Civic Duty and Realms Rant interwoven

There is a little thing called civic duty. Arguably one could call it sense of community obligation. There are several ways to discuss the same topic. It all boils down simply to if you are truly a member of the community. If one skates the edges of responsibility to the community and or one does not participate in the very community centric events, are they truly a member?

What is community?

Websters dictionary (here defines Community like this:

com·mu·ni·ty
Pronunciation: kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē
Function: noun

1: a unified body of individuals: as a: state, commonwealth b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly : the area itself c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society e: a group linked by a common policy f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic, and political interests g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society 2: society at large3 a: joint ownership or participation b: common character : likeness c: social activity : fellowship d: a social state or condition

Community is a group or organization of individuals that share something together over a course of time. This can be something as simple is monthly meetings to support your local Linux Users Group (LUG) or something as diverse as the players in a Live Action Role Playing Game (LARP). Community is the responsibility of everyone in it for the betterment of, continued success of, and continued existence of the group or whole. Simply this means that if you are a member of the group then you are expected and responsible for some or all these things.

Let us use a current day example. Heinlein wrote about civic duty, and civic responsibility in his book Starship Troopers. Where to become a citizen one had to participate in public services and/or serve a term in the military. To get the right to have a voice in the way things are run, to be able to vote, you have to be a citizen. This purposely creates a divide between those willing to serve and those who are not. If you are not willing to, or have risked dying for the cause you do not understand what it means to be a part of the community (in this case citizen).

One could draw a parallel between this style of “government” and the current ruling class in the Realms today. To become an event holder and have the right to vote at the EHC takes more then just the decision to become an event holder. It takes the dedication to a minimum level of attendance as well. This is a service to the community. You not only have thrown an event using our community rule system (and hopefully it was a good one), but you have attended a certain amount of other events which helps the community as a whole.

One could possibly argue that the minimum attendance meant a lot more when it was instituted. When there were 24-30 events a year it was a lot more to commit to and attend 6 events in that time. Now that there are more events in the year 36+ it is a lot easier to make it to and attend those 6 events.

Which brings me to point one of this dissertation. The definition of requirements to vote at the EH should be changed. It should be brought more in line with what it initially meant or it should be changed to better reflect the current level of community.

Simple fix: Up the number of events that must be attended in reference to event calendar average. If the average events have gone up in the given year from 24 to 36 then six should be changed to nine. (this is of course a vast generalization and does not reflect the actual numbers beyond gross estimation.)

Pros: None that I can think of. However fewer cooks in the kitchen may result in less time spent at the EHC meetings ever year.

to be continued…