Ranks and Things

[Sir Benedict]

Currently, the Order does not have any ranks of membership, although ranks are specifically mentioned in the Constitutional Charter. Here is a decree I wrote up that will introduce ranks into the Order:

Although all members of the Equestrian Order of Saint Thomas are equal, the Order, like other chivalric institutions, wishes to make use of various ranks and degrees of membership in order to recognize and honor those members who have served the Order in a special way beyond that which was required of them. Therefore, the following degrees shall be the official ranks of membership within the Order:

Knight
The rank of Knight shall be the first and lowest rank of membership within the Order. All new members shall be inducted into this rank. Members of this rank shall have permission to use the postnomial letters “KST” if male or “DST” if female.

Knight Commander
Knight Commander shall be the second rank of membership within the Order and shall be limited to those who have been elected as officers of the Order or have been appointed to serve as the Order’s Prelate. Members of this rank shall have permission to use the postnomial letters “KCST” if male or “DCST” if female.

Knight Commander with Star
The third rank of membership within the Order, Knight Commander with Star, shall be limited to those who have been elected to lead the Order as its Grand Master. Members of this rank shall have permission to use the postnomial letters “KC*ST” if male or “DC*ST” if female.

Knight Grand Cross
The fourth and highest rank of membership within the Order shall be that of Knight Grand Cross. Membership in this rare and prestigious degree shall be limited to those members of royal or imperial dignity who protect and represent the Order as Patrons. Members of this rank shall have permission to use the postnomial letters “KGCST” if male or “DGCST” if female.

Promotion in rank shall be certified and recorded by the Order’s Chancellor.

While I know ranks are not absolutely necessary, I think it would be a nice touch (and not to mention most of the other chivalric orders have them). If we were to go with ranks, this proposal is the best way to do it in my opinion because it gives higher ranks to those who hold a higher station or do more to serve the Order. If this decree were to go into effect, favoritism would not be an issue.

What do you guys think? I want us to reach a consensus before I decide on anything, or at least just hear your opinions.

[Pan Kristoff Drevo]

The ranks look good. Couldn't have done better myself.

[Sir Benedict]

Thanks! As long as there are no objections, let's go with this. I hereby promulgate this decree.

[Connor Stumperth I]

I was just looking over this list so I could add it to the wiki, and I had an idea. Currently, the only way to be promoted to K/DCST is to be elected, but what if we created a system where service to the community would lead to the next or a new rank.

It's just an idea, so tell me what you think.

[Pan Kristoff Drevo]

It's an interesting idea, but it would have to be finalized some more. For example, how much/what kind of service to which community?

[Sir Benedict]

May 2, 2015 21:57:28 GMT Connor Stumperth I said:

I was just looking over this list so I could add it to the wiki, and I had an idea. Currently, the only way to be promoted to K/DCST is to be elected, but what if we created a system where service to the community would lead to the next or a new rank.

It's just an idea, so tell me what you think.

Thanks for the idea, Connor. I'm glad you're thinking of ways to improve the Order. I've actually given a lot of thought to the different types of promotion systems we could institute. Before I suggested our current promotion system, I considered many other options and weighed their pros and cons. I'll share with you my thought process so you know in what direction I was thinking.

Option 1: Promotion by Election
Pros: Means that the most influential get promoted.
Cons: Complex and hard to execute, also might encourage campaigning and other political shenanigans.

Option 2: Promotion by Grand Magisterial Appointment
Pros: Easy to set up.
Cons: Is undemocratic.

Option 3: Promotion by Time Served
Pros: Means that the most experienced members get promoted.
Cons: Experience itself is not always reason enough for honoring someone.

Option 4: Promotion by Forum Activity
Pros: Encourages activity.
Cons: Might encourage spam and disproportionately rewards those who have more time to spend online.

Option 5: Promotion by Office (what we have now)
Pros: Easy to establish, gives higher rank to those who (generally and in theory) do more to serve the order.
Cons: Might encourage people to run for office who care about the title more than serving their brother Knights.

These are the five options I came up with, and I chose to propose the last one because I thought it would be best. Now that I've shared my thoughts and suggestions, I'm interested in hearing other proposals. Are there any more insights about the above 5 options that I missed? Are there more options that y'all can think of that might be better than what we have now? Is there some way we could mix these options and create a hybrid system? I like the way it is set up now, but I'm interesting in hearing your ideas.

[Connor Stumperth I]

As a possibility, we could have the elected positions choose who to promote, as I think that is how most Orders do it. If we would do that, it would be undemocratic, but that's not really the point of a rank, is it? The point of a rank is to recognize a member for their accomplishments and service to the Order.

In my opinion, a good way to do this would be to create a list of requirements in several categories which would have to be met in order to be nominated to the "council." Once they are nominated, the council would deliberate and decide if they want to promote that member or not.

The council could just be the Grand Master, Grand Marshal, Chancellor, or any combination of other people that we think would work as an unbiased decision-making body.

I thought of some possible requirements that we could use to incorporate elements from your other promotion options:

• A certain time in the order before promotion (a few months maybe)
• Activity on the Forums (Must have been active/posted in the last month)

I think holding an office could still be a way to get promoted, as that requires service to the Order too.

[Sir Benedict]

I think that would work. One problem I see is that the council may be tempted to promote too many people too much, but if we have fixed service periods between promotions it would minimize that. We'd just have to be careful about it so that we don't end up with too many generals and not enough privates, to use a military analogy. A second problem is that it would open the door for political intrigue and underhand deals. It's not that I don't trust us to abstain from obviously corrupt behavior, but it is human nature to reward your friends and punish your enemies. Even unconsciously, I fear that those on the council would look more at how much they like a candidate than how deserving they are. But overall, I'm not opposed to your proposal.

Would anyone else like to give their two cents?

[Pan Kristoff Drevo]

I think this could work. But, Benedict, you do have a point when you say "too many generals and not enough privates". Not that we're in need of an army right now! But it just wouldn't do to have everyone commanding and nobody carrying out the commands.