Building a community of people with a common interest
In Real Life (IRL)
The branding of the TSN 42nd Space Fleet, is in fact serves as a solution provider, while being a knowledge base with a wealth of conventional and experienced people who know how to build, maintain and hold space to play together.
Strategically, I've centered my efforts on value creation - for the association and the participants. The common interest should result in values that can be realized, and then implemented as individuals and then as a group.
When conducted and a well managed treatment is executing based on the values, which satisfies such conditions across a period of time, an appreciation of the harmony in the gathering groups will happen. It will espouse the un-quantifiable potential for the super-qualitative actualization it entails.
Aristotle asserted when he said that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
What is a Community's Value? How Do I Create It?
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/what-communitys-value-how-do-i-create-it
Is Social-Actualization Replacing Self-Actualization?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/is-socialactualization-re_b_2083797
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
By STEVEN PRESSFIELD
ISBN-10: 1936891026 | ISBN-13: 978-1936891023
Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided By Politics And Religion. New York: Pantheon Books, 2012.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Restructuring, reorganizing and rebranding in real life
Restructuring, reorganizing and rebranding in real life.
Role playing aside for just a moment, we continue to work at finding a model that will promote growth and sustainability for Artemis social groups, communities and crews across Canada.
To ensure the members continue to play on a regular basis while meeting the values of the community, we move into the last phase of building the nation wide Artemis community. The vision to sustain our local crews and play together remains intact. How we do that is further described below.
Our previous operating model followed the Incident Command System Canada (ICS-CAN) which we've abandoned due to how social community culture generally evolves, which is more consensus driven, using flattened management structure. Our attempts to merge role playing and real life with an incident management structure that is contrary to our sociopolitical culture inevitably lead to series of operating and strategic issues. We believe we should use ICS for tactical work only, and that is applied to the role playing aspect on the bridge while in play; to respond to a situation quickly and effectively.
This is not to say that we should discard ICS-CAN. The system has proven itself over time and provides a solid base on which to build response. However, we need to be less rigid in how we employ it, focusing on ICS principles rather than just structure and being open to adjustments based on community needs.[1]
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized on-site management system designed to enable effective, efficient incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure. Primarily ICS is used to manage an incident or a non-emergency event, and can be used equally well for both small and large situations. [2]
Restructuring the crews so they all operate autonomously, seeking to organize and play together when schedules permit. Where an elected community leader provides one voice for their crew.
Reorganizing certain members, where a new group is formed to operate as an advisory board, which they provide guidance on as needed for community leaders.
Rebranding to the Terran Stellar Navy 42nd Fleet now becomes a service based entity rather than only a support system. The 1st Battle Squadron describes a group of eight ships working together during a game only. We understand the dynamics of crews wanting to belong to either several, one or no association at all; and that is all fine because it is part of the ebb and flow of society.
The administrative team in the fleet provides the service of scheduling, coordinating and delivering fleet wide games on some date and time. This process typically is done through polling and consensus with all the crews, of course, with the understanding that fleet works towards optimizing best case scheduling scenarios. Crews decide to participate or not given their availability and resources.
Cooperative Model
This new cooperative model does allow the crews to agree to meet and make decisions democratically only when needed as a whole. Consensus can be reached rather quickly, leaving to voting if required. The community leaders would need to appoint a spokesperson to communicate on their behalf. Then all the community leaders would task the spokesperson to schedule, organize and run fleet level meetings only when required.
Business as Usual
Otherwise, crews continue to operate their own communities autonomously, choosing to participate or not when schedules and resources allow. Efforts to not make this social group top heavy and a bureaucratic nightmare, leaving more time to coordinate and play together, since this is all based on our personal free time.
An Advisory Board
Adding an advisory board to provide support local social communities. The main reason to create an advisory board is to seek expertise outside of the local group. Advisory board members should provide the local social group with knowledge, understanding and strategic thinking of the industry or management.
Local social groups should seek advisory board members whose qualities complement the existing leaders and not mask gaps in knowledge or skill in the main leaders. An advisory board strengthens the existing crews, but does not interfere with authorities of the existing community groups. The former editor of The Economist, also an advisory board member, once said, "They (advisory boards) are there to give focus to or sometimes challenge research and intelligence work being done in the social group, thus avoiding groupthink and giving direction on big picture issues.".
Most communities and their crews manage their own resources, prioritization and coordinate their own events, with invitations to join them for scheduled games. Larger scale MACS such as the 42nd Fleet casts a bigger net to capture and optimize as many crews regardless of their geographical location to play together.
In the end, we look at several measurable to indicate if we indeed built and sustain a community of people who want to meet up and play. We ask the big questions of a) did you have fun?, b) was your free time well spent? c) do you have a sense of belonging to both the local and bigger Artemis community?
Answering yes to this is what we work towards.
The hopes of further refining, creating and understanding boundaries within the three area of strategic planning, operations and tactical work is important. Applying systems to easily manage this has been a big trial and error journey for me.
So, upwards and onward to bringing people together to play this fun game.
References
1. Are We Too Dependent on the Incident Command System? Lucien G. Canton / January 29, 2015 https://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/managing-crisis/Are-We-Too-Dependent-on-the-Incident-Command-System.html
2. Incident Command System (ICS) http://www.icscanada.ca/
3. Multiagency Coordination Systems (MACS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiagency_Coordination_Systems
Community social groups and crews used in this entry are interchangeable, as they describe a group of people in one geographical area who assemble to play. Given the game's sub culture genre, most communities usually have one crew. Although, I have seen two crews form in the same municipal area to date.
Role playing aside for just a moment, we continue to work at finding a model that will promote growth and sustainability for Artemis social groups, communities and crews across Canada.
To ensure the members continue to play on a regular basis while meeting the values of the community, we move into the last phase of building the nation wide Artemis community. The vision to sustain our local crews and play together remains intact. How we do that is further described below.
Our previous operating model followed the Incident Command System Canada (ICS-CAN) which we've abandoned due to how social community culture generally evolves, which is more consensus driven, using flattened management structure. Our attempts to merge role playing and real life with an incident management structure that is contrary to our sociopolitical culture inevitably lead to series of operating and strategic issues. We believe we should use ICS for tactical work only, and that is applied to the role playing aspect on the bridge while in play; to respond to a situation quickly and effectively.
This is not to say that we should discard ICS-CAN. The system has proven itself over time and provides a solid base on which to build response. However, we need to be less rigid in how we employ it, focusing on ICS principles rather than just structure and being open to adjustments based on community needs.[1]
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized on-site management system designed to enable effective, efficient incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure. Primarily ICS is used to manage an incident or a non-emergency event, and can be used equally well for both small and large situations. [2]
Restructuring the crews so they all operate autonomously, seeking to organize and play together when schedules permit. Where an elected community leader provides one voice for their crew.
Reorganizing certain members, where a new group is formed to operate as an advisory board, which they provide guidance on as needed for community leaders.
Rebranding to the Terran Stellar Navy 42nd Fleet now becomes a service based entity rather than only a support system. The 1st Battle Squadron describes a group of eight ships working together during a game only. We understand the dynamics of crews wanting to belong to either several, one or no association at all; and that is all fine because it is part of the ebb and flow of society.
The administrative team in the fleet provides the service of scheduling, coordinating and delivering fleet wide games on some date and time. This process typically is done through polling and consensus with all the crews, of course, with the understanding that fleet works towards optimizing best case scheduling scenarios. Crews decide to participate or not given their availability and resources.
Cooperative Model
This new cooperative model does allow the crews to agree to meet and make decisions democratically only when needed as a whole. Consensus can be reached rather quickly, leaving to voting if required. The community leaders would need to appoint a spokesperson to communicate on their behalf. Then all the community leaders would task the spokesperson to schedule, organize and run fleet level meetings only when required.
Business as Usual
Otherwise, crews continue to operate their own communities autonomously, choosing to participate or not when schedules and resources allow. Efforts to not make this social group top heavy and a bureaucratic nightmare, leaving more time to coordinate and play together, since this is all based on our personal free time.
An Advisory Board
Adding an advisory board to provide support local social communities. The main reason to create an advisory board is to seek expertise outside of the local group. Advisory board members should provide the local social group with knowledge, understanding and strategic thinking of the industry or management.
Local social groups should seek advisory board members whose qualities complement the existing leaders and not mask gaps in knowledge or skill in the main leaders. An advisory board strengthens the existing crews, but does not interfere with authorities of the existing community groups. The former editor of The Economist, also an advisory board member, once said, "They (advisory boards) are there to give focus to or sometimes challenge research and intelligence work being done in the social group, thus avoiding groupthink and giving direction on big picture issues.".
In Real Life (IRL)Multi-agency Coordination Systems (MACS) are a part of the United States standardized Incident Command System.[1] MACS provides the basic architecture for facilitating the allocation of resources, incident prioritization, coordination and integration of multiple agencies for large-scale incidents and emergencies.[3]
Strategic Planning and Stakeholder Management for Corporate Business and Political Leaders.
Multi-Agency Coordination Systems/Emergency Support Functions for Operations.
Role Playing (RL)
Incident Command System for Tactical.
Most communities and their crews manage their own resources, prioritization and coordinate their own events, with invitations to join them for scheduled games. Larger scale MACS such as the 42nd Fleet casts a bigger net to capture and optimize as many crews regardless of their geographical location to play together.
In the end, we look at several measurable to indicate if we indeed built and sustain a community of people who want to meet up and play. We ask the big questions of a) did you have fun?, b) was your free time well spent? c) do you have a sense of belonging to both the local and bigger Artemis community?
Answering yes to this is what we work towards.
The hopes of further refining, creating and understanding boundaries within the three area of strategic planning, operations and tactical work is important. Applying systems to easily manage this has been a big trial and error journey for me.
So, upwards and onward to bringing people together to play this fun game.
References
1. Are We Too Dependent on the Incident Command System? Lucien G. Canton / January 29, 2015 https://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/managing-crisis/Are-We-Too-Dependent-on-the-Incident-Command-System.html
2. Incident Command System (ICS) http://www.icscanada.ca/
3. Multiagency Coordination Systems (MACS) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiagency_Coordination_Systems
Community social groups and crews used in this entry are interchangeable, as they describe a group of people in one geographical area who assemble to play. Given the game's sub culture genre, most communities usually have one crew. Although, I have seen two crews form in the same municipal area to date.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Having Fun Playing Artemis SBS Collectively.
Having fun playing Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator collectively. This is the creator's mantra when he designed and distributed this game for us to have.
So I set out to bring people together to play this game.
This exercise of group actualization, is really an implementation through a sense of understanding and belonging to the greater Artemis playing community. An intrinsic need humans all have. This is where we conform to one standard or social uniformity, and agreeing with others who operate in the same way; both mechanically and organically. So we can all play together, while minimizing as many barriers as possible through the process.
I look at the following points while working towards the vision. Using simple, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time based milestones or goals as visible targets. I look at entry barriers, the aspects of social structures and controls, technological barriers, the economics of operating and sustaining, environmental impact and localized political agendas while marching towards these goals.
Open to all comments and suggestions, I take note of them all because you are all going to be in the book I am writing. I'll change the names to protect everyone's identity for sure. Being firm and assertive, but not mean or aggressive in my actions, while respectfully giving people choice to work with me or not as I continue to move forward.
So I set out to bring people together to play this game.
This exercise of group actualization, is really an implementation through a sense of understanding and belonging to the greater Artemis playing community. An intrinsic need humans all have. This is where we conform to one standard or social uniformity, and agreeing with others who operate in the same way; both mechanically and organically. So we can all play together, while minimizing as many barriers as possible through the process.
I look at the following points while working towards the vision. Using simple, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time based milestones or goals as visible targets. I look at entry barriers, the aspects of social structures and controls, technological barriers, the economics of operating and sustaining, environmental impact and localized political agendas while marching towards these goals.
Open to all comments and suggestions, I take note of them all because you are all going to be in the book I am writing. I'll change the names to protect everyone's identity for sure. Being firm and assertive, but not mean or aggressive in my actions, while respectfully giving people choice to work with me or not as I continue to move forward.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
A broad look inside the operating ethos of Commander-in-Chief David T
The social group I am leading is classified in sociology textbooks as a “secondary social group” where it is impersonal, task focused and time limited. The branding of TSN Canada primarily serves as a instrument function rather than an expressive one. However, I've discovered a lot of artistic expression happens within the function and do not discourage it. I encourage goal or task oriented groups, rather than emotional ones. As of 2022, I plan to retire from leading the association of communities across Canada.
Through pragmatic, process driven discussions, I plan to set TSN Canada up as a reference group for other groups to either aspire or distance themselves to.
There is often a misunderstanding of leadership style. For one, most who look at the way content and structure is setup, will quickly and reasonably assume it is formal. There are often clearly outlined roles and responsibilities in areas that allows us to function, with a chain of command to follow. Some other secondary groups, like the army, have highly structured and clearly understood chains of command. At the surface, the Artemis groups that are operating under my direction and framework, appears to have an external facing structure of formality at first glance.
However, the internal operations is quite the opposite. With values such as inclusion, fun, being safe, sharing ideas and skills. Most projects and requirements proposal are considered optional to participate in, and nothing is ever mandatory.
The formality of the group is primarily used for role playing and implementation of large scale projects and endeavours. Each community operates with a set of democratic leaders, who encourage group participation in all decision making using a strategic plan to formalize and measure success annually. These community leaders work hard to build consensus before choosing a course of action and moving forward. This type of leader is particularly common, for example, in a club where the members vote on which activities or projects to pursue. These leaders can be well liked, but there is often a challenge that the work will proceed slowly since consensus building is time-consuming.
These community leaders operate as a collective in an association, which I've labelled as TSN Canada or the Canadian Fleet. Where new direction and policy approvals are motioned in, deliberated and voted on by each community leader. Each community votes during the high level fleet meetings.
In order for a new direction or policy to be approved, a two thirds majority vote is required by the Regional Commanders and Commanding Officers or their designate if one has been appointed. The Commander-in-Chief provides assent to the newly approved direction or policy, effectively enacting it on that date or the date that is specified in the policy.
All new ideas and discussion topics to be deliberated at a Fleet Command Meeting must be submitted by a Division Commanding Officer to the Regional Commander that their Division is assigned to.
All of this work and structure is to move each community towards sustainable operations. Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.
Stakeholder management and outreach work is part of the social aspect of this group. There are efforts towards maintaining good standing relationships with other game groups within the community, in the scope of TSN Canada, the priority of sustainability remains within Canadian borders; but not limited under certain circumstances. The social aspect of sustainability is where the primary group type thrives, allowing members to speak and express themselves in all manners; that would be considered appropriate in good company.
The amount of waste the group produces is little. However, it is important to have a plan to carpool when traveling together to play in other communities, recycling and reusing electronic components. Reviewing the supply chain is an important part of understanding where the materials we are using to operate comes from. Fair trade, no child labour and safe work environments at the factories are important items to investigate and confirm.
The group needs to be profitable in order to move forward and continue engagement. That said, profit cannot trump the other two pillars. In fact, profit at any cost is not at all what the economic pillar is about. Activities that fit under the economic pillar include compliance, proper governance and risk management. Creating multiple streams of group income and abiding by taxation law is highly encouraged.
Only when these three areas of sustainability are balanced, corporate social responsibility can be observed to really bring the value to any community. Where as communities are well balanced enough to enact philanthropy, includes all forms of business giving. Corporate philanthropy embraces business’s voluntary or discretionary activities by their commanding and executive officers. Philanthropy or business giving may not be a responsibility in a literal sense, but it is normally expected by businesses today and is a part of the everyday expectations of the public. Certainly, the quantity and nature of these activities are voluntary or discretionary. We do this by giving either money, access to revenue generating events and even in person support at game sessions. The mechanism we use is a letter of intent to support, which is usually published before mid year if a group wishes to support.
Of course, the scenario I describe depends on how strongly everyone embraces sustainability, and whether it is a true change of direction or just lip service by Commanding Officers. We often refer to one type versus the other as Role Play (RP) or In Real Life (IRL), attempting to balance different components of what is RP and IRL can be confusing at times, however as I describe these functions; it can only serve to provide more clarity as we move forward. Only time will tell if the triple bottom line can be balanced by each community in the coming years.
Through pragmatic, process driven discussions, I plan to set TSN Canada up as a reference group for other groups to either aspire or distance themselves to.
There is often a misunderstanding of leadership style. For one, most who look at the way content and structure is setup, will quickly and reasonably assume it is formal. There are often clearly outlined roles and responsibilities in areas that allows us to function, with a chain of command to follow. Some other secondary groups, like the army, have highly structured and clearly understood chains of command. At the surface, the Artemis groups that are operating under my direction and framework, appears to have an external facing structure of formality at first glance.
However, the internal operations is quite the opposite. With values such as inclusion, fun, being safe, sharing ideas and skills. Most projects and requirements proposal are considered optional to participate in, and nothing is ever mandatory.
The formality of the group is primarily used for role playing and implementation of large scale projects and endeavours. Each community operates with a set of democratic leaders, who encourage group participation in all decision making using a strategic plan to formalize and measure success annually. These community leaders work hard to build consensus before choosing a course of action and moving forward. This type of leader is particularly common, for example, in a club where the members vote on which activities or projects to pursue. These leaders can be well liked, but there is often a challenge that the work will proceed slowly since consensus building is time-consuming.
These community leaders operate as a collective in an association, which I've labelled as TSN Canada or the Canadian Fleet. Where new direction and policy approvals are motioned in, deliberated and voted on by each community leader. Each community votes during the high level fleet meetings.
In order for a new direction or policy to be approved, a two thirds majority vote is required by the Regional Commanders and Commanding Officers or their designate if one has been appointed. The Commander-in-Chief provides assent to the newly approved direction or policy, effectively enacting it on that date or the date that is specified in the policy.
All new ideas and discussion topics to be deliberated at a Fleet Command Meeting must be submitted by a Division Commanding Officer to the Regional Commander that their Division is assigned to.
All of this work and structure is to move each community towards sustainable operations. Sustainability is most often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has three main pillars: economic, environmental, and social. These three pillars are informally referred to as people, planet and profits.
Stakeholder management and outreach work is part of the social aspect of this group. There are efforts towards maintaining good standing relationships with other game groups within the community, in the scope of TSN Canada, the priority of sustainability remains within Canadian borders; but not limited under certain circumstances. The social aspect of sustainability is where the primary group type thrives, allowing members to speak and express themselves in all manners; that would be considered appropriate in good company.
The amount of waste the group produces is little. However, it is important to have a plan to carpool when traveling together to play in other communities, recycling and reusing electronic components. Reviewing the supply chain is an important part of understanding where the materials we are using to operate comes from. Fair trade, no child labour and safe work environments at the factories are important items to investigate and confirm.
The group needs to be profitable in order to move forward and continue engagement. That said, profit cannot trump the other two pillars. In fact, profit at any cost is not at all what the economic pillar is about. Activities that fit under the economic pillar include compliance, proper governance and risk management. Creating multiple streams of group income and abiding by taxation law is highly encouraged.
Only when these three areas of sustainability are balanced, corporate social responsibility can be observed to really bring the value to any community. Where as communities are well balanced enough to enact philanthropy, includes all forms of business giving. Corporate philanthropy embraces business’s voluntary or discretionary activities by their commanding and executive officers. Philanthropy or business giving may not be a responsibility in a literal sense, but it is normally expected by businesses today and is a part of the everyday expectations of the public. Certainly, the quantity and nature of these activities are voluntary or discretionary. We do this by giving either money, access to revenue generating events and even in person support at game sessions. The mechanism we use is a letter of intent to support, which is usually published before mid year if a group wishes to support.
Of course, the scenario I describe depends on how strongly everyone embraces sustainability, and whether it is a true change of direction or just lip service by Commanding Officers. We often refer to one type versus the other as Role Play (RP) or In Real Life (IRL), attempting to balance different components of what is RP and IRL can be confusing at times, however as I describe these functions; it can only serve to provide more clarity as we move forward. Only time will tell if the triple bottom line can be balanced by each community in the coming years.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
The Beginning
I'm part of a social game and role playing group in my community, we are associated by one common vision, and operate by a set of values. My love for many things makes this group very diverse and inclusive for me, yet it allows for being creative. Whilst, role modeling good practices in leadership, entrepreneurial spirit and good old fashion face time with people.
This is my story about how I began the Canadian Fleet of the Terran Stellar Navy.
The idea of a make belief space navy, where man-kind has just discovered/invented faster than light propulsion drives. This allows us to travel beyond our solar system within our life time.
We use story telling to engage people in this science fiction universe. But the real work is the Terran relations we have with one another, the narratives and ability to communicate clearly, concisely and most important of all, well with one another each time we get together to play.
So I began to objectify my vision and values, followed by setting goals for each earth year. Then I transparently shared this with people who might be interested. I welcomed them on board and we began our journey.
It was the summer of 2012, I got a message from a friend in Malaysia where I had spent a few months training a group of young and enthusiastic swing dancers. They were forming a community where they would teach and regularly go out social dancing. They got to know me and discovered my love for space, science and technology while I was there visiting Kota Bharu; where I once lived in a refugee camp for about a year. My Malaysian friend understood how I built communities.
It was believed that I would enjoy playing this game called "Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator". He was right, and I saw the potential to create new communities with this tool.
This is my story about how I began the Canadian Fleet of the Terran Stellar Navy.
The idea of a make belief space navy, where man-kind has just discovered/invented faster than light propulsion drives. This allows us to travel beyond our solar system within our life time.
We use story telling to engage people in this science fiction universe. But the real work is the Terran relations we have with one another, the narratives and ability to communicate clearly, concisely and most important of all, well with one another each time we get together to play.
So I began to objectify my vision and values, followed by setting goals for each earth year. Then I transparently shared this with people who might be interested. I welcomed them on board and we began our journey.
It was the summer of 2012, I got a message from a friend in Malaysia where I had spent a few months training a group of young and enthusiastic swing dancers. They were forming a community where they would teach and regularly go out social dancing. They got to know me and discovered my love for space, science and technology while I was there visiting Kota Bharu; where I once lived in a refugee camp for about a year. My Malaysian friend understood how I built communities.
It was believed that I would enjoy playing this game called "Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator". He was right, and I saw the potential to create new communities with this tool.
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