Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Eric Turner]

--- In WarriorRules@yahoogroups.com, "grimmetttim" <grimmetttim@y...>
wrote:
> OK--I'll bite--what is the larger issue here? TBG

Tim and the Warrior List,

The larger issue here is a group individuals have questioned the EC
decisions on how or the way NASAMW should become a member of the IWF.
This is long email but if you care about the how and why of the IWF
membership, you will read this. If this raises more questions, please
contact an elected officer, your regional representative, and me
directly.

The EC started picking the method of becoming a member from 4
different method of paying for membership. The 4 choices are as
follows:

"We have established we wish to offer our members SOME may to join
the IWF. As I remember here are the different venues for joining the
IWF

1. NASAMW pays for ALL members to join.

2. NASAMW pays for a limited number of members ( 10, 30, etc. ).

3. NASAMW members elect to join the IWF and pay the fee plus
membership dues.

4. NASAMW raise membership dues by $2.00 and the rule captains use
the $2.00 to support the cause. ex. DBM members would elect to use
$1.50 of the 2 to join IWF and the captains could buy a better
trophies for a special event or sportsmanship."

EC members voted on the above as follows:

#1) One vote
#2) 5 votes
#3) 7 votes
#4) 2 votes

From the vote, 2 and 3 were the most favored. This led to a P&P, that
I requested a final vote.

"P&P 04_1: NASAMW members may elect to join the International
Wargaming Federation (IWF) at the cost of 1 £ per year at the
conversion rate to US$ effective on July 1 each year. NASAMW will pay
this membership fee for any officer who wishes to become an IWF
member. The president must appoint an IWF representative. The IWF
representative will be a voting member of the EC.

PLEASE speak up if you a problem with this. I will call for a vote
once everyone has had a chance to speak out."

The note at the end was an opportunity for EC members to raise their
concerns. On Feb 13, I declared the motion passed with 7 yes, 0 no,
and 0 abstained votes.
This unleashed a wave of negative postings on the DBM list. I post
the Open Letter to example to the EC's action in brief and to invite
members to ask questions. A group of members have voiced their
dislike for the P&P and have posed that NASAMW should pay for all
members to be IWF members. Here are the considerations the EC used
for the final P&P and the reasons why make all members of NASAMW is a
terrible decision.

1: IWF policies: Member Orgs get 1 vote for every 10 members to bid
on host location the IWF championship. The Championship must be held
in the southern hemisphere every 3 years.

The first policy is why the other group wishes for NASAWM to join in
mass. Their reasoning is we will have a big and better chance of
getting the IWF Championship in a North American (NA) city. At first
I believed this too. But as I found out the more about the IWF, I
discovered it was very bad route for NASAWM. The second policy makes
a NA city a candid only 2 out of 3 years.
2: IWF politics: The IWF is a growing org, which is seeking new
members and member org. They wish to have national orgs like us to be
members instead of regional ones. Because I have been told that South
African government helps pays for its wargaming athletes to play in
international competition. Since they want to grow, they promise a
host location in a country to get a national org to join. This will
reduce a NA city's chance to host the championship to 1 in 3 years.

3: IWF Foundries and largest block of votes: The Brits and S.
Africans started the IWF and are the leaders. They will be the single
largest voting block. So for us, we will just another member even
with all of NASAMW members joining. They will want the championship
in England. So now, NA city's is down 1 in 4 years.

4: This a personal opinion on the subject made by reading and listing
to IWF members. They started the IWF to have fun on vacation. I
believe most of the people traveling to the IWF events turn it into a
vacation for them and their family. So, the host city must have an
international appeal for travel and fun. This is why it went New
Orleans. They had a blast. And Rome is a no brainer too. Let's find
cities in NA that can meet this requirement in March. Las Vegas,
Miami, Orlando, Mexico City, Cozumel, LA, or you could the winter
wonderland like Toronto, NYC, and Chicago. Bottomline, there are more
international cities around which fit the fun and travel requirement
better. Now, the NA city's chance is 1 in 5 years.

5: Currently, IWF is a single rules org. By joining and working
together over time with the other members as a team, we may be able
to change the IWF into a multi-rule system org. If we join in mass,
and try to throw our weigh around, we will isolate ourselves from the
international gaming community. Worst, we will be thrown out. But we
could join and work with them on international interps for DBM. As we
build good rapport inside the org, we will be able to make change.

Money is what is all about. If we have 250 NASAMW members, it cost us
$ 500 a year to join IWF in mass. Depending on the frequency which we
may host the IWF Championship, it will cost NASAMW $1500 to $2500 in
membership dues per host event. Yes, I made the math simple but the
point is still the same. This is a large sum of money for little
return and funded by all NASAMW members not just the DBMer. The EC
saw this a good compromise to start NASAMW membership into the IWF.

Eric Turner
NASAMW President