Hi! I’m Makyo or Madison Scott-Clary and I’m a space cadet! And also president! Last year, Chipotle made an introductory post, and I never did the same, and now I’m a month and a half late. Shame on me.
Anyhow, I’m Makyo. I’ve been writing various sorts of things for years, natch, but I suppose organization is more pertinent in this role. I’ve been editor-in-chief of [adjective][species] since its inception back in 2011. During my time there, I’ve helped organize content on the site, managed members and authors, and managed side-projects such as the Furry Survey and panels at conventions. In addition to that, I’m an editor at Thurston Howl Publications, working on anthologies such as Arcana and responding to queries. I’ve also done other little organizational bits and bobs here and there, such as leading a programming track at FC and managing task organization at work.
All that to say that I hope most to offer what I can in terms of organization and member engagement. That sounds like a buzzword, but I really mean it: members should be actively engaged with the guild. Members get benefits, they have the right to vote (both on Guild issues and the Coyotls), and they have the chance to suggest changes and ideas for the Guild’s future. I want to do what I can to help facilitate that.
I’m definitely a bit of a process maven, so I’m organizing discussions and ideas through Trello boards and concomitant Slack channels.
Goals:
[ul][li]Move the forums off of Sean’s server. We’ve been promising him we would for a while now, but we should actually do so. There are a few ideas and some possible solutions being discussed on Trello board and in the #guild-forum channel on Slack.[/li]
[li]We’ve also been trying to move the Guild’s PayPal account out from under Poetigress’ name and into something more general for quite a while. We’ll be working on that, and discussing it on the Trello board and #finances Slack channel.[/li]
[li]Discuss the membership requirements and membership benefits with members and non-members alike. This includes talking about self-published authors, which has come up quite often in the past. Member benefits discussed on the Trello board and #member-benefits Slack channel; membership requirements discussed on the Trello board and the #membership Slack channel.[/li]
[li]The Guild has several resources that may be utilized by everyone, and a few that are for members only. I’d like to talk about what they are and what can be done with them. This includes FWG University (Trello board and #fwg-university Slack channel) and the Guild blog (Trello board and #guild-blog Slack channel). Additionally, the FurryWriting.Life site has been set up to host little writing projects, including the Guild Member Knowledge Base, and if any members have suggestions or ideas for guild adjacent projects, we can discuss that, naturally, on the Trello board and #fwlife Slack channel.[/li]
[li]We have conduct guidelines, but there are perhaps some additional discussions to be had around that, specifically around each of the Guild spaces; for example, Slack guidelines may be different than forum guidelines, which both may be different than Telegram guidelines. These are discussed on the Trello board and the #conduct channel on Slack[/li]
[li]Finally, there are some general things that ought to be discussed. What does the Guild offer non-member authors? What does the Guild offer readers? Both of those groups, after all, are represented under our mission statement! And of course, there’s a Trello board and the #guild-goals Slack channel.[/li][/ul]
As a final note, my goal is to lead the Guild, not the members - there are moderators set for the forums, Slack, and Telegram groups (a recent, trivial update to the conduct guidelines lists them) to help guide individuals, and I have explicitly recused myself from moderation. Not to say I don’t love you all! Just specifying my focus ^^
Duroc, Sean, Poetigress, and Chipotle have all set a high bar for leadership, and I hope that I can meet that. The Guild has come so far, so let’s aim to take it further! If you have any yaps to yap at me or punches to throw, hit me up here (though please not on the shoutbox, as I’m not here often enough to check it), in the Slack as @makyo, on Telegram as @DrabMakyo, or by email to fwg@drab-makyo.com.
Cheers!
