2014 - Head Coord - Brian Orlando

Applicant Name:
Brian Orlando
Applicant Email:
ventruecoord@gmail.com
Home Chronicle:

Introduction and Background:

Hello One World by Night! Many of you know from my work as Ventrue Coord that I do not shy away from major changes, when necessary. I believe that it has now become necessary for us to work together in order to redefine, reinvent and simplify our “brand.”

Operating from a singular principle of quality over quantity, I would like to make our network of games more fun to play in, simpler to run, and easier to understand. My first step in this effort would be to transform and expand the Executive branch of OWbN into a body that provides clear direction for chronicles. My aim would be to remove or reduce the bureaucratic and administrative burden and overhead suffered by the Chronicles as a result of several factors, the largest of which being years unplanned of growth.

Administrative Experience:

I have served in many roles which have prepared me for this, such as:

  • Ventrue Coordinator since Nov 2011
  • HST for the Tampa Chronicle for over 8 years
  • CM for the Tampa Chronicle for over 7 years
  • Assamite Sorcery Sub-Coord since 2010
  • Sabbat Sub-Coord for Loyalists, and the South since 2010
  • Previously served on both the Demon Team and the Web Team

In my personal life, I hold a Bachelors in Information Systems, work in Software Development, and like to travel. In my professional career, I am called on to develop and test solutions to fit a particular need on a daily basis. Professionalism, as well as communication skills, both written, and in public-speaking, are paramount.

Personal Statement:

Some of my ideas and goals may seem radical, but I believe our organization needs radical change due to its failure to evolve over time. If elected, I understand that there will be Chronicles within this organization that will choose to not be part of this forward evolution and will leave our network. This is natural. Part of growing is deciding to go your own way when the goals others no longer align with your own goals - and it is time for us to grow.

Goals:

If elected, my goal is to plan and implement sweeping changes to many facets of One World by Night. Some of these goals include:

A. Clearly Delineate our Brand

  1. When people look at OWbN as one of many LARP choices, it needs to be very clear what we offer, and why we are a better alternative than the other organizations. Though this sounds basic, OWbN has changed from its original intent and premise. Once the “crazy” org - the play-anything, power-to-the-chronicle organization, we have naturally evolved over time. It is time for a meaningful and productive discussion about who we are and, more importantly, who we want to be in the future. Otherwise, how are we ever going to communicate who we are to anyone outside of our local Chronicles?
  2. I would push forward with discussions on the implementation of the new BNS Rules. The sooner we have this discussion, the more prepared we will be to move forward as a brand. With this discussion, I will also be prepared to moderate the very painful discussion of either a re-spend under the new rules, or an org reset of sorts (should we choose to move to the BNS rules)
  3. Finally, I firmly believe that our organization needs to Incorporate and would pursue this goal in the coming year.

B. Expand the Executive Branch

  1. In order to better manage the brand, I would change the model of the OWbN Executive, removing the two AHC positions and appointing an AHC per Region of OWbN. I would also break down the regions into smaller logical segments and ensure they were recognized as such in the OWbN Charter. These Regional AHCs would be able to deal with issues face-to-face, and would manage lists of all of the HSTs in their Region for enhanced communication and planning.
  2. I would move to consolidate many of the Administrative Coordinators (Archivist, Finance, Web, etc) under the Executive branch. This will simplify elections and generally help ensure qualified candidates are chosen rather than popular ones.
  3. I would seek to simplify the org’s Disciplinary Policy. I have several ideas for this, the most simple of which is reviewing every Chronicle-level action and rolling them up to organization level action with a simple approval. I also believe that the Executive requires the power to administer some level of punishment (what level I am not certain) without the need for Council voting. I would also seek to honor cross-org Disciplinary actions as OWbN cannot benefit from picking up other people’s problems.

C. Improve the Quality of Chronicles

  1. I believe that the player-base of our organization is shrinking, and I would push for regional community reconciliation wherever it is possible. The topic of revenge-Chronicles surfaces over and over on Council and the Coord list, but no actions are ever taken. I would like to set some standard for Chronicle admission to ensure that the Executive has done everything they can towards reconciliation before a new “revenge game” is allowed in the network.
  2. Chronicles which are not doing well in attendance need to do something different and asking for this help should be one of the first steps. Chronicles with waning player-attendance add little to the network, and should make a decision to either reconcile (where possible), or to take other actions to reinvigorate their Chronicle.
  3. I would work to develop a structure for organizing events, and would help define events as Local, Regional, or National functions. My goal here would be to improve the quality and attendance of org-level Event games.
  4. Finally, I believe that Council has become a poor governing model to manage anything but the largest changes to our organization and I would explore other options of how to better and more efficiently manage the day-to-day bureaucracy of our organization.

D. Stop the Continual Exception Management Culture

  1. I believe that we need to cut out some content in order to simplify and improve the entirety of the network, and would push for a “Disallowed for Gameplay” category - without grandfathering. This would essentially mean the dissolution of the R&U Bylaws with everything currently in the 2/3 Vote category becoming disallowed and everything in the Vote (or less) category becoming either Coord Approval or Notification.
  2. I believe that character status needs to be clearly defined at an organizational level, and would seek to define these categories (i.e. Shelved, Retired, and Active). I would also firmly take a stance against XP-farming. This is the practice of having multiple characters active in the network, gaining XP at the same time across multiple Chronicles of the same type.
  3. I also support the idea of a sliding-scale for character XP, and for character (time or XP) limits and would likely push to include said systems in any implementation of the new BNS rules.