real issue is not my lack of doing things, as Trip believes, it was my being cut out of the process entirely. It was trying to find out, after the fact, what decisions were being made, what chats were being held, and what manipulations we were undertaking. I know it wasn't convenient for him to first bring me information and then ASK MY OPINION (as Arnelos and Master Zen regularly do) about how to handle a situation, but every other Consul in our history (NYE was very good about this) has taken the time to consult with me before making decisions.
--Togas
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Togas
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California
Jun 2002
time: 21:34
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Clearly, no. Trip's loyalty to Apolyton is beyond question, and forgive me if I implied anything like that.
Trip's joining CGN for ISDG #2 gave him an "in" with CGN in this game, that made him a natural conduit for CGN - Apoly correspondence. It's been useful as Trip has helped to improve their military planning and kept them solidly in our camp.
I should also point out that it somewhat pains me to carry on this campaign against Trip. Despite what some people may think, I really DO like Trip personally. He and I may argue and gripe and bicker on occasion, but I genereally find myself on his side of the fence in most arguments, and I have a great deal of respect for his civ playing abilities. I agree without hesitation that he is a far better civ player than I am.
However, whether Trip is a Consul or a team member, his experience, opinions, plans, and ideas will be listened to and respected, certainly by me. My objections have been to his "cutting out the middle man" with regards to diplomacy, which happened to be me, and with his tendency to simply do the job himself than to ask others to get involved. He also has had trouble posting correspondence and chats, and it's been very difficult at times to figure out what exactly is going on. He's a great guy to have running things for you when you're not interested in getting involved yourself. He just needs work at being more of a team player and a collaborator.
--Togas
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Trip
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Hunt Valley
Apr 2002
time: 00:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Donegeal
Now I have not decided who to vote for yet, but I just thought that I should bring up my opinion on what happened to Togas's FAM.
Togas set up a FAM so good to start with that we believe that we have a shot at winning via UN Vote. Thats a pretty amazing situation for a game like this. He had the best of the best for Ambassadors. But they left the FAM for bigger and better things. Master Zen and Arnelos (the two other Consuls) were the chief Ambassadors to Togas's FAM. How can you replace people such as these two? I think that it is to Togas's credit that he managed to hold the FAM together for so long while loosing people of this calibur (I also think that BF was part of the FAM at one point, not sure though)? |
A lot of the position as to where our team lies diplomatically is from a team effort. A rather dark time in our history Togas supported pushing CDG on the matter of whether or not they were hiding information and trying to decieve us, and it nearly caused a war. In the end, the situation was defused, and things have been much smoother since then, but things were conducted poorly early on, IMO. Aside from a few mishaps, the FAM has done a very good job as a complete organization.
Yes, the FAM used to contain the most number of illustrious and active members of our team, but things have drifted from that point, and I feel it is the responsibility of the FAM to either find new active ambassadors or to try taking a more direct role personally. Maybe that's just my view because of how I ran the MOW, but it's my opinion that the role of the ministers is to present their cases to the consuls as to what to do, and then let the consuls decide. I don't believe that it should be the obligation of the consuls to have to consult the advice of the ministries to be doing a satisfactory job. The Constitution itself states that the ministers are to supply an advisory role... not that it is the role of the consuls to consult with the ministers.
Don't get me wrong in thinking that I'm trying to "cut people out" of the process. I simply feel it's the obligation of those people to earn their positions of consultation with effort and initiative. Those who do shine and are the greatest assets to this team. The consuls have plenty to do already, and I feel that at least some of the responsibility should be on the ministers to handle things on their own.
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Trip
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Hunt Valley
Apr 2002
time: 00:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Togas
While a lack of volunteers was somewhat to blame, my alleged "lack of leadership" is, ironicly, only during the period of time when Trip ascended to power. What he fails to note is that throughout most of our history, things were done a certain way:
Incoming messages received were posted by those who received them immediately. Chats and discussions were held. The matter was then resolved and the ambassador or myself (if there was no ambassador) would then respond or meet the other nations in chat to deal with the situation.
Occasionally, we would be met in chat first. Notice would be given to anyone who was online, an official delegate would be appointed for the chat -- myself or a deputy -- and we would handle the affair and post a complete log. |
While in the past I have indeed been stretched in posting correspondance (entirely random chats), I have always made it a point to post any PMs or emails I have recieved. That has not changed with the past. There is plenty of time for the FAM to make note of the recieved message, then propose a drafted response to it. This has indeed fallen off since my term has began, but how am I to blame for that? As I said, I have posted all PMs and emails I have recieved, and chats rarely warrant a PM or email response (unless it's something big like the CFC alliance).
I have studied the FAM thread quite thoroughly since my term first began... I see a lot of chat logs with myself and a couple others present, some chats with E_T involved, quite a few with other consuls and BF, and yet only a couple with yourself or other FAM members involved. Now, if other consuls, BF and even E_T can find their way to a chat, why can't at least part of the FAM? It's certainly not my fault for "withholding information" or anything of that sort, if others can find their way easily.
quote:
This game is a year old. This has been the routine for nearly a year. It changed when Trip, who'd be buddying up to miccofl and had joined the CGN C3C ISDG team, started to just do the job himself.
Perhaps Trip assumed that since I wasn't online as much as him that meant that I didn't care. For the most part, the results were positive, so I held my tongue. I was frustrated with the lack of communication but *****ing about it would seem like back in the day when Trip was MOW and would try to do diplomacy and I'd complain to the Consuls about it. It was tiresome then, and it was tiresome now. |
To be honest, my connections with CGN via the C3C ISDG is quite marginal when compared with my contact with them in this game... in fact, my joining of their team is more a result of what's gone on in this game than vice versa.
It is easier to extract information from teams and affect their policy more if you are present in their chat. Perhaps I was the first to engage in this, but it is a valuable diplomatic tool to employ to create a stronger connection wither other teams. To not do so would be a disadvantage to this team. Very rarely have I seen any of the FAM idling in the CFC or CGN embassy rooms. Is that a question of activity? I can't answer, only you and the other members can. But I am not one to see an advantage slip due to "stepped toes" or violated protocol. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a "good team player" because of that, but I desire the best I can for this team. If I have to take the place of others who I feel are not fulfilling their obligations, then I will do so. It is to the team to judge me, and thus far, I have heard no complaints from them regarding such actions.
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But it got worse. More people started getting involved and when those people started bickering I put a stop to it, brought up the issue for a better undertstanding/reogranization, and put things back on track. And I'm still trying to do so.
This office has done tremendously good work for our team in the realm of diplomacy in our past. Innumerable trades, schemes, alliances, deals, negotiations have all resulted in bringing wealth and power and security to Apolyton. All of it was done by a team effort, a group working closely together and operating under a common goal. That method for handling diplomacy has fallen by the wayside.
The real issue is not my lack of doing things, as Trip believes, it was my being cut out of the process entirely. It was trying to find out, after the fact, what decisions were being made, what chats were being held, and what manipulations we were undertaking. I know it wasn't convenient for him to first bring me information and then ASK MY OPINION (as Arnelos and Master Zen regularly do) about how to handle a situation, but every other Consul in our history (NYE was very good about this) has taken the time to consult with me before making decisions. |
Again, maybe I was the one who released the floodgate of extra-FAM members taking over the FAM office, but as I said, I only did so because I saw a lack of activity that needed to be addressed. If the FAM had requested to take over the duty of idling in chat to handle the random every-day chats that often take place, then I would have easily given them away and discouraged non-FAM members from trying to take these duties. But I was never contacted about that, or any related issues. All I got was silence, so all I could assume is that the FAM didn't care and was simply slipping further away.
As I said in my response to Done, I feel that it is the responsibility of the members of the ministries to take an active role in their department, and "fight" for their jobs, so to speak, or at the very least, request to be included in some way. I was never contacted by the FAM, and with all the other things I am involved in regarding this team it is a tall order for me to bounce from ministry to ministry asking about what's going on, requesting advice and such. I believe if I post correspondance, set up chats and start discussions, I have done my job.
Maybe previous administrations had more time to discuss and delegate things with the FAM, but we have had an inactive MOW, meaning the consuls have had to pick up a lot of the slack in that ministry. I have played many of the turns during my term, so a lot of that has been on my plate as well. Essentially, I have been playing consul and 1/2 a MOW. Am I to be faulted for not trying to find a more active MOW? Perhaps, but at least where that was lacking I did my best to cover that hole. When much of the FAM slipped into inactivity, you did not press as hard as you could have to get things back into rhythm. So Trip ends up being consul, 1/2 MOW and 1/2 FAM. Not because I want to, but because slack has to be picked up, and I don't want to have to be consul, 1/2 MOW, 1/2 FAM and a delegator of duties while things maybe get taken over again by the FAM. It's just too much. I (and the other consuls) have to rely upon the ministries to cover things like this, because it's simply not possible to do everything.
This is why with so much work and so few people the team needs leaders with initiative and drive. Things have to get done and those who do them are the ones who influence how this team works. Those who expect to be resources for the use of the team are lost in the wayside. That's just how things have worked.
Maybe Togas has time to be consul, 1/2 MOW, 1/2 FAM, chat idler and delegator of duties. But if he doesn't something will not recieve proper attention. Trip doesn't have time for all that, so Trip does his best to fulfill what needs to be done.
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28-02-2004 03:00
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