National Councils Help

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zarathustra
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:26 pm

Wolfgang, Timo, and Sergio: now is the time for you to step up and act! As I recall, Wolfgang, you already sent an email related to this topic to the email list a couple months earlier. It might be useful to post it here as well. From there we can elaborate further.
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Thrain II
Ex Council Member
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:38 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

To summarize what we have got so far, I am copying Wolfgang's email to that topic.
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founding a new council is quite simple, but also means a lot of work ;-))

did you ever read this text about Council Formation? here is the link:
http://www.councilofelrond.org/Council%20Formation.htm
you will soon find out, that this text is utterly out of date. also it?s
formulated rather bureaucratically. still it might serve us as a
starting point. i will point out some of the really important things:

community:
of course the most important things is to have players! that means at
least a group of >3 players, who are within a reasonable distance
(sweden is a large country, i know!).
and at least one person is needed, that considers himself as the leader
of the pack. that will be you, no doubt ;-)
do you have an overview of how many interested MECCG players there are
in sweden right now? i think i have sent you a small list of
emailaddresses once. if not, please tell me!

playing the game:
it goes without saying, that there must be chances of actually playing
the game! it?s not necessary to play tournaments (which means >5
players), at least not when you are just starting the council. have some
casual games, just as you like it. makes it easier for new players to
join, if there are any.
of course it?s fine to have at least one real tournament in a year,
which is the National Championship then.
most important: play regularly! even if there are only 2 or 3 players -
be persistent. others might join one by one ...
it?s fine to have a public location for playing. If yu have the chance
to play at the local gaming store, it?s prefect, since then you will
automatically attract new players. Of course the stores sometimes are
not willing letting you play there, since they won?t make any profit
with MECCG:

advertising the game:
there are many people out there, that have bought a lot of MECCG cards
many years ago. when ICE went bankrupt, most players also quit to play.
mostly because they just thought, this is the end. but as we know, this
was never the end, since many dedicated players are caring for the MECCG
community worldwide.
some of the once active players might easily be brought back into the
game - if the get to know, that there are still chances to play it!
here are a few advices, how we can advertise MECCG:
- make some announcements at local gamestores
- be present at gaming fairs (and don?t forget to bring some CH decks
for some instant games)
- try to get in contact with the national Tolkien Society and ask them
to support you (i might be able to help you here, since i am the
chairman of the austrian TS)
- anything else that comes to your mind
- look out for new players. That?s pretty easy done via ebay. Just check
on a weekly basis all MECCG auctions at your local ebay (given there is
one) and try to get in contact with the bidders. My experience: not one
negative answer to thousands of such messages, but hundreds of positive
ones. It takes some time, but it?s definitely worth the effort!
- don?t forget to spread a sheet of paper at as many occasions as
possible, that asks people for their emailaddresses, in case they are
interested in (re)starting MECCG.

communication:
another very important topic in various ways.
Keep an updated file with some informations of your players (at least
name, emailaddress, location). Keep some contact to all of them on a
regular basis (~monthly). Even if there is nothing very important to
tell them, it?s good for them to know, that there is still something
going on with MECCG in the country.
Be ready to act as the contactperson. You are THE man to represent MECCG
in your country! If there are any questions, you should be able to
answer them (which doesn?t mean, that you have to know the solution to
some most difficult rulesquestion. But you should be able to provide an
address, which might be able to help).
Put together an info-sheet with some hints and advices, that might help
new players, and sent them out whenever you meet a newbie.
Keep good contact to the worldwide MECCG community. This will mostly be
within the Council of Elrond. As the official representative of your
national council, you will be invited to join the COE.

homepage:
It?s nice to have a homepage. But if you have one, don?t forget to keep
it up to date. It also needs some content. If you can?t guarantee that,
it?s better to have a forum, where those who want can meet and talk
about MECCG.
It?s also possible to have a homepage, that just wants to give some
information, that there is an active national MECCG community. Most
important: provide some contact possibilities!
Also having a newsgroup is a very useful thing (see communication).

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Admiral Thrain II, G.A.B. Gold, Silver and White Mithril Team Leader
Earendil
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:01 am
Location: Como, Italy
Contact:

Thinking at Wolfgang's message, and also at the other messages we wrote about "Council Formation" project, I think there will be TWO bigger steps to do at first:

1 - Create a big database with all the infos we can collect about players, no matter from where, and divide it on country basis. Basically, we should do the work of the national councils, if they do not exist, and be ready to share these infos with a starting council.
This allows varous things:
- We'll know where players are and we'll tell them that MECCG is still alive, giving them infos;
- We'll transform them in infos as well, giving their addresses to other country fellows who wants to start/re-start/continue playing.
- We'll probably find the most enthusiastic people, and make the proposal of a new council.
- We'll be ready to keep infos safe if a council ends its career (hope not).

We can get infos from:
- CoE links page
- Chris Cable site
- GAB site
- meccg.net forum
- tradecardsonline site
- Mailing list
- Everybody own contacts
- eBay (this is actually a great idea! I contacted the people bidding in Italian auctions and got a lot of positive feedback!)


2 - Prepare the stuff to help the councils. This could include:
- List of nation's players (see point 1)
- Guidelines for tournaments
- Help for a web site
- Invitations for great events like Worlds and Lure, in which they can taste MECCG living
- Help to get sealed stuff
- ...

As of point 1, I already compiled a list of players and sent them to CoE in xls format some time ago. Also Timo shared his contacts. I guess we should continue increase this DB. If you'd like, I can ask to all of you the contacts you can share and I'll do the work of creating a unique DB.
Maybe we can decide how to manage the contacts with eBay bidders. We could have a look to the various eBay sites dividing them (some work for everybody, here) and sending a standard letter to bidders.
"...And he said that if I had the cheek to make verses about Earendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair. I suppose he was right"
zarathustra
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:26 pm

Most of this sounds quite good. Regarding eBay, however, I'm worried: technically it is illegal to contact people in this way, and it could get the CoE member who writes the email banned from eBay. As such, I would discourage this method.
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Thrain II
Ex Council Member
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:38 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

1 - Create a big database with all the infos we can collect about players, no matter from where, and divide it on country basis. Basically, we should do the work of the national councils, if they do not exist, and be ready to share these infos with a starting council.
That sounds good. It could be an update of Chris Cable's players list (many of these contacts are not up to date). I think Wolfgang has gathered hundreds of contact infos, especially for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Very often I am asked whether I know other players in a certain region. CoE could provide these infos upon request and we should continue to find one contact person for each country.
We can get infos from:
- CoE links page
- Chris Cable site
- GAB site
- meccg.net forum
- tradecardsonline site
- Mailing list
- Everybody own contacts
- eBay
I wil take care of the contacts I know from GAB. Most Middle-earth traders (some of them only collectors, but also a lot of players) are member of my team but there are also Middle-earth traders on other teams. I would contact those from countries where we know less or nothing about and try to find a contact person for each of these countries. I will also screen Mahasamatman and tradecardsonline for possible contacts I do not yet know from Chris Cable's page or GAB.
- Help to get sealed stuff
This is an interesting point. It becomes more and more difficult to get English and German sealed packs at a good price. From time to time I find sources where cards are available for very good prices. We can gather some information here.
Maybe we can decide how to manage the contacts with eBay bidders. We could have a look to the various eBay sites dividing them (some work for everybody, here) and sending a standard letter to bidders.
I can help searching eBay for new players/collectors.

As soon as I get any results, I will add them to this topic.

Thrain II
Last edited by Thrain II on Tue Apr 18, 2006 2:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Admiral Thrain II, G.A.B. Gold, Silver and White Mithril Team Leader
Earendil
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:01 am
Location: Como, Italy
Contact:

zarathustra wrote:Most of this sounds quite good. Regarding eBay, however, I'm worried: technically it is illegal to contact people in this way, and it could get the CoE member who writes the email banned from eBay. As such, I would discourage this method.
Well, you're technically right, but generally this is absolutely tolerated by the other eBay members,since it will be obvious that it isn't done for some queer purpose, but only for helping them and the community. I normally put in a notice about this. And eBay never say anything if it is not called in by the bidder who received the notice.
If you're worried about our eBay accounts, we can even create one only with this purpose, saving our "normal" accounts. I know it should not be done, but, well, you know I'm Italian :lol: :lol: :lol:
"...And he said that if I had the cheek to make verses about Earendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair. I suppose he was right"
Earendil
Posts: 63
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:01 am
Location: Como, Italy
Contact:

Thrain II wrote:
I wil take care of the contacts I know from GAB. Most Middle-earth traders (some of them only collectors, but also a lot of players) are members of my team but there are also Middle-earth traders on other teams. I would contact those from countries where we know less or nothing about and try to find a contact person for each of these countries. I will also screen Mahasamatman and tradecardsonline for possible contacts I do not yet know from Chris Cable's page or GAB.
Hi Timo :wink:

I think you could do an harder work, if you want... Why not contacting everybody in our GAB team asking to share with you the contacts HE/SHE knows? I know it becomes more difficult, because you could even get *thousands* of different contact (say if everybody knows only 10 people...), but if you wish we can share the job and it could prove useful.
"...And he said that if I had the cheek to make verses about Earendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair. I suppose he was right"
Thrain II
Ex Council Member
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:38 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

I think you could do an harder work, if you want... Why not contacting everybody in our GAB team asking to share with you the contacts HE/SHE knows? I know it becomes more difficult, because you could even get *thousands* of different contact (say if everybody knows only 10 people...), but if you wish we can share the job and it could prove useful.
I can easily send a team email to all 118 members of my team requesting for information and explain what CoE is doing. I think a lot of players will provide a lot of information. Contacting members from other teams is rather difficult because I have to check all other approx. 50 teams for Middle-earth traders of whom many are out of the game for years. However, I can start this work soon and see what results we can achieve...

Thrain II
Admiral Thrain II, G.A.B. Gold, Silver and White Mithril Team Leader
gkg
Posts: 27
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:11 pm
Location: Prague, CZ

wow, great work (proposal) here!
*clap clap*

it would be awesome to have an update player list sorted on countries
IMHO it might really increase the tournament turnouts if all works well
thorondor
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 727
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: salzburg, austria
Contact:

well, i have my emails lists already listed on countries. so the basic work is done already. i also tried to have at least one dedicated player from every country, who may act as a national contactperson (this one is often idetic with the head of the national council of course).
there are 2 sorts of addresses in my lists:
1) the email address is public on some MECCG related site and thus visible and available to everyone in the WWW. i felt to be allowed to add this (and i was never asked to remove it till now!)
2) i had some emailcontact with the person asking, that it is okay to add the address.

also everybody is asked, if it?s okay to give away his address for the purpose of trying to establish some contacts to other MECCG interested people.

of course many lost their interest in MECCG at all during the course of time. so i was asked to remove the address. but i never received any complaints of having anyone?s address in my lists till now.

about fishing at ebay: i don?t think that?s illegal. it?s not allowed to use the ebay system to make any business. but we are not doing anything of that sort.
of course it?s also not allowed to send spam messages. bt i don?t think, that what we are doing, may be considered as spam.
since i am keeping track of all the ebay nicknames i have been contacting (that?s necessary, since i want to avoid to contact somebody twice!), i can tell you, that i have been contacting exactly 1947 bidders at ebay germany till today, and i didn?t receive a single complain as reply. and of course i am still an ebay member ;-)
Thrain II
Ex Council Member
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:38 pm
Location: Oslo, Norway
Contact:

I think we should concentrate on the Global Player List project for now; providing help to form new councils will be much easier with all the information we will hopefully gather. Should I get any useful information while contacting all the Middle-earth players/collectors/traders I know, I will add it to this thread.

Good work so far!

Thrain II
Admiral Thrain II, G.A.B. Gold, Silver and White Mithril Team Leader
zarathustra
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:26 pm

OK, let's put this on the back burner for now.

Of course, feel free to take it off the burner if you have some spare time ;)
http://www.alfanos.org
zarathustra
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 671
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:26 pm

Looks like this is off the burner ;)
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