Notes for the Scribe

From MIT Assassins' Guild
Revision as of 15:04, 25 August 2019 by Cela (talk | contribs)
"He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell

This page needs to be updated.

Responsibilities

Minutes

  • Take minutes at the main Guild meetings. (And maybe any others, too.)
  • Send them out to the list.
  • File copies in the locker on the Wiki: Meeting Minutes.
  • Try hard to make minutes entertaining so people will bother reading them.
  • Beat your predecessor until you get the minutes of the meeting at which you were elected.

Email

  • Send/answer all general email regarding the Guild.
  • Maintain the mailing list and make sure people are added and removed in a timely fashion.
  • Keep stock answers to send to people about what the Guild is (the discuss archive is a useful tool for this one, though there are a few in the Scribe directory).
    • These need to be migrated to the Wiki.
  • Remember to send recent applications to people being added to the list. (I haven't been doing this lately, but I should be.)
  • Make sure that GMs get links to all of the resources they need, and get the phone numbers for the High Council.

Paper Mail

We don’t get too much of this, but it should be showing up in the ASA office.

High Council's scheduling

Make sure that the High Council as a whole does the things it needs to when it needs to. Scheduling meetings and games is the big one here to keep an eye on. If your predecessor hasn’t scheduled Summer, get on that.

Web Site

  • Maintain and update the contents of the public wiki-slash-website.
  • Make sure that the wiki software is functioning properly and not running anything too outdated or vulnerable.
  • Deal with any spam posted to the wiki.

Things to maintain include:

Mailing List Reminder

Sometime in early Spring, you should send out a reminder mail to the Guild about the assorted mailing lists that the Guild maintains. Sample email template: 

To: assassins-guild@mit.edu
Subject: Mailing Lists + Slack Invite + Resources Reminder

Hi everyone!

Now that it's the new semester, and everyone has hopefully recovered
from the 10-day, you may wish to take a moment to review the other
mailing lists, communication platforms, and resources that you might
want to take advantage of:

https://assassin.mit.edu/web/Mailing_Lists_and_Communication

In particular, here's a fresh invite to the Guild's Slack:

<NEW SLACK INVITE>

Any questions? Email high-council@mit.edu or reply to me directly.

<YOUR NAME>
Guild Scribe

Sanity Checking

Though not specifically the job of the Scribe, all members of the High Council should keep an eye out to make sure that the High Council doesn’t make any stupid decisions. Precedent doesn’t matter nearly as much as common sense.

Game Scheduling Timeline

There are four Seasons in the Guild: Spring, Summer, Fall, and IAP. These correspond to the MIT academic calendar.

The first weekend slot in a season is the first weekend that occurs after the first day of classes, or the second weekend after Spring finals for the Summer season. This is the slot for the Rush game during the Fall season. The last weekend slot is the weekend before the last day of classes.

To figure out when to send out the Call for Games for a season, you work backwards from the first weekend slot.

  • The final schedule should be sent out at the latest one weekend before the first slot. We'll call this Weekend Zero.
  • Moving from a draft schedule to a final schedule usually takes about a week, so give yourself a week. This means that the draft schedule should be sent out during Weekend Negative One.
  • You should try to turn around a draft schedule as soon as the (possibly extended) bidding period closes, but usually stragglers take a few extra days. So you should have the extended due date be the Wednesday before Weekend Negative One.
  • Because you may need to extend the due date by a few days if there aren't enough games, the original due date should be the end of Weekend Negative Two.
  • The bidding period should last two weeks, so it should be released on Weekend Negative Four.

Sample calculation, for Summer 2019:

  • The last day of Spring finals is May 24th, so Weekend One is June 1st.
  • This means the final schedule should be sent out on Weekend Zero, the weekend of May 25th, right after Spring finals.
  • This means the draft schedule should be sent out on Weekend Negative One, the weekend of May 18th.
  • This means the original due date for the bid should be Weekend Negative Two, the weekend of May 11th.
  • This means that the bid should be sent out on Weekend Negative Four, the weekend of April 27th.

Sample calculation, for Fall 2019:

  • September 4th is the first day of classes, so the first game slot is the weekend of September 7th.
  • So the schedule should be out on August 31st.
  • So the draft schedule should be out on August 24th
  • So the original due date should be on August 17th.
  • So the bid should be sent out on August 3rd.

Template Call for Games

Nowadays, we include three things in the Call for Games email:

  • The actual bidding form
  • Runtime GM form
  • Gamewriting update form
  • Zampolit form

Note that all of these should have the same deadline, as calculated above. All of these polls should be placed in the "Scribe" folder and named in accordance with the last set of polls.

Make sure that you: 

* Place the new polls in the Scribe folder.
* Name them in accordance with the established pattern within that folder.
* Ensure that you updated the date at the top of each poll.
* Ensure that you updated the season in the poll's title and at the top.
* Ensure that you updated the weekend lists in the Call for Games and Call for Runtime GMs polls.
* Re-enabled responses to all polls if necessary.
* Turned on email notifications for the forms getting filled out.
* Ensured that responses are closed for last season's polls.

Template: 

To: assassins-guild@mit.edu
Subject: Call for INSERT_SEASON_HERE Games, Runtime GMs, and GM Check-Ins

The MIT Assassins' Guild is accepting bids for games to run this
INSERT_SEASON_HERE!

If there's a game you want to run in the Guild, please fill out the
following form by 11:59 PM on INSERT_DUE_DATE_HERE. We also need a
report from your zampolit (see below) on the state of your game by the
same time.

INSERT_GOOGLE_FORMS_LINK_HERE

========================================================================

The MIT Assassins' Guild is accepting applications for extra runtime
GMs during the INSERT_SEASON_HERE!

No previous GM experience is necessary -- in fact, if you don't have
any, this would be a great way to get some.

If you'd like to make yourself available as an additional runtime GM to
the bidding GMs for the coming INSERT_SEASON_HERE, return the following
by 11:59 PM on INSERT_DUE_DATE_HERE. The list of responses will be
shared with the bidding GMs, and they will reach out to you on their own
schedule if they so choose.

INSERT_GOOGLE_FORMS_LINK_HERE

========================================================================

Are you writing a game, but aren't planning to bid for the
INSERT_SEASON_HERE? Let us know how it's going, so we can keep our eyes
on how future semesters are likely to pan out!

We'd love to get this by 11:59 PM on INSERT_DUE_DATE_HERE, but unlike
the other forms, there's no real urgency to this. We'll probably close
submissions eventually, though.

If you've stopped writing a game, please also fill out this form, just
for the sake of letting us know that it won't be happening.

INSERT_GOOGLE_FORMS_LINK_HERE

========================================================================

If you are a Zampolit, please submit your report either to
high-council@mit.edu or via the following form. This is due at 11:59 PM
on INSERT_DUE_DATE_HERE.

INSERT_GOOGLE_FORMS_LINK_HERE

========================================================================

If you have any questions, please either email me at
guild-scribe@mit.edu or the High Council at high-council@mit.edu.

~ INSERT_YOUR_NAME_HERE
Scribe of the High Council

Creating the Draft Schedule

To build a draft schedule, you're incorporating a few different data sources: the bids, the zampolit reports, and the "things to schedule around" list on this page.

Steps:

  1. Close the bidding form, and tell bidders to email you directly, so that you won't get surprised by extra bids.
  2. Create a new mailing list, [season]-gms-[year]@mit.edu using listmaker. For example, this might be iap-gms-2019@mit.edu. Make this owned by high-council@.
  3. Add all of the GMs who bid AND the zampolits AND the high-council@ mailing list to this list. Do this early, so that Moira has enough hours to propagate everything and let your emails go through.
  4. Create the "Games of [Season] [Year]" wiki page based on the template for the current scheduled games at Scheduled Games. Incorporate the information from all of the bids, but leave the weekends as "Unknown."
  5. Add the "{ {:Draft Schedule Notice} }" (without the spaces) stanza to the top of the file, so that the instructions for the GMs are included.
  6. Incorporate the current Zampolit statuses into the wiki page, while it still acts as a draft page. Follow the notation described in the draft schedule notice, which should look like "Zampolit status: EXEMPT" before the GM list in each entry.
  7. Add preliminary current weekend confirmation statuses into the wiki page, which should look like "Weekend confirmed? NO" before the GM list in each entry.
  8. Create a new Google Spreadsheet, titled "[Year] [Season] Game Bids" in the "Scribe" folder on Google Drive. (Remember: do not include a drive link in any public place under any circumstances, especially not this wiki.)
  9. Look up the exact dates for everything in the "Things to schedule around" section and enter them into the spreadsheet if they fall within the summer. Mark rows as excluded or dispreferred as necessary.
  10. Construct a matrix of "game" and "weekend" in that spreadsheet, importing all of the relevant scheduling information from the bid form.
  11. Assign tentative dates to each game in accordance with their scheduling requests and your common sense.
  12. Adjust the wiki page for the season to include the dates you've assigned, and reorder the entries to match.
  13. Send out an email according to the template below to the GM list you created earlier, asking them to review the draft schedule. Incorporate information as required by the template.
  14. Plan to follow up repeatedly until every weekend is confirmed, and every game is either exempt from needing a zampolit or has a zampolit report.
  15. Then, remove the draft schedule notice stanza from the top, remove the "Weekend confirmed?" and "Zampolit status:" lines from each entry, and check everything over for errors.
  16. Send out the final schedule, according to the template below.

Draft schedule template email to GMs

TODO: incorporate note about runtime GMs into this. 

Hi GMs,

The draft schedule for the summer is out. Please navigate to
https://assassin.mit.edu/web/Games_of_[SEASON]_[YEAR] and follow the GM
instructions on the page.

You should be taking some of the following actions:
 - Confirming the weekend assigned to you
 - Finalizing your Zampolit report, if marked as necessary
 - Checking your entry for errors

Please let me know if the instructions on that page are confusing, or
if you have any questions.

~ INSERT_YOUR_NAME_HERE
Scribe of the High Council

Final schedule template email to the Guild

The schedule of games being run this [SEASON] under the auspices of the
MIT Assassins' Guild is now available. Please visit the Wiki at [LINK]
for the full list of games, along with their blurbs.

Weekend: Title
[WEEKEND]: [TITLE]
  ....
[WEEKEND]: [TITLE]

~ INSERT_YOUR_NAME_HERE
Scribe of the High Council

Other Notes

Things to check before releasing the schedule

  • Are the dates correct in the top section?
  • Do the dates in the body of the email match the dates in the top section?
  • Are all of the names spelled correctly, and without any typos? (Extra commas, etc?)
  • Is there any weird spacing in the copied blurbs?

Things to schedule around

As of 2014ish or 2019ish, try to schedule around:

  • Palantir Puzzle Hunt (actually VERY important!)
  • Mystery Hunt! (this is critical)
  • Arisia
  • Intercon (spring)
  • MIT's academic schedule: finals, parents weekend, CPW, rush, breaks
  • East Side Fair (R.I.P. steer roast)
  • Splash (November. eats a bunch of rooms; plus, there's Splash patrol)
  • Spark (March, afternoon to early evening)
  • CPW

Also be aware of:

  • Witchwood
  • Tales of Valor (especially for SIK games)
  • Future Imperfect (especially for SIK games)
  • Firefly (4th of July weekend)
  • Easter (mostly relevant for the spring guild meeting)
  • Passover (mostly first 3ish days)
  • Wildfire

See Also

The original Greensheet.

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