tIq'batlh's Recruitment Thesis, Part I
800*600
This is the Academy of the IKV Melota.
This is where you will find useful information on HOW TO to many of the things that we assume are regular processes for our ship.
This page is about the business of running a ship:
In the spririt of common beliefs, common bonds, and the greater good, tIq'batlh sutaI Veska has granted us permission to post his most excellent Thesis series on our website. The unmodified text follows:
WARNING: What you are about to read is stated bluntly
and truthfully and as such may be viewed by some as
painful. These words are my opinions not the views of
the Owners of list it appears on, nor it's membership.
I remember us trying to get dialog going on the
Klingon Warriors List on this topic before to no
avail. Well I have some feedback that I thought I
would share with you on this very issue. I have, due
to experience, ended up classifying members in
klingdom into two groups, the Wolves and the Sheep.
The Wolves are the innovators, the doers, the ones
that create the dynamic that starts club and keeps it
going. The Sheep are what ends up filling up the clubs
roster and contributes to the appearance of success of
said club. Now to be fair, the sheep can sometimes
innovate and sometimes do something significant but
they are similar to the sprinter, they go fast and
hard for a brief moment and then they are done for a
while. A Sheep does not start a club for they are not
wired to do so. They come in after a handful of Wolves
have provided the impetus. Now do not misinterpret my
words. Sheep are very, very important to a club and
it's existence. For if there were no sheep there would
not be anyone around for the Wolves to do all of that
innovating and doing for, nor anyone to recognize and
commend all of that innovating and doing. But the
biggest problem facing clubs and what dictates a clubs
ability to last, its survival rate is the ratio of
Wolves and Sheep.
If a club is made up of too many sheep and not enough
wolves then the Wolves burn themselves out and are no
longer able to provide the innovation and the impetus
to keep the club a viable organization. How long the
club is able to survive is directly related to how
good the too few Wolves are at drawing on the Sheep
for support but Sheep by nature are not a sufficient
source for what other Wolves by nature are able to
create at will.
Close your eyes and visualize various clubs you were
or are a part of, other clubs you are familiar with or
have seen in action. Do you see the Wolves? Can you
see the Sheep? It is not too hard once you know what
to look for.
Now, the question, how do you launch a ship? Well,
you know what the common ground is, for if you do not
have that there is no reason to even bother. Be it a
love of Klingons, a love of Star Trek or even a
broader, simpler love of Science Fiction, you need the
common ground. Well you have it for you are taking
your love and seeking kindred spirits.
Now you need to look at your resources. What do you
have to dedicate to this common ground? Do you have
time, do you have money? Do you have fellow Wolves?
From experience, I know if you are not unemployed and
financially independent, you need, at the least, three
fellow Wolves. Now the best scenario has you knowing
those three Wolves and they are unattached to any
other club, for while it is possible to entice your
Wolves from another Organization, the fallout of such
an action is not worth the short-term gain. A true
Wolf will not eat everything within it's territory
right away for it will mean lean time in the future,
just as you do not want to all of the other groups
around you pissed off at you. Such is survivable, due
to the nature of Fandom and the fans themselves but
why buy trouble.
So let us say you are the only Wolf in your area that
you are aware of. Now you want to find the Wolves of
the clubs around you, no matter the Empire, Federation
or Alliance they serve. You get to know them. It will
not be hard for birds of the feather and all that
stuff, if they know you are not out to hunt in their
territory, then they know you are not a threat and
will even be willing to help you get going with a
territory of your own if just to keep you out of their
territory.
Well now you have some Wolves, they are not your
Wolves but Wolves just the same. I am working on
proving my theory right now about the impact 4 Wolves
can have on the general public, while I feel the ideal
is six Wolves. With six Wolves, having a blast, you
can pull in any fans and otherwise interested within
shouting distance. Why four to six Wolves you ask? Why
not any mixture of Sheep and Wolves to get that
number? Well because by nature, the Sheep have not
delved very far into their character, are not
comfortable cutting up in role, to put it bluntly,
have not gotten the stick removed. And if the
interested or casual observer sees people that are not
comfortable or not having fun, what makes you think
they want to join you and not have fun? If you are
recruiting, you only want people that are completely
comfortable in costume and most importantly, having
fun. Those who think I am condoning deception or
deceit, consider this. When one is interviewing for a
job, they do not volunteer that they smoked a joint in
High School of failed to give the extra ten dollars
they got from a cashier in error. Omissions of those
facts do not make a deception of deceit unless they
ask for the information. The same goes for
recruitment. You do not list your group's dirty
laundry to recruits. You recruit like you do anything
else; you put your best foot forward.
You have your Wolves, either your own or imported
Wolves from other local organizations. Now you have to
decide what you want to do. The list of possibilities
are endless so I will skip right over this part. I
will ask the list owner to create a database to allow
all to enter their ideas for Recruitment activities
for all to share. I know this sounds a bit corny but,
together we are great, individually we are simply a
crowd. Now the next step is PUBLICITY. If I have said
it once I have said it again, if you want people to
know about you, you have to get the WORD OUT. I have
mentioned this in the last three clubs I have been a
member of and the message was either received and
tossed out as worthless or it was ignored. But the
fact remains when you have three Federation clubs and
two Klingon clubs in a county as small as Pinellas
County (Florida) and right in the middle of them, out
of the blue, pops up another Federation club. This
does not dismay me that the formed but that the clubs
in existence have such a poor connection with the
community they reside in that they did not know they
had a rather large fan group, no down the road, not
next door but in their lap. Locally we have these
weekend inserts in our local papers. One is called the
Friday Extra and the other is called, yes, The
Weekender. I am sure you all have a similar
publication in your local newspaper. Use it, that is
what it is there for. Let other fans in your area know
what like thinking individuals are doing and then
watch the results. I think you will be amazed at the
increase in attendance at your activities.
That is all for now. I look forward to your feedback.
tIq'batlh sutaI Veska
Eastern Governor of House Veska
tIq'batlh's Recruitment Thesis, Part II
Academy
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