Admissions Coordinator Election 2010

The Admissions Coordinator application(s) are included below.

Feel free to discuss the elections and applications with your CM.

The options for your CM to vote in this Election will be:

* Stef Moser
* Jessica Karels
* Reject All Candidates
* Abstain

~ Jenn Louise Bahrs
OWbN Head Coordinator

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Name: Stef Moser
Email: darthpursell@gmail.com
Chat: darthpursell@gmail.com
Home Chronicle: Caught in Eternal Twilight, Edwardsville, IL
Position Sought: Admissions Coordinator

Experience, Owbn Administration:
Former Archivist (2000-2004)
Former SubCoordinator to Camarilla Coordinator under Amber Kendell
Former SubCoordinator to R&U Coordinator under Ben Russell
Former Sub Coordinator to Sabbat Coordinator under Porch
Former Storyteller of Indianapolis (Indy by Night), Northern Virginia (NVA) and San Francisco (ACE)

Current Kuei-jin Coordinator
Current sub coordinator to Ventrue Clan Coordinator

Experience, Owbn Participation:
PC's played: Claudia de Winter/Isebelle Visconti, Cassandra Lynn Day, Rowenna O'Connor
NPC's played (summary): Queen Anne of London (Ventrue Coord NPC), Archon Vesta (Toreador Coord NPC), Eve Mood (Sabbat Coord NPC)
Founding Member of Los Angeles, CA OWbN game

Personal Statement:
2010 marks my 10th year in One World by Night as a player, and I find that my best contributions are on the administrative side of the organization. My main inspiration for applying for Admissions Coordinator is simple - we need to breath new life into this process. It is very clear that as the organization has grown so do the communication gaps and the enjoyment of having new blood in organization.

My goals for 2010 are:
* Improve communication between potential games and One World
* Effectively integrate new games into One World
* Encourage collaboration between new games, new members and One World

How this will be accomplished:
* End-to-End review of the Admissions process with results sent to Council and Coordinators for review.
* Create a Sub-Committee that will include a member of the Exec Team, and appropriate Clan/Sect/Appointed Coordinators impacted by application. They will initially review the application for completeness, bylaw compliance (administrative and genre), and appropriate Owbn History (as needed).
* Create an annual (weekly, biweekly, monthly, etc) communication to Coordinators/ST/Council on status of games in application and new applications being processed.
* Implement a Mentor system - New games will have a Mentor game, like a 'sister city', that will help them learn the Rules of the Road. This mentor-ship will be strictly voluntary and will begin during the Probationary portion of the application process. The applying game will be paired up with an existing game that fits their game's Genre (i.e. a new Werewolf game will have an existing Werewolf game as their sister city).
* Collaborate with the Web Coordinator/Team to have new game information online for existing games to visit

Communication:
I will be utilizing email, googlegroups and google docs for most if not all of my communications. It allows me to keep a running record of interactions with members and potential members of One World. I will make myself available on gchat for brief questions/conversations but I will mostly utilize email for record keeping purposes.

I thank you for your time, consideration and vote of confidence.
--
Application supported by the following Owbn Games:
Caught in Eternal Twilight
Capital City Cauldron (Springfield, IL)
Capital Rage
Field of Rage
Shadows of Cincinnati
Vitae aka SMD
Wasting the Dawn
Winchester

Application supported by the following Coordinators:
Head Coordinator
Assistant Head Coordinator 1
Assamite Coordinator
Archivist 1 & 2
Finance Coordinator
Gangrel Coordinator
Malkavian Coordinator
Toreador Coordinator
Ventrue Coordinator
Web Coordinator

A brief statement from Robert Crosby, Capital City Cauldron:
"Stef has demonstrated through both her actions and her writing that she has a keen grasp and deep understanding of what is desired within OWbN. Over a long period of years and our interactions with her, we feel she is uniquely qualified for this position, not merely because of her drive or her anticipated policies, but because she is approachable, kind, and she cares deeply for the organization. Not only do games applying currently fall short in getting properly integrated, but the assistance they need lacks both the necessary attention and the kindness that is needed in an age of internet flame wars. She will be direct, but civil and polite, as well as attentive. We would be fools not merely if we failed in supporting her personally, be the organization would be less for it."

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Jessica Karels
Admissions Coord

Name: Jessica Karels
Home Chronicle: Obsidian Towers
Email address: owbnadmissions@gmail.com

Support:
Thicker than Blood
Jerusalem By Night
Gary: Forged In Blood
Sheboygan: Blood On The Lake
Balneario Camboriu
Crusade of Ashes
Natal by Night
Finance Coord
Malkavian Coord

Administrative Positions Held:
ST for Thicker than Blood - (November 2002 - summer 2003)
Upper-Midwest Admissions Subcoord (Nov 2003 - Nov 2004)
ST-Widow (January, 2004 - Summer, 2006)
Upper-Midwest Historian Subcoord (Nov 2003 - Nov 2004)
Admissions Coord (Nov 2004 - present)
AST for Obsidian Towers (July 2007 - April, 2008)
HST for Obsidian Towers (April 2008 - November 2008)

Personal Statement

My goal for last year was to delegate - to build a solid team that can assist me with the growing number of applications that are coming across my desk. This has been a busy year, and I could not have done it without them.
Regional Subcoords:
Mid-Atlantic: Dan Kotlewski
East-Coast: Michael Leitao
Midwest: Dean Strobel & Mark Brantner
West Coast: Jennifer 'Nny' Boykin
Brazil: Paulo Henrique Sousa

Genre Subcoords:
Garou: Chris "Truman" Banco
Camarilla: Jessica Johnson
Sabbat: Mike Pumpkinhead
While this has been a good year for OWBN growth, it has also been a good year for reflecting on the current processes within the admissions system. There are some things that are working well, and some things that are obviously broken and need to be revised.
I like seeing this organization grow. I think it's great that we've expanded into Brazil, New Zealand and Israel. I have people that are nudging me to proactively reach out to LARP's in Europe to see if they have any interest in joining our organization.
In reviewing whether or not to add more games to OWBN, I feel that it is important to be mindful of the new game's proximity to existing games, as well as well as the reasons behind a new game starting. Sometimes a new game forms in order to meet the needs of an area that doesn't have any nearby games, or to fulfill a demand to have a specific genre represented. There are a few times where a game is formed because some players in an area are not satisfied with the local game and want to start their own chronicle. While this may be a concern to some, I do not see this as always being a bad thing.

For the past few years I've taken a rather loose approach when it comes to monitoring new games after they achieve probationary status. This has led to a couple of learning opportunities over the past year or so when newer games didn't receive the help that they needed and didn't know who to turn to. I'm willing to take the responsibility for that one. I intend to change the way that I work with new games and their neighbors going forward, but not to the point of micromanagement (unless all parties ask for it).
Except in extreme cases where a new game exhibits a troupe-centric mindset, I do not feel that it is my place to judge on whether a game fits within OWBN due to their playing style, plot types, or what type of things they allow in their game. That responsibility is better placed in the hands of the genre coords and the neighboring games who will be sharing their 'sandbox' with the new game.

Goals:

I have two goals for this year - Revising the admissions application/process and increased communication about expectations.

1. Revising the admissions application/process:
The admissions application is currently unavailable on the OWBN site. This is intentional. We want prospective games to come to us (the Admissions team) and work with us early-on, rather than have the submitted application be the first point of contact. This gives us a chance to help the game start shifting towards OWBN standards, and also gives us time to notify their potential neighbors in order to prevent possible territory disputes.
In addition to this, we are modifying the application in order to provide more in-depth information about the game, and clean up some of the example texts so that they're a bit more genre-friendly. (Getting rid of the cliche "Cam takes over Sabbat domain" background idea, for example)

2. Increased communication about expectations
There are two types of experiences that have frustrated me during my tenure as Coord:
Hearing "We've never heard of this game before" from a CM when a game is propped for probationary vote; and
Hearing "We've never heard of this game / They've never contacted us" during the probationary review.

Both statements indicate some sort of communication breakdown has occurred.

I feel that communication and cooperation are both two-way streets. While it's important for newer chronicles to be proactive in integrating themselves into the org (to their own comfort level), it's also important for the more established games to reach out and lend a helping hand to their new neighbors. Up to this point, we haven't openly stated how much effort each side needs to bring to the table.

During the coming year, there will be explicit communication on what is expected from both sides (the new game and the neighbors) to ensure that probationary games have a more seamless integration into the org. Here is how the system will look conceptually (this may require bylaw revisons):

1. The ST's and Coords of OWBN will receive notification when a new chronicle shows an interest in joining OWBN. Ideally, we'd like to have this stage occur before the application is completed and fully submitted. The chronicle location (IC and OOC) and genre type (Cam/Sabbat/Garou/Mage/Etc.) will be provided in the correspondence sent both to the OWBN-ST and OWBN-Coord lists.

2. At that time, chronicles that have a vested interest in the new game's participation in the org (those that consider themselves to be neighbors, and perhaps the same-sect games for Sabbat & Garou) will be given the opportunity to voice said interest. Once the requests have been received, the Regional and Sect Subcoords and I will work towards fascilitating the initial contact between the pending game and its potential neighbors.

3. When the new chronicle application is completed, the application will be forwarded to the Coord & ST list for review and inquiry. The Coords have a general idea of what is considered 'genre' for their respective areas, and each region has its own flavor of gameplay and can judge on whether or not a game's style/plots fit in their area. This review period will also serve as a second request for games that have a vested interest in the new game's participation to come forward. Those games will also be brought into contact with the new game's staff.
4. After the reveiw/revision period is complete, the pending game will be propped for probationary vote. It is my hope that this step will merely be a formality, and that the majority of issues were handled during the initial review periods.

5. At the completion of the first application vote, the Admissions Coord will notify Council & the ST list of the vote results and place a third request for games that have a vested interest in the new game's development to indicate such. The Admissions Coord, with the assistance of the Regional subcoord and Genre subcoord, will ensure that contact has begun between the new chronicle and all of the other chronicles that have indicated a vested interest in the new game. During this phase, the Admissions team will work with all of the involved games in order to establish what the neighboring games expect, as well as what help the new game needs. This will allow the opportunity for newer/inexperienced games to get the mentorship and supervision that they need, while eliminating unnecessary micromanagment for those games that have a more experienced and OWBN-connected staff. The expressed expectations of all involved parties will be drafted into a formal agreement that will be logged with the Admissions Coord office.

6. Within the final month prior to the 6-month review, each game staff that originally indicated an interest in the probationary game, and who agreed to some level of involvement with said game, will be contacted and asked to report on what interactions they have had with the new game, and to provide feedback on whether the new game is ready for full membership.

7. At the 6-month anniversary of the game achieving probationary status, the compiled feedback will be provided to the rest of the ST's, Coords, and Council, who will also be given the opportunity to voice any concerns they may have with the new game. If a game receives no objections during either phase of the review period, it becomes a full member without a Council vote. Otherwise, a Council vote is required.

Conclusion:
If you have any questions for me, or have any feedback that will help me improve in my duties as Admissions Coord (should I be re-elected), please feel free to contact me regarding this. I thank you for your time and consideration, and hope to gain your support in the coming election.Sport mediaM2k Tekno