Reorganisation of FFUK:N

I thank those of you who have contacted me about the current direction that FFUK:N is taking and I feel its now time to discuss it.

I know myself that I haven?t had the time for you all that I should. Though things have improved recently it may still be some time before I?m as active as I used to be, as such I mentioned to Tim that I was planning to call for re-elections for CR after the GMEX meet as it?ll be our 1st birthday and I don?t think Cr-ship should be for life or until the person doing it has gotten bored.

There are new people posting now and others who never got to vote last time, also those of you here have got a chance to see my way of doing things and its time to see if this is what you all want.

So this is to discuss. What do you really want from a CR. I?ve tried to make the role as un-restrictive as possible, Encouraged people to feel free to suggest their own meets and make suggestions on what to do without having to come through me.

My reasons for this are 1st that due to money and Work I cannot make all meets across all areas and therefore I felt it wrong of me to take over planning for meets I am unable to attend and know nothing of the areas for.

2nd I personally hate unnecessary restrictions, this is how I like to do all things in my life, more informal, even at work as a supervisor I prefer to bring everyone together by allowing them to have as much say as possible, if needed I tell them what to do without argument and most know that I wouldn?t do this just coz I can are happier following the less pleasant orders because of this.

That?s what I?ve tried to translate to my role as CR, to be here if help is needed, but not to sit on the top of the pile barking orders and telling people to do as I say but this is not my boards, its not Tim?s or any of the other CR?s, its all of ours, If people would rather have a CR who as more?hands on, I?m fine with that, though it can?t be me. Its not who I am but nor will I condemn anyone for asking for this.

If I?m not the CR you want then say so, those of you who know me know that I?m not the sort to take it as an attack on me, I?ll still be here, still be at meets in Jedi costume, suspenders or plain clothes.

My sense of fun and desire to see us as a thriving community is not dependant upon position, so this is your chance to speak, so long as I?m here majority rules, they day we?re too afraid to speak out is the beginning of the end for the community because fractures will appear and in the end it?ll all come apart.

 

Well the one thing I do know about the FFUK:N is we are all pretty genuine & level-headed so I'm sure this won't get nasty !!

I fully agree with you Chris regarding the laid back approach in regards other people putting forward ideas and I think it has helped the chapter grow & encouraged people to participate. As I have mentioned to you previously I'm sure with the strong personalities on here (mine included) having CR who "barked orders" or vetted every meet, would result in up-roar !! and we have yet to have a fall-out with any board members (touch wood) so you've never had the need to intervene with an out-of-hand thread.

However, we do need the CR to bring those idea's together, keep an eye on the meet dates - which has been lacking, I know Tim has been doing this (I never met anyone as organised as Tim) but it's not his job. I also don't expect the CR to be at every meet, like you mentioned money & work play a big part in this !! especially when you don't work a mon-fri 9-5.

Whatever comes of all this - and I'm not shouting for heads to roll - I hope FFUK:N continues to grow and develop and I hope Lord_Ogli will help play a big part

 

I basically echo above Spike's comments. The laid back approach is the way to go and obviously given the size of the area no CR can cover all the meets.

I do, however, feel we need a CR who is going to be more active in terms of welcoming people to the boards (not just on here but on the JC dedicated forum), making sure Tim updates the dates at the top of the forum and such other little jobs.

Just makes for a better run outfit me thinks

 

Ogli has hit the stage where RL compounds your chances of actually doing what you want to do.



When we started I couldn't do meets but could do the board, Ogli could do the meets and the board and Ogli got the vote, RL has hit against him on both now (Harsh).


If you decide to step down then so be it. I think you've done a great job here and you've carried on what i started brilliantly.

cheers

 

QFT all of the above really - theres just that much we all seem to be wanting to do now and new people cropping up left right and centre, a hands on approach really is needed.

Think we have got past the relaxed stage now....although it was cool...times move on and the board does too. Thats life, people will always come and go, but the whole idea for me of FF is to give as much or as little as you are able to and just enjoy it....aside from the CR, who imho has key responsibilities and a role to play in facilitating the fun, while still being a part of it.

Just my 2p. The rest you know I PMd to ya Chris - just the suspenders were way too much for me....(when I have saved up I will join you.... )

Life is like a box of chocolates....

 

What? Just when you think you've got a nice toffee or fudge you bite down on a nut? I hate that

I'm glad of the comments recieved, some of you it seems want to see me be more hands on. I can try but its just not me.

For activity yeh, i've been lacking and its something I want to address regardless.

 

The Future is yours.

Chris You have been a good CR Its true we havent seen eye to eye on many things but thats what you need on here -
You cant always have people agreeing with you on everything there has to be some kind of mild opposition.

When I was the Thread Secerarty There was some good days and then there was some bad days In your Time as CR
you have made some Ground breaking ideas for the boards But you need to be everywhere at Once and thats the problem on here
your Not made of money (Who is.)

Chris Ive supported you in the Role of CR and I always will Even if I have to give you a little Nudge from time to time
If you choose to remain Ill support you Still, But you need to Control yourself like on MSN when people try to talk to you
We are NOT having a go at you ! We are trying to help you.

Dave

 

we like to help

 

I really really dislike these private conversation things. I know I can get onto MSN but when I have little time to myself to do this I can't get involved in any way, shape or form.


I may not be active on the meets front (and probably won't be for a while) but don't forget that this is my chapter too and by taking things to MSN you cut out people like myself who don't have time to post there but will want to contribute AND look to do an event that may be suitable for them at the time, which is unfair.


We have this Forum to post on and I personally think this is where we should be posting when we discuss the chapter. If we want to keep things quiet like the Midlanders do with some of their stuff then we have a private forum on the other board. Otherwise I personally feel that all things Chapter based should be available for all to see.



I may end up more involved if things were more open.


Don't forget that the non "active" members can have views as well.

 

What's the MSN conversation got to do with this?

Let's keep this purely to the FFUK:N and board in general, huh? What the CR does on MSN is up to him - it's his private space after all.

Fatburt - be assured we don't all talk on MSN discussing the boards or have a private place - what you see here is what you get. Some of us are friends who chat on MSN though, but that's bound to happen.

 

The implication of Boothies post and other posts from throughout the board are that Discussions regarding the direction of the chapter (amongst other things) are done via MSN.


I have no issue with MSN and people using it for private discussions/chats etc... but if the moment arrives that it gets used as a device for discussing the direction of the chapter then that is a sign that cedrtain people/groups are not wanted or deemed part of the group or their input is not worthy of discussion.




If I've caught the wrong end of the stick regarding the use of MSN then I apologise, but as I say posts elsewhere had lead me to believe that more is going on on MSN regarding the boards than is possibly right.





If I'm wrong though then sorry and it appears I may be.

 

Can see why it appears that way.

Basically somethings were said at York by some of us - nothing majorly bad - just concerns as raised in this thread.

Tim as RSA decided a non-official conversation with the CR would rectify the issues. Well, it didn't quite work. We were asked to raise our issues direct with L-O so we did. Then this thread appeared.

All we want is a more active CR - and only a few of us mentioned the issue of CR activity.

We just wanted a friendly nudging of Chris. Didn't exactly have a thread or anything official in mind.

 

Just to clarify I havn't taken offence to any comments in this thread and on PM's. I mearly intended to open up a debate to find out if peoples problems with me stemed from a desire for a different type of CR or just not happy with my level of activity.

Hell even if the knives came out and ppl demanded I step down it wouldn't make me mad at people or stop posting etc and I don't feel this has happened so no need to worry. I don't feel like people are having a go.

Terry, I assure you that I have not discussed anything in regards to this or any other important info on the boards using MSN without posting the results here. Infact this thread is designed to move a convo from PM's and MSN into the public domain for discussion.
I think all Dave was commenting on was my responce to Jase's "box of chocolates quote" My joke there was just that, nothing deeper in its meaning. (and I do hate chocolate with nuts in if anyone ever buys me some).

 

Now we have voiced our concerns, what say yee What plans have you got in mind?

 

Nuts are an evil byproduct of some mad scientists evil scheme to make us all eat bitty things.



ergo they are nasty and should be destroyed.




I think this is as good a time as any for you to say what direction you would like to see the North head then Chris.




Midlands have gone for their Guild (Which I like the idea of) but as a group we've so far managed to solidify a user base and are slowly attracting new people.

This is all good.

If you intend to stay on as CR now would be a good time to say what you envisage for the future so we can all put our 10p in and have a group discussion about it.


If you plan to stand down you should also say so.


Either way people are after some direction or ideas from you Chris and it's time to bear fruit (and all them other sorts of empty platitudes etc...)

 

Ah, I may have the wrong end of the stick, but I think the thread title is misleading.

Not sure about anyone else, but don't think reorganisation is on the cards as yet, although it may be at some point.

As far as I know, this is all about the CR role and what exactly that involves. When I posted above, I was asking Chris to give some response to our posts as opposed to talking about chocolate covered nuts This thread has to have some purpose right? Otherwise, imho it's a waste of time.

 

I agree.


ATM the chapter doesn't really have a structure (that I'm aware of)


We have a CR and thats it.


Do we need anyone else yet? In my eyes no.


the chapter is too small and has too narrow a definition for it to even need anymore official roles


yet.


We are growing slowly but surely and with continueing what we're doing at conventions etc... we could easily grow further.



As I said earlier though we need some idea on where we're going.


I've made no bones about the fact that I like the idea the midlands have got and the fact that they have something in place means they are a great group to talk to.

This may sound blasphemous but I think there is scifi and fantasy out there that is superior to Star Wars and should be encouraged.

We need to be attracting

'Gaters
'Browncoats
'Trekkies (regrettably )
'Wheddon fans

and the likes

We also need to be attracting people interested in fantasy (not XXX Spike(s) )

So we need to look to cover D&D fans (Games workshops perhaps?) (Does anyone do D&D? and if so it is possible to play online?) readers of fantasy books (Feist, Gemmell (RIP ) Salvatore etc...) so we may need to look for fantasy books websites possibly.


I think if we can get the chapter to grow AND broaden our definition of the Fan Force into something similar to the midlands then we're in a position to define and restructure the Chapter accordingly.



ATM if we restructure the most we can really do is either

A. Have Chris step down and get a new CR and then follow whatever plans the new CR has

B. Keep Chris and go from there following whatever plans Chris has

Or do one of the two above moves and create a load of new positions (Giving people titles) that we don't really need yet.


But thats just my opinion.






This chapter has a lot of potential and I think I said that when I got us up and running. We do now however need to take this potential and move it to the next step.


I think Chris can do that but it's entirely down to him and his time (remember this is just a hobby and the internet it's not a life or death situation)

 

I know it?s always important to look to the future and for our chapter to evolve but I?m personally not in favour of going down the guild route. I don?t believe we have to totally re-brand FFUK:N to encourage expansion & branching out into other area?s.

To me this is 1st & foremost a Star Wars forum and through the mutual enjoyment of SW other avenues do get explored but I don?t want to lose the identity of why we joined a Star Wars Forum. The current level of ideas & proposed meets is very encouraging and it looks like our social calendar is going to be full for some time to come !!

As for structure, I applaud Ogli for his ?hands-off? approach, like I have previously stated this certainly encourages more people to get involved. All that is really needed IMO is improved housekeeping ? which I fully believe Ogli is capable of.

But this is an excellent chance, as M-FB said, for all members to discuss the future of FFUK:N and nothing should be ruled in or out.

darn it

 

I'm not suggesting we rebrand as such but we need to be look to be more inclusive.

 

Did someone say Games Workshop?

 

Personally, right now I don't want a "guild", reorganisation, presidency, republic or dictatorship - we are fine how we are at the moment, what with CE giving us something SW to concentrate on. We are not a country, or an American University

What we need is a CR who does the job and I'm gonna come right out with it and say we don't seem to have one at the moment. So what do we do about that - Chris, can you put a more hands on approach as per our PMs, posts, etc.? I mean I had to up that Twins thread myself and to be honest, I mentioned that in my PM but you obviously did not pick up on it. Can you get a grip on the job or not? To be honest, so far, "laid back approach" appears to equal "hands off approach".

It's not a job I want or will ever want as I don't have the time, but there are people on here who I honestly think have done a lot for the Chapter and are not getting the recognition they deserve.

That's my PMT 2 cents worth. Now I shall go back to being hormonally grumpy somewhere else

 

all points QFT Go-Away

- aside from the PMT bit of course....

 

Some Good point's made there by Go Away You could do with getting a bit more hands on.

MFB if this Site and in that I mean FanForce North is Reorganised into anything other than Star Wars Im off
! I dont want to bother wasting my time moaning with kids about Buffy or Star Trek I like it the way it is.

 

Harsh but harsh to all the above


At least views are out in the open though.

If people think a more guiding hand is needed then they need to say so.

I personally am more of a suggestions guy and leave it up to you where to go and thats the sort of approach I'd be happy with..

e.g


Heres some ideas go and see if you think they'll work in your area.


as opposed to


Here's some ideas, lets do this here, here and here... (an extreme one I know but we don't want a dictatorship )



Dave.

If you restrict your fan base you restrict growth.

I've never said don't call ourselves Fan Force UK

I'm not suggesting we drop Star Wars in favour of buffy

but you have to remember that Star Wars fans are also Scifi/Fantasy fans and will discuss other stuff as well.

If we made ourselves more inclusive we'd get more posters which would be beneficial for the FFUKN and the regional board.

If you see a thread about something that doesn't interest you then don't post in there, you don't have to post in every thread.

I'll be the first to say that bigger isn't always better but in this case bigger = more posters, more posters = the potential for more meets, more posters = more things to talk about on the board.



Star Wars is not the be all and end all of fandom, it's possibly the most recognised one and that gives us a huge edge in attracting more posters and various cons but please don't discount anyone because they prefer Firefly to Star Wars or heaven forbit they prefer Star Trek (remember which came first though )

 

Ah yes but when EDGEJEDI88 and other members went around and put up posters for new members in ALL the Sci/fi shops the only people we attract are Star Wars personal - So we are trying ! But your point is taken .

And yes Terry this Thread is Slowly Growing (Its gotten bigger scine we all met up in York for our 1st meet up )