I'm back!

And catching up on things slowly. I have fixed my computer, for the most part (just have to get Outlook working again and port my old mail back in - whats left of it that is).

I will be taking through the weekend to read the email that has accumulated and catching up on all the things I am clueless to and getting basic status reports from Raphael and Roderigo so I know where everything stands and can be up to date for all of you. I will try to see if I can get some input on thoughts on armor req changes, since you all are still having this discussion for... going on three weeks now :)

I have learned a lot in the time I took off (for those of you uninterested in personal dissertations stop reading now!) and I am reorganizing my schedule to accomodate some things that I have been striving for years to do and have let slip to the wayside. I really want to just share this with you folks so you know what is going on with your liaison and when to expect me around etc. Previously my routine was go to work, come home, eat, spend all night till the wee hours here online. That made me pretty available for folks if they needed me IG most of the time. Two weeks ago I decided that I needed a new horse, and now have a handful of a 16 month old filly, and she is being incorporated into my schedule as are my others more regularly now. After my boarding bills increased drastically with her, I decided I need a house of my own with a barn of my own... so that is foremost on my personal list of things to do <g>.

As it stands now this is my scheduling plans and when you all are most apt to see me about:

During the week I will be visiting the message boards during lunch. That should keep me here pretty much daily. While I may not have a comment daily, I will be reading daily and will try to input as I can.

In the evenings I will be here from around 9:30pm CST to 11:30pm CST during the week.

On the weekends I should be about pretty much most of the time.

Goals:

There are a few things I would like to do with the guild to help me better help you.

1. I would like to try and keep a discussion of the week sort of thing. It is very hard for me to input on a lot of your conversations because quite frankly there just isn't a whole lot to say when the majority of discussions and folders are areas I can't input on. (IE Items for sale, what armor / weapon does what and is the best, etc). If we can get some Q&A sessions going that are informative or inquisitive, that would help me better interact with all of you on the boards. My primary issue with this is, lets keep things civil. I can't respond to statements just expressing dislike for ideas / proposals. I can respond to statements expressing dislike with suggestions about twists to ideas/proposals, or with questions on my thoughts. Please keep in mind that my position is liaison and I am not in a position to explain any other GMs thoughts or opinions -- I can only express my own as a general rule. (Though I will try to seek others input and forward it to you). That said, lets make this coming weeks discussion about the armor reqs since it has been going on a while. I will try to see if I can get some input to your concerns and start the discussion off that way prolly Monday.

2. I would like to establish a once a month 10 person get together for an hour, two hours at max, session. I am thinking probably the first Sunday of every month in the evening. These sessions I am going to let the you all decide what is on the plate to discuss. What I will do is send out a random invitation and those that accept I will move to the meeting room. I'll give you all about 15 minutes to talk to each other and come to a group decision on what you want to cover. (If this doesnt work after a couple go-rounds I'll try to establish a topic ahead of time). In conjunction with this I will try to get a folder set up on the boards here for the "meeting results" since the whole guild won't be present.

3. I know that a guild meeting is in need. I plan on trying to arrange something like this with Raph and Roderigo. However, I do believe that there are some things we would like to see released before we hold this. So it may be down the road a ways. What I need you all to do, to better facilitate this, is start throwing ideas out in the events folder about things you want to talk about. I asked previously and recieved about 5 responses. If you want a meeting that is well-prepared it helps us to know what your concerns are and what we have to address it with.

4. I want to work on the shop items. I have printed out every suggestion that was posted in the shop category (i was sincerely bored at work one day) and the only problem there is most of the ideas are similar to one previously presented. SO while I have a stack of paper, only about 1/3 of that stack is stuff that is unique from the other 2/3s and prolly 1/2 of that 1/3 is stuff we can do relatively easily. Get some ideas out there please!

And I think... that I need not be any more long-winded <g>. My fingers aren't used to this!!

Naiph