Prospero Il Moro(MIA)

RP

To the Honorable Representative of the Highland Confederacy, Captain Hamish MacBane

It is with great enthusiasm that I offer my services for the liberation of worthy Scotland and the humiliation of the English disease. You will find that my dislike for those dogs is as great as any Scots', in spite of my Italian descent. I am Prospero Maurus, Prospero The Moor, Prospero Visconti, rightful Duke of Milan; ousted by my brother Antonio Visconti with the help of the English. I have experience in naval warfare, speak Spanish and Italian as well as English, and am willing to sacrifice myself for any cause that might bring these devils to their deaths.
In the meanwhile all I can do is pray you accept me as one of your associates.

Your Brother-at-arms,

Prospero Visconti, Rightful Duke of Milan, French Privateer


OOC:
I am Jose, a Political Science and International Affairs student in Boston's Northeastern University. I was born in the Caribbean (I am NOT Puerto Rican) but lived most of my life in Italy where I was educated at a British School and where I acquired by rather unhealthy obsession with Milan's long line of rulers. This is the first time I start playing an MMORPG, but I'm looking forward to it. Also, I am in fact of French descent which is what initially attracted me to this society.

OFFICIAL FORUM NAME:
My official forum name on FLS is: Prospero Maurus

WHAT IS RP?

To me it seems like a good way to break away from whatever is going on in real life. I'm looking forward to forgetting about lectures and essays for a while and go off sailing away destroying anything British in my path.

WHY JOIN THC?

I was very interested in the historical aspect of it. Besides studying Politics, I am a huge history buff and know quite a bit of British history. The dissatisfaction the Scots had for the Union of Great Britain in the end meant nothing as the treaty itself was re-asserted in 1801 with the Act of Union, but there is a certain exciting romanticism in fighting against something as large and overwhelming as the English.
I am also interested in the Confederacy because of its realtion to France, which is my Nation of choice.

To the Honorable Prospero Visconti,

We have received a letter stating your desire to sail under the flag of the Highland Confederacy. We are always looking for those of like heart and mind to join us in our struggle to make a mark in this New World. The West Indies are ripe for the taking for enterprising Captains. We would be most happy to speak with you further about joining us. At your convenience, make your way to Martinique and visit us at our offices. We are open daily. The men there will direct you further concerning meeting us. May God guide you on your travels.

Respectfully,

Hamish MacBane




OOC: Welcome and nice app. Please make yourself and home and feel free to join in. I'm sure others will be by to ask questions and get to know you better. I'll be adding you to the recruit rolls. We look forward to you getting to know us and vice versa. By the way, do you plan on playing a Privateer or a Freetrader?

Welcome to the boards!

Oooooh boy. A political science major. Welcome aboard. Looks like the Milan flag will be joining us.

To the Honorable Members of The Highland Confederacy

It is with great pleasure that I join your ranks as a recruit. I am confident that with strength and skill we'll be able to deal some heavy blows on that serpentine nation. I can contribute with both. As a skilled seaman I have experience in strategy and tactics, membership in this confederacy and the Letter of Marque I hold will help in our war.
I shall set sail for Martinique soon.
In the meantime I remain

Yours truly,

Prospero Visconti, Rightful Duke of Milan, Privateer in His Majesty's Marine Royale

OOC:
Hi, thanks for having me here. I'll be playing as a French Privateer. I'm really excited about this. I have a few questions, though, especially concerning the rules and regulations. I have read the code of conduct, but was wondering how decisions would be made, carried out, etc. once we were all in game. Will it be an assembly? If so, will it be representative? I see that there are officers, in the future will they be elected? How can a normal member move on to become an officer? Are there rules in communication? Is there some kind of bureaucracy where you propose raids and port captures?
I'm sorry if this has been answered already. I was looking around for a while and didn't find anything on the matter.

Thank you again for having me,

Jose

I will try to summarize our Structure quickly...

There have been recent discussions on the leadership positions that will be held by various members. At the moment it seems the structure would like something like this:

1 Proprietor-General
2 Proprietors
2 Commodores


The Proprietors and Commodores will than make up the board along with the Proprietor-General. They will make all major decisions. And they will be voted upon once that time comes.

Commodore's are over-seers of the Naval Branch of the Confederacy, Proprietor's seeing over the trading aspects.

There are other positions that are not on the board: Treasurer, Quartermaster, and Historian.

Treasurer - "Responsible for all society funds that are shareable within the society. This person should maintain a log on the forums with the current society profits and losses, debts and anything related to dubloons." -Hamish MacBane

Quartermaster - "In charge of all shared materials, raw or otherwise that are in the guilds possession. They’ll be able to keep track of who is in need of what and what is available. If someone has excess of something or is in need of something they should come to the Quartermaster who can put out that need or overflow to the society." -Hamish MacBane

Historian - No real power comes with this position other than respect? Haha. And also you can put your own slant of things onto the history of the confederacy. (kidding...) This person is in charge of documenting important events in the past, present, and future of the Highland Confederacy.

And as for lines of communications and decision-making, there hasn't been public discussion, and if there is I'm sure it will happen when the game releases or if enough of us get into beta.

But right now everything is pretty informal. There's a dance party every friday night at The Albatross. Chips are provided, as well as some salsa.

And if you wanted to read up on the evolving structure of the society - visit our topic on Structure!

(Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

Welcome!

With regards to structure, our ideal would be a very flat structure where everyone has equal voice and we make group decisions quickly. Reality mandates a little more top heavy structure where the more active few drive the ship so to speak.

I think that is the reality within an online guild.

With respect to the more direct questions of officers and voting...

I'd say right now these are the issues that full members are discussing. I think the goal is to have named positions and regions of authority for all active members. It will help in easing the work load at the top and help to keep people active and involved. I don't think I can firmly say that much else at this moment.

Does that help?

Pretty much Dermid hit it for you. Some things are still being discussed and will be implemented soon. We've found that some of what we wanted probably isn't possible in a game like this. We have to think of the Society above any one member, including ourselves, but we do want members to have a voice. Some will choose to take advantage of this and some won't. That will be their option. Though as Dermid said, those who are in the top positions will likely end up making final decisions after discussion is complete. This is how any company would run and since I hope most of our issues are IC and in game, then this makes sense.

As to members gaining position, beyond what Dermid said, we will always be looking for people willing to take on roles of responsibility. Keep in mind though that we can't have 30 leaders. No group would work this way, no company would work this way. We know we can't please everyone, but for what it's worth the current officers are not really there because they love power. Dermid and I pretty much hashed out the ideas for the Confederacy before we ever posted, so our characters have a certain view of the Company and how it should look and what they want it to be. Jon and Wilhelm came along shortly after and we all share the same vision. Though we want people to jump in and help make the HC what it is we also have a vision IC and OOC to protect.

As to what we'd look for in leaders? We'd look for those that shared our vision of the group. Attitude is key, because game skill can be learned. We'd look for people who are active and contributing to the society.

By the way, I write books for posts. Hehe.

Yes, thank you it helps a lot. Also, thank you all for the warm welcome!

Welcome from me too. It looks like the numbers of the conf are swelling and getting more international.



Ps. Its always nice to have a good political or historical arqument