The Assistant Role and Beyond

Every once in a while there are changes made to the MCME system, some are great, some are good, and some are not so good. We hope that the changes in this post will be great. All of the topics that are presented in this post have been debated and agreed upon by the Valar and Staff.​

​

The first announcement is that the Staff Project forums will be open to all Team Members. This is because we hope that by having a dedicated forum for team members (Artist/Guide+) we’ll increase communication between the ranks while also giving us the possibility to discuss topics internally. These forums also have a bunch of building related information that we think all builders will benefit from. So this change goes towards increasing transparency between the ranks.​

​

The second topic we would like to present is what the definition of Staff is. After thinking a bit about it we realised it's never really been defined. Staff has always been part of ranks like Enforcer and Designer but has never been defined on its own. What makes a staff member? This is a definition created for Staff by @Eriol_Eandur:​

​

"Experienced, skilled and highly involved people whose opinion is important to hear in the big decisions." ​

​

With this in mind we thought about who should be staff. We Valar and Designers agreed that staff members should be mainly builders, namely Designers. So we have decided on the following changes:​

​

Removal of Assistant​

​

As you may have noticed there is currently only one Assistant who is @RVB_Legend and this is due to the fact that the Designers decided to take on most of the Assistant's tasks, particularly those of the building Assistants (Artist, Foreman and Designer Assistants). The other non-building Assistants, myself and @Raffyyy were promoted to Valar and we have both continued what we were doing as Assistant. Therefore, we felt that there is no longer any need for Assistants so the rank is being removed.​

​

However we realize that by Removing Assistant we would make it impossible for anyone but Artists and Foreman to get Staff. While also realising the importance of non-building representatives in Staff we wanted to introduce a way for Guides to advance to a Staff position influencing MCME from their standpoint without having to become builders first. So this has lead to the...​

​

Introduction of Manager​

​

Manager is a new Staff Rank that is meant for Guides and Builders, who can't or have not yet reached the skill level of Designer but show Staff Rank capabilities as described above, as well as those builders who want to contribute to MCME in a different way. This rank will have very flexible tasks ranging from managing and organizing events to media and public relations. We know a lot of people will compare it to the former Assistant rank so here is why Manager is a completely different rank:​

• Manager Rank will be promoted based on applications handled similarly to the Designer applications​
• Managers will not be promoted because we need someone for a certain task, but because they are considered good potential staff members​
• The rank is not bound to a specific group of people (Artists, Guides etc.) but rather meant to represent the community as a whole.​

Therefore the definition for this rank would be:​

​

“Experienced, skilled and highly involved members whose opinions represent the non-building side of the community.” ​

​

We would also like to mention that we do realise that MCME is a building community so the distribution of staff members will hopefully replicate the distribution of building and non-building members in the community. Meaning that the decision process will be influenced to an extent from all sides of the community . So builders will have a greater say when it comes to building matters but the same weight to their opinion when it comes to more community based matters as non-builders.​

​

The goal of all these changes is to improve communication between builders while also getting as much feedback as possible from the whole community. So feel free to let us know what you think about them and of course also let us know your thoughts on other changes you would like to see on MCME in the future!​

​

~ The MCME Staff Team​

 

Time to fix this in #info on this discord:

 

Can I make a semantic suggestion for the definition of Staff? I agree with the main point of it, but I think we also want to telegraph inclusivity and the room for -- in fact an appreciation for -- community involvement. Therefore I propose this (or similar):
"Experienced, skilled, and highly involved people who have proven their opinion/s to be especially important to hear in the big decisions."
Maybe valuable is better than important, as well? Not so sure.

PS you forgot your comma before "and"

 

Does this mean long time players who are currently commoner due to stepping down etc can become staff again despite being commoner?

 

Like all other roles (except Commoner, Adventurer and Oathbreaker) Manager is a description of responsibilities. Managers are supposed to manage (not build related) projects. It's not an additional badge like role (as Assistant has been sometimes). As a Commoner can apply for Manager, but you better have good arguments to convince us. More likely Guides, Artists and Foremen will be promoted when they have shown great leadership skills aside from building.

 

Ow what's that you guys can't build? Do we need some more spreadsheets? No, but we can have them manage something. Okay, you get manager, you get manager and you get manager! Everybody gets manager!

 

Like all other roles (except Commoner, Adventurer and Oathbreaker) Manager is a description of responsibilities. Managers are supposed to manage (not build related) projects. It's not an additional badge like role (as Assistant has been sometimes). As a Commoner can apply for Manager, but you better have good arguments to convince us. More likely Guides, Artists and Foremen will be promoted when they have shown great leadership skills aside from building.

So, aside from a step up from Guide, will Manager also be used as a midway point to Designer?

 

Like all other roles (except Commoner, Adventurer, and Oathbreaker) Manager is a description of responsibilities. Managers are supposed to manage (not build related) projects. It's not an additional badge like role (as Assistant has been sometimes). As a Commoner can apply for Manager, but you better have good arguments to convince us. More likely Guides, Artists and Foremen will be promoted when they have shown great leadership skills aside from building.

And also, how would an Artist be able to show great leadership skills? I know that Foremen can show this by leading jobs, of course, and guides can show it by doing well at leading tours, games, quizzes, etc, but I can't think of a way that Artists will be able to do this. Any examples you can think of?

 

So, aside from a step up from Guide, will Manager also be used as a midway point to Designer?

They are both staff and therefore on the same level. Why would you use a non building rank as a midway point for a builder rank?

 

And also, how would an Artist be able to show great leadership skills? I know that Foremen can show this by leading jobs, of course, and guides can show it by doing well at leading tours, games, quizzes, etc, but I can't think of a way that Artists will be able to do this. Any examples you can think of?

We've had quite a few instances of artists leading things in the build world. Take @RubenPieterMark's tree build for example, or @Lindolas leading Sea Town in Dol Amroth with Bart. Those are just a couple.of examples that for me show leadership ability.

Artists don't necessarily have to show leadership through their main job either. Take other stuff like Build days, Events, other stuff like YouTuber tours. Artists have all been invaluable in these things in the past.

So, aside from a step up from Guide, will Manager also be used as a midway point to Designer?

Jona summed this up pretty well.
Think of it like this
Manager is to Designer what Artist is to Guide.
Both sets of role are on the same level, no higher than one or the other and both deal with a different side of MCME.

As well, anyone can become a manager., It's not limited to just Guides. If an artist wanted to be a Designer, but felt they didn't have the integration within the MCME community yet, they could successfully apply for Manager and use their time in the role to get more involved within the community, or if they want to experience a different side of MCME, use a different set of skills etc.

 

They are both staff and therefore on the same level. Why would you use a non building rank as a midway point for a builder rank?

My basic thought was that this would help them develop more of the non-building skills needed for Designer. I think that Raffy basically explained what I was thinking.