Showing posts with label Vice Lead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vice Lead. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Nikolai Warden: Upset But Staying

Nikolai Warden, another of my many friends in the Gay Archipelago - on both sides of the current conflict - has left a comment with his point of view on my friend Hiroku Kamachi's blog post The Mind of Hiro: "Pearls From Swine". The comment was made on July 17 and was published today.

"Hiro, you and I have known one another a long time. I think you know that I am a fairly reasonable fellow. Though the estate I help manage chose to leave the GA, I and one of the other managers there chose to remain on the GA admissions committee as you know. I will tell you though, as I told Weylin and Chade, that the way the appointments were made was a shock to any who have been in the GA for more than a couple of years.
For a festival team to be put together is different from a board of directors, and different from appointing a PR Lead and Vice Lead … to those of us who have seen quite a few administrations in terms of GA Lead, all of that was a shock. The way it has always been done is that any major decisions have gone through the owners group. Forming an advisory board is a major change in the way things are done, and to us old timers, that decision itself should have gone through the owners group for approval. The decision to write rules and bylaws also is something that the owners group should have voted on, in my opinion.
GA Lead, (and by extension, the relatively new role of Vice Lead), and PR Lead have traditionally been done by candidates putting their names to the owners group and a search committee conducting interviews and the search committee making a decision. Now I realize that the duties of the lead, as outlined by the previous search committee, are a bit vague in “putting together teams” or such, I haven’t the exact wording in front of me. I also realize there are very general guidelines and no rules or bylaws, which has always been intentional. The owners have always been in charge, whether they are active or apathetic really, with the Lead as a spokesperson and detail person to carry out the wishes of the owners group. If the owners group does not give feedback, the Lead takes the lead.
Weylin is the seventh GA Lead with whom I have had dealings. When Myles Capalini, one of the owners who chose to withdraw from the GA, took over as Lead a number of years back, he was told by the outgoing Lead to let the owners THINK they have a say and that it is a democracy, but run the GA as a dictatorship, which is just how that person HAD run it. He and Myles butted heads over this issue to the extent that Cabria left the GA and only returned due to Garth Raleigh’s leadership. Garth stepped down as Lead quite some time ago. Since his departure, owners meetings have been sporadic and the GA has changed. Weylin making decisions that have ALWAYS gone through the owners group came across, to those of use who have seen more than a few GA Leads come and go, as the worst of the old dictatorial sort of dismissal of the owners group by the Lead, going back 4 or 5 years when there was such contention regarding how the GA was being managed.
I cannot speak for others who were upset by how the appointments were handled, and I do understand Weylin’s rationale for doing so. To dismiss the uproar with the notion that it is people who do not like Dextrum and were upset because he was appointed Vice Lead is grossly inaccurate. I was upset, others were upset, and I for one did not know Dextrum at all before he applied for GA membership. I heard the objections against him, I interviewed him at length, and found no reason to vote against his admission into the GA. I have no real issue with him being Vice Lead. It would have been better if all this had been put to the owner’s group and any interested in the Vice Lead and PR Lead positions had a chance to express such interest, and the owners had had some say, as it has always been done. It is not OMG DEXTRUM IS VICE LEAD???? NO WAAAAY YOU CANNOT DO THAT! It is more a matter of err … that is not how things are traditionally done, and really, the formation of a board of directors should have been presented to the owners group and voted on."

Monday, July 13, 2015

Has There Been A Coup In the Gay Archipelago? (Corrected 2015-07-15) (Updated 2015-07-16)

The Gay Archipelago (GA) is an association of landowners of multiple diverse LGBT/LGBT-friendly sims in SecondLife. They conduct Archipelago-wide events, and welcome LGBT newcomers into SecondLife.
"G Dragon Coup d'etat" by Sui-Kunoichi
The GA is governed by The Owners Group, which consists of the sim owners themselves or their appointed representatives.

Hitherto - i.e. until yesterday - the leaders of the governing body (the GA Lead, the Vice Lead and the PR Lead) have historically always been vetted by and voted upon by the The Owners Group.

According to information from several well informed sources Weylin Vale, the current Lead of GA, announced a meeting on Saturday at 11 PM SLT set to take place only eight hours later on Sunday at 7 AM SLT. (Correction 2015-07-15: This information was incorrect, please see the my later post  Bock in SecondLife; Re:Coup Or Not In the GA?. My sincere apologies to all involved and to my readers.) Update 2015-07-16Myles Capalini On "Suddenness" & More, where you will find that the date of the meeting was announced early, but not the time.

The purpose of the meeting was purportedly about the upcoming GA SummerFest 2015.

At the meeting yesterday Weylin Vale unexpectedly announced to the owners group that he had appointed the following positions
Vice Lead - Dextrum Boucher
PR Lead - Rico Bluestar,
Treasurer - Chade Dagger,
IT Director - Hiro Dagger-Clemenceau,
Membership Director - To Be Announced and
2015 Festival Director - Caeru Dubrovna.
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As I understand it, this sudden and unexpected deviation from previous procedure by the GA Lead has raised concerns among many sim owners in the GA on the future direction of the organization and whether or not they wish to remain a part of it. 

I will try to keep you updated on further developments as they unfold.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

GA Announces New Lead and Vice Lead

Today I received some long awaited news from the Gay Archipelago group.

Several months ago Rico Bluestar stepped down as Lead of the GA, since then there has been a selection process in the owners group to find a new Lead to replace him. The selection has now come to a successful conclusion with today's announcement.

The new lead-team of the Gay Archipelago will consist of Chris Magic as Lead, Weylin Vale as Vice Lead and with Parvin (Xcept Atlas) continuing as Public Relations Lead.
The new GA Lead-team courtesy of the GA WeBlog
Chris (center), Parvin (left) & Weylin (right)
Today's full press release:
Three years ago we mourned the passing of our founder, Fabrice Snook. Days ago we grieved with our friends when we learned that Avacar Bluestar had also left our Earth. 

Today, we welcome long overdue good news, the appointment of a new Gay Archipelago Lead and the creation of a new role, the GA Vice Lead.  They will join the current GA Public Relations Lead to serve our growing community.

We are proud to announce that after months of searching and vetting candidates for the positions the leadership committee completed their arduous task and have selected our new GA Lead and GA Vice Lead. 

Our GA Lead, Christope Magic, of Britain, has a long history of service to the Gay Archipelago and our LGBT community.   His roles include events manager for GA Summerfest 2014 and Winterfest 2014, our master of ceremonies for Miss Wigstock, a performer with Corinthia Isle Concerts, owner of the Remix Room, DJ, and host. 

Our GA Vice Lead, Weylin Vale, of Australia, brings real life LGBT event management experience to our team.  His resume includes participating, event managing and a Director of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, as well as event management for multiple governmental agencies. In Second Life he is owner of the sim Lycan Moon, a club owner, DJ, and established member of our community.

Together with our current GA PR Lead, Xcept Altas, of the USA, these appointments will give our community access to leadership without the boundaries of timezones, and clear, consistent responses to hurdles we will overcome together.

They are tasked with promoting unity and inclusion across our diverse international LGBTIA Second Life community. Each are committed to utilizing their skills to foster acceptance, offering support, and guiding teams and volunteers so that we may plan for and together embrace our future.   

Gay Archipelago brand represents our shared values, the knowledge that we are stronger together, and our belief that we can assist our member estates and our community, as well as our supporters, to live and grow in an environment that is tolerant and accepting of our common goals.

We thank the leadership committee; Garth Raleigh, Savannah Christensen, Leroy Voorhees, Evan Greymyst, Sangi Phaeton, and Draghan Marksman, for their service. Their diligence and care has given us leaders who will set us on a defined path towards tomorrow. 

In a two short weeks we will celebrate together as a community at our annual Winterfest. Please join us in welcoming our leads as they embrace their new roles.  

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” [Address in the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, June 26 1963] ― John F. Kennedy
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Greetings GA. 
I would like to introduce myself as your new GA Lead. Thank you so much to the GA Lead search committee, for all their hard work and time over the last few months. Thank you to Parvin for his hard work and amazing dedication to the GA, as interim Lead. You are truly awesome, never change. Today, i accepted the chance to guide the GA into the future. I feel very honored, and humble to be given this amazing opportunity. I have a huge task ahead of me, but one i will gladly take. I will not being doing this alone. Weylin who will be my vice lead, along with Parvin who will stay as PR Lead. Together, we will strive to constantly improve, strengthen your experience as member estates, sims and owners. 
Every estate, sim, owner will play an important role in the future of the GA. You are all vital to the GA. Without you, there is no GA. You will be heard, your voices are what we need to bring forward the organization. Let us work as a team, in harmony.  Together, we are one. United we stand. As the Lead team, settle into our new roles, please do bear with us over the coming weeks. I look forward to meeting you all to start this journey together.  Never change, be you.  Stay fabulous. 
This is your GA. Thank you, for your amazing support. 
"The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance" ― Brian Tracy
 Sincerely,
 Chris Magic