Quaestor
Overview: The Arconan Philosophy
As Quaestor, you are expected to set the tone for your House Summit. You are the guy with the vision, that one with the plan, the one who always has an answer (or knows where to find one). Your job has a lot more intangibles than the job of your Aedile or your Battleteam Leaders, and as a result, you have a lot more room to maneuver and personalize your role to fit your own strengths and talents -- do so.
Put broadly, you have to ensure that your House is always making progress, trending upwards, and moving in a positive direction. You don’t have to do that alone, of course, as you’ll have the help of your Proconsul and Consul in overseeing your House. But sometimes, you will be expected to innovate, to inspire, and to lead with originality in a way that your Aedile and your Battleteam Leader may not quite be expected to. Think of projects, think of competitions, think of ways to improve your House, and most importantly think of ways to get your members going.
If vision makes up the primary thrust of your role, the job of communication is only slightly tertiary (and this only because it can conceivably be shifted to your Aedile). Given the nature of the Brotherhood, attrition is a constant drag on Houses, and you must combat it as best you can by building a welcoming, fun community for your members. The easiest way to do that is to talk to them -- get conversations going on IRC, in email threads, on WhatsApp, whatever it takes. Get people talking, get them making friends, and give them a reason to keep coming back for more.
Know your members. Know their time zones, what they do outside the club, what their ambitions in the club are. All of these things will allow you to not only empathize with your members, but understand how to motivate them, where to push and what to avoid.
Most importantly, know their activity. You are the left and right hand of the Proconsul, who serves the Consul. As such, you are responsible for making sure members are properly awarded, promoted, and thanked for their contributions.
Your Job, Simplified
The grittier details are simple:
Your Time Commitment
It is very important that you have IRC access, and use IRC as regularly as possible. This does not mean that you have to be actively chatting with members for hours per day, but it is important that you are visible and accessible as well. You are the face of your House. Your email turnaround time should also be under twenty-four hours, and well under that limit in most cases.
You should be able to set aside a few hours per week to work on House (and Clan) projects, and should have time to answer member questions/solve problems, coordinate things with your Aedile and Battleteam Leaders, and so on.
During a War or Vendettas, you are expected to lead from the front, and should plan on a much heavier time commitment during those times than otherwise. This means increased IRC presence, full participation in any event available, and encouraging members to do the same. Even if you do not like a particular event, participation is contagious, and there is no excuse for a Quaestor in Clan Arcona to miss a participation point.
Aedile
Overview: The Arconan Philosophy
In a lot of ways, the role of the Aedile is the most variable and constantly-changing role in Arcona, because you serve at the behest of your Quaestor and should be primarily picking up their slack and assisting them however they need assistance. You are both a sounding board and an advisor, and together with your Quaestor will be sailing the ship that is your House. Your job is not merely conceptual, however -- you will be responsible for the bulk of the actual writing, planning, and administrating associated with House projects.
Expect to always contribute on clan-wide promotion and award recommendations, and keep track of the activity of your members (especially those above DJK). Battleteam Leaders will look to you first for guidance, and it is your job to act as a buffer between their needs and the Quaestors. Helping keep task lists for both the Quaestor and Battleteam Leaders is also expected.
Learning your members, both in and out of the Brotherhood will be important if you hope to make a move towards Quaestor in the future. These skills will also help you with empathizing with your members needs, and better serving them as well as your Quaestor.
Your Time Commitment
It is important to have IRC presence, but not mandatory if you are keeping up with the workload and in assisting your Quaestor. This is, of course, dependent on the Quaestors availability. In any instance where the Quaestor is away or unavailable for any reason, the Aedile must be prepared to step up and fill the Quaestors duties for the interim. This also includes increasing IRC presence to match with what is expected of a Quaestor.
The grittier details are simple:
Battleteam Leader
Overview: The Arconan Philosophy
In a sense, you are the king of a small castle. Your members should know you personally in a way that they may not know your Quaestor or your Consul -- you are their primary point of contact. It is your immediate responsibility to ensure that they are happy, that they understand where they stand on their paths toward their next rank (as some of them will be Journeymen), and that they feel that they are valuable, contributing members to the Clan as a whole.
Much of your day-to-day responsibilities will be communication-related, between emails and IRC chatting, but you will also be tasked with running competitions (mainly for your team but occasionally for the House or Clan), producing “newsletter”-type emails for your team members that keep them abreast of goings-on and keep them engaged, and assisting your House and Clan Summit in various tasks and projects.
Your Time Commitment
The bulk of your time will be spent communicating with and getting to know your members, and while IRC is preferable for this, it can also be done through email. Battleteam Leader is the more flexible leadership position we have in Arcona, and can either be a spot for a seasoned veteran or an upcoming new member with hopes of learning on the job first hand. Both methods have yielded great leaders for Arcona, and the trend will continue as we go forward.
In short: