Many of you have been asking about us here in OKC.  Thank you all so much for your care and concern.  At this time, all MESsers known to have been in or around the Moore (south OKC) area are alive and well.  It seems we may even have all our homes in tact.

Sadly, you may also be aware we had an elementary school full of children get directly hit and we have some 20 miles of war zone like disaster area. For those of you who want to help the Red Cross help our devastated neighbors, you can contact the Red Cross and donate, or text RED CROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.  That’s the number the news stations locally are putting out.

This is not our first rodeo in Oklahoma.  It never gets easy, but we never give up. Ever.

–

Russell Cohen

US2002023734

US NST

VST email

IC Event: March 15, 2012

IC Location: Elysium of San Juan

Prepared Event: Courtly Politics

FAQ:

Q: But Bobby, why don’t we go do something fun. This sounds boring!

A: I realize that many people have character concepts and are waiting on approvals. Since the chronicle hasn’t officially started I want to try be fair to everyone. This it is mainly RP so it will not conflict too much with approval items.

Secondly, the MES Virtual ST chain informed me my version of “fun” isn’t approprate. Apparently, killing all the characters in a history game would be rude and in poor taste.

Q: But Bobby, how did I get to Puerto Rico?

A: That is a great question. This is a history game. Make it up like the rest of your Background. I would prefer you get PC ties to assist if you don’t have a way to do it naturally, but I’ll be fine with just about anything.

Q: Does that mean I can write a flying unicorn into game?

A: Please be realistic… unicorns don’t fly

Q: What approval is it to visit Puerto Rico?

A: Low approval, so just ask nice.

Q: Can i come back EVERY month?

A: I don’t see why not!!

Modified Proxy Rules:

Send me your character sheet. We can get you in game as soon as possible. All challenges will be done through mediation as this is a History game. Non-approved items can be discussed with the me.

MES Virtual is pleased to announce that it will be hosting an Cam/Anarch historical game on Thursday, May 23nd. Sign-in will begin at 7:00pm EDT in the #mes-virtual-ooc channel on the DarkMyst IRC server with the game proper starting at 8:00pm.

The VSS can be found here and feel free to contact me with any questions.

A slightly Awakening-esque New Player’s Guide to IRC Gaming is available here.

Hope to see you there,

Bobby Lee

US2009023606

The Schedule (which we hope will not change)

The In Character Who’s who page. Register for VIP and get your blurb in, but we can’t guarantee it’ll get into the printed program)

Info on the hotel (It’s booking  up FAST guys)

Some of the VSS’s are up as well!

Need a roommate? Need a ride? Want info faster?  Join us on the Facebook Group page!

-Jules

Juliet Meyer

US2005022980

The NCA’s office has some exciting information to put out!

The first is in regards to the MES National Event. It has been expressed, often and loudly, that there is a desire for MES to have their own National Event. Unfortunately, there are still only 12 months in the year and they are full already. The challenge was figuring out how to add a National Event without diluting the quality of the Regional Events.

For 2014, we are going to try something new and will “upgrade” one Regional event to host the National Event. The Regional Officers have supported this idea and we are moving forward with it. For the 2014 MES National, the SC has graciously agreed to let us upgrade SCRE while we create a formal procedure for future national events.

The First Annual MES National Event will be in San Antonio, Texas in April 2014! We are very excited to have Rebecca Morgan of the SC as the National Event Lead. More details will be released once they are finalized and all calls for positions should be anticipated soon.

The second announcement regards the regional event schedule. One of my goals from the moment I was hired was to create an established schedule for regional events so that members could better prepare. This also allows for a 2-year all call for bids, giving us much more time to plan events.

The schedule has been created by working with the regional officers to get feedback on desirability as well as limitations created by the holiday season, a fall CCP Hosted Con, and other factors. It’s impossible to accommodate everyone, but I’m proud of the results. 2014 is a little off because of changes needed to get regions decoupled, but beginning in 2015, the schedule is set. The schedule is below and will also be available on the NCA website. All calls for the remaining 2014 conventions, as well as the 2015 cons, will begin shortly.

2014:

• January – SWRE
• April – MES National hosted by the SC
• May – NERE
• June – GLRE

2015 (and all odd years):

• April – SERE
• May – NWRE
• June – NCRE
• July – ECRE

2016 (and all even years):

• March – SWRE
• April – SCRE
• May – NERE
• June – GLRE

My thanks to the RCs, RSTs, and Becca Morgan, ANCA Contracts and Scheduling, for all their work to make this a reality. Questions about anything in this email can be directed to my office.

Jenn Eiland

US2002023825

We are less than a month away from Origins here in Columbus, OH! The convention takes place June 12-16th at the Greater Columbus Convention Center! We have a full slate of games being run by our ARST OWoD as well as the talented VSTs from OH-010-D: Dark Heart of Ohio! We are the first trade show of the new chronicle! Below you will find our basic premises and STs.

Event #2114: Secrets of Awakened Society Uncovered – ST: Joe Auerbach –
THURS 1:00PM

The Mysterium uncovered an abandoned sanctum east of the Columbus antimagic field. You are going to investigate. Are you there to help or to plunder? And why has it been hidden so long?

Event #2136: The Shadowed Hunt for Treasure – ST: Tom Strnisha – THURS, FRI,
SAT 8:00PM

When a Justicar’s treasure falls into the hands of the Giovanni, even the Lasombra take notice.

Event #2214: Here Comes the Black Spot – ST: Brian Croyle – FRI 1:00PM

The Summer King of St. Martin is throwing a series of games however; chaos breaks loose when a plague of black spots marks Changelings for abduction back to Arcadia.

Event #2316: Homeland’s Reclamation – ST: Traci Auerbach – SAT 1:00PM

For nearly five decades, the Pure have kept a watchful eye on Columbus, imprisoning their worst criminals and maddest sycophants within the city’s borders. For the last few months, however, the Forsaken have been called some by tribe, some by totem, some by their gifts of intuition back to reclaim this land. Will the call be heard and the area secured by the Uratha? Or will the wild Pure keep them at bay?

All events are in the Crowne Plaza Muirfield Ballroom. If you’ve been with us for the past couple of years, we are in the same room.

Origins Game Fair official site

I hope to see you there!

Rachel Steiner

US2005043355

The voting period for the election for the US National Ombudsman has officially begun.

This position is directly elected by all of the members of MES. Any current MES member can vote in the election.

We have two candidates:

• Nakisha Fox
• Brian Hanna

Please send your votes to the elections proctor listed below.

Include:

• Your name
• MES number.
• Your votes should be listed in the order of your preference.

The proctors for the election are:

• Jed Stancato: jed.stancato.bod@gmail.com
• Charlie Rose: us2002021149@deadletteroffice.org
• Holly Houtekier: hollyechani@gmail.com
• Brian Gates: brian@mindseyesociety.org

The voting period will be conducted from:

5/15/13 – 5/29/13 Midnight (the night of the 29th, Pacific time)

Followed by:

5/29/13-5/31/13 – Certify results

6/1/13 – Wish Guy Seggev a happy birthday and announce the new National

Ombudsman!

If you missed the QA portion but still wish to know who the candidate are, I have attached their applications below my signature.

Thank you!!

–

Holly E. Houtekier

US2002021999

MES Director

—

Application #1: Nakisha Fox

US2002021738

Mission statement:

When I became a member of MES in its first incarnation as the Camarilla fan club back in 1998, I was a complete roleplaying newbie. I thought roleplaying was something guys wearing cloaks and carrying armfuls of junk-food did in the seclusion of their parent’s basement trekking through imaginary dungeons to kill monsters for XP and gold.  The Camarilla offered something new and exciting, an opportunity to dress up and be someone else for a few hours, meet new people and be part of something bigger than small group of tabletop players.

To be honest the games themselves were always second place to the social aspect of the club for me. I loved picking out an outfit and coming up with plans for game nights, I have lived in some remote back woods areas where there was lots of driving before reaching a game site but when I did get there I got to hang out with some amazing people that I otherwise would have never met. Your chapter becomes your gaming family, they look out for you when the group is out at night and they often provide crash space and coffee the next morning. Roleplaying is unique that way, the person whose character you screwed over royally the night before is still your friend the next day.

There is also the concept of the global game, I have friends in just about every state, and friends in countries all over the world and I would never have had the opportunity to meet most of them. Those relationships that you build now in MES can last a lifetime.

Last but not least there are the regional and national conventions. There is no experience like walking into a convention for the first time and seeing the crowd of people stretching out over the entire convention space dressed as vampires, faeries, and everything in between.  The experience is very humbling. The excitement and shouting, the looks of anguish and manic glee on players faces as they faced off against each other in challenges or executed the final steps in a scheme that started at a con the year before, there is no experience like it. One time is usually all it takes to get a player hooked and looking for their next convention fix.

Some of my fondest memories came from conventions, hanging around at 5am exhausted from roleplaying since the early morning of the day before on the last day of the convention recapping all the best parts of the convention and the personal IC triumphs and setbacks.

As ombudsman, I want the members to have the opportunities to build their own memories, and make sure that their time with the club is a positive experience. I want the society to continue to grow.  I want every player planning ahead for their next convention before the one they are at is even over.  To do that you as the player need to enjoy yourself and want to participate in the venues and social events of our society. I want to help you for completely selfish reasons, I want you to enjoy yourself so you will continue to play and I will have a club full of people to play with!

To that end, in the role of Ombudsman I promise to:

• Make myself accessible to the membership, phone calls, text messages, email, Facebook, Twitter or smoke signals, whichever way you like to communicate I will find a way to respond to you.
• Keep an open mind, I will listen to you. I will guide you on the best approach to handle your concern, and if you do not feel comfortable expressing your concern, I will gladly champion those concerns for you to the appropriate officer.
• Provide the officers of the society your feedback, no system is perfect, if there is something that is taking away from the enjoyment of the members. I will provide the board and officers with that feedback so they can take the steps needed to make positive changes.
• Be your voice, I will remain impartial and unbiased when reviewing any change from the board or officers chain. I will make sure that your opinions are taken into consideration when those decisions affect you.
• Advocate for you to the best of my ability. No matter what a member’s situation is I will work with them keeping their best interest at heart, while remaining upfront and honest.
• Continuously evaluate established processes and procedures to address any issues pertaining to membership satisfaction. Without the members there is no society.
• Make you feel welcome, it can be overwhelming during your first few months, I want our new members to feel like they have somewhere to go and ask questions without feeling as if they are being an inconvenience, or  that they are ignorant for not knowing the answer.

Relevant experience:

*Executive Assistant – US Growers Direct – March 2010 – January 2012*

Assisted and provided guidance to the company president in composition of correspondence to company officers, clientele and third party vendors.

Managed the upkeep and maintenance of the master grower’s database comprising of growers’ personal, business and tax information for approximately 1500 clients.

Managed updates and information exchange for five USGD receiving stations.

Managed the distribution of the of contract approval letters to the receiving stations to be distributed to growers.

Validated and made corrections to approval letters and submitted requests for changes in contracted poundage to approval board.

Responsible for maintaining archive of original signed contracts from clients and filing these with parent company record archive.

First response for USGD receiving stations, responsible for managing deadlines, supervising confidential information requests, and acting as a liaison between stations, executives, and growers.

Director of Development – Legacy Roleplay Association

November 2005 – September 2008

Charged with the responsibility of developing membership process and informative documents.

Presented member feedback and ideas to appropriate audience and implemented ratified changes to society protocol, errata and procedures

Engaged individuals and charters that had concerns they wished to be heard by the association leadership.

Championed the ideas and complaints from charters and members in board meeting to generate appropriate response or generate motions to change protocol / errata.

Developed concepts and code of conduct for IRC and mailing lists collaborating with the director of communications to ensure to spread awareness with the membership of these communication forums.

Mediated high level disputes between officers, players, and the board of directors as needed, maintaining a professional discussion throughout the dispute process.

Run polls to gather the opinion of the active general membership for policy and addendum changes whenever approved by the majority of the BOD.

Maintained a reputation of integrity, respect, and remaining approachable and providing a confidential audience for the membership to present their issues and concerns.

Responsible for composing email announcements and to communicate changes to the membership through the communication media of the association.

Camarilla Member – Multiple positions – August 1998 – September 2006

• CST for NC-001
• ACST Cam/Anarch  for NC-001
• ACST Cam/Anarch  for NE-002
• AVST Changeling for FL-019
• VST Changeling for TX-064

Relevant education:

• Associates in Accounting
• Associates in Business Administration

Coordinator contact information:

• Gretchen Adragna DC - NC-006-D

Application #2: Brian Hanna

Basic Information

• Name: Brian Hanna
• MES Number: US2004041389
• Email Address: ANO@MindsEyeSociety.org ano@mindseyesociety.org
• Skype: brian-hanna

Assistant to the National Ombudsman since January 201

Coordinator Information:

Deb Pelletier Clark- SE RC

Vision Statement:

The National Ombudsman works as an independent and neutral party, completely outside of the normal process, to assist members and groups in the resolution of conflicts and/or concerns. The National Ombudsman will also help identify issues in policies, processes, and procedures, including their implementation that needs attention.” - Mind’s Eye Society- Job Description

 Overview Contents:

Qualities of the Position

• Integrity
• Confidentiality
• Independence
• Neutrality
• Responsiveness.

Responsibilities of the Position

• Member and Group Assistance
• Reporting
• Assistants

Relationship with the Membership/ Board of Directors

Qualities of the Position

• Neutrality- There is a time and place for passion, for the idea that you can make changes to the club on your shoulders. This office isn’t one of them. While charged with the tasks of identifying and bringing attention to the issues involved with running and supporting this club, or even in conflict resolution, this office has and will stand on neutral ground. I have learned since serving as ANO that my passion has taken a back seat to serving the membership in this role. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist anymore, quite the contrary. When it comes to this office, I personally have no issue with being the neutral forefront, regardless of the member’s status who’s seeking the office’s assistance.
• Confidentiality- The word becomes skewed and varies from person to person, but as I have done so as ANO, I will continue to do  so as Ombudsman, what’s said to me in confidence, will remain so, regardless of membership status (IE, Officer, Non-Officer, New Member/Veteran Member). The Ombudsman office is an independent office, as stated in the general description. Confidentiality is required.
• Responsiveness-* As ANO, I have been fairly responsive, and being in this role, my responsiveness and dedication to time requirement has improved. I have dedicated my response times in this office to a 24-48 hour period. This may come in the form of an e-mail to let you know I’ve received your request/message and that I am working on it, or it may be the response you needed, but my goal is to never let an e-mail or other form of communication go unanswered for longer than 48 hours. If there will ever be a point in time where this would be difficult, I promise to inform you as to how long, and why.
• Independence*- This office is a sounding board of not only information, but thought processes. It is one that requires independent thinking, as well as independent action. The concept of the office would fail miserably if it was required to conduct its business through micromanaged, or overly managed work. I have been successful in this regard as ANO, as I have been able to operate with the NO Team, and not have to go outside of the office to obtain the assistance I’ve needed. This has allowed this office to obtain small successes, even with it being based on the individual member.
• Integrity*- This concept encompasses more than just telling the truth. It encompasses the idea of doing something the right way.

Responsibilities of the Position

• Member and Group Assistance- This accounts for the largest block of the assumed workload for the MES Ombudsman office. Items in this category such as Conflict Resolution, Requests for Information, Appeals Assistance, and Process Involvement account for 40-70% of the overall workload, in my opinion. In serving as the MES Ombudsman, this will be my largest point of focus, as I have seen the workload firsthand.  As listed in the core responsibilities, one of my primary responsibilities will be Member and Group Assistance, regardless of how skewed the value of this responsibility is weighed.
• Report Creation- I will be publishing two reports on a monthly basis- one to the membership, who elected me, and one to the Board of Directors, who governs the responsibilities of the Ombudsman office. These reports will be similar, with the exception of confidential information remaining confidential, for both reports.
• Assistants- I will have 1-2 two assistants. I will be retaining Wendy Showell, who has served as a Special Assistant, and will be handling issues of harassment and gives members another outlet of communication with the Ombudsman should they not be willing to communicate this with me directly. She has done a fantastic job in her responsibilities given, and I see no reason why anyone coming into this position wouldn’t want her knowledge and experience on-hand. The ANO position will remain open until I see the need for a primary assistant, though I don’t expect it will be long before that all-call goes out on the list.

Relationship with the Member/Board of Directors

As MES Ombudsman, I will maintain a positive working relationship with both of these groups. The way I will accomplish this is by sticking to the aforementioned qualities of the position, regardless of membership status. I will be fair and impartial in my duties as MES Ombudsman, and will continue to keep communication lines open to provide this resource to the MES Membership as a whole.

MES- Related Experience

Current Position(s)

• Assistant to the National Ombudsman- Since January, 2012
• Domain Coordinator- AL-009-D Since February, 2013

Previous Position(s)

• US National List Moderator- 2011
• VST Forsaken: AL-009-D- 2010
• SE AARC Special Projects- 2009
• AAMST Dark Places: Requiem- 2009-2010
• ANC Arbitration (Global Independent Regions) – 2008
• AARC Special Projects (SE Region, US Camarilla) – 2007
• ADC Web/Publications (AL-009-D, SE Region, US) – 2007
• Project Assistant – Military Relations (Global Independent Regions) – 2005

Real Life Experience

• Battalion S-6 NCOIC 161st MMB, AL ARNG

-I have been, and continue to serve as an NCO in the Guard. The values inculcated with the role of NCO have assisted me in my role as ANO and other positions I have held in the club.

Disciplinary Actions

I have not been subjected to any disciplinary actions within the last 3 years.

This time, we have two candidates:

• Nakisha Fox
• Brian Hanna

Both of their applications are included under my signature for your perusal.

Here’s how the election will work. The Q/A portion will be held on a googlegroup list, as we did with the Board elections. Only the candidates and the list owners will have posting rights, but anyone can sign up to watch the traffic on the list and read the archives. To ask questions, you should send them to Holly Houtekier and she will post them to the list for the candidates to answer.

Feel free to sign up for the googlegroup here.

The proctors for the election are Jed Stancato, Charlie Rose, Holly Houtekier, and Brian Gates.

The basic timeline for the election is as follows:

• Starting now and continuing onward – Anyone can sign up to read the list and its archives as well as submit questions to Holly.
• 5/5/13 – Begin Q/A officially
• 5/15/13 – 5/29/13 – Voting period
• 5/29/13-5/31/13 – Certify results
• 6/1/13 – Wish Guy Seggev a happy birthday and announce the new National Ombudsman!

Thanks!

Adam Warman

US2002022774

MES Board of Directors

Application #1: Nakisha Fox

US2002021738

Mission statement:

When I became a member of MES in its first incarnation as the Camarilla fan club back in 1998, I was a complete roleplaying newbie. I thought roleplaying was something guys wearing cloaks and carrying armfuls of junk-food did in the seclusion of their parent’s basement trekking through imaginary dungeons to kill monsters for XP and gold.  The Camarilla offered something new and exciting, an opportunity to dress up and be someone else for a few hours, meet new people and be part of something bigger than small group of tabletop players.

To be honest the games themselves were always second place to the social aspect of the club for me. I loved picking out an outfit and coming up with plans for game nights, I have lived in some remote back woods areas where there was lots of driving before reaching a game site but when I did get there I got to hang out with some amazing people that I otherwise would have never met. Your chapter becomes your gaming family, they look out for you when the group is out at night and they often provide crash space and coffee the next morning. Roleplaying is unique that way, the person whose character you screwed over royally the night before is still your friend the next day.

There is also the concept of the global game, I have friends in just about every state, and friends in countries all over the world and I would never have had the opportunity to meet most of them. Those relationships that you build now in MES can last a lifetime.

Last but not least there are the regional and national conventions. There is no experience like walking into a convention for the first time and seeing the crowd of people stretching out over the entire convention space dressed as vampires, faeries, and everything in between.  The experience is very humbling. The excitement and shouting, the looks of anguish and manic glee on players faces as they faced off against each other in challenges or executed the final steps in a scheme that started at a con the year before, there is no experience like it. One time is usually all it takes to get a player hooked and looking for their next convention fix.

Some of my fondest memories came from conventions, hanging around at 5am exhausted from roleplaying since the early morning of the day before on the last day of the convention recapping all the best parts of the convention and the personal IC triumphs and setbacks.

As ombudsman, I want the members to have the opportunities to build their own memories, and make sure that their time with the club is a positive experience. I want the society to continue to grow.  I want every player planning ahead for their next convention before the one they are at is even over.  To do that you as the player need to enjoy yourself and want to participate in the venues and social events of our society. I want to help you for completely selfish reasons, I want you to enjoy yourself so you will continue to play and I will have a club full of people to play with!

To that end, in the role of Ombudsman I promise to:

• Make myself accessible to the membership, phone calls, text messages, email, Facebook, Twitter or smoke signals, whichever way you like to communicate I will find a way to respond to you.
• Keep an open mind, I will listen to you. I will guide you on the best approach to handle your concern, and if you do not feel comfortable expressing your concern, I will gladly champion those concerns for you to the appropriate officer.
• Provide the officers of the society your feedback, no system is perfect, if there is something that is taking away from the enjoyment of the members. I will provide the board and officers with that feedback so they can take the steps needed to make positive changes.
• Be your voice, I will remain impartial and unbiased when reviewing any change from the board or officers chain. I will make sure that your opinions are taken into consideration when those decisions affect you.
• Advocate for you to the best of my ability. No matter what a member’s situation is I will work with them keeping their best interest at heart, while remaining upfront and honest.
• Continuously evaluate established processes and procedures to address any issues pertaining to membership satisfaction. Without the members there is no society.
• Make you feel welcome, it can be overwhelming during your first few months, I want our new members to feel like they have somewhere to go and ask questions without feeling as if they are being an inconvenience, or  that they are ignorant for not knowing the answer.

Relevant experience:

*Executive Assistant – US Growers Direct – March 2010 – January 2012*

Assisted and provided guidance to the company president in composition of correspondence to company officers, clientele and third party vendors.

Managed the upkeep and maintenance of the master grower’s database comprising of growers’ personal, business and tax information for approximately 1500 clients.

Managed updates and information exchange for five USGD receiving stations.

Managed the distribution of the of contract approval letters to the receiving stations to be distributed to growers.

Validated and made corrections to approval letters and submitted requests for changes in contracted poundage to approval board.

Responsible for maintaining archive of original signed contracts from clients and filing these with parent company record archive.

First response for USGD receiving stations, responsible for managing deadlines, supervising confidential information requests, and acting as a liaison between stations, executives, and growers.

Director of Development – Legacy Roleplay Association

November 2005 – September 2008

Charged with the responsibility of developing membership process and informative documents.

Presented member feedback and ideas to appropriate audience and implemented ratified changes to society protocol, errata and procedures

Engaged individuals and charters that had concerns they wished to be heard by the association leadership.

Championed the ideas and complaints from charters and members in board meeting to generate appropriate response or generate motions to change protocol / errata.

Developed concepts and code of conduct for IRC and mailing lists collaborating with the director of communications to ensure to spread awareness with the membership of these communication forums.

Mediated high level disputes between officers, players, and the board of directors as needed, maintaining a professional discussion throughout the dispute process.

Run polls to gather the opinion of the active general membership for policy and addendum changes whenever approved by the majority of the BOD.

Maintained a reputation of integrity, respect, and remaining approachable and providing a confidential audience for the membership to present their issues and concerns.

Responsible for composing email announcements and to communicate changes to the membership through the communication media of the association.

Camarilla Member – Multiple positions – August 1998 – September 2006

• CST for NC-001
• ACST Cam/Anarch  for NC-001
• ACST Cam/Anarch  for NE-002
• AVST Changeling for FL-019
• VST Changeling for TX-064

Relevant education:

• Associates in Accounting
• Associates in Business Administration

Coordinator contact information:

• Gretchen Adragna DC – NC-006-D

Application #2: Brian Hanna

Basic Information

• Name: Brian Hanna
• MES Number: US2004041389
• Email Address: ANO@MindsEyeSociety.org ano@mindseyesociety.org
• Skype: brian-hanna

Assistant to the National Ombudsman since January 201

Coordinator Information:

Deb Pelletier Clark- SE RC

Vision Statement:

The National Ombudsman works as an independent and neutral party, completely outside of the normal process, to assist members and groups in the resolution of conflicts and/or concerns. The National Ombudsman will also help identify issues in policies, processes, and procedures, including their implementation that needs attention.” – Mind’s Eye Society- Job Description

 Overview Contents:

Qualities of the Position

• Integrity
• Confidentiality
• Independence
• Neutrality
• Responsiveness.

Responsibilities of the Position

• Member and Group Assistance
• Reporting
• Assistants

Relationship with the Membership/ Board of Directors

Qualities of the Position

• Neutrality- There is a time and place for passion, for the idea that you can make changes to the club on your shoulders. This office isn’t one of them. While charged with the tasks of identifying and bringing attention to the issues involved with running and supporting this club, or even in conflict resolution, this office has and will stand on neutral ground. I have learned since serving as ANO that my passion has taken a back seat to serving the membership in this role. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist anymore, quite the contrary. When it comes to this office, I personally have no issue with being the neutral forefront, regardless of the member’s status who’s seeking the office’s assistance.
• Confidentiality- The word becomes skewed and varies from person to person, but as I have done so as ANO, I will continue to do  so as Ombudsman, what’s said to me in confidence, will remain so, regardless of membership status (IE, Officer, Non-Officer, New Member/Veteran Member). The Ombudsman office is an independent office, as stated in the general description. Confidentiality is required.
• Responsiveness-* As ANO, I have been fairly responsive, and being in this role, my responsiveness and dedication to time requirement has improved. I have dedicated my response times in this office to a 24-48 hour period. This may come in the form of an e-mail to let you know I’ve received your request/message and that I am working on it, or it may be the response you needed, but my goal is to never let an e-mail or other form of communication go unanswered for longer than 48 hours. If there will ever be a point in time where this would be difficult, I promise to inform you as to how long, and why.
• Independence*- This office is a sounding board of not only information, but thought processes. It is one that requires independent thinking, as well as independent action. The concept of the office would fail miserably if it was required to conduct its business through micromanaged, or overly managed work. I have been successful in this regard as ANO, as I have been able to operate with the NO Team, and not have to go outside of the office to obtain the assistance I’ve needed. This has allowed this office to obtain small successes, even with it being based on the individual member.
• Integrity*- This concept encompasses more than just telling the truth. It encompasses the idea of doing something the right way.

Responsibilities of the Position

• Member and Group Assistance- This accounts for the largest block of the assumed workload for the MES Ombudsman office. Items in this category such as Conflict Resolution, Requests for Information, Appeals Assistance, and Process Involvement account for 40-70% of the overall workload, in my opinion. In serving as the MES Ombudsman, this will be my largest point of focus, as I have seen the workload firsthand.  As listed in the core responsibilities, one of my primary responsibilities will be Member and Group Assistance, regardless of how skewed the value of this responsibility is weighed.
• Report Creation- I will be publishing two reports on a monthly basis- one to the membership, who elected me, and one to the Board of Directors, who governs the responsibilities of the Ombudsman office. These reports will be similar, with the exception of confidential information remaining confidential, for both reports.
• Assistants- I will have 1-2 two assistants. I will be retaining Wendy Showell, who has served as a Special Assistant, and will be handling issues of harassment and gives members another outlet of communication with the Ombudsman should they not be willing to communicate this with me directly. She has done a fantastic job in her responsibilities given, and I see no reason why anyone coming into this position wouldn’t want her knowledge and experience on-hand. The ANO position will remain open until I see the need for a primary assistant, though I don’t expect it will be long before that all-call goes out on the list.

Relationship with the Member/Board of Directors

As MES Ombudsman, I will maintain a positive working relationship with both of these groups. The way I will accomplish this is by sticking to the aforementioned qualities of the position, regardless of membership status. I will be fair and impartial in my duties as MES Ombudsman, and will continue to keep communication lines open to provide this resource to the MES Membership as a whole.

MES- Related Experience

Current Position(s)

• Assistant to the National Ombudsman- Since January, 2012
• Domain Coordinator- AL-009-D Since February, 2013

Previous Position(s)

• US National List Moderator- 2011
• VST Forsaken: AL-009-D- 2010
• SE AARC Special Projects- 2009
• AAMST Dark Places: Requiem- 2009-2010
• ANC Arbitration (Global Independent Regions) – 2008
• AARC Special Projects (SE Region, US Camarilla) – 2007
• ADC Web/Publications (AL-009-D, SE Region, US) – 2007
• Project Assistant – Military Relations (Global Independent Regions) – 2005

Real Life Experience

• Battalion S-6 NCOIC 161st MMB, AL ARNG

-I have been, and continue to serve as an NCO in the Guard. The values inculcated with the role of NCO have assisted me in my role as ANO and other positions I have held in the club.

Disciplinary Actions

I have not been subjected to any disciplinary actions within the last 3 years.

I am looking for an Assistant to fill the role of my Chief of Staff.

The Candidate should please have the following skills:

• Organization and Time Management: I will rely heavily on your ability to help keep myself as well as our staff on task and up to date on our deadlines, especially going into Chronicle Start, and then through our plotkit development and implementation.
• Professional Communication Skills: As with any project which is brand new, there is a lot of discussion and argument. As my second you will be a major voice in the US Apocalypse Dev and Implementation, so your communication with the players and storytellers needs to be top notch.
• Skill with WordPress a huge bonus, or at least a willingness to learn it, to help assist making sure that documents get uploaded to the website in a timely manner, as well as helping to facilitate updates when they are required.

Please send your Cam Resume, as well as any real world experience pertinent to me here.

Please have any applications in by Friday, May 10th, to help a speedy decision and hiring process!

Thank you very much

Jeffrey Fowler

USANST Apocalypse

US2010106845

As most of you already know, MES has joined forces with a number of other similar clubs around the world to collaborate on various global projects, story arcs, and continuities. We refer to that collaboration as the “Global Charter” and each club is a member club (we used to use the word affiliate instead of member club).

While the global charter has a number of member clubs, there are huge parts of the world that aren’t covered by any of the member clubs geographically. Gamers who live in those places are allowed to choose which member club they join. If enough gamers in an uncovered area get together and decide to build their own club, they can petition to become a member club in the Global Charter. All of the member clubs are working together right now to determine exactly what potential member clubs will have to do in order to get accepted into the Global Charter. That’s a work in progress.

Inside MES, we began noticing that we have a need for a person to serve as a mentor and guide to gamers who are currently members of MES living outside the US, but might be trying to start up a club in the area they live. We want to have resources in place to officially serve as a foster organization to budding member clubs. In order to do that, we created the International Development Liaison position and asked Janeka Rector to step into the position. The job description can be found on this page, along with most of the other board-supervised positions here.

Janeka has an email account for the position here, and she’s going to be making contact with folks who have expressed an interest in forming new member clubs. She’ll also be a resource for any international members who live in areas not currently served by another Global Charter member club.

Thanks for your attention and welcome Janeka to her new position!

Adam Warman

US2002022774

MES Board of Directors

I’ve been approached recently by several members asking for information on what the BoD is doing, and so forth. To help answer this question, there are actually 2 locations to receive information in this regard. One is the meeting minutes and the other is the BoD Blog. The minutes are more of an official format, while the BoD Blog has language that is much more agreeable.

The link to the BoD Meeting Minutes can be found here.

The link to the BoD Blog can be found here.

The meeting minutes stay fairly current, with the last minutes being taken on 4/23/2013.

If anyone has any questions, or needs assistance from me, please feel free to e-mail me directly or respond here. I will be more than happy to help.

–

Brian Hanna

US2004041389

Assistant National Ombudsman