voidtreckerexpress | We're all in this train-gether 🚂

Who: OTA. If you’re a passenger with a ticket on this train, then you are most welcome here!
Where: Upper Music Car
When: Imagination 18, at around brunch.
What: Welcome to the train’s first ever community open forum. Come for the food, stay for the best discussions ever.
Warnings: Lots of top-levels for easy access to relevant topics to your characters, but apart from that, nothing right now! (Not a warning but a heads-up that one TL will be dedicated to the dissemination and discussion of the bonus trek during the last mission. For your OOC reference, please see here.)

Someway through the 18th of Imagination, an announcement for the already spoken for meeting is shared by the ICPs, giving people twenty minutes to come to the upper Music Carriage for the gathering. While the chairs mostly face the stage, they’ve been curved to allow people to face their fellow passengers too, so not to put the sole focus in one place.

This is a meeting for all, and everyone will have their chance to speak and be heard.

The promised snack table sits to one side of the room, and on the stage, the white board from the standard coach has been brought in, written on it bullet points for the planned topics. To assist in the flow of discussion, familiar moderators stand in place to help jot things down, carry conversation further should one idea end while another is ready to begin, among other such administrative tasks to organize the forum. Plus, the ICP’s are in constant use all throughout the meeting, with basic announcements about what’s being discussed now, and how more people are still welcome to catch up to the Music Car if they hear something that interests them.

Grab a plate, settle down, and let’s get to work.

(OOC: Specific top-levels will be set-up for ease of tagging. Select ‘Show Top-Level Comments Only’ if you would like to skip ahead! And as much as possible kindly keep to a single thread in that TL, unless a very special or private point has to be made with regards to the subject! :) Of course if you will be tagging the snacks table, the extra suggestions, or the meta-thread, this does not apply any longer.

Also, very important: Please see here for an example format of how documentation of missions can go! It is most relevant during the discussion on information gathering.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Devero's been silent through this segment of the discussion, feeling that he is far too new to the train to speak on organizing and leading it. There's obviously a lot of history that he's completely unaware of. He's simply been listening, and occasionally taking notes with a flurry of his hands. But at Roland's invitation, he stands.]

Where I come from, the role of a leader-- of any organization, at any level-- is to facilitate people working together. Do you know what our main leadership title is?

Administrator.

If nothing else, it sounds like this community is in dire need of an Administrator, or a team of Administrators, to improve the organization and cooperation of all the different groups and teams-- divisions, whatever-- that we all want formed.

[He nods at Roland.] He's got the right of it. It sounds to me like that's a role this Council of yours could play. Not making decisions or enforcing rules, just compiling and disseminating information, and helping balance the needs and duties of the-- [A gesture as he tries to recall the terminology everyone's been using.] --Team Leads, and White and Black Band groups, and whatever other divisions we ultimately decide on forming.

[He spreads his hands.] Know I haven't been here more than a few days, so I could be completely off-base, but that's how it seems to me.

[His piece said, he sits.]

I'll admit-

[It's the first time Nita's spoken up during this part of the discussion, too. Anyone watching her could have witnessed a veritable storm of emotions as the earlier arguments had erupted - but this latest development has her expression clearing, and calming.

Something like enthusiasm is in her eyes.]

That's more like what I'm familiar with, too. You have wizards in Advisory and Senior positions, but they're more often than not just coordinating people - the area of the world, or even beyond, that they're in charge of, is because they've spent time making things work on that scale... which means helping everyone within that area get along with their lives. Being able to help with trouble in that jurisdiction, if other wizards come asking for it.

[Then she smiles, wry.]

And knowing how to delegate. That's important, too.

Getting people to work together - and helping them stay informed, about the train and how they can work with each other, on-mission and off - that's something I want to help with.

Having spoken to the other Council members at various times, I think removing the closed door policy is definitely at the top of any agenda we come up with for any meetings we have in the future, even if it ends up just being one. The person who insisted on that is no longer a part of the Council, so please, consider that a relic of the past.

In Imladris, our Council was administrative, we advised Lord Elrond, mediated between groups--indeed, the leaders of each group was a part of the council, from Bards, to Builders, to Bakers and everyone in between. We guided, we recruited, we trained, we listened. That is my background. So I am very interested in the Train forming such a thing...whether or not I am a part of it, or just another Passenger who benefits from it.

[Galo’s own flat unimpressed look clears as he listens and a smile spreads across his face.] Hey, yeah. Administrators sounds like a great idea! A lot of us - as said before - know our shit and how to operate. Having people to coordinate us on a bigger scale while letting us do what we do best is a better system to me.

One I bet would make some people relax too. If people need help they can ask for it and if they don’t know who to ask, admins can get them in touch with people in that field. I think I agree with earlier that team leads shouldn’t be admins. The point is balance and that doesn’t feel balanced. But I don’t think admin should tell team leaders what to do or how to balance their part. Just advise and talk.

[And he holds up his hands here. He can almost feel the arguments that his words could cause.] This is not about failures or anything. It’s about letting us all work together and making the system flexible so when we disappear we’re not left scrambling to fix things. And it could tie the community together. People can understand things on all sides.

So no one is seen as lesser or anything like that. Everyone is valued and I want something that reflects that.

[ Kaiba has remained subdued. He really doesn't think there's a place for him in this new structure...he was never one to mediate conflicts, but cause them. He's more like Tony than he realized---stubborn, secretive, thinks he knows best.

But Tony had something over him, as much as he hated to admit it: experience, and that was the building block of the charisma that had made the original structure work in the first place. This new thing was not his style, but with Yugi and his friends? Maybe he'd learned something after all. ]

Right. Flexible and inclusive. I don't think I have a place in a coordinator structure, but for those who do, and there are many of you:

Don't forget to keep your ears to the ground, and recognize talent when you see it. We've had skill surveys, but they're self-reported, and that's a weakness: some might not have the confidence or language to put their skills on paper. Get to know people on a personal level, outside of business. Turns out that makes the work of coordinating easier.

People would not only be able to ask for help with a task, but find a place to belong.

I disagree that team leads shouldn't also be admin; back on Arkea, we had a lot of people doing two roles, especially within the industry I work in. Sure, not everyone is good at it, yet they are capable of separating the two duties. It's a requirement, actually.

[Her eyes flick to Seto.] I think you do; being a CEO's basically that after all.

[ He looks at Seto. ]

Think I agree with Eva, I mean - if I'm getting the admin idea right. Talking to people, helping organising things, getting everyone on the same page? [ He shrugs a little. ] When I think about the two people I heard talking to everyone from the council, even if was about council stuff? Was you and Nita.

But if you don't want to, no one's gonna force you. [ A beat, and he waves his hand, tries to sound reassuring. ] Don't worry about it too hard. Sleep on everything. Whatever happens, if you wanna help everyone, you still can.

[ With that said, there is another small pause before- ]

As for uh, admins and team leads... I never used to get why they weren't in the council convos, but... [ He is slow, trying to think. ] Maybe it's something we can think about. My thing is, I don't want the Team Leads to be taking up more work if they're gonna be the ones available for team talk or putting together their own team meetings and team projects.

Anyway, [ he says with a sudden spark in tone, ] Team Leads are just team admins, right? So they should focus on that.

[Galo shrugs, visibly unbothered by the replies.] Yeah, that’s just what I mean. I don’t want anyone taking on too much. But, not my wheelhouse here. Whoever feels they got a good idea, I’m fine with.

We can always keep trying and adjusting as we go, right? Won’t know what works until we give it a shot.

[He looks to Seto.] Why not try? You sound like you got ideas on how to do it.

We're all in this train-gether 🚂

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