[Proposal] Creation of OWBN Historian appointed coordinator

Hello all,

Recently, I have been assisting the Silver Fang TN with historical research on what Silver Fang related plots have been run in the past of OWBN, how canon plotlines have progressed, and what plotlines individual Storytellers have run that would impact those plotlines.  This brought to prominence the fact that as we have aged as an organization, there are plots and history that are being lost as older players leave the hobby and as people just plain forget.  Often, items that are considered 'canon' in the org have a murky trail whose origin is difficult if not impossible to track. For example, we found that a number of the NPCs that have been considered canon in OWBN in relation to the Austere Howl plot do not in fact originate with White Wolf, but rather from a number of self-published stories and internet chat plotlines created by an ex-White Wolf writer.  Who exactly first decided to run with these plots as if they were fact is still unknown, but at some point several years ago they were written into our history.

What it comes down to is that one of our greatest assets as an organization is the fact that we tell a shared story.  But right now, there is no one but our collective group-mind recording that story, and none of us have any reliable way to follow it.  The Archivists do a great job, but their role as defined by the bylaws is essentially restricted to out-of-character information - which games have R&Us, chronicle reports that contain IC information but little is done with, etc.  And frankly, that is enough of a burden that I don't want to saddle them with more.

There have been various efforts and google docs floating around in the past that attempt to catalog OWBN history, but without someone leading the charge who has a mandate to complete such a thing it has never gotten very far.

Therefore, after having discussed this on the Coordinator list, I propose that we create a role to spearhead this effort.  Honestly, it probably requires at LEAST one person per genre to get it off the ground, but ideally whoever is chosen will designate subcoords appropriately.  This is not an easy task, and will likely take at least a year to have even a reasonably accurate summary of most important items from the org history even with multiple people working on it.  But the longer we wait, the harder the task gets.  And once the bulk of the work is done, it will hopefully be much easier to maintain than it was to create.

Formal prop below:

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I hereby propose that the position of OWBN Historian be created.  To do so, the following will be added to the bylaws:

Coordinator bylaws §1.2.A.viii shall be added as "Historian"

Coordinator bylaws §3.A.vii shall be added as follows

vii. Historian

1. Duties for the Historian shall be:

a. Creation and maintenance of a publicly accessible archive of OWBN in character history for all genres.

b. Review of chronicle reports for significant in character events to be added to the historical documents.

c. To actively seek out information by interviewing players and storytellers to create a more complete picture of OWBN history.

d. To actively seek out areas where the historical archive may be incomplete, and seek to make it as complete as possible.

e. Report at least semianually to the ST/Council lists on the status of the historical archive.

2. The Historian shall have the following powers to be used in pursuit of the above duties:

a. The Historian may request details on any plot or event run by a OWBN game.  Any member of OWBN with information should cooperate to the best of their ability.

i. Storytellers or CMs may request that details of plotlines not be published until finished, in the case of plotlines where public knowledge of certain information would compromise it.  This includes situations involving infiltrators, traitors, secretive PvP, or any situation where there is non-public knowledge that should remain private.  Any dispute as to whether or not information should be published should be referred to the Executive team for mediation, and failing that to council for vote.  The Historian should focus on events that are a year or more past to avoid the majority of such complications.

b. The Historian may collaborate with the Archivist and Web coordinators to determine the best way to present the historical information.

c. The Historian may request information on the OWBN ST/Council lists in furtherance of the above duties.

3. The Historian may delegate any of the above powers to one or more Sub-Coordinators, who they will hold responsibility over.

a. The appointed Coordinator, or the Head Coordinator, may remove or replace these SubCoordinators at will.  Council may remove these Sub-Coordinators with a majority vote.

b. The appointed Coordinator is responsible for all disputed issues that are brought before Council involving any authority delegated to their Sub-Coordinators.