Subrat

1. Our gaming community is based on "Honor, Friendship, Fair play, and Loyalty" which of those criteria do you believe to be most important, and what would you add to make our community better?

I believe that they are all of equal importance. Since these are the founding principles of what the Art of Warfare was founded upon.

Honor: a good name or public admiration: Reputation

Friendship: the state of being friends: life long friends in some case

Fair play: a virtue of rule adherence whereby player abide by the rules of competition: that’s include respect, modesty, generosity, and friendship

Loyalty: the quality or state or an instance of being loyal: loyal to the Art of Warfare as a whole

I would add Community to our principles.

Community: a unified body of individuals: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest

Which is TAW, we all want to see the community grow, and become bigger and stronger. But that will take everyone working to achieve this, not just a few people. I have faith in this community, and the belief it can become better than it was in the past.

2.    What prior experience in TAW do you think will help you the most if you are elected?

The experience I have gained from working with the different CiC’s of TAW over the years. Will give me an edge, because I have gotten to see what has worked, and what hasn’t worked. Also being able to work on both sides of TAW, I have gotten the preceptive of what it takes to make the organization move forward.

3.    What decisions have you made in your TAW career that you look back on and feel were mistakes? What have you learned from them?

I don’t know if I would call it a mistake, but I should have followed thru with what I thought needed to be done at the time. Which maybe could have saved TAW from some mitigated losses. But I choose to stay in my role as a subordinate, instead of doing what I knew was the right thing to do at time. 

4.    Where do you see us in 5-10 years, and what changes would you make to get us there?

I see TAW as being totally self-sufficient within 5 – 10 years. With the new website up and running we can then modify it to suit or needs for the future keeping it up to date, and adding new features the community needs. I would like to see our leaders get more mentoring with their positions. Also, I would like to see more engagement from all of TAW in the forums, at the TFO round table, square table, and the triangle table. I know it takes time to do all this, but its for the betterment of TAW, that’s why we are here. I would continue on the investment path we are currently using. By investing some of our money into Stocks and high yield accounts that pose a minimal risk to our investment. That also would give us a stable return on that investment. I would also like to look into seeing if we could get some form of sponsorship with gaming companies, that could also increase or revenue (without compromising our identity). Also, what will help will to making our TAW twitch channel, and YouTube channel more well known. Making the right choices over the next few years could get us to a point of having no more annual donation drive to fund us for the next year.

5.    What leadership qualities do you have that make you stand out from other leaders in TAW?

Everyone has a different leadership qualities. I have learned as a leader to take in the advice of people around me before I go jumping into a decision, and not listening to what is being said by my support staff. I have found that listening to all those around me. Will make the decision a much better one then being a ``one-sided decision.

6.    Do you think that since the time you've went up to TFO you've changed as a person? Has it changed the way you look and approach certain things? How so?  

When I was first promoted to TFO, I was told a lot of things from earlier TFO’s to try and help me. 

I took some of their advice to the extremes. I ran my divisions very tight, and expected my staff to do the same. Which was expecting the work to done in a very short period of time. If the work didn’t get done then I would just do everything myself.

Over the years as TFO I have still been mentored by previous TFO’s, where I was told to relax don’t be so demanding. Today I know that I’m a much better leader because of that.  I am relaxed, and more understanding.

Caaran

1. Our gaming community is based on "Honor, Friendship, Fair Play, and Loyalty," which of those criteria do you believe to be most important, and what would you add to make our community better?

All aspects mentioned are great, but Friendship is the most important. It has been said in TAW many times - Join for the game, stay because of the community and the friends you make. I really believe in this statement and see it happen all over TAW. I have made some great friends in this community and I hope everyone in TAW has shared the same experience. Even though the game I joined isn't something I currently play, I stay for the friends that I made there and along the way, and I work to improve this community so that more people can experience the same.

I would add “Fun”. To bring people together in a place where they can interact, engage, and have fun is the whole point of this organization. A vast majority of our membership just wants to come here to play their game and have fun. We should be spending our resources to make this a priority all of the time. Everything else comes second. 

2.    What prior experience in TAW do you think will help you the most if you are elected?

My years spent in the recruiting division have taught me a lot. I had a great team with a wonderful mixture of members that brought a lot to the table. In RD, we built out training materials and ideas for leadership from the ground up. While there, we had the privilege to have many conversations with divisions and battalion leadership across TAW. It was a great opportunity to listen to their different approaches to recruiting and also the difficulties within their division and games community. It reinforced my notion that all games and divisions are different, and can’t be dealt with the same broad paint brush. Every situation is unique and requires a personal working relationship with the teams that exist in that community.

I led the TFO Roundtable/Triangle Table where we discussed and debated ideas and challenges that we all dealt with in TAW. My goal was that it would provide an opportunity to allow our membership to engage with one another in a setting that doesn’t happen daily in an attempt to have us help each other find solutions to benefit the group. When our membership is given a purpose or problem to solve, they are more than happy to help and I want to see that carried forward more. Not one person has all the answers and we need to figure things out as a group.

3.    What decisions have you made in your TAW career that you look back on and feel were mistakes? What have you learned from them?

I look back at my time attempting to spin up Rust. I let pride and stubbornness get the better of me. I didn’t delegate or ask for enough help and got burnt out. We were recruiting like crazy and I was doing multiple boot camps every day; managing the in-game activities and members everyday; on top of jumping through all the hoops of spinning up a game in TAW. It was exhausting and I eventually left the team and stepped down as SUL. I appreciate the time I spent in that role. It taught me a valuable lesson on staying humble and being ok with asking for help and I have carried this with me to this day.

4.    Where do you see us in 5-10 years, and what changes would you make to get us there?

I see TAW with a positive climb in membership and increased activity. It’s going to be some work, but I have confidence in our teams and organization to get us there. 

When thinking about moving forward and homing in on how to make things grow, we can’t lose sight of what our members are here for, to have fun. I believe it is important to keep things simple so that we as an organization don’t bore our members with unnecessary admin that make them feel like TAW is a second job. 

When members have ideas or action items that are brought up, it is easy to say no and give a reason as to why this can’t be achieved. Members want to be heard and feel validated and oftentimes they are discouraged. I’d really like our leadership to move forward with a different mindset, to truly listen to them and be an advocate for their ideas. 

Currently, we are falling short as a community to provide our members with content. We need to give the people what they want, by providing something else to look forward to when they log in. Give them another reason to want to get on and participate. Moving forward I would like to see, at a minimum, monthly held TAW-wide events with tournaments, karaoke, prize giveaways, and streaming events.

I believe that we need more leadership engagement instead of the current trickle-down system that is happening. There is great value in sharing the experience, knowledge, and insight with each other and to those members who are new to position. It is as simple as just being in the channel with their teams to show face. 

I’d like to see a better utilization of the tools that we have. Our voice platforms may house our community as a whole between the two, but until we decide on one or the other, I feel that we will remain divided and can't come together and enjoy the benefits that TAW brings. As a community, we need to make this decision to really move forward as a whole. 

I would like to see additional support, resources, and guidance for our competitive gamers. These are members we are losing because there isn’t a secure place for them. We need to create more and better opportunities for them within our community by building competition team frameworks that can be utilized by divisions as a foundation to building out their teams and have success.

Currently, our Recruiting Division/Phoenix/Pathfinder/Sentinel teams are underutilized and undersold. These teams have great knowledgeable people that are willing and ready to help and have many tools in their belt to assist with any problem they are tasked with. I believe they need to be given the spotlight to provide the support that they are there for.

5.    What leadership qualities do you have that make you stand out from other leaders in TAW?

My experience in both Army and Operations allows me different perspectives on how things are run in TAW. In Army, I started out and spent a few years in Heroes and Generals taking different positions and experienced some great successes as the HDI, PIA, and CO. I then had my attempts at spinning up games in Vanguard as the SUL in Rust and the HDI in Hell Let Loose. Finally, I had a couple years helping Army as the DC of the Recruiting Division. In Operations I spent half a year in the then TSO (TAW Streaming Operations) division teaching and setting people up to stream. A couple of years ago I was given the privilege to run the Treasury Corps where we manage the money coming in and out of TAW’s accounts.

With the different positions that I have taken, I see great value in working with and listening to people with different points of views than me. I truly want to work with people and the teams I’m a part of and not dictate.

Ultimately, I have lots of time and availability. Working from home allows me to be available all day to have meetings and deal with issues within TAW. Most days I’m logged into TS for 12+ hours.

6.    Do you think that since the time you've went up to TFO you've changed as a person? Has it changed the way you look and approach certain things? How so?  

I haven’t changed as a person, but it has opened my eyes to new ways of listening, leading, and engaging with strangers. 

It has taught me a lot about being patient and hearing out disagreements and finding ways to meet on common ground. Also, understanding that sometimes people are having bad days and to not take things personally.

Before even becoming a TFO I was taught about servant leadership and what it truly means. I have taken those moments of mentorship and have carried those values to every team I have been a part of and make it a point to teach those individuals on my team about servant leadership.

In the end, we are all the same; just a bunch of gamers wanting a place to chill at the end of the day. No one has the ultimate answer to everything, we are all just trying to figure it out.

KindOldMan

1. Our gaming community is based on "Honor, Friendship, Fair play, and Loyalty" which of those criteria do you believe to be most important, and what would you add to make our community better?

I think they are all important but if I have to pick one as the most important, then it would be honor. I would add integrity. They both go hand in hand and in my opinion, will serve you well in real life. When we join TAW, we are asked to commit to two things - TAW's Code of Ethics and participating in the weekly Mandatory/s. That's all. Out of the 168 hours in a week, TAW is asking for two. Many competition clans/teams require that much every night. By having integrity and honoring our commitment to TAW, we generate respect and a reputation for reliability.

2. What prior experience in TAW do you think will help you the most if you are elected?

I feel that having held most of the positions in TAW, I have a good understanding of the duties and responsibilities required for each. I also feel that by having a good idea of how much work is required to accomplish them, I can better appreciate the effort that is put forth. No one likes having a leader that doesn’t understand what you are dealing with and the obstacles that you have to overcome.  

3. What decisions have you made in your TAW career that you look back on and feel were mistakes? What have you learned from them?

Nothing major. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have recommended certain individuals for promotion. Some servant leadership positions require a certain temperament to be most successful. Also, when issuing a verbal reprimand, formal or otherwise, always have a second witness.

4. Where do you see us in 5-10 years, and what changes would you make to get us there?

I would like to think that if we can adjust to today’s gamer and put out a more appealing product to them, we can reverse the downward trend and start increasing our membership. I don’t think there is any one “magic solution” to the issue, but rather a combination of things. The new web site will greatly improve the aesthetics over our current website which in turn will attract new gamers that are more visual now than in the past. We need to embrace new technologies, like Discord, Constant Contact, etc. and use them to our advantage. To the degree we can, we should automate tasks so our servant leaders have more time to mentor, teach, and lead by example. We all joined TAW to play games, not do administrative work. The new web site will help us accomplish that.

5. What leadership qualities do you have that make you stand out from other leaders in TAW?

At 61, I have the advantage of decades of real-life experience. Having been in multiple civic organizations, and a Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmaster, and IT Director for over 20 years, I have learned to be a “servant” to those I have responsibility for. I have seen many leaders get caught up in the “leader” aspect of servant leadership and forget about the “servant” part. Two things to remember: a leader is only as good as the people underneath them and, you earn respect, not command it. A good leader will always lead from the front, expect nothing from anyone else that they themselves aren’t willing to do, and realize that everyone can have a bad day.

6. Do you think that since the time you've went up to TFO you've changed as a person? Has it changed the way you look and approach certain things? How so?  

Not too much. I have a pretty even keel. I try to keep emotion out of my decisions and always try to gather as much information from all sides in order to make the most informed one that I can. I do feel that I think a bit more globally now and seek to work on resolving issues that affect all of TAW. I am told that one of my best traits is having an open mind. I feel strongly that this is necessary to having fruitful discussions and arriving at meaningful solutions.