Gentlemen,
The richness of the Club is in the vast diversity of its members and its offerings. We have guys from all over the world and each one has different reasons as to what it is that appeals to them here. Each one may or may not like the rank, the points, the war gaming (solo or multi-player play), the history, the role playing, the medals, the tournaments, the web pages and the relationships that are formed… and each to a different degree.
The Division is a critical feature of the Club. It is within the Division that like minded individual’s gather together… investing time and effort into the things they specifically enjoy… which ultimately creates a special energy… an excitement that sends ripples throughout the entire Club for the benefit of all.
There is certainly a benefit to the Club by having Officer’s serving as Commanders of Corps, of Armies, of Theaters, with Chiefs of Armies & Cabinet positions. These provide a basic structure for the organization and operation of the Club. They are the framework or the bones upon which the Club is hung. What happens at the Divisional level is the fleshing out of the body. One cannot exist without the other.
Think about the various reasons people like the Club as listed in the first paragraph above. How many of them originated at the Divisional level? The rank, the OBD points, the role playing, the medals, the forums, the tourneys, the web pages, scenario creation, blind scenarios… almost all of them originated at the Divisional level. Some creative individual(s) started putting those ideas into practice… started fleshing them out and then they were adopted and standardized at the higher level of organization for the entire Club.
Our Club has a great set of bones.
What we need to do within the Club is continue to strengthen and GROW the creative environment that allows like minded individuals to freely gather together and form their own Divisions with their own specific areas of focus. Up to this point in the Club… the majority of assignments within the Club have been based upon the balancing of unit strengths. If the Army of the Cumberland has 75 members assigned to it and the Army of the Tennessee has 70 members assigned to it… then we generally assign the majority of our new Officer’s to the AoT to get it up to strength. This is not the most effective way of gathering like minded individuals together to form strong Divisions that have a common focus and are energetically pulling in the same direction.
Imagine being a member who really enjoys multi-player games… but no one other than yourself in your Division plays MP games. Wouldn’t that dampen your excitement for the Club? Imagine being one of those high activity guys that plays tons of games and exchanges tons of emails but everyone else in your Division is working two jobs and just doesn’t have that sort of time. Wouldn’t that dampen your excitement for the Club? What if you are a huge Civil War buff but all the rest of the guys in your Division are just gamers and could care less about the history behind the battles. Wouldn’t that dampen your excitement for the Club? Imagine being a casual gamer who wants to play a single game at your own pace and nothing else about the Club interests you. Wouldn’t your excitement for the Club be dampened by that hard core Division Commander who is always emailing you and demanding that you Muster In and do this and that? These are a few of the situations that can arise by the assignment of members simply by unit strength figures.
What we need to do within the Club is continue to strengthen and GROW the creative environment that allows like minded individuals to freely gather together and form their own Divisions with their own specific areas of focus.The Club can strengthen and grow the creative environment in the Club and increase its synergy by:
1) Allowing any 4 or more Officers interested in doing so, to form their own Division
2) Allowing Division Commanders to have full management control of their unit. This control is defined as:
Divisional command privileges include, but are not limited to, the following:
• a. The ability to accept additional membership as desired.
• b. The ability to decline further expansion in cases where the division is considered to be at its maximum manageable size.
• c. The ability to relieve (i.e. transfer out) those members who fail to share the specific interests of the Division. I can hear people saying… “But that will undermine the organizational structure of the Club!” Yes, there will be some changes. No, it will not undermine the organizational structure of the Club. We would maintain the current Army & Theater structure. If a new Division is formed… it would apply to the Army Commander of the Army it wants to be associated with. So while new Divisions may be formed… the same Armies and Theaters will exist.
Often when people first join the Club… they really don’t know what they will or won’t like about it. So a TEMPORARY random assignment to a unit is ok. But as time goes by, they will begin to determine what they like and what they don’t like about it. They will also come into contact with other Officer’s with whom they share the same kind of interests with. Having discovered these commonalities and finding themselves more and more engaged with other Officers outside their Divisions… it only makes sense that they are allowed to form their own division if they desire to do so. Or to transfer to an existing Division that will accept them into its membership and is already engaging in the types of things in which they are interested.
Officers within these specialized Divisions will
NO LONGER NEED TO MUSTER as everyone will be actively involved in doing the things they
WANT to do and not the things they have no interest in.
Will some of the existing Divisions cease to exist? Yes, that is possible but there will always be the need for some regular Divisions to exist as initial places of assignment until a new Officer discovers his likes and dislikes and then moves on to a Division of his own choice.
The Army of the Shenandoah has an interesting link on its main web page that is entitled “Definition of Unit Types”. You can find it here:
http://shenandoah.acwgc-usa.org/ . It categorizes Divisions into three types… Militia Divisions, Regular Divisions & Elite Divisions. Militia Divisions are for initial assignment of new Officers and for those seeking further training after graduation from UMA or VMI. Regular Divisions are for the more casual members of the Club. Elite Divisions are for Officer’s whose focus is more specialized and have formed their own Divisions and who have Division Commanders that are capable of accepting, declining and relieving Officer’s within their Division. I mention the Army of Shenandoah page because I’ve gather some of my ideas from it but I don’t fully agree with all the points made there. (For instance, I do not believe that higher command should have the ability to deny the formation of a Division as long as it meets a minimal strength requirement and adheres to the Club Rules.)
I have always enjoyed the Club and know that many others do also. It’s incredible that we have been around as long as we have. But for everyone that is still here and still involved… after all these years… there are a whole lot of others that have moved on. We should continually seek
to strengthen and GROW the creative environment that allows like minded individuals to freely gather together. That’s what’s been happening here over the years… people have been
freely gathering together through gaming, via email, over the phone and at some of the Reunion’s that have been hosted. They have voluntarily gathered because of common interests!
Shouldn’t we be organized into Division’s by common interest… rather than randomly assigned because one unit is bigger or smaller than another? And why should we be locked into those random assignments when we ourselves… and others… would be BETTER SERVED in an assignment of our own choosing?
Respectfully submitted for your consideration,