Tek7 (Legacy)
CGA & ToJ President
A few members have recently expressed their frustration with inactivity among Tribe of Judah members. I sympathize and understand that I must do my part in informing everyone what they can do to help. I've made a few edits to my post in another (locked) forum, but I'll post the bulk of the message here:
The frustration of members of Tribe of Judah have not fallen on deaf ears. Trust me when I say my ears are not the problem. My hands are the problem; they are rather full at the moment.
This is a story repeated among most of our staff members. I am still able to contribute more time to ToJ and CGA than most (seeing as my employer recently slashed my hours and I haven't yet started my second job), but we are still lacking sufficient staff and staff with sufficient free time to move Tribe of Judah forward. This has been the situation for some time, giving us the appearance of a "comatose" or inactive clan.
Before I continue any further with this post, I want to remind everyone that our primary missions are ministering to fellow believers and witnessing to unbelievers. We are Christians that happen to play games, not gamers that happen to be Christians. Remember that, trust in me, trust in my vision for Tribe of Judah, and we can begin moving forward again.
Now, I don't believe the situation is really all that bad. I do agree that there's plenty of work left to do. But seeing the whole picture, starting from May 1999, I believe that there's still plenty of fuel in this machine. We have plenty of people who love Tribe of Judah and the larger Christian Gamers Alliance community but do not know where they can put their hand to help.
I have recently created the volunteer@toj.cc (all e-mails sent to this address go to Rizz) for those wishing to help where they can in ToJ. I'll also be writing volunteer descriptions for our most urgent openings on ToJ staff.
There are other plans underway to increase the feeling of community among ToJ members. QuePasa has drafted a New Members Information Article and I am putting the last edits on it; I plan on having this to Plankeye soon so he can post it to our web site soon. We also have our Steam Account Information Listing on our forums now, which will help Tribe of Judah members find each other while playing Half-Life mods. Steam itself will be a wonderful boost for ToJ as it makes getting together in Counter-Strike or other Half-Life mod servers far more convenient. (It started off buggy as sin, but I can let that go.)
We also have resources that people aren't making use of. Our IRC channel, our general discussion forum, all ToJ members' instant message contact information listed on our roster: all these measures are in place to help ToJ members meet each other, forge relationships, and bless one another. The foundation is in place. The tools are there. We just need to make new members aware and get them past the learning curve. Of course, this goes for existing members who might be unaware of all these tools.
The problem is not that we're lacking the roads to connect us. The problem is that so few are driving, and the few that are driving are frustrated by the gridlock. In other words, the minority of active members are frustrated by the inactivity of the majority.
If you are frustrated by this inactivity, then get involved. I do not mean this in a harsh way and am glad that SuN and TastyWheat have shared their opinions. How can you get involved?
- Start using the Tribe of Judah news page to greet new members when they join. Walk one step ahead of me and start welcoming people before I form a welcoming committee. Better yet, contact me and offer to form the welcoming committee. All we need is three or four people to "shake hands" with new members, say hello, ask what we can pray for, play a few rounds with them if/when we can, and we're going to make a huge difference to these people.
- Help populate our news page. Everything important going on in ToJ, whether announced in IRC, the forums, or in-game, should be posted to the ToJ news page. These news tidbits don't have to be posted by chapter leaders or even chapter staff, as long as it gets posted. If you don't have access to post news on the ToJ news page, contact Plankeye and Rizz (check the ToJ roster for their contact information) and tell them what you want to do and how you want to help.
- Recruit! My goodness, we've needed a Lead Recruiter sorely for over a year now. We need someone to appoint other recruiters, draft and edit templates for recruiting calls (to be posted in public forums), post recruiting calls, in and recruit people in-game (when allowed by server rules). These tasks would not take nearly as much time as serving as a chapter leader and would greatly benefit ToJ. If you don't want to be Lead Recruiter, volunteer to be a Recruiter for whatever chapters you're involved in. The bulk of the work is creating new accounts on forums, finding where to post, writing up a recruiting call one time, then copying and pasting it to other forums wherever recruiting is allowed. There are still plenty of people out there who don't know there are Christian clans active today.
- Ask chapter leaders and other staff where and how you can help--especially Elite! He's been through so much lately that I'm sure even a single person asking how he can help would be a tremendous blessing. Take hold of ToJ's vision to bless others and spread the Gospel, make it your own, and ask where you can serve. Go to the Staff Listing, contact a chapter leader or other staff member and ask how you can help. Don't hesitate to use the new volunteer@toj.cc address, either.
- Pass it along! When you're chatting with other ToJ members who don't check the forums or news page, tell them about the community that's growing--the community they're welcome to join at any time. Our IRC channel, our forums, these are open to anyone who wishes to participate. If they want to get involved, tell them about the volunteer@toj.cc address.
- Pray! If your schedule allows for nothing else, take five minutes out of your day to pray for Tribe of Judah, its leadership, and its members. I understand that some of our members are so swamped that they can rarely even find time to play a round of their favorite game. We still wholeheartedly welcome members in such situations but ask that everyone pray for ToJ. This is not community that I share with others--this is our community; it belongs to every member.
Tribe of Judah and Christian Gamers Alliance are not merely clubs for Christian gamers. They represent a tremendous opportunity to use whatever we have, no matter how little or great, to bless and teach and support other Christians and spread the Gospel. Use this opportunity, put your hand to the plow, and watch God bless ToJ, CGA, and you as an individual.
We have everything we need in place. It's true that we need more organization, so help us get organized! Check the Staff Listing page, see what's vacant, and step up. We have many vacancies on staff right now and we also need people to help us put together a Sponsor Information Package that we can present to potential sponsors. How wonderful it would be to have several servers and not concern ourselves with donations!
So, if you are unsatisfied with ToJ or think it could be improved in any way, get involved! Don't wait for others to make the changes you want to see--get involved and start making those changes yourself.
Now let's get out there and bless as many people as we can!
The frustration of members of Tribe of Judah have not fallen on deaf ears. Trust me when I say my ears are not the problem. My hands are the problem; they are rather full at the moment.
This is a story repeated among most of our staff members. I am still able to contribute more time to ToJ and CGA than most (seeing as my employer recently slashed my hours and I haven't yet started my second job), but we are still lacking sufficient staff and staff with sufficient free time to move Tribe of Judah forward. This has been the situation for some time, giving us the appearance of a "comatose" or inactive clan.
Before I continue any further with this post, I want to remind everyone that our primary missions are ministering to fellow believers and witnessing to unbelievers. We are Christians that happen to play games, not gamers that happen to be Christians. Remember that, trust in me, trust in my vision for Tribe of Judah, and we can begin moving forward again.
Now, I don't believe the situation is really all that bad. I do agree that there's plenty of work left to do. But seeing the whole picture, starting from May 1999, I believe that there's still plenty of fuel in this machine. We have plenty of people who love Tribe of Judah and the larger Christian Gamers Alliance community but do not know where they can put their hand to help.
I have recently created the volunteer@toj.cc (all e-mails sent to this address go to Rizz) for those wishing to help where they can in ToJ. I'll also be writing volunteer descriptions for our most urgent openings on ToJ staff.
There are other plans underway to increase the feeling of community among ToJ members. QuePasa has drafted a New Members Information Article and I am putting the last edits on it; I plan on having this to Plankeye soon so he can post it to our web site soon. We also have our Steam Account Information Listing on our forums now, which will help Tribe of Judah members find each other while playing Half-Life mods. Steam itself will be a wonderful boost for ToJ as it makes getting together in Counter-Strike or other Half-Life mod servers far more convenient. (It started off buggy as sin, but I can let that go.)
We also have resources that people aren't making use of. Our IRC channel, our general discussion forum, all ToJ members' instant message contact information listed on our roster: all these measures are in place to help ToJ members meet each other, forge relationships, and bless one another. The foundation is in place. The tools are there. We just need to make new members aware and get them past the learning curve. Of course, this goes for existing members who might be unaware of all these tools.
The problem is not that we're lacking the roads to connect us. The problem is that so few are driving, and the few that are driving are frustrated by the gridlock. In other words, the minority of active members are frustrated by the inactivity of the majority.
If you are frustrated by this inactivity, then get involved. I do not mean this in a harsh way and am glad that SuN and TastyWheat have shared their opinions. How can you get involved?
- Start using the Tribe of Judah news page to greet new members when they join. Walk one step ahead of me and start welcoming people before I form a welcoming committee. Better yet, contact me and offer to form the welcoming committee. All we need is three or four people to "shake hands" with new members, say hello, ask what we can pray for, play a few rounds with them if/when we can, and we're going to make a huge difference to these people.
- Help populate our news page. Everything important going on in ToJ, whether announced in IRC, the forums, or in-game, should be posted to the ToJ news page. These news tidbits don't have to be posted by chapter leaders or even chapter staff, as long as it gets posted. If you don't have access to post news on the ToJ news page, contact Plankeye and Rizz (check the ToJ roster for their contact information) and tell them what you want to do and how you want to help.
- Recruit! My goodness, we've needed a Lead Recruiter sorely for over a year now. We need someone to appoint other recruiters, draft and edit templates for recruiting calls (to be posted in public forums), post recruiting calls, in and recruit people in-game (when allowed by server rules). These tasks would not take nearly as much time as serving as a chapter leader and would greatly benefit ToJ. If you don't want to be Lead Recruiter, volunteer to be a Recruiter for whatever chapters you're involved in. The bulk of the work is creating new accounts on forums, finding where to post, writing up a recruiting call one time, then copying and pasting it to other forums wherever recruiting is allowed. There are still plenty of people out there who don't know there are Christian clans active today.
- Ask chapter leaders and other staff where and how you can help--especially Elite! He's been through so much lately that I'm sure even a single person asking how he can help would be a tremendous blessing. Take hold of ToJ's vision to bless others and spread the Gospel, make it your own, and ask where you can serve. Go to the Staff Listing, contact a chapter leader or other staff member and ask how you can help. Don't hesitate to use the new volunteer@toj.cc address, either.
- Pass it along! When you're chatting with other ToJ members who don't check the forums or news page, tell them about the community that's growing--the community they're welcome to join at any time. Our IRC channel, our forums, these are open to anyone who wishes to participate. If they want to get involved, tell them about the volunteer@toj.cc address.
- Pray! If your schedule allows for nothing else, take five minutes out of your day to pray for Tribe of Judah, its leadership, and its members. I understand that some of our members are so swamped that they can rarely even find time to play a round of their favorite game. We still wholeheartedly welcome members in such situations but ask that everyone pray for ToJ. This is not community that I share with others--this is our community; it belongs to every member.
Tribe of Judah and Christian Gamers Alliance are not merely clubs for Christian gamers. They represent a tremendous opportunity to use whatever we have, no matter how little or great, to bless and teach and support other Christians and spread the Gospel. Use this opportunity, put your hand to the plow, and watch God bless ToJ, CGA, and you as an individual.
We have everything we need in place. It's true that we need more organization, so help us get organized! Check the Staff Listing page, see what's vacant, and step up. We have many vacancies on staff right now and we also need people to help us put together a Sponsor Information Package that we can present to potential sponsors. How wonderful it would be to have several servers and not concern ourselves with donations!
So, if you are unsatisfied with ToJ or think it could be improved in any way, get involved! Don't wait for others to make the changes you want to see--get involved and start making those changes yourself.
Now let's get out there and bless as many people as we can!
