Darmon wrote:
Here are another couple for Harry (or Mona, or Rill, or Crowish leadership in general):
1. What does being a Rook actually mean? I realize you have to call your leadership something, but it's something that's fairly consistent across all the Crow branches. Which implies to me there is a more concrete idea involved besides just "whoever is in charge of <whatever> alliance."
2. How does the Crowalition actually work? Or does it? Maybe this is a follow-up to #1 and involves Rooks. I guess I'm wondering how broader policy decisions are addressed, or if they are at all? It seems to me that the Crows are a very loose-knit group held together by just names and a mutual defense pact. The community at-large seems to hold some different opinions though, and I don't understand why that is... (Something historical, maybe?) |
I am answering for myself only. There are other people who will come along and give lots better answers.
1. I would guess it probably means something different in every alliance, and possibly to every Rook. In general at least in nCrow the ummm ... guano ... flows uphill, so the Rooks are the people who deal with the things that no one else wants to do, either at the behest of our members or of other alliances. Most Crow branches are fairly egalitarian, so the members decide what we are going to do and then the leaders (and others) carry it out.
Or, to put it in ornithological terms ... you know how when a flock of Crows is startled and they all rise up into the air and fly away, sometimes there are one or two left on the ground that make good targets? Those are the Rooks.
2. Probably you have as many opinions within the Crowalition about how the Crowalition works as you do in the outside community. I guess what I would say about how the Crowalition works is "pretty well, mostly, except when it doesn't."
My experience is, when someone has an idea, we spend a lot of time talking about it among the Rooks, within alliances and between Crows of different alliances. Usually half of us try very hard to prevent whatever it is from happening, because we don't like change. Another quarter of us try to get people to do the opposite. Another 15% don't care (this number is often higher). Ten percent of the people really want to do whatever. Sometimes they end up doing it, sometimes they don't, depending on how significant it is and how many people they persuade. Things are much more likely to happen if whoever has the idea is also willing to do all associated work.