The role of GM and admin has been re-purposed and redesigned to lead a more effective community in the ALTERSCAPE family. When looking at the feedback we received via surveys, reviews I asked every lead to email me, and my personal observation the past year, it was clear that in order to grow and improve DE, it would require more direct help from leaders who handle the day-to-day management of the community.

Every GM and admin is now tasked with a specific area of focus in the community with specific goals for the year. Secondary to that, both GM and admins share the responsibility of collaborating with leaders, supporting their RP ideas, and facilitating communication between everyone. The only difference between a GM and an admin, in terms of role, is the abilities they have (ie. estate management rights, group moderation, etc.). Both GM and admins report directly to me and will maintain regular reporting of their area of focus back to the community and myself on a monthly basis.

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Areas of Focus in 2014

Group Proposals
2014 is going to be the year we fine tune and begin churning ideas and leaders quickly into play with the following goals:

• By June 2014, I’d like to see at least 4 active stage 2+ factions spread across the main sim. Biker gangs, cults, gangs, whatever – we need them assigned to a business fronts and pumping RP opportunities to the community.
• Business and faction proposals need to be processed and approved/declined within 72 hours of submission. We can revisit and extend this timeline once we have healthy usage of the website so we can give the community more time for feedback; until then, I’d like them all posted to the group proposal forum within 24 hours (except the obvious incomplete submissions) and a notice sent out in-world for community leaders to provide feedback asap. Once a group has been approved, a notice to the community and tweet (contact nadir) should be made.
• The lead for this focus should take on an advisor role for all faction leaders and provide guidance when needed to grow into a strong group; until we have 5 active factions, all new groups should be expedited through the stages. No group should remain in stage 1 for more than 4 weeks; they should either be promoted or dissolved.

Digital Media
The newspaper was updated last year on the web but articles are primarily written by the editor and few staff reporters. We’ve seen significant growth on Flickr, too. This focus’ leader needs to accomplish the following:

• Articles need to be edited and published within 48 hours.
• Establish and promote a DE Photographer role and hire IC “freelance” photographers who are actually capable of taking excellent screenshots (look on DE Flickr for potentials). Have them post amazing shots there that can be sourced in the future for articles.
• Build a team of active Flickr users who can run contests, judge, and help promote its usage. Grow the flickr user base.
• Nadir will place new mesh newspaper, flickr, and twitter vendors around the city for easy access to load those pages.

Story Weavers
We need a lead who can pull together a flexible team of story weavers for the following:

• Build a team of story weavers who are encouraged to churn ideas for city-wide plots
• Every story should primarily be focused on how to offer RP opportunities to new players; how will the story engage them and get them involved with the wider community.
• A crazy idea is okay a couple times a year; most stories should be a little more realistic (ie. weather disasters, scandals, accident, etc.)
• Schedule a story once a month
• Make sure the forums are used to encourage community feedback for ideas on future stories – make everyone feel involved in the process and heard.
• Nadir will help establish a back story to Dead End City – we’re going to put it in the map (north Michigan) and mirror the weather and local disasters, just like Hathian (CD) is mirrored from southern Louisiana.

Events
With so many people coming into the sim and the new areas we’ve built the past year, I’d like someone to take charge in organizing events and building a team of leads and willing participants:

• I’d like to host themed OOC and IC events
• Organize events/parties/etc. in different parts of the sim
• Encourage group leaders to organize on a regular basis – the events team leader will make sure anything that requires some planning would be organized into an event and posted onto the calendar (ie. fire dept training, parties at businesses, etc.)
• Focus on creating some ideas around getting new players to network; they could work closely with the mentors and story weaving team.

Mentors
This is a huge area of feedback from the community; we need a leader who can pull off the following:

• Build and manage a team of Mentors
• Have a strong understanding of the "new user experience" - should think of their ideas with respect to how a brand new user may perceive it
• Produce at least 2 welcome orientations scheduled a month with assigned mentors and drive promotion
• Identify possible workshops and assign recruit mentors to post them as an event and run them
• Help create transcripts like the “welcome orientation” that’s posted on the website for frequently scheduled workshops
• Promote and incentivize the Mentor program – work with Nadir to make it attractive to want to help new users

Remember, the goals above will take weeks, if not months, to accomplish .. the goal is to have our teams built and each item described above running smoothly by June 2014.

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GM wanted to take on the development of the Mentors program

I’m looking for an individual who is interested in fleshing new ideas to improve the new player experience and to take charge of the goals described above for Mentors. They would be responsible for working with me and the GM/admin team to make sure they have everything they need to successfully accomplish the ideas they come up with.

I don’t expect to find the perfect leader, but I do expect to choose someone who has the capacity to become a good one… someone who is approachable, RELIABLE, flexible, willing to take feedback and learn, and in the end, won't make being a mentor a chore.

In addition to the responsibility of building up a team of Mentors, they should also have the capacity to enjoy themselves. At the end of the day, it takes someone who is passionate about either helping people and/or solving the logistical challenges / improving efficiency of such a program. Finally, you will also become a hot point of contact for new and existing players on a variety of issues. An unbiased and objective opinion is going to always been expected of you to help diffuse escalated emotions that often happen in such a passionate and creative community.

Finally, you’ll need a way to keep in touch with me outside of SL on a regular basis (ie. Skype).

If you’re interested in taking on this role, please send me a brief email ([email protected]) about why you think you’d be a good fit. Please understand that I’ll receive numerous emails, but I will give everyone a fair shot – it will come down to who I think would be good fit to work with me and the recommendations I already received from staff and players via the recent survey that went out.

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How YOU can get involved

DE is blessed to have players who are interested in getting involved beyond just RP’ing. I want to make sure everyone has an opportunity to help out in any of the areas of focus we have listed above. Each GM or admin who has been assigned is considered a “team leader” which means that they are tasked with building a team – made up of you guys – to help accomplish these goals. For example, if you’re an active Twitter or Flickr user, we need your help! If you’re interested in becoming a Mentor, we need your help! To get started, just put your reply in this thread and I’ll make sure you’re contacted 🙂

Thanks and looking forward to the feedback!