Who Controls Squads?

beeman · Post by **beeman** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:59 pm

O.K. I was waiting for some of the SRM "heat" to die down before posting this, but a fundamental question has been nagging at me so I'll just post now. To my brothers in SRM and those who left SRM - PLEASE do not take this as directed at you, but just take the question at face value. The SRM situation is what spawned the question, though.

The question is this: Who really controls the destiny of a squad? In the case of SRM, there was a core group and the CS wanted to disband, but also a core group who wanted to stay. As far as I am aware, SRM is still here, they are doing a noble job of trying to rebuild. Based on their example, the CS does not have total authority of the squad destiny, but rather controls the day-to-day affairs.

Let's take another example, suppose a squad, say XT, wanted to change their name with a new tag, but there was a core group who wanted to keep the name XT. Let's suppose the internal processes that the squad has were unable to resolve the issue. What would happen? Who owns the name XT? Would it break into 2 squads?

As I started thinking about these things, the question nagged at me. I'm sure all squads have their leadership chain and their own processes for dealing with 99% of squad issues. But when a really big issue arises (like disbaning, mutiny within the squad, or any other MAJOR changes) is there a fundamental acceptance within the community (and across the squads) as to who controls the destiny in the case of major rifts? My initial thoughts is that there is not and each case would be specific based on the members themselves.

Again, the above was just a question - I really do not want comments or opinions related to SRM themselves unless the purpose is to answer the fundamental question.

peet · Post by **peet** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:10 pm

Personally I felt very sad when I saw the mishap from SRM. I always enjoyed playing against you. I feel very sorry for you guys, not being able to solve your differences. @#(! happens, a wise man once said. I do hope that all find their place and be happy Alleg gamers.

Well, at ACE we have a good working Democratic squad and our beloved squad leader MadA discusses things of importance with us. We in ACE also have a close inner circle group and some outside that group. Somehow it all fits together, even that we are very different as ACE members. Maybe we are lucky because we have a lot of experienced members who know the drill.

I think we are making ACE working together, the members and the (assistant) squad leaders. I feel very blessed that we don't have such strong differences that ACE would fall apart.

The Almighty True Leader Of Great Importance is Pook. If he pulls the plug, we are all gone. Same for the often forgotten Game Hoster.

Malicious Wraith · Post by **Malicious Wraith** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:16 pm

/ninja.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ninja:" border="0" alt="ninja.gif" /> I control the Kittens, Pook is my master and I live to serve your basic needs! *Evil Laugh* /ninja.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":ninja:" border="0" alt="ninja.gif" />

beeman · Post by **beeman** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:21 pm

peet wrote:QUOTE (peet @ May 11 2007, 11:10 AM) Personally I felt very sad when I saw the mishap from SRM. I always enjoyed playing against you. I feel very sorry for you guys, not being able to solve your differences. @#(! happens, a wise man once said. I do hope that all find their place and be happy Alleg gamers.

Well, at ACE we have a good working Democratic squad and our beloved squad leader MadA discusses things of importance with us. We in ACE also have a close inner circle group and some outside that group. Somehow it all fits together, even that we are very different as ACE members. Maybe we are lucky because we have a lot of experienced members who know the drill.

I think we are making ACE working together, the members and the (assistant) squad leaders. I feel very blessed that we don't have such strong differences that ACE would fall apart.

The Almighty True Leader Of Great Importance is Pook. If he pulls the plug, we are all gone. Same for the often forgotten Game Hoster.

THAT is the kind of feeback I was looking for. Thanks peet.

Post by **BlackViper** » Fri May 11, 2007 7:23 pm

As a former Squad Leader and ASL I will throw in my 2 cents. Each squad runs themselves as they wish. Some are democratic, some the SL is a figurehead (XT as an example) and some are in between. So it is up to the squad themselves to set it up.

When squads have internal issues several things have happened historically. Split and a new squad is formed, split and the old one dies, or a split with the old squad staying around and a new one forming.

So to answer your question, you must work it out amongst your members.

(XT, if the above has changed, I apologize. It was that way when I was ASL)

jgbaxter · Post by **jgbaxter** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:16 pm

The bottom line is that the SL runs the squad though?

Sure they may share power however the wish but they are the big cheese more or less?

Curious as if the CS of a squad wanted to disband against the squads wishes they couldn't, as when those CS leave the squad, as they'd have to if it were to disband, then a new CS would take over presumably at the members behest and run the squad and either continue or disband it... right?

It's one of those things that reminds me of noblise oblige, the SL/CS are the royals, but hey have no power other then what the members aka the nobles grant them. They serve each other and thus serve themselves.

I dunno but that's how I look at it, noblise oblige.

And SRM is alive and kicking, we're fine (25+ active members), and recruiting still. /biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":biggrin:" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />

Post by **BlackViper** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:17 pm

jgbaxter wrote:QUOTE (jgbaxter @ May 11 2007, 03:16 PM) The bottom line is that the SL runs the squad though?

In some cases, no the SL does not.

Post by **Raveen** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:46 pm

SLs are mostly paper pushers and drowning in a sea of routine posting about SGs, votes, applicataions and so on.

Think of a squad as a locomotive and the SL as the driver. The train's going to follow the rails no matter what you do so you may as well just stoke the boiler and hope the next bridge isn't out /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Post by **Pook** » Fri May 11, 2007 8:51 pm

Bottom line, the SL is the leader and he's the person "responsible" for the squad from an administrative standpoint.

So if Cable sent me an email that said "SysX is disbanding, remove all SysX tokens and tags and close the forums", I'd do it.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Fri May 11, 2007 9:06 pm

Pook, you can do that, but it won't kill the squad if said Cable doesn't have the authority to disband his squad.

As an example, Aeris, our SL, cannot disband PK. No one of us really can. Though our SL has the highest authority in the squad currently, the only people who have the authority to disband the squad are the founders, imo. Even if he were to say "pook, PK is disbanding", and you remove all our players from the ASGS squad list, PK isn't a squad because ASGS says we are.

Squads are basically sovereign entities, so if you are an SRM member who doesn't think SRM disbanded, then you can grab the reigns /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> (Whether or not pook recognizes you is something completely different)