BlackLegion wrote:
And perhabs it is the time of the year but i too have the feeling that most Army Champions just don't do their "work" (as volunteer nonetheless) anymore.
I don't know if I would go as far as saying "they're not doing their job" but I will point out that no where have I seen a clear, concise, well articulated set of expectations for an AC written out. Forgive me if this exists but if it does then it's not easy to find (or I'm getting blind in my old age

). This should spell out the type of concrete actions and activities expected of them (as opposed to vague broad terms what an AC is)
For instance they should:
-Articulate a vision for the list explaining the gap it fills and theme. This should be part of the list itself and published as part of the compendium or as an addendum thus providing a litmus test for evaluating the list as well as assisting potential players as in WHY they'd use this list in the first place. This also being public will help keep lists on track if they have to be handed over to another due to life interfering (see below and the lamentable recent events in AdMech land)
-Provide a roadmap intended for the list development. See "Skitarii Legions Roadmap" AdMech thread for a pretty good example of what I feel should have been done from Day 1 regardless of anyone's personal opinions on said path (and the regrettable history therein). Explain how you are going to get from inception to an approved list. If you can't do that then you don't belong as an AC OR this list should be a fan list.
-ACTIVELY recruit play-testers for the list. It isn't enough to simply put it out there and occasionally bump it asking "if there's any takers". Going along with this theme is the ability to help train people with the thought processes that go along with how to perform good play testing. This alone will pay off in droves.
-COLLATE and write findings from play testing. Suggest avenues of research and interaction "let's do this crazy thing and see what happens when we push the list to breaking?". Again, some of us instinctively do this already. Teach others this skill.
-Be held accountable by the ERC to regularly publish updates and accounting for the above. They should be responsible for being available and regularly communicating status back to the ERC and community at large. When/if they are no longer able to manage the duties to be responsible for discharging their responsibilities to another (you start, you're responsible for handing it off to another or better put: finish what you start). This is basic manners and responsibility of leadership, which frankly is what an AC is. This is a non-trivial thing and should cut down a bit having so many half baked never finished lists get started and dropped in the first place.
Some will fear that the above could have a killing effect on the game and community and perhaps so if not handled correctly. However I believe that it will naturally break things into two distinct but complementary camps: Official lists and Fan lists. This is a good thing. There's many people that want to do the latter (a good example IMHO is the Raptors fan list); Let them do it. Not everything must be a tourny list.
Finally we as a community, guided ACTIVELY by the ERC should hold up and recognize members that grow the official lists to approved status. It should be a huge badge of honor.
Of course maybe this is my neurotic yekke nature coming through but honestly this is what I've seen organically happening on successful lists already. Let's help people understand HOW to be an AC better and how ACs can support each other.
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