Six months of being the PA was an 'enlightening' experience. There were things I wanted to get accomplished and things I wanted to steer clear of. In some places, I succeeded, in others it felt impossible not to fail.
I would like to start with Admissions. This was my key issue and I set to work on it immediately. After six months, it is a work in progress still. Much of this is the result of a lack of competent, knowledgeable, and motivated volunteers. We have some great people working in Admissions now, but there just aren't enough.
After trying to get a feel for what it was that ALFA wanted out of new membership and providing guidelines on how to go about making that happen, we were struck with the loss of Danielmn as our Admissions Head (the result of forum drama, for those who keep asking for names- sometimes people don't leave the community outright, they simply stop putting their all into it, a loss either way) and a lack of OAS DMs. Several just sort of wandered away, seemingly from the community in general. Others had priorities in different areas of the community.
After two separate calls for OAS DMs, we now have three. This is not enough to provide the staffing needed to make the OAS successful.
Despite a slowdown in application reviews throughout July (the result of Application Reviewers being hit with RL issues and unable to continue their work, they have been given relief and App Review is back in full swing, it seems), Written Applications were being reviewed and new members were turning up quickly. We've seen few problems on the ALFA side (one in particular dealing with method of 'emoting' comes to mind). On the New Member side of it, a few have left after determining that the community was not a proper fit for them.
The fear of some that putting together the new guidelines for acceptance of members would slow growth to a trickle never materialized.
Admissions is not perfect as it stands. The language and organization of our presentation to potential candidates could use much work, as was pointed out by one of our PA hopefuls. However, I feel that we have a solid basis by which ALFA can ensure the high-quality of it's members in terms of role-play.
Dealing with ALFA vs DMA issues took up a great portion of my time. It was disheartening to see the treatment of fellow members of ALFA by a member of the Admin. It was disheartening to see such a great divide created in the community centered around the actions (or inactions) of a single individual. Regardless of who may or may not have been in the right at any given time in that whole debacle (which stretched on over very nearly a year), it showed a decided lack of maturity and community from many corners.
Tackling Warlock, Favored Soul, and PrCs. Players are interested in choice. Warlock and Favored Soul were excluded from their list of choices. The time it took to clear these choices for inclusion was unacceptable. I would like to think that I represented well the constituency of the PA by pursuing the inclusion of these two classes quickly. Including PrCs as well as simplifying the RP prerequisites to gain them was a push that I made as well.
Overhauling the APM. Changing the APM over from the outdated .PDF file to the easy to update Wiki was an important accompishment during my tenure as PA. Credit goes, nearly completely, to Rotku for getting on that.
Moderation. The controversial moderation guidelines are now in place. I have faith that things will come to a balance given time. The guidelines are not perfect and I am sure will be tweaked according to the issues brought up by the membership. However, the guidelines are a result of the opinions and desires of many ALFAns, in many cases from the ones you don't hear ranting and raving on the forums all of the time (eg the vocal minority). The community as a whole wants the forums to be a nicer place. They just don't want to get blasted for saying so, so they've been silent.
That is a non-exhaustive list of what I've been involved in as the PA over the last 6 months. It has been busy. However, as we have all seen, I have no desire to continue in the position. For some people, the reason is obvious. For others, I will make the following statement:
Beyond not serving another term as PA, I am also removing myself from any active role in the ALFA community outside of DMing my player group on NC and playing with my group on Sembia. I have decided to put my energy building (both NWN1 and NWN2) and otherwise creating into another project. Those places where I have contributed in the past will certainly go on without me here in ALFA, but I have finished expending effort into a community that does not appreciate the efforts of all of its contributors.... if we create a place where service to the community is rewarded with a never ending stream of derision, we should not be surprised when good people will no longer choose to serve. At that point the truth is that we do not deserve good leaders because we fail to reward them with even a modicum of respect. Instead, we will get what we do deserve; people in leadership positions who do not lead, but only react, for in reaction they placate the mass without risking its ire. Of course, the successful appearance of such a state is but an illusion that will be dispelled when the stagnant community collapses because it fails to adapt, change and grow. The good news is that the collective is usually smart enough to see it and is certainly motivated by survival – so as the community collapses, it will eventually replace its reactionary leaders with more proactive leaders. Unfortunately, those proactive leaders will have to spend their energy repairing the damages of the past rather than advancing the community into the future. Some advances will occur of course, but as they do, the derision will start again if the tone of the community has not changed for the better and the cycle will start anew as good people are driven out and people who pander to the basest desires of the masses are empowered despite their inability or unwillingness to actually lead.
FI
