Difference between revisions of "Founding of Eternal Vigilance"

Revision as of 09:49, 14 December 2014

Eternal Vigilance was founded on January 6th, 2005 by a group of close friends who were avid gamers, looking for a new guild experience based on the principles of friendship and democracy.

The Founding of Eternal Vigilance

Although we say (purely for the record books) that Eternal Vigilance was founded on January 6th, 2005... to say so would not be completely accurate. We created the first version of our forums on January 6th, but began to conceptualize the guild and network for founding members and leaders in late December of '04. Eternal Vigilance (although it was not known by that name until Jan 9th) was in its planning stages long before its official birth.

The TG Era

All founding members of Eternal Vigilance hailed from a group called ''The Guardians'', a large guild whose roots can be traced back to the Star Wars Galaxies pre-beta community in 2002. The Guardians were once the largest rebel player association on the Starsider server, where a rich history played out - of which many Eternal Vigilance members still look back upon fondly as a source of pride. However, as the guild's presence in Star Wars Galaxies began to dwindle in 2004, The Guardians expanded into World of Warcraft and upon its release grew even larger.

The twelve founding members of Eternal Vigilance separated from The Guardians approximately a month after WoW's release, due to dissatisfaction with the guild's changing attitudes and direction. It quickly became evident that the only prudent course would be to put The Guardians behind us and move on to create a new guild more in line with our own beliefs and leadership styles. Enter Eternal Vigilance - in stark contrast to dictatorial management style of The Guardians, Eternal Vigilance was (and still is) democratic and proud of it. The decision to leave our previous guild and create Eternal Vigilance brought with it success beyond our wildest imaginations. While the composition of Eternal Vigilance can be said to contain an outward influence of its previous guild (EV was founded by several former leaders of TG), the core mechanics of the guild have evolved into the antithesis of its predecessor.

The Early Days

For most of us, the early days were a blur; riddled with MSN chats, nonstop forum posting, and endless brainstorm sessions. It was an exciting time, full of promise - we immediately knew we weren't undertaking a flash in the pan guild, but rather something complex that had in many ways never before attempted. It was a time where we debated various leadership philosophies, government styles, naming themes (eventually settling on the Roman theme you see today), and so forth.

Arcarius set up temporary forums on his own server, and we congregated inside a section called the 'Constitutional Convention'. We'd move back and forth between this forum and a busy MSN chat that ran nearly 24/7 (due mostly to the international composition of the founding group; it was almost evenly split between North America and the United Kingdom). It was during these early days that we established our earliest drafts of the code of conduct, chain of command, decided on the name 'Eternal Vigilance', decided the leaders among ourselves, and much more. In just six days, these temporary forums accumulated over 425 posts and the work we had to show for it constituted hours upon hours of team effort. At that point, we had finished our website and deemed ourselves ready to move on to more permanent forums.

Launch and Beyond

Eternal Vigilance's permanent forums went up on January 12th, 2005 when we released our first website. We gradually began to amass members (most of them belonging to the Counter-Strike: Source Cohort), and we fell nicely into the routine. We encountered our first elections, expanded our cohorts, refined our guild mechanics, and so on - it's been a continual process of evolution since. On May 1st, 2005 we released a new website and forums (the ones you see now, with a Mambo backend bridged with Simple Machine forums). This paved the way to a much more customizable website, where we have been able to script custom features such as the Cohort Administration Center in order to ease daily administration. The customizability of our current website has become an indispensable aspect of the guild, geared towards fostering our community. On February 13th, 2006 we began developing EVpedia, which has proven extremely useful for understanding the complexities of the guild and its rich history.

The Three Stages of Evolution

We have split up the various stages of the guild's evolutions into version numbers. Thus far, it's accepted that we have undergone three significant stages of evolution (EV 1.0, EV 2.0, and EV 3.0). A new stage will emerge when we consider ourselves to have revised the way EV operates significantly enough to warrant a new version number.

EV 1.0 - Initial Form

Eternal Vigilance's structure, even in its earliest form, has always been rather complex. In what we consider EV 1.0, the core ranks as we still know them today did exist. The Legionary Council, the Hastati/Principes/Triarii ranks, cohort ranks - all there. What didn't exist until later revisions was the way they now fluidly interact with each other.

The First Chain of Command

As originally written, this is what we consider the chain of command during EV 1.0:

Article I - Legionary Council

The Legionary Council is composed of three members of different titles but equal power: Legatus, Tribunus, and Praefectus. The goal of the Legionary Council is to maintain a sense of overall direction in the organization, run the elections, and appoint various leaders within the organization. Legionary Council members serve lifetime terms, or until resignation. Upon the resignation of one Legionary Council member, he or she will have the option of appointing a replacement or deferring to the remaining two Legionary Council members.

The Legatus is in charge of disciplinary action, disagreements between members or Cohorts, as well as clarification and interpretation of law as this organization has written it.

The Tribunus is in charge of running elections for both the Legionary Executive and Cohort Executive. The Tribunus will also be responsible for maintaining the recruitment system and maintaining application statuses.

The Prafectus is in charge of organizing guild-wide administrators and their duties. The Praefectus will be responsible for maintaining overall guild efficiency, delegating duties and making sure all Executive appointees understand those duties and goals, and maintaining the security of the guild.

Article II - Legion Executive

The Primus Pilus is the next highest ranking officer under the Legionary Council. While the Legionary Council chiefly performs administrative and supervisory duties for the guild, the Primus Pilus is charged with being the direct, hands-on leader. The Primus Pilus is to ensure that the guild maintains a pleasurable atmosphere and a high level of activity through deciding upon solutions to problems discussed in the Cohort Council, contributing to the Legionary Council, and organizing guildwide events. Primus Pilus is elected and serves a six (6) month term, with no limit on the total number of terms served. Candidates for Primus Pilues must be of a Triarius of good standing, and may hold the office of Primus Pilus in addition to an office within the Cohort Executive.

Article III - Cohort Council

The Cohort Council is the place where Cohort Representatives will both discuss leadership roles and collaborate on guild-wide decisions to be made and enacted by the Primus Pilus. This council will be chairmanned by the Primus Pilus, and its members will include the Centurion and Optio from each division.

Article IV - Cohort Executive

The Cohort is the unit that will be allotted to each different game - a game division. The number of officers in each Cohort will reflect the number and activity of members that participate in that game; the Centurion office is always present in any game division officially approved and supported by the Legionary Council. Each of the other offices will be added as requested by the Centurion and as deemed appropriate in the following order: Optio, Tesserarius, Signifer, and Cornicen. Further offices will be allowed at the request of the Centurion only after intensive review by the Legionary Council, Cohort leadership, and Triarii. The Cohort Executive may request a supplemental ranking system within their own Cohort, and the Legionary Council will grant such power according to the appropriateness of such titles in any given Cohort's game.

The Centurion is the highest ranking officer in each Cohort, and is responsible for leading the Cohort. The Centurion is the elected leader of the Cohort, serving a six (6) month term staggered with other elections, with no limitation on the number of total terms served. Candidates for Centurion must be a Triarius in good standing.

The Optio is the second ranking officer in each Cohort and is responsible for recruitment. The Optio is appointed by the Legionary Council.

The Tesserarius is an officer that performs duties defined by the Centurion. The Tesserarius is appointed by the Centurion, serving until the end of the appointing Centurions' term.

The Signifer is an officer that performs duties defined by the Centurion. The Signifer is appointed by the Centurion, serving until the end of the appointing Centurions' term.

The Cornicen is an officer that performs duties defined by the Centurion. The Cornicen is appointed by the Centurion, serving until the end of the appointing Centurions' term.

Article V - Tribunus Angusticlavii

The Tribunus Angusticlavii is the group of officers (sing. Tribuni Angusticlavii) who will be appointed by the Legionary Council in order to aid said council in administrative duties, such as website maintenance or recruitment. Tribuni Angusticlavii have no rank or power over the Primus Pilus or Cohort Executives, but will be recognized for their responsibility and contribution of time. Tribuni Angusticlavii may also hold any combination of the offices of Primus Pilus and Cohort Executive.

Article VI - Legionary Body

The Triarii (sing. Triarius) are veteran members who have a clear sense of loyalty, duty, and dedication to Eternal Vigilance. Triarii status is granted by the Legionary Council, with input from the Cohort Executive of the branch where each Triarius is active. Triarii will be responsible for keeping the decisions of the Legionary Council in accordance with the goals of the guild and desires of the people.

The Principes (sing. Princeps) are official members who have the right to vote in both the Legionary Executive elections and their current Cohort's Executive elections.

The Hastati (sing. Hastatus) are recruits who aspire to become Principes. Hastati will not be able to vote, as their membership status is not tentative.

EV 2.0 - Introducing the Progression Process

Before EV 2.0, the foundation existed - but it depended heavily on the Legionary Council to manually operate on an unsatisfactorily deep level. Leaders would decide based purely on their own opinion who would progress from Hastati to Principes, and from Principes to Triarii.

We mark the creation of the 3-stage progression process as EV 2.0. Prior, there did not exist the Hastati Projects nor the Triarii Entry Elections. We have since tweaked the system since its introduction, but not by much - what exists now is largely its original form.

EV 2.0 is considered to have released on June 16th, 2005.

EV 3.0 - JRS and Cohort System

EV 3.0 released on December 26th, 2005 can be read about in more detail here. To summarize, read this excerpt from the EV 3.0 announcement:

• A clear and FAIR code of procedure to approach code of conduct violations with. This code of procedure will henceforth be known as the 'Judicial Review System' and will be elaborated on further down.
• A slight restructure at the top of the chain of command; the addition of one seat to the Legionary Council, taking the form of a second Primus Pilus. The Legionary Council will consist of five individuals. The Primus Pilus position's duties will be adjusted accordingly to avoid conflict and provide some much needed focus.
• A dramatic restructuring of the cohort system; how we look at cohorts, how we approach the creation of cohorts, and streamlining the system to better support further expansion into the gaming community.
• The addition of the Tribunus Triarius position, aka the 'Triarii Chairman'
• The introduction of the 'nonessential and essential position' concept.
• The gradual renaming of many ranks within the Eternal Vigilance chain of command, so as to be more true to our Roman hierarchical theme. First renaming: Primus Pilus is now known as Consul.
• Clarification of the chain of command, meaning the chain of command will be re-written in many places so as to alleviate any confusion regarding positions... and also for the purpose of updating the document.
• Amendments to the 'Guild Charter'
• Rectification of what we believe to be an issue stunting the progress of our election system at the Hastati -> Principes level of progression.