Current Council AMA

[saedhillian]

Not sure if you’re up to being a member of the Eagles’ Council? I’m sure many of you have questions or are wondering what it really means to be on the council. In the spirit of a Reddit Ask Me Anything I’ve opened this thread so that you can ask away.

I’ll kick off with some (hopefully) useful background. If you still have questions feel free to Ask Me Anything in reply to this post.

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I’m on the current council. I became a member of the council a year ago, when a number of kinnies realised that we needed to put someone in charge of looking after the kinship since the founder and rotational leaders weren’t able to commit the time. (I’m not dissing them, it happens. Real life is HARD.)

Guivien was the only remaining leader of the three in rotation, so a number of the most active players in the kinship stepped forward and offered to pitch in for the sake of the kinship. It came about organically, with none of us having any kinship management experience to speak of. We chatted in a fellowship in-game several times and it developed from there.

Since then we’ve covered a lot of ground. As the kinship has grown (it’s expanded massively, even taking into account natural wastage) we’ve found ways of keeping us on track and true to the ideals with which the kinship was first founded. We developed some very basic code of conduct and ethos statements and started tossing around ideas for recruitment policies, alliance building and so on.

Some council members took on specific roles, though the requirements evolved over time, and we’ve all shifted our responsibilities a little. Things like working with our allies, organising kinship-wide social events, recruitment and more.

I set up the Eagles website, after we grew out of the guildlaunch site’s capabilities. It made sense, then, for me to manage the website and look after the forums. So that’s my official role.

On top of that, I’m vocal behind the scenes as the council try to hammer out things like supporting players signed up to the Coursera Online Games: Literature, New Media and Narrative course which was the original inspiration for this kinship, and more recently how to run an election!

Anything that comes up starts with a proposal. Each of us reads and comments, supporting some ideas and disagreeing with others. We bat it back and forth for a while then Guivien sorts our ramblings into a concise, coherent list of final proposals and we vote on them. Finally, whoever is responsible goes ahead and implements.

Guivien has worked so hard to keep things running smoothly. She mediates when there are disagreements between kinmembers or between members of our various alliance kinships. She helps out kinmembers who struggle with the game. She spends hours both in-game and out making the Eagles the pride of the Meneldor server. She’s really given it her all over the past 12+ months.

All of us, if you ask us individually, will say that it’s been hard work. At times it’s felt like a chore, even. But that’s the main driver for expanding the numbers on the council in these current elections. Two rotating leaders will share the weight that Gui has carried alone. Five officers instead of 4 will spread the load there, too, with the option of assigning more specific roles to cover the growing needs of a growing kinship.

Lastly, to any of you considering putting yourself forward for the new council, know that all of the existing council, whether we renew our positions or not, will be here for you should you need us. You’ll always be able to come to any of us with a question or ask us to help you work out an issue. We’ll also leave you with a pile of notes that we think might prove useful, explaining how and why we made certain decisions, if we didn’t get something right then we’ll tell you why we think it failed so you can use that information to do it better next time, and (sorry) a bunch of things we wanted to do but ran out of time for.

Now, get your best armour shined, kinnies. It’s time for the next generation to step up.

[luringdad jenkyns]

I became a council member around the same time as Saed. When we first started we didn’t know what roles needed to be filled, so since I enjoyed reporting on events I thought I would offer my services as our official events reporter.

I’m also our resident system admin who makes sure the server that hosts this website is fed and watered, and free of bugs.

Besides these jobs, my other duties are to participate in the discussion regarding big event planning (like the Coursera module) or recruitment strategy. Occasionally we’ll have to reach a consensus which usually involves a vote.

In addition to this you know we already socialise, recruit people in the kinship and generally try to be helpful to all of you when we’re online.

One of my proudest moments since being in the kinship was to help participate in the official events and forum threads for the 2nd intake from Professor Jay’s Coursera Online Games: Literature, New Media and Narrative. It’s been a real honour and pleasure to watch those of you who joined and have stayed and grown in to valuable Kinship members.

To our future leaders and officers, you have my rusty dagger. /kneel

[Neemriel]

I believe I joined the council when everyone else did, following the Coursera course that got me hooked on Middle Earth! My decision to join the Eagles council was an easy one, which was mainly due to the supportive nature of the kinship but also because of the friendships I had built.

Now, I’m not the most techie person on the council, and please do not be put off applying if you think this is you, but I found other tasks that I was able to do in order to contribute to the kinship. When we first created the council, one of my roles was to produce an Eagles roster-who we had in the kin, their level, class, alts, when they joined and so on. Another activity I have been involved with is the organisation of Eaglestock and other events. Saed kindly gave me the title “Neem, Neem, Party Queen” and so I got busy with thinking of fun activities to do for kinship events. I typically begin by researching games and activities online, and then see whether these can be translated into the world of Middle Earth. Usually I will compile a list of events, with an Eagles, ME or festival twist, and then send them to Gui and the council members to check over and comment on- it helps to get feedback on proposed events. Some of my “in-game” time is taken up with testing out the proposed games, to see if they would work, and to check out the logistics of things….having a plan B is always important.I also like to run some additional events, mostly ad-hoc instances, raids and skirms, rep runs and mats grinding depending on who’s on and what players need. In addition, there has been much collaboration with others, council and non-council, of current and possible future events, which is all very exciting!

In terms of the Coursera online course (Saed makes reference to this above), this was also one of my proudest moments. During the second intake, I was not only organising kinship events and coursera events linked to assignments, but I was also given the opportunity to support players as an in-game mentor and a Community TA on the forums. This was a busy time but a fun one!

To anyone considering applying, please do. My journey has been such an exciting one and it has been so rewarding, and whether you’re old or young, techie or not, a seasoned player or fairly new to the game, you have something to offer the Eagles.

You have Neemriel’s heals and her ear!

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