Mike Ventrella
Duke
The Alliance is made up of several key positions. These positions in turn are typically staff positions and franchise positions.
The game itself is owned by Mike Ventrella, President. The President possesses a position in the Alliance organization as the Owner. Mike possesses a final veto power that may be overridden with a vote of all of the Owners.
The Leasees of Alliance are our owners. They possess voting rights within the Alliance itself.
The Staff positions of the Alliance are defined with the Alliance Bylaws. This is a codified system of rules spanning elements of transfer, treasure rewards, build, etc.
The Alliance is lead by the Alliance Chairman, who is an appointed position by the President. In past we tried doing this as an elected position, but it makes it kind of a pain to keep consistency in place.
The Alliance Chairman is sort of like Leo MacGerry on the West Wing, the Chief of Staff. The Alliance Chairman is responsible for serving the ownership, the players, as well as appointing and organizing the Alliance Committees. I personally utilize the position to try to push Nero Alliance to the next level, working on policy for example and trying to recruit creative constructive folks to help out with critical ideas in the Alliance.
The Alliance Ownership possesses massive power with the Alliance, that is exercised via the voting in their own bb/forum. As the Alliance Chairman, it is typically my responsibility to maintain the bylaws, work on policy/vision, organize and develop with the committees, and handle the logistics of the voting on the Alliance Owners list.
The Alliance Chairman possesses the authority to appoint members to committees, and create committees themselves. The Alliance Chairman may award Dragon Stamps, or grant dragon stamp awards at the request of the Ownership or committees. The Alliance Chairman serves as a mediator and advisor to the Owners and the President. (This is not a specified task within the bylaws, but I often work with Mike and campaigns to resolve issues.) Typically some committees have a specific ad hoc task to perform, and when completed are dissolved. Other committees are long term committees with designated tasks and powers, ratified by the owners as well as the president.
Currently the Alliance has one permanent committee. The Alliance Rules committee is tasked by the Chairman and the President to organize, clarify, approve, and support the Alliance Rulebook. Also within their purview would be auditing, rules support, and Alliance wide discipline issues. The Alliance Rules committee may clarify rules at player request, or owner request. They may also proactively clarify issues that they become aware of ... The Alliance Rules committee has final word on every rule actively indicated within the current edition of the rulebook. The Alliance Rules committee also proactively develops/approves rules submissions to the committee for use in the future rulebooks. The Alliance Rules committee members are selected for appointment after significant observation of acumen thru posts upon this board. Demonstration of a in depth understanding of the rules, an elightened philosophical leaning towards "If it ain't broke don't fix it", local participation as a member of a rules committee, a strong dedication to the game over your particular place in it, and the ability to compromise with others in regards to the creation/approval/enforcement of rules.
Currently as Chairman I have opened up the Alliance Rules Committee to applications brought forth by the owners of their campaign or a member of the Alliance Rules Committee. Anyone may join the Alliance Rules Committee, but must be a member in good standing of an Alliance Campaign and not possess any incidents of cheating with any of our campaigns. Individuals will then get interviewed by me, and if you are suitable I will nominate you to the ownership. The owners will ratify or reject your appointment and whamo ... you get phenomenal cosmic power and itty bitty breathing space.
As of this morning the following individuals are members of the Alliance Rules Committee:
Mike Ventrella, John Finnegan, Bryan Gregory, Justin Hernandez, Scott Kondrk, Dan Lineaweaver, and "JP" Pocklington.
My general vision for this committee is maximum 8 members, as larger numbers make it very unweildy.
Future thoughts on committees:
The Alliance has had many other committees in the past, and I think two in particular are very important: Plot and Logistics.
The Alliance Plot Committee is a national organization dedicated to one thing: Running kick *** national events that blow your socks of every year. The Alliance Plot Committee will also be responsible for developing hooks, ideas, a plot vault that local committees can access to run neat encounters for their players. I can't imagine why we can't reuse some of our plots that run across the country, and get some neat new plot ideas to share with all the campaigns.
I would also like to see the plot committee start sharing monster databases and update and standardize our campaigns unique (but ready to go prime time) monsters.
The Alliance Plot Committee isn't how to get sucked into politics, start overseeing local campaign plots, or enforcing ******** rules on the creativity of our local plot committees. Writers join the Alliance Plot Committee.
The Alliance Logistics committee is responsible for VERY specific tasks within the Alliance.
Stop Reading Here if you don't care about Alliance History:
The Alliance concept was an idea that Mike Ventrella, John Finnegan, Scott Kondrk, Jesse Grabowki and Patrick Capuano dreamed up after the split with Nero International. I had attended alot of our original symposiums, saw how disfunctional the system was and put my head together with the other members of the infamous "Four Horseman" plot committee at Ashbury and tried to come up with a better answer. I am proud to now announce that we have taken those ideas and created a completely different and equally disfunctional national entity of larps! Albiet one with a sense of humor.
The concept was a group that oversaw campaigns outside the critical business elements of a national style larp. We wanted checks and balances put into place, and we wanted local campaigns to have a huge impact on decision making. We, somewhat naively in hindsight, thought that campaigns that joined a group with really good intentions would excel and become an amazing place to play.
While I am happy to say we have great campaigns with amazing plot, what we don't have is a great national organization. My concern of course is that the national game hasn't really gelled. We haven't worked well together in some areas, and there is room for some new ideas, some new blood, and new efforts to work together. Our transfer system is solid and works well, and the bylaws have taken care of all sorts of common annoyances involving renegade campaigns. Our ritual system works well, we have control and national trading between our campaigns. We for the most part don't have demigods struting around our games with the ability to destroy a game setting within a matter of hours.
So its sounds like a pretty good set of games right? What's holding us back? Negativity is a big part of holding us back as an organization. We don't discourse, we argue, bicker and fight. People with the best intentions get hammered for their contributions. Now just to show you how pervassive it has been since the inception, I recall having massive email, bbs, newsgroup flamewars for months after the intentional split. Think of the nastiest non-aryan supporting post on this board and multiply it by 10... It wasn't a good time in any case. Imagine having this kind of outlook and anger over the split, and then imagining turning around looking at new owners and trying to constructively form bylaws and run committees. I personal blame myself for alot of the troubles that occurred during that time period. It's only after a couple years away from the game, that this crap finally I feel ran its course in my outlook of the game.
So in any case there have been a few great folks who have made stuff happen in this organization. People like Mike Luther who has made the most amazing database contributions, along with Dan Lineaweaver, which are grade A applications. I work in software quality assurance, and I am very proud of these apps. Please don't hold back on suggestions to made these better, I want them to be something that an Owner receives and says, "Wow this saves me hours or work." Scott Kondrk has been an instrumental person in the development and consistency of our rules. Scott's precision and database acumen, has lead to some truly useful tools for our campaigns. Scott's the kind of person who makes sure the game is worth playing for every player that walks onto a camp for an event. Michael Hynes although currently dedicated to his new son, has architected some of the most impressive elements of our current game.
There is an opportunity now folks in my mind to add some people onto this list of people who have made this game so dysfunctional yet incredibly fun and exciting.
John Finnegan - Alliance Chair
The game itself is owned by Mike Ventrella, President. The President possesses a position in the Alliance organization as the Owner. Mike possesses a final veto power that may be overridden with a vote of all of the Owners.
The Leasees of Alliance are our owners. They possess voting rights within the Alliance itself.
The Staff positions of the Alliance are defined with the Alliance Bylaws. This is a codified system of rules spanning elements of transfer, treasure rewards, build, etc.
The Alliance is lead by the Alliance Chairman, who is an appointed position by the President. In past we tried doing this as an elected position, but it makes it kind of a pain to keep consistency in place.
The Alliance Chairman is sort of like Leo MacGerry on the West Wing, the Chief of Staff. The Alliance Chairman is responsible for serving the ownership, the players, as well as appointing and organizing the Alliance Committees. I personally utilize the position to try to push Nero Alliance to the next level, working on policy for example and trying to recruit creative constructive folks to help out with critical ideas in the Alliance.
The Alliance Ownership possesses massive power with the Alliance, that is exercised via the voting in their own bb/forum. As the Alliance Chairman, it is typically my responsibility to maintain the bylaws, work on policy/vision, organize and develop with the committees, and handle the logistics of the voting on the Alliance Owners list.
The Alliance Chairman possesses the authority to appoint members to committees, and create committees themselves. The Alliance Chairman may award Dragon Stamps, or grant dragon stamp awards at the request of the Ownership or committees. The Alliance Chairman serves as a mediator and advisor to the Owners and the President. (This is not a specified task within the bylaws, but I often work with Mike and campaigns to resolve issues.) Typically some committees have a specific ad hoc task to perform, and when completed are dissolved. Other committees are long term committees with designated tasks and powers, ratified by the owners as well as the president.
Currently the Alliance has one permanent committee. The Alliance Rules committee is tasked by the Chairman and the President to organize, clarify, approve, and support the Alliance Rulebook. Also within their purview would be auditing, rules support, and Alliance wide discipline issues. The Alliance Rules committee may clarify rules at player request, or owner request. They may also proactively clarify issues that they become aware of ... The Alliance Rules committee has final word on every rule actively indicated within the current edition of the rulebook. The Alliance Rules committee also proactively develops/approves rules submissions to the committee for use in the future rulebooks. The Alliance Rules committee members are selected for appointment after significant observation of acumen thru posts upon this board. Demonstration of a in depth understanding of the rules, an elightened philosophical leaning towards "If it ain't broke don't fix it", local participation as a member of a rules committee, a strong dedication to the game over your particular place in it, and the ability to compromise with others in regards to the creation/approval/enforcement of rules.
Currently as Chairman I have opened up the Alliance Rules Committee to applications brought forth by the owners of their campaign or a member of the Alliance Rules Committee. Anyone may join the Alliance Rules Committee, but must be a member in good standing of an Alliance Campaign and not possess any incidents of cheating with any of our campaigns. Individuals will then get interviewed by me, and if you are suitable I will nominate you to the ownership. The owners will ratify or reject your appointment and whamo ... you get phenomenal cosmic power and itty bitty breathing space.
As of this morning the following individuals are members of the Alliance Rules Committee:
Mike Ventrella, John Finnegan, Bryan Gregory, Justin Hernandez, Scott Kondrk, Dan Lineaweaver, and "JP" Pocklington.
My general vision for this committee is maximum 8 members, as larger numbers make it very unweildy.
Future thoughts on committees:
The Alliance has had many other committees in the past, and I think two in particular are very important: Plot and Logistics.
The Alliance Plot Committee is a national organization dedicated to one thing: Running kick *** national events that blow your socks of every year. The Alliance Plot Committee will also be responsible for developing hooks, ideas, a plot vault that local committees can access to run neat encounters for their players. I can't imagine why we can't reuse some of our plots that run across the country, and get some neat new plot ideas to share with all the campaigns.
I would also like to see the plot committee start sharing monster databases and update and standardize our campaigns unique (but ready to go prime time) monsters.
The Alliance Plot Committee isn't how to get sucked into politics, start overseeing local campaign plots, or enforcing ******** rules on the creativity of our local plot committees. Writers join the Alliance Plot Committee.
The Alliance Logistics committee is responsible for VERY specific tasks within the Alliance.
Stop Reading Here if you don't care about Alliance History:
The Alliance concept was an idea that Mike Ventrella, John Finnegan, Scott Kondrk, Jesse Grabowki and Patrick Capuano dreamed up after the split with Nero International. I had attended alot of our original symposiums, saw how disfunctional the system was and put my head together with the other members of the infamous "Four Horseman" plot committee at Ashbury and tried to come up with a better answer. I am proud to now announce that we have taken those ideas and created a completely different and equally disfunctional national entity of larps! Albiet one with a sense of humor.
The concept was a group that oversaw campaigns outside the critical business elements of a national style larp. We wanted checks and balances put into place, and we wanted local campaigns to have a huge impact on decision making. We, somewhat naively in hindsight, thought that campaigns that joined a group with really good intentions would excel and become an amazing place to play.
While I am happy to say we have great campaigns with amazing plot, what we don't have is a great national organization. My concern of course is that the national game hasn't really gelled. We haven't worked well together in some areas, and there is room for some new ideas, some new blood, and new efforts to work together. Our transfer system is solid and works well, and the bylaws have taken care of all sorts of common annoyances involving renegade campaigns. Our ritual system works well, we have control and national trading between our campaigns. We for the most part don't have demigods struting around our games with the ability to destroy a game setting within a matter of hours.
So its sounds like a pretty good set of games right? What's holding us back? Negativity is a big part of holding us back as an organization. We don't discourse, we argue, bicker and fight. People with the best intentions get hammered for their contributions. Now just to show you how pervassive it has been since the inception, I recall having massive email, bbs, newsgroup flamewars for months after the intentional split. Think of the nastiest non-aryan supporting post on this board and multiply it by 10... It wasn't a good time in any case. Imagine having this kind of outlook and anger over the split, and then imagining turning around looking at new owners and trying to constructively form bylaws and run committees. I personal blame myself for alot of the troubles that occurred during that time period. It's only after a couple years away from the game, that this crap finally I feel ran its course in my outlook of the game.
So in any case there have been a few great folks who have made stuff happen in this organization. People like Mike Luther who has made the most amazing database contributions, along with Dan Lineaweaver, which are grade A applications. I work in software quality assurance, and I am very proud of these apps. Please don't hold back on suggestions to made these better, I want them to be something that an Owner receives and says, "Wow this saves me hours or work." Scott Kondrk has been an instrumental person in the development and consistency of our rules. Scott's precision and database acumen, has lead to some truly useful tools for our campaigns. Scott's the kind of person who makes sure the game is worth playing for every player that walks onto a camp for an event. Michael Hynes although currently dedicated to his new son, has architected some of the most impressive elements of our current game.
There is an opportunity now folks in my mind to add some people onto this list of people who have made this game so dysfunctional yet incredibly fun and exciting.
John Finnegan - Alliance Chair