National Event 2012

I think it's worth pointing out that being the chapter to host a National event is different from being the head of plot for the National event. Hosting is simply a logistical practice - finding a location, ensuring people can get there, are aware of local resources, possibly providing local Logistics and material support (NPC camp, etc.). From my (admittedly limited) experience, running the National event as the Head of Plot is distinctly different. Personally, I wouldn't want to "host" the National event if I weren't the head of plot... otherwise, it's essentially an invitation to let someone with no on-the-ground knowledge of local playership and event style dictate the feel and flow of an event that may or may not have any bearing on the regular month-to-month game presented in the host chapter.

One of the oft-touted ballyhoos of the Alliance system is the freedom to travel from chapter-to-chapter. It's a "national" game. In that regard, every event has the opportunity to be a "national event". You want to see what kind of game we can run, come on out.
 
jpariury said:
I think it's worth pointing out that being the chapter to host a National event is different from being the head of plot for the National event. Hosting is simply a logistical practice - finding a location, ensuring people can get there, are aware of local resources, possibly providing local Logistics and material support (NPC camp, etc.). From my (admittedly limited) experience, running the National event as the Head of Plot is distinctly different. Personally, I wouldn't want to "host" the National event if I weren't the head of plot... otherwise, it's essentially an invitation to let someone with no on-the-ground knowledge of local playership and event style dictate the feel and flow of an event that may or may not have any bearing on the regular month-to-month game presented in the host chapter.

One of the oft-touted ballyhoos of the Alliance system is the freedom to travel from chapter-to-chapter. It's a "national" game. In that regard, every event has the opportunity to be a "national event". You want to see what kind of game we can run, come on out.
Click to expand...

exactly. I think the national events SHOULD be a chance for the local chapters who host the event to SHINE. the chapter who hosts should be majorly involved in the plot, logistics, monster camp, all of it. because ultimately, people are going to come away from the experience thinking, hmm, so that's what playing in X chapter might feel like. allow the "national event" to be a local event X 20, amped up to hold more, an invitation for all players to experience X chapter.... i think more people would be interested in the concept if it were.
 
Robb Graves said:
Wraith said:
Seems less than optimal.
Click to expand...

feel free to start a chapter, host the event, and show us all how much better you can do things. i know plenty of people who are waiting with baited breath for the few super users on this board to step up and show us how much better you would do things. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

My issue with things is that it has taken this long for the gears to start whirring.

Now, granted, I'm not on the Owner's boards so I'm not sure how much of this was discussed but IMO the Bi-yearly National Event should be a major focal point for the Alliance. As such, a month after the last one was held, there should have already been discussions about who would head the next one, where it should be and so on - with constant prodding amongst the chapters until someone stepped up and took the lead. Not to mention a full post-mortem on the last event to find out what worked, what didn't and what needs a bit more tweaking.

An event of this magnitude shouldn't be waiting on someone to volunteer but for those in charge to work out amongst themselves who will be the site for the next one, who will run the plot and so on.

Deadlands said:
Nobody has to be asked anything. At any point a chapter can step up and offer. That is pretty much the only way anything ever gets done in a volunteer organization.
Click to expand...

This is so not true. When you join an organization, even a volunteer one, certain expectations are expected of the position you hold. Can I be "Head of Plot" and write no plots? Of course not. Again, I have not read the "secret owners manual" but I would imagine that there is something that talks about promoting and supporting the Alliance as a whole and not just your individual chapter. Part of that should be in helping to plan and build a national event - even if you're not able to host it. You can't ORDER a chapter to run the national event as that could be disastrous but there's nothing stopping the General Owner or Manager from prodding the various owners until someone steps up. If your chapter can't do it, respond with a "No," and move on. If everyone says "No" for 2012, then scratch off that one and move onto 2013.
 
markusdark said:
Robb Graves said:
Wraith said:
Seems less than optimal.
Click to expand...

feel free to start a chapter, host the event, and show us all how much better you can do things. i know plenty of people who are waiting with baited breath for the few super users on this board to step up and show us how much better you would do things. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

My issue with things is that it has taken this long for the gears to start whirring.

Now, granted, I'm not on the Owner's boards so I'm not sure how much of this was discussed but IMO the Bi-yearly National Event should be a major focal point for the Alliance. As such, a month after the last one was held, there should have already been discussions about who would head the next one, where it should be and so on - with constant prodding amongst the chapters until someone stepped up and took the lead. Not to mention a full post-mortem on the last event to find out what worked, what didn't and what needs a bit more tweaking.

An event of this magnitude shouldn't be waiting on someone to volunteer but for those in charge to work out amongst themselves who will be the site for the next one, who will run the plot and so on.

Deadlands said:
Nobody has to be asked anything. At any point a chapter can step up and offer. That is pretty much the only way anything ever gets done in a volunteer organization.
Click to expand...

This is so not true. When you join an organization, even a volunteer one, certain expectations are expected of the position you hold. Can I be "Head of Plot" and write no plots? Of course not. Again, I have not read the "secret owners manual" but I would imagine that there is something that talks about promoting and supporting the Alliance as a whole and not just your individual chapter. Part of that should be in helping to plan and build a national event - even if you're not able to host it. You can't ORDER a chapter to run the national event as that could be disastrous but there's nothing stopping the General Owner or Manager from prodding the various owners until someone steps up. If your chapter can't do it, respond with a "No," and move on. If everyone says "No" for 2012, then scratch off that one and move onto 2013.
Click to expand...

You know, I can usually keep myself in check when on these boards. I can usually read an arrogant or presumptuous remark and just ignore it.

But the audacity of your comments is absolutely astounding.

Do you honestly type these things without ever asking yourself if you sound insulting? Thank you for informing us what we should be doing. A month after the last national event many of us were in fact talking about the next national. And others were busy running their own chapters. A few of us were also working sixty hours a week, but thank you for informing us of your humble opinion of when and how we should be spending our time.

I particularly enjoy your instructions to have us prodding each other until someone steps up to take the lead. We shouldn’t be waiting on someone to volunteer? “Those in charge” should sort this out?

You don’t seem to actually know what you’re talking about. We’re all volunteers. No one holds leverage over anyone by way of obligation or income.

And you are so kind to remind us that “certain expectations are expected” of us. What makes you think the GM hasn’t been asking the owners to host the national event? I would love to see you try to manage one tenth of what our last GM accomplished. And I would love for you to have to sit there and listen to one tenth of the bull **** she endured from players like you, telling her how to do her job without actually having a clue of what that entails.

I don’t ask for much more from the players than a modicum of trust, respect and social grace. When you decide to show a hint of those virtues I’ll be happy to know what you expect from us.
 
First, if anyone took offense to this post, I am truly sorry. Having run an LARP before, I know the time, energy, money and commitment that goes into running a game (including ones that have close to 200 players) and never want it to look like I disparage or not appreciate the work that goes into it.

My comments were meant solely as a customer to a company whose main purpose is to put on entertaining LARPing events. I had prefaced all of my comments with the fact that I do not know what is going on behind the scenes for the National LARP game. All of my information is based solely on what I have been able to see, and learn from the information given forth thus far.

You don’t seem to actually know what you’re talking about. We’re all volunteers. No one holds leverage over anyone by way of obligation or income.
Click to expand...

I have seen a chapter closed down for not following the guidelines. Again, I do not know the chapter owner's manual but I'm pretty sure that an owner or staff can add or remove people from said staff. There is 'leverage' in volunteer organizations, including this one. I am not, repeat NOT saying that such methods nor threats should be used in any game, let alone the National one - I am just pointing out that there are 'obligations' of the volunteers. That's it.

What makes you think the GM hasn’t been asking the owners to host the national event?
Click to expand...

Just what I have presented to me on these boards. Like I said at the start of such comments, I do not have access to the owner's boards so I can't tell exactly what is being done behind the scenes. But from the comments here that say that the National Event is waiting for a group to step up and offer, it sounded very much like a passive way to get things done. And for people unfamiliar with the Alliance, they could read even more into it. The comment "Nobody has asked for anything," doesn't instill the average consumer with a lot of trust, so I'm sorry if it seemed as if I wasn't offering any.

I would like to say though as an aside, I have had nothing but great customer service and dedication from the GM's of Alliance and anyone who volunteers to take on those duties has my utmost respect. If they (present or past) thought I was disparaging them, that was not the intent.

Again, I apologize if my comments seemed insulting or arrogant. Despite what many construe as my 'hatred' for the Alliance, I feel that the organization is one of the best in the US and if I didn't care about it, I wouldn't bother making my comments or even coming to these boards. As stated elsewhere, some people have a lot of work and time to put into our real lives and I wouldn't be wasting it here if I didn't want or look forward to attending the National game.

For the record, I had offered many times within the Alliance to 'put my money where my mouth is' so to speak, and even my initial inquiry at the beginning of this thread was to see about helping out with plot or other such areas for the National Game. I have also helped many chapters across the US by supplying a lot of props, masks and costuming either completely free or way below normal construction costs and I don't do it for the gobbies.
 
Mark, I am fairly certain the chapter closing you are referring to wasn't totally or even mostly about the issues from the national event. Rather, those issues were the very public version of an ongoing problem that had already been going on for years. It's not at all my desire to stir up old resentments or pick at scabs, but if you're under the impression that any chapter owners are looking at the nationals host job as an invitation with a length of rope, I don't think it's at all like that.

If I can stick my neck out a bit for Gary, I think the source of his frustration is that the system in place is not designed for getting things done in a timely and organized fashion because it relies so entirely on voluntary effort. I know that he's been working on this national event for a long time and is feeling a little raw over exactly some of the issues that have come up in this discussion. I think having people kind of calling him out over not addressing stuff he is and has been trying to address for many months probably got up under his fingernails for a moment. He knows that, as you have said, you don't know what's behind the scenes. The problem is that by the nature of the system in place, you're not supposed to and he's not supposed to go into too much detail about it. Thus the speculation turns (or seems to turn) accusatory based on ignorance, and there's very little avenue or redress open outside of politely asking people to be patient and offering the knowledge he has which unfortunately is a lot of negatives at the moment.
 
Dan,

I understand and agree with what you're saying. Apparently what I am trying to say isn't getting understood though.

I mentioned the closing of the chapter by HQ as an instance of where there are expectations of the 'volunteer' system of the Alliance and how leverage is held over others - especially when said volunteers aren't living up to the expectations. I NEVER indicated that the closure had anything to do with the National game. The owners are in charge. They vote upon policy changes, they OK the games and plots, they decide who is on their staff and so on.

Here is my thing in a nutshell:

Throughout this thread, there's been a general theme of "We're waiting for someone to take the lead." Here’s quotes from various owners:

“It's more of a matter of no one picking up the ball and running with it”
“To date, the only chapter that has offered to host is HQ at the Faire Play site.”
“Nobody has to be asked anything. At any point a chapter can step up and offer.”

In a purely business standpoint, from someone looking in from the outside, there seems no drive to lock down a location. I had made my comments about what I'd expect from a company working on such an event bases solely on the only available information available to me. Was it my place to say so? Perhaps not but the lack of knowledge was a bit off-putting and others seemed a bit concerned as well as to the way the information was presented.

Now, if the initial responses were more along the lines of “We have one site that has offered to host and the GM and other chapters are currently looking into alternative possibilities and we will hopefully have a site locked down in the near future.” That shows that the group as a whole is working towards this goal.

I have 100% faith that there will be a 2012 National event and that it will be an entertaining and enjoyable one. There are some of us though who will more than likely have to plan a larger amount of travel, vacation time and funding allocation to do so and the sooner we have the date and location, the more certain we can be of getting there. For some it's not a big deal but there are instances where vacation time, to be guaranteed, needs to be submitted to the company before the beginning of the new year.

At this point I will sit down, shut up and let things progress without any further comment. I was just seeking clarity, not confrontation.
 
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note, this thread seems to have taken a negative tone lately. I'd just like to remind everyone to please be courteous to your fellow players. If someone has done something you consider offensive, I recommend contacting a moderator or reporting the message instead of making a public response which can further escalate the situation.

Thank you.
 
I apologize for getting the moderators involved. You all have more than enough to deal with without having to keep an eye on staff members. I will steer clear of this thread. Dan is 100% correct about the reasons for my comments, but whether or not they are justified is beside the point. Any warning you would give a player is equally warranted with an owner.
 
Hey everyone!

I don't think I heard anyone say PR... BUT... Well.. I'm here anyway.

It is safe to say that this is a topic we all feel strongly about. :thumbsup: This is just a casual reminder that everyone should reread what they post before they post it. If you think someone might misinterpret what you said... they probably will.

Now that that is out of the way:

The awesome thing about message boards is that the potential is there to accomplish some amazing things if the posters make the choice to be positive and constructive as opposed to critical.

It seems that we've been presented with a series of problems. Perhaps we could work out some solutions as opposed to talking ad nauseum about how badly everyone has dropped the ball?

Some of these problems require a certain level of authority to solve... for example we can't all vote on what chapter should host a National Event and then hold them to it. But, we can make suggestions. We can talk to our Owners and give them encouragement.

This is not the Olympics. There is no overarching committee that chooses the host chapter. But, that's not to say that a chapter couldn't volunteer and then recruit players to help make the event happen. Maybe some of you folks would be willing to volunteer and help a chapter get the event off fo the ground?

In the end, we all share at least one common thread. We all care about Alliance LARP and want to see it succeed. Let's see about actually working towards that end shall we?

Cheers,
Stephen
National PR
 
markusdark said:
Dan,
I mentioned the closing of the chapter by HQ as an instance of where there are expectations of the 'volunteer' system of the Alliance and how leverage is held over others - especially when said volunteers aren't living up to the expectations. I NEVER indicated that the closure had anything to do with the National game. The owners are in charge. They vote upon policy changes, they OK the games and plots, they decide who is on their staff and so on.
Click to expand...

I'd just like to make it clear that HQ did NOT close any chapters. HQ is a singular chapter with the rights and responsibilities of any other chapter. Chapter/Alliance Issues are dealt with by the president, the chairman and all the owners.

Scott
Owner - HQ Chapter
 
http://www.nerocincinnati.com/directions/Cubworld.htm

If you are looking for a midwest located camp you should consider using this one. The Evil Game That Is Not To Be Named used it for a week long event this past august and it was great. I've attended an event there with 80+ PC's and 30+ npc's and I think like a dozen people slept in tents, and that was probably by choice. It's HUGE and close to many stores and such. If anyone is interested I can put you in touch with the owners of the chapter that uses this site for pricing and such.
 
http://www.nerocincinnati.com/directions/Cubworld.htm

If you are looking for a midwest located camp you should consider using this one. The Evil Game That Is Not To Be Named used it for a week long event this past august and it was great. I've attended an event there with 80+ PC's and 30+ npc's and I think like a dozen people slept in tents, and that was probably by choice. It's HUGE and close to many stores and such. If anyone is interested I can put you in touch with the owners of the chapter that uses this site for pricing and such.
Click to expand...

That looks AWESOME!!! I'd fly to it...
 
That site does look really cool, though if its used regularly by a chapter it would be better in my opinion to use a new site. However, doing some fort sieges would be so much fun.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top