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With the soul destroying news that BobBob is leaving his VC post, it got my tiny little brain wondering. How many of the original 13 VCs are left? What steps can the Campaign (read: all of us) do to help prevent a loss of interest in our membership when the pillars of the community step aside?
Original 13 (current VCs marked with *):
Art Lobdell*
Auke Teeninga*
Dane Pitchford
Dave Harrison*
Diego Winterborg
Douglas Miles
Eric Brittain*
Mark Garringer
Michael Brock
Michael Griffin-Wade
Robyn Nixon*
Russell Akred*
Stephen White*
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Life happens, Kyle. They all contributed greatly to the campaign and didn't leave under anything negative, as far as I know. Life changes and commitments have to be rearranged.
I don't think it's a loss of interest. At least, that is my hope.
I wasn't trying to imply that it was. What I'm asking is what can we do to continue to grow our community even as those who helped build its very foundations move on with their life?
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Aside from the time-space challenges of Real Life, I think one of the largest headaches for VCs is a lack of volunteers/support from the community. Some of the VCs who have stuck it out the longest have been successful due to their delegation skills and a vibrant spirit of support in their regions. They haven't hit 5 Stars yet only because they are organizers first and GMs second. If I spent more time cultivating volunteers and store representatives like Mike Brock did in Atlanta, I might have been able to balance my family time with my hobby and remained a VC. That's my stab at the source of burnout.
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What you can do is work to raise the level of awesome in your gaming community while being a responsible member of that community.
More awesome in the community and in each game leads to more players. Being a responsible member of the community means that members of that community give back to the larger group. This leads to more judges and more / larger events which in turn can be used to increase the levels of awesome.
Show people how amazingly much more fun they can have in this hobby of ours and everything will improve because of it.
This 100% and I think this is what my blog may be about on Monday. Eric has inspired me :-)
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To get serious - I'd guess the best way to keep VOs is to make sure that there's enough support for them. If there's someone you can turn to when things are getting too much for you to handle alone, you're far less likely to burn out.
Hence the exact reason I instituted the Venture-Lieutenant program.
Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West
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Hence the exact reason I instituted the Venture-Lieutenant program.
To get serious - I'd guess the best way to keep VOs is to make sure that there's enough support for them. If there's someone you can turn to when things are getting too much for you to handle alone, you're far less likely to burn out.
Oh, I'm sure you've done more than that - you've got private forums where VOs can discuss things with a group of their peers. Just having a receptive and understanding audience can cut a problem down to size.
('You' above is Mike Brock. Now, though, I'm talking to the rest of us)
If there's something you could do to help, does your VO know this? If you're going to ask your VC to bail you out when you suddenly need a judge at 24 hours notice, are you prepared to answer the call the next time another FLGS in the area needs a judge (and your VC knows that you've already prepped that scenario)?
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Wheres the Venture Sergeants and Corporals? I'm putting forth the players are are the Privates...
Not an Official title *and kind of an inside joke as well ;)*
Venture-Lieutenant, Washington—Pullman
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Wheres the Venture Sergeants and Corporals? I'm putting forth the players are are the Privates...Not an Official title *and kind of an inside joke as well ;)*
I kinda want one of those lol...
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Giving back to your community is the biggest, most important thing anyone in the society can do. If you never GM or have never tried, why not? If you don't help organize or at least advertise the events you attend, why not? Do you just show up to play and then duck out at the end of the session?
When only a few, or one, person is doing all the organizing, GM'ing, new player training, etc. it can become an overwhelming burden (assuming you embrace it and try your best to do it right). Just because there are venture officers in your area, doesn't mean you are unable to help out. Pathfinder Society is a grass-roots community. Only when everyone contributes can we really be successful.
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Wheres the Venture Sergeants and Corporals? I'm putting forth the players are are the Privates...
Players in my privates makes me terribly uncomfortable.
The things that stand out and motivate me are players being nice to each other, and just seeing people having fun. Chris our Venture-Lieutenant has also been a HUGE help maintaining things when Real Life events happen.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Washington—Pullman
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Wheres the Venture Sergeants and Corporals? I'm putting forth the players are are the Privates...You see that star next to your name and mine?
Nope... my election mode has been engaged, I'm blind to all points and logical arguments that don't support my own. OH YEAH!