Make money on IMA - Leadership Posts - II Background A
Intercon Mid-Atlantic will Pay you Money!

We're broadening the Intercon Economic Incentive Program, and you can make money!

We need to encourage people who are COMING to the con to push to fill up their car with people who can afford $35 to crash, eat, and drink for the entire weekend.   We're getting some response but it isn't enough. 

Get ten people to sign up for IMA, and show at the door.  Crash space or full hotel and $25 rate.  I will hand you a $100 bill at the door
Get five people to sign up for IMA and show at the door. Same deal and I will hand you a $50.

Sorry we can't quite do a $10 refund for "bring a friend" but coordinate...fill a car with people, come to the Con and get paid.

Just as a side note...every time we've been in tough financial times and been trying to hold out a hand to help, we get one or two people asking technical questions like "so if I bring my friend Bob and he shows up but leaves because he was really just coming to see his sister, does it count..."   My answer to all questions is, "we're fair, generous and trying to help.  Do well by us and we'll try to do well by you."

Now on to the next segment of the Leadership White Paper.  Remember you can read the full White Paper here.

II - Background – How Things Have Been and Are Now

We can’t move forward without a good grip on where we are now.  Some things about our current state are obvious.  Some others are known only to a few people who deal with them, or are “principles” which get enforced only because I enforce them. 

Structural Facts – How Threads is Organized

Most people see only a little of the organization of the game.  Even many writers do not deal with it in much detail, preferring to ask me for “yes” or “no” answers.  To act as leaders, we need to know why we do certain things, and how our structure is set up.

Executive Producer

As Executive Producer, my job is to assume all financial risks associated with the game.  If, for example, we had paid nearly all the costs associated with the game – food insurance, etc., and hurricane Fay had slammed through our area causing a cancellation, it would be up to me to absorb the losses.  The same with a winter game being cancelled or very unprofitable because of snow.  I also accept the hazards of loss of the physical plant, etc.  If I cannot cover a cost, which happens only rarely (the generator four years ago, the GP, a few other items), it is up to me to go hat in hand and get the money together.  That’s what Producers do.   Alongside that, I set overarcing policy and general goals.  In setting direction and goals, I work closely with Eric Johnson, and several other members of the Continuity Staff, and some of the more experienced writers.

VIA – Our Servicing Agent

Virtual Interactive Arts is a Delaware based LLC that exists as a service provider for LARP.  This is my personal “production arm.”  VIA acts as the insurer for Threads events, limiting the liability that can accrue to the senior volunteers.  VIA also keeps me or someone else from having to pay income taxes on the $12,000 - $14,000 a year of traceable “income” Threads generates.  In reality most of this money is rolled directly into the event.  In the future it is possible we will move to a 501 ( C) (7) “Social” Non-Profit model for Threads.  VIA is also important because those viewed as “officers” of the event could be sued directly by anyone injured at a Threads Event.  Because VIA exists it is likely that a legal action could be directed against the LLC not one of our volunteers.  This may be more important than you think.  You may think you’d never sue Threads.  But do you belong to an HMO, or have other Group Insurance?  Read your service agreement carefully.  You probably signed away your right to sue in the event of a major injury to your insurer.  Your HMO would probably sue Threads, even if you didn’t want to.

Continuity – the current and “old” model for Leadership

The term “Continuity” is a little confusing.  In most games, “Continuity” is the staff of copy editors that make sure that one scene agrees with another.  In our group Continuity picked up the meaning of “the leadership group.”  This makes sense if you think about the usage as being similar to “Editor.”  An “editor” is technically a person who looks at copy and changes it.   However an “Editorial Staff” is the management branch of a Magazine or Newspaper, and the “Editor” is the manager. 

The concept behind Continuity was to avoid terms like “leadership” that tended to breed the sort of hellish small-stakes envy and bad behavior so common to volunteer groups where the lowest of stakes seem to spur the most bitter of fights.  Our goal was to be a functional group that got things done, not to have titles to lord over others.  This is important because our experience teaches us that LARP groups are often perceived as small and flaky and tend to be targets for ne’er-do-wells with the need do “climb to the top” looking for a suitably small hill they might actually be able to be king of.  Often these people aren’t very socially adapted, and may not care how messy or unpleasant their climb is.   We don’t want to be attractive to that sort of person, and not offering a lot of “titles without jobs attached” is an important  part of that.

Continuity is currently the decisionmaking body.  I cannot unilaterally change anything about this group that lies outside the direct sphere of the Executive Producer.  The process must be that these people accept what changes are put forward, and agree to move forward, or that we must vote.  I think that it is the case that we’d all prefer to accept changes with acclamation.  But for that to happen these people have to feel they have been respected and included.

Founders – the People who Started or Inherited Threads

The Continuity Staff is not synonymous with the founders of the game.  Hank Kuhfeldt was a founder but no longer sits on Continuity, and Colin Sandel was not a founder but does sit on Continuity.  Various founders became involved at various times.  In many groups being a “founder” has sparked bitter acrimony.  We have seen groups torn apart as an original founder decided to “take their marbles and go home,” or threw their weight around to demand changes that were of interest to them and a few supporters but not in keeping with the overall direction of the group.   Since none of the original founders wanted this, we agreed to a Creative Commons license for the game, so that there would never be any question that any individual, including myself, had the right to suspend or derail the campaign for everyone else.

That said, I think  it’s realistic to suggest that these people are owed some respect. 

I’d also like to note that the other person who has a special relationship with the group is Adrienne Gammons.  Just as I bring a great deal of the infrastructure to the table (not only the actual physical infrastructure, but the cumulative costs to store and transport it), Adrienne brings our summer site to the table.  This suggests that particularly in regards to the summer games, she has an important position and is someone we need to respect and listen to.  She also has the ability to mandate certain things about the site which brook no argument. 

Our Volunteer Base

The core of our group is made up of volunteers.  Even players who mostly pay Money do some volunteer work cleaning up the camp and undertaking other tasks.  We are a community based group, of and for, volunteers.  Some people volunteer more time, others are contributors who provide more money.  We use the TERM system to describe this.  If you aren’t familiar with the Time/Expertise/Resources/Money model, you may want to catch up by reading: http://wiki.Threadsofdamocles.org/index.php?title=TERM.  

Understanding Why People Volunteer for Threads

It is not very fun to do paperwork or hard labor for Threads.  But people do it.  It is easy to assume that people do the hard jobs because they “want to,” and assume they’ll just keep doing them.  But that’s not the case.  Everyone must get some gratification or payoff.  To retain our volunteers we need to understand what they get out of working for the Group.

• The right to “sit at the table.”  People who are not writers get the right through work to act as Chiefs instead of Indians.  Getting to sit in, kibbitz, and have a hand in the creative process is a reward they get for being one of the “doers.”
• Friendship.  Many of the people who do work for us do it out of personal friendship with one of the principals.  These people probably wouldn’t work with the group or support it nearly as much if their friendship changed.   Their reward is the reward of their friend feeling they have supported them.  This is not something to discount.  Probably more service to Threads is motivated by direct personal friendship than any other category.  When we “dis” or penalize on person, we may alienate their friends who support the group.

The privilege to “do it right” and “be my own boss.”  Many of our volunteers do work for Threads similar to that they do at the office, but are frustrated with superiors in day to day life.  In working for Threads there is a chance to do things “my way” and get to be the one who sets processes and makes plans.  That’s very gratifying to a lot of volunteers.