Mary Nominations for Officer...

Me being a lowly seeker and all, I'm still an idealistic young person. But I do appreciate all the work that is going into this stuff. even with all the bickering, the "head-honchos" are making my "membership" here more enjoyable. I thoroughly enjoy being able to talk to you great members of the council, and i think we can settle this all WITHOUT agressive negotiation.
I think there are a lot of potential head people.
Mutt, of course, has an interest in getting things organized. (leader material)
Mogook is great also, we can't just jip him out of the job.
Isbeth seems to be a well-rounded member, and being the only person who arrended the 10th meeting, she deserves some credit.
Then there are MM and Big Broadcastah (take no offense at your name being mentioned together. you are not of little importance.) who are strong members. They are all strong members. Ther's also Kasjedi,Gh0stDevil, DRK_HLMT...
I think perhaps we should have two Prez., each with coordinating jobs. I lead a youth group with a co-leader, and we understand each other very well, and "even each other out." It's good for all of us to have dual leaders. at the same time, there can also be senators, the rest of the worthy people that I mentioned above, that can maybe influence the chairpeople. These guys can be "members at large." well, those are my ideas, maybe we can take something from them.
I nominate Mutt and Mogook--together, mind you, as chair.
Isbeth as Vice chair
as Kasjedi gave me a warm welcom, i nominate her as Membership relations person.
The others: "members at large", "honorary slacker", "person who attended a meeting"...

 

Having gone to military school, and as the other military types online can verify, I can tell you that the simple desire to have things organized does not give someone leadership qualities.

While your statement about Mutt wanting to get things going and being very vocal about our future is ENTIRELY VALID, I think I will reiterate what Evil Emperor John said -- we need a President (or Presidents) with an even keel, so to speak. This is not to bring attention to Mutt, I'm simply using EEJ's statement as an example: Mogook has proven already that he has one...he never gets upset (in front of anyone, at least), he seems to be fair when dealing with subjects, etc.

Also, it's QUITE unwise to have any sort of leadership based on an EVEN number of equal parts -- 2 Presidents is bad bad BAD bad. If they ever disagree, we have deadlock. Deadlock bad bad bad BAD BAD. ;P

Just another of my multitude of 2 centseseses.

Chris

 

That's a good point about a position with even numbers.

 

As I am potentially the person on these boards least prone to the adherence to structure, I have to wonder if my input would be all that helpful. Having said that, and never to be one to remain silent when noise is an option, I have to say that for me, the organization with the least number of layers of bureaucracy is the most appealing. Perhaps that means I advocate a minimum number of leadership positions (perhaps only three) that act as a governing council, each equally empowered to run a meeting should the others bail. However, if we name them, say, president, vice-president and executive secretary, then they would, were they all present, follow roughly in the order I just named them. I would envision that core group of three being responsible, collectively, for meetings, minutes, special events and charitable works (a great idea for an activity for our group that has yet to be explored). Our website can be handled by a webmaster who, although a named member of leadership, does not necessarily follow in the line of succession for leading meetings, organizing, etc.

Personally, I need no badges, banners, T-shirts, bumper stickers or election pins, so I would kind of vote against that stuff. It seems kind of hokey to me (bitter cynic that I am).


Sooo...have I said enough? Should I retreat back into the silent shadows from whence I came? (Hey, it's almost Halloween, give me a break!) I'd be glad to talk this over in more detail at the November session provided it's scheduled on a day I can make it and provided it's held in a place where I'm not sitting 18 yards away from everyone else unable to hear the conversation and thereby also unable to add my pithy remarks.

By my calculations at this point people's .02 cents worth have added up to approximately .94 cents. I thereby end this note by saying: "that's my six cents worth" just to make it an even dollar!

M.M.

 

I'd be happy with either
1. a 3 person council
2. pres, vp, and secr.
3. pres, vp, secr, and webmaster

My only concern with a "council" is that those who are on the council do govern themselves and someone steps up to LEAD a meeting for the "business" portion.

I really don't think we need categories of "membership" at this point. Maybe two categories in the future - padawan and jedi knight - that might define who has "voting" power or not on a major issue. Maybe Jedi Knight status represents a set number of online postings or attendence at a set number of meetings. And a padawan can be anyone who registers for the message board or attends a meeting.

I think it's useful to discuss this stuff on the board before a meeting - especially because I am not sure we have set a date for the next one!

kasjedi

 

Remember that the stuff I last posted was just a model and we are not obligated in anyway to adhere to those principles in part or whole.

My suggestion as far as that membership role would be to start out at a more simpler level: Knights and Padawans. Later if/when our membership becomes more diverse, we can think about breaking it down into more catagories. Also, we would start out with everyone being Knight status and new members afterwards would start out as Padawans. The structure that was posted is more for groups that exceed 30 people.

I guess that it was adopted to distinguish between the posters and the members who made the meetings and to inspire the posters to attend more meetings. I'm assuming that is one of our main goals is to increase our membership. Its difficult to hold a meeting with any type of bearing if only 4 people show up. So if people need an incentive to show up at meetings, then great maybe we should adopt it. I know stickers and pins sound hokey and cheap, but maybe we can come up with something better. Think: what would you like to see as a reward for attending 3 meetings in a row?

Now I know people have their commitments and busy schedules, so maybe more advanced notice of meeting dates would be preferred, or even a set weekend every month (i.e. "the third weekend of every month").

Now, as for the idea of a council of multiple "president"-figures, it seems to be gaining a following. And since we are all a group that believes in a democracy, if this is what the group wants, maybe it is something we should look at. My only questions are how would we structure 2,3, or more presidents? What would the role of each head entail?

I do agree with Ghostdevil's point about a 2-leader arrangement: BAD! So if we are going to have multiple leaders, it should be an odd number, to avoid the deadlock issue.

And, we can still create a quasi-Senate arrangement as well. If we create little groups in charge of different aspects, then each group picks a spokesperson, or Senator to speak for them at meetings. Just for example to clarify what I'm talking about: we have a website and a Webmaster. If we create a website group of say 3-4 people working on the website, then the Webmaster would be Senator of the Website. Other groups that could be created are as follows:

Charity Event group: in charge of creating new ways to give back to the community, i.e. reading to children in orphanages, visiting children in hospitals, etc.

Star Wars Collecting group: in charge of informing the group of new items available for retail (action figures, playsets, games, etc.), and occassional review of older items ("show and tell").

Event Coordination Group: in charge of creating social events and planning of such according to the MDFF calendar.

and so on. Remember, these are just examples, and may not be exactly what we want or need. It does however spread out the work load and gets more members involved in whats going on with our Fan Force.

Now I realize some the posts in this thread may have been or appeared to readers as hostile and bickering. I'm sorry for anything that I have posted that has been read as such, or caused others to react/respond accordingly.

I am very passionate about creating an organizational structure for our group and I know some of you will agree with that statement. I feel that this would greatly benefit all of us and create activity in our group that has been lacking so greatly recently. I will not deny that I would accept a nomination for a leadership position and would faithfully work just as hard to carry us forward as the close-knit group that I think all of us would like to have. I would also like to mention that I would in no way react in a hostile manner, should I not be granted a leadership position.

All that concerns me is that we all have a group that we can be proud of, one that we would never be ashamed to be a part of from here on out.

MuttandSolo
Jeff

 

I like the idea of having a Charity Event group and Event Coordination group. Then these members can report to the president council.

 

Exactly! and thats how the Senator concept comes in. Each little group/committee has a spokesperson and that person in turn acts as a Senator, reporting to the Council during the meetings on the group's status, i.e. "we need more people", "we have set a date for so and so", "what does the council and FF think of this idea", and so forth.

 

In Boston we have a 3-person "Inner Circle" (one of them is the City Rep.!), but we are looking to expand to an "Outer Ring" for more duties. The IC decides on important matters for the group, such as event planning, website update, and various projects. Like the checks and balances in the US govt., the IC in Boston makes sure that no one person gets too much power.

 

I'm all for having "committees" or as the previous posting mentioned "Outer Circle" or as Mutt and Mogook supported "groups." I, personally, would be more likely to serve on a committee of some type and not on the "executive" council/board/officers/Senate - so I would hope we might have that type of thing eventually.

But first, don't we need to set up the "executive" structure? That core group could then solicit feedback and make a proposal for other organization.

Is it time to put to some poll what we want that "executive" structure to look like? It seems to me the 3 person council is popular right now.... I'm kinda a one step at a time type girl.....

kasjedi

 

woooow. (moment of awe as the young idealistic child looks upon his olders and betters) you guys just have it all ready, doncha! These ideas are pouring like, like--um... stuff that is liquidy that pours fast. well, i think the three person system would work well. i just don't want there to be just one "guy" working us all out. So, i'm up for the three person system as well. so, now that we have all this democratic stuff going, I think I'll go back to playing Jedi Outcast, now that I know the galaxy is safe.

 

Okay, so. As everyone seems keen on the 3-person "Inner Council", are there any that oppose it?

If not, I say we begin drafting an MDFF Charter, which will detail all this stuff, then put it up for a big vote, see how everyone likes it, then put it into action.

Chris

 

Hi All,
Strawbary asked me to poke my head in here and offer some suggestions and advice. I've just read through all the posts in this thread to get an idea of what you're all doing with the organization of your group. First, I have to say that it's great you want to organize an officer structure of some kind - it *will* help your group grow. Second, it's nice to see y'all dialoguing about it and being considerate of each other. The Governing Guidelines, Membership and Officer structures posted were from my chapter - King of Prussia, PA. As we organized we had much discussion on how best to proceed including debates about dues, whether to go non-profit (we didn't) and even about having biz meetings (we keep them to a minimum and focus on social and charity events).

We now have the following officers that make up the Chapter Council: Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, Webmaster/Member Relations and Council Advisor. I am the CR AND the Chairperson as confirmed by a poll vote on the boards for the next 18 months. We did this to ensure stability in getting the group really going. I am responsible for social events and public appearances. My Vice-Chair is responsible for charity events. My webmaster maintains the website www.phillyouterrim.org and also does some of our photography etc. My Council Advisor is the rep from the general membership and helps out where ever I need her, currently she is working on our chapter press kit. We found that we did not need a Treasurer or a Press Officer - we're just not big enough yet. The vice-chair and I handle press for our respective activities.

Our goal is to create a group based on our fandom that will allow us to give back to the community. That being said, the reason we came up with that Membership structure was to encourage participation, but also ensure that folks who were only 'forum posters' and never attended meetings and events could not be voted in as officers. We wanted to safeguard the stability of the group and keep it active long after the initial leadership has gone on to other things. It's not so much 'rank' as a system of accountability. We only want those dedicated to the group's mission to be leadership. And yes, I keep an Excel spreadsheet with each social and charity event's attendance. The patches are just something fun to give out when members reach a certain level. We are going to require everyone has a chapter shirt with our logo for non-costumed charity events. We want to project a professional image when volunteering our time.

We created the Governing Guidelines, Membership and Officer structures, posted them for discussion/debate and finalized them with member's suggestions which were reasonable. They were then accepted by forum poll. That way all of us are on the same page about expectations of the group. We will review them once a year and amend as necessary as the group changes and grows. Also, I just don't make decisions - if I need input I post or create a poll. I strive to keep 'the door open' so to speak and let everyone have a voice. We are very democratic.

I hope this background information helps you and gives you some more ideas as you think about and discuss your organizational structure.

The beauty of being a FanForce chapter is that it is up to you, the members, to decide how you want to run YOUR chapter. FanForce National does not dictate except for the requirements to become official.

Mogook and MuttandSolo, please feel free to PM me or email me if you have any questions. My intention is simply to share my experience and give you a little background information, *not* to step on anyone's toes.

I'll look forward to seeing what you all come up with! And I hope our two groups can do some events together in the future.

Regards,
Jenni

 

Thanks for the input, Calixte.

 

Jenni,

Thanks for the input. How large is your fanforce? I am guessing I mean how many people typically turn out for an event - whether it be social, charity, or a meeting.

kasjedi

 

We've had as many as 15 for meetings and social events. For costumed appearances we usually get between 4 and 9 depending on location. Most of us are new to costuming and props within the last six months so some are still getting their costumes done. And we get new posters almost every day who have expressed interest in attending events. So, we're not very large yet, but we are only just official this past July. But we are very active as you can see if you visit our forum.

 

Dear Members of the Council:

It seems that the Structuring of the Council is beginning to take form to a full extend. I'm sad to say that if a level is given to members (Knight, Padawan, etc.), it will very hard for me to get into one. Always there's a meeting (regular meetings) they are been summoned for days that conflict with my training with the Air National Guard. And there's no way that I can skip a "drill" to attend a meeting. For this I feel sad, because I'm really forward to help OUR FORUM. I'm sad, though, that I have not been able to be there for most of the meetings, since I found out about the Chapter.

I want to be part of the group, and active and working member, but it is difficult to attend meetings. But, if new activites were created, that would give me (and probably some other people) the chance to feel part of the group. I recognize that you have seem most of me in posts that in real life... but I feel myself an integral part of the FORUM... because the FORUM is everybody. If possible, I would like to see that the meetings could be arrange to be held not on an specific timeframe. What I mean is that I would not like to see meetings held "every third weekend". Usually, for me, those are the days that I attend ANG. Now, I don't intend to force meetings to my schedule always, but maybe having more flexibility. I know and I understand that the meetings are set by the number of people able to attend, but I wanted to express my feelings about it. I'm really interested in attending all the meetings, but so far I have been able to attend one... and that really makes me very sad.

The idea of having 3 MAIN CHARACTERS to run the function of HEAD-COUNCIL Members sounds great. I know that since elemental scholl we have always talk about Pres, Vice, and Secretary... but if we can try to name these folks by just one single name, that would be great... but that's just me.

"I'm not a committee!"
"Whatever you say your Hignessness."


About the idea of the Charity Events really gave me more inspiration to belong to the group. I always worked with kids (Summer Encampments and Civil Air Patrol), and seeting a good example to them will help them create a better idea of the Men and Women they want to be in the futures. We help develop the Leaders of Future for a better tomorrow. Giving from out time to them, ensures that we have given them a ray of hope and a universe of hapinness by just being there for them... when they needed someone. And I'll tell you this because I experienced it with my nieces... a child appreciates more a kiss over an injury than Band-aids over it. They need to feel loved and cherished. So, HURRAY for the idea of the Charity Events for children.

Dear Members and friends, I'm just offering my ideas and thoughts. I don't want to shape anyone's thoughts or try to change someone's point of view concerning this delicate topic. But I do wanted you to hear me and let you know my ideas. I do have the capacity and knowledge to help the MDFF, but I want a chance to prove it. I don't ask for rewards or high recognition titles. Let me have what I have right now and a chance to help those that can't help themselves. And do an oath and pledge to the Old Code of the Jedi Knights.

"Jedi, a deep commitment it is."

May the Force be with you... always.
Fipe Naz-Mero, JK
USA-NE REGION
MARYLAND FAN FORCE COUNCIL FORUM
CALIFORNIA MD