Clan Promotional Guidelines

Hi!

Long time listener, first time caller

Onto the actual question though. As the topic says, it has to do with Clan Promotional Guidelines. Currently, most Clans (if not all) have their own set of guidelines for promotion (normally upto DJK). That being said, are they or will they ever become a more "official" means of promotion.

ie. So and so is promoted to JH because they have passed Clan X's various activities for promotion. No other information is then necessary.

Will there be talk on the current guidelines and trying to get them to adhere to the MAA policy on various rank promotions (so that Clans use guidelines that can be used for promotion).

Basically, what are the MAA's views on these guidelines and what will the future hold for them.

Thanks

Hey Halc
:wub:

Currently speaking, the Clan guidelines for promotions are only pseudo-official. While both Khan and I have examined them, we have made no changes to force them into allignment with our own DB-wide standards. This is primarily because the DB-wide standards are in the process of being revised and haven't yet been made public!

Clans are welcome to use their own guidelines but they should note that for us, it is not a blank check on promotions. In fact, we may think your guidelines are too loose or too strict. Just because you have Clan guidelines doesn't mean you just get to cite your guidelines as proof as to why someone deserves to be promoted. In recommendations, specifics still need to be stated. I'm sure someone will argue that we can just go look at the guidelines but that is neither here nor there. It is necessary to indicate for what specific reasons someone is awarded so that no double-awarding can occur either intentionally or acidentally. Also, with future processing procedure changes, being forced to examine the guidelines because a leader was too lazy to describe what was done will be a wasteful burden that slows everything down.

Guidelines serve the purpose of letting an individual member know what they need to do to be considered for a specific promotion by their summit. They are NOT binding in that the summit member is not required to promote them and they are most certainly NOT binding in that the MAA's office is not required to promote someone for meeting them. We still prefer to examine each case specifically. Clan guidelines will NEVER go higher than DJK.

As to the future of Clan guidelines, it is extremely likely that they will be becoming far more official. However, this will necessitate standardization of Clan guidelines. A system to keep Clan guidelines roughly equivalent while allowing for variation is being considered at the moment. I realize that some Clan leadership might not necessarily like standardization - sucks for them. Without standardization, there's really no point in the MAA existing or even medals/promotions for that matter. If all money had arbitrary and changing value, wouldn't it be worthless? Rest assured, the process of standardization will be done in a manner such as to allow Clans to retain a level of sovereignty over their own processes while also allowing for a medal/promotion awarded in one Clan to be of roughly the same value as a medal/promotion awarded in another Clan.

So in summation: Clan guidelines are ok but that's what they are; guidelines - NOT rules. In the future they will become more official and lower-level promotions will be more clearly defined.

:vail:

"Without standardization, there's really no point in the MAA existing or even medals/promotions for that matter. If all money had arbitrary and changing value, wouldn't it be worthless?"

If we're going to talk about money, there's variances in one country's denomination as opposed to another, so that "five X's = 1 Y" and all that crap. Seems to me that it could be held as "somewhat true" in regards to reasons for promotion.

But onto the real question. If Clans have been trying to come up with "attainable goals" for their members, and some Clan promotion guidelines are more lenient, or whatever, why not work with the Clan Summits, take their guidelines, try to find the median of them all, and say "this is the acceptable standards, Clan standards have to be related to this," and all that, so Clan standards can never go lower, blah blah, blah blah, blah. And whatever else.

Or is that pretty much along the lines of what you've been thinking? Enlighten us as much as you can. I'm just kind of interested, and would like to know more. I'm hoping to hit DJK soon.

Your point about money is correct BF. There are of course, other examples that could better illustrate my point but I don't think it's quite necessary to go into that.

As to the process of standardization, you about hit it right on the nose. While I don't want to speak too soon since we haven't completely determined how it's going to work, we're essentially going to take the current DB wide standards and the Clan standards and then take a look at a lot of case studies from the past. By assimilating all this information and looking at what the ranks really 'mean,' we hope to be able to come up with a very loose DB-wide standard (your happy median) and the Clans will be able to adjust their standards to be in rough alignment with the DB-wide standards.

Somebody asked me about Clans having tougher standards than DB-wide standards. That's perfectly acceptable to us. It might not be quite as perfectly acceptable to some of the Clan's members however

With respect to Clan summits, as is the case with most things that directly affect Clan policy, they will be involved.