Consul's Handbook

This article is part of the series:

Handbooks

Position Handbooks

Grand Master's Handbook Fist of the Brotherhood Handbook Consul's Handbook Proconsul's Handbook

Consul's Handbook

Position Overview

The Consul of a Clan is the primary leader of the unit, and acts as a liaison between the Grand Master, Dark Council, and the Clan’s members. Reporting directly to the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master, Consuls are responsible for representing the interests of their units while ensuring a positive and engaging experience for their members within the larger Dark Jedi Brotherhood. A Consul’s authority over their Clans is limited only by the directions of the Grand Master and the requirements of the Covenant.

With this power, however, comes even greater responsibility and accountability.

Consuls are part of the Electorate, which elects the Grand Master and Justicar, and votes on proposed amendments to the Covenant. They are also responsible for guiding a Clan’s direction which ranges from setting and maintaining the fictional story arc of the clan, ensuring an active and engaged Summit, and awarding recognition to their membership. They are expected to, at a minimum, fulfill the Core Responsibilities of the Consul position.

Core Responsibilities

We define the following responsibilities as ‘Core’ as they ensure a positive experience for the members within the clan and align with their expectations of their Consul.

Communication

• Engage regularly with the Clan membership via Discord, email, and any other communication platforms used by the club.
• Maintain a 24-hour turn around on communications with the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master, and Dark Council on urgent matters.
• Be present on Clan communication platforms (Discord, Email etc.) so that members know that the Consul is available and approachable.
• Have a basic understanding of the Chat Platform (Discord) and the administrative functions available as Consul. Understand how the Chat Platform (Discord) permissions work, as you will be the lead administrator on the Clan’s category.

Clan Management

• Generate opportunities for clan members to participate in competitions; whether at the Battleteam, House, Clan, or DJB levels.
• Ensure members are properly rewarded for their activities via awards and promotions.
  • The MAA suggests members be rewarded every 6-9 months. More frequent awards may be appropriate depending on the type of award and the member’s activity.
  • If you are a new Consul or onboarding new Summit members a best practice is to ‘audit’ or otherwise review the current standings of each member in the Clan to determine if additional awards are warranted.
• Empower the Clan Summit to better serve the members by relaying pertinent information from the Dark Council to the Clan Summit.
• Speak for the Clan Summit and members in Dark Council and Dark Summit discussions on changes to the clubs systems and policies.
• Prevent a single-point of failure by empowering your leaders. You cannot do it all nor can you expect your Summit to manage if they are not prepared.
  • Ensure that the Proconsul is given the tools or guidance to fulfill the core responsibilities of a Consul.
  • Educate Quaestors, Aediles, and/or Battleteam Leaders on how to fulfill the requirements of their respective position.
  • Find stretch opportunities for your Summit to fulfill the responsibilities of the next highest level while providing coaching and feedback.
• Publish a monthly report that covers news and information at both the DC and Clan level, and highlight sub-unit reports.
• Guide Clan Summits and members through major club events such as Great Jedi Wars or Rites of Supremacy.
• Mediate issues that arise when two members or leaders have a difference of opinion or escalate a situation.

Dark Council Engagement

• Represent the Clan by voting as a member of the Electorate on proposed changes and appointments produced by the Dark Council.
• Coordinate ad-hoc projects or events with the Dark Council and other Clan Leaders.

Above and Beyond

The following responsibilities are considered to be indicative of the club's more successful unit leaders.

• Lead by example during Great Jedi Wars or Rites of Supremacy:
  • Participate in competitions while offering assistance to members who might be new, tepid, or confused by events and competition details.
• Engage with Clan Summit and Clan members beyond just cursory link-sharing in Clan-level events or competitions.
  • Don’t just paste a url of a competition into chat and say: “Go do the events!” Work down-stream with the Summit to reach out to members individually or in small groups to encourage and empower them to participate.
• Organize Clan Projects that empower Clan Summits to provide better activity and service to members of the Clan.
  • This can be Wiki work, Role Playing activities, or worldbuilding project work that gets members involved with aspects of the Clans assets.
• Actively manage the on-going Clan storyline and allow the clan members to help design and lead the direction of the Clan’s plot.
• Use Metric data on units published by the Dark Council to strategize on how to better improve the Clan’s health.
• Identify and develop your succession plan. While it’s easy to identify a Consul > Proconsul > Quaestor > Aedile > Battleteam Leader path for succession, reality is seldom so simple. Locating those individuals who have aspirations to higher level leadership, creating opportunities for them, and training them in how to lead (regardless of their current role) ensures a diverse pool of future candidates that can be called upon.

Managing Your Clan

Each clan is unique, just as each Consul is unique. What may have been a great success with Clan A may not generate any interest from Clan B. It is important for you to find the balance between your objectives and the desires of your Clan.

As you begin to manage your clan the following three key areas of focus, time management skills, delegation, and getting organized, are critical to creating a balanced experience.

Time Management

The first and most readily controllable variable is setting realistic expectations for yourself. No one knows your schedule better than you do. And since you are aware of it, you can be in control of it and compensate accordingly.

For example, say you know that you work 9am-6pm EST and can’t access a computer or have the ability during that time or that you work night shifts from 6PM-4AM CST and are limited to mobile access only during that time. Perhaps you have a really busy week preparing for midterms/finals. Transparently share details of your schedule with your Summit, then let them know if things deviate or change. This allows them to better cover accordingly for you or communicate to members or external leadership on your behalf. This also demonstrates personal accountability while establishing personal time constraints. Transparency and communication are your best weapon.

The second thing you can control to be better at managing your time is to set up “office hours” or “sessions” where you let people know you’ll be available. This could be as simple as “Hey, I’m jumping on voice chat from 7-9PM EST. Feel free to join while I work on this report!” If that kind of social communication isn’t your strong suit or comfort level, you can also set aside time (thirty minutes here, an hour or two there) just to be available.

Even if no one joins or asks or follows up with you, you’re setting an example as a leader on how to be transparent with your time and availability, which will lead to better and more open communication and improve your perception as a leader.

Lastly, be aware of time zones, including your own. The DB supports members and leaders from all across the globe. If you have members that are in European or Indo-Pacific time zones, but you live in Canada on EST, it’s important to be aware that they feel like they can still reach you or someone from the Summit. This should not be interpreted as, “you need to be available across all time zones. Rather, it’s how you communicate and enable the means of those members to contact you. Whether that’s, send me a DM and I’ll respond when I’m awake or please send an email.

Delegation

When you delegate authority, you are empowering your Summit to be leaders, not just followers.

Delegating tasks can be one of the hardest things for a leader in any role to do. It involves a lot of trust in others, a willingness to take control out of your own hands, and the accompanying worries of something not working out the way you had hoped. However, any Consul unwilling to delegate tasks to their Summits is setting themselves and their team up for failure.

Dividing up your workload becomes easier when you have a list. This can be on a piece of paper at your desk, a digital tool like Google Keep or Apple Notes, but making a list helps visualize what work needs to get done. Then, it becomes easier to identify which tasks are more important, less important, have deadlines, or are open-ended. This allows you to then prioritize tasks, which helps with assigning the right tasks to the right people.

You never want to have a “single-point of failure” when it comes to task management. If you are worried that someone might not complete their assigned task or responsibility on time, make sure you have a backup plan. In the example of assigning a task to a Quaestor, make sure for example that the Aedile would be able to cover. After that, you have a Proconsul that can step in and assist. If all three somehow fail to complete the task, that’s where you as Consul can step in and make sure it’s delivered.

In any variant of the above scenario, it is important to always close out a thread with feedback. If something did not go the way you wanted it to, make sure they know what they could do better next time. You never want to talk down or belittle a subordinate, but it’s important that they know that the task was not done how you envisioned it. Your opportunity as a leader is identifying when a task needed to be completed as you envision (e.g., creation of a container competition where all sub-competitions have the same start and end date) versus where it’s appropriate for the leaders you delegated to too insert their own unique perspective (e.g., we need a new story arc for the clan and a QUA creates a plot to conquer a planet and you were thinking of a battle with a crime lord).

It’s equally important to listen to what they have to say as well. Maybe you could have done a better job communicating to them what you wanted. Feedback is a two-way street. Having open conversations like these, however, will go a long way to trusting others with responsibility and being a good delegator. Not only that, but when successful you’ll build confidence in your Summit and help make sure they’re ready to take on different and more tasks.

Be careful not to over-delegate. At the end of the day, it’s the Consul’s job to make sure everything that needs to be done is done. If an important task isn’t being completed, the Consul should be willing and able to step in if necessary to ensure it doesn’t fall through the cracks.

Getting Organized

It’s hard to be an effective leader that manages their time and is great at delegation when you’re not able to maintain a basic, healthy level of organization. Consuls have a lot of responsibility when it comes to the various data, reports, information, and sensitive information passed on from the Dark Council or other club leadership. The best way to stay organized is to utilize tools such as a Calendar, a notepad, a spreadsheet, or even something as advanced as a scrum or Kanban board—whatever “tool” you are comfortable using.

Google Calendar is a free, excellent resource, however, that lets you set reminders with custom triggers such as “notify me 1 week before we are supposed to have our Clan Artifacts submitted to the Regent” or “remind me every 3 months to do an audit of awards given out to members of the Clan”.

However you choose to organize yourself, even if it’s sticky notes left on your monitor or written in sharpie on the inside of your hand, will be key to being an effective leader at any level.

This should be shared with your Summit as well. As we discussed above, you should be delegating and encouraging your Summit leaders to plan and execute their own activities. You do not want to create a situation where you’re preparing to launch a clan level event only for it to conflict with house level competitions that are already in flight.

Further, you should seek to add Dark Council level events (e.g., GJW, RoS, etc.) so yourself and your Summit can plan accordingly.

Interacting with Clan Members

A Consul must have a high degree of patience and be able to deal with all members in a respectful manner. A Clan consists of a wide variety of personalities and cultures, each with their own ideas and thoughts. Listening and responding to all inquiries and conversations in a calm and rational manner is key to maintaining healthy relationships with members of the Clan and any guests you might foster in your public communications channel. The Consul, although generally not expected to do so by members, should be active in the various competitions that are ongoing. This helps build the, “Hey, the Consul is one of us” mentality, and provides you with a better baseline to align with members. It also helps you spot-check what works or doesn’t work for you/your members and allows you to provide constructive feedback to the competition runners. This becomes very important when dealing with Vendettas, cross-Clan events, or a club-wide competition.

Communication is key to having a healthy interaction with Clan members. This can be accomplished in a few key ways such as:

• Being active or present on Discord, the club’s primary communication platform
• Having a fairly quick turn around on email communications from both members and leadership
• And publishing regular Clan reports that feature interaction with members, highlighting their accomplishments, giving insight into larger-club events and news, and in acknowledging the work of the sub-unit leaders.

Interacting with non-Clan Members

While you’re responsible for your Clan, there will also be times when you must interact with members from outside of your Clan, and might encounter situations where you have to mediate between Clan members and non-Clan members. If you can’t resolve a dispute on your own, reach out to the Consul(s) of the members involved and see if they can help. The Justicar is also available to help mediate disputes between members.

At all times, you are representing your Clan, and as such, you are expected to act with both maturity and a level head. How you interact with others will have a direct impact on how they perceive your Clan.

Discipline

While the DJB is a place for friends and fun, it’s still ultimately an organization that has protections in place for its community and its members. In some cases, one of your members and/or leaders might violate the clubs codes of conduct (the Covenant). The most common examples tend to be altercations that take place in chat rooms/DMs (Discord) or intentionally/unintentionally cheating in a competition (Plagiarism, copying trivia answers, etc.). In each of these examples, it’s important to remain calm, isolate the facts, and make sure you are in open communication with the Justicar or their staff, and any and all relevant parties.

In a real-time chat, for example, do not be afraid to leverage your admin and put a “that’s enough” or “let’s change topics,” into chat. In extreme cases, a Consul (as the primary admin of a Clan’s channel) can mute a chat or individuals. This can help “slow” things down so that everyone can get onto the same page. In events like this, it’s important to follow up afterwards as well to make sure everyone on both sides understand what happened and why someone was triggered or set off.

Other times, simply isolating the facts or gathering information helps reveal the truth of what might have transpired. Never jump to accusations or throw blame until evidence has been presented.

Collaboration With Other Leaders

The Consul role balances between strategic engagement with the Dark Council and tactical execution of activities at the Clan level. Collaboration is critical to staying informed of upcoming events, both at the Brotherhood and peer Consul level, and maintaining consistency in your Clan’s activities. What follows are examples of collaboration with the various leaders of the Brotherhood.

Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master

• While you are granted a significant amount of latitude to manage your Clan it is important to keep the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master informed of overall plans for activities, story lines, and requests for engagement from the various Dark Council members
• Similar to a real-life job, as your ‘boss’, they’re also available to mentor you and provide guidance. They provide a safe space, free of judgment, to discuss ideas for your Clan and how you would execute them.
• You should consult with the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master before selecting a Proconsul or initiating any major changes in your Clan.

Dark Council and Other Consuls

• Consuls – As it is necessary to foster good relations with the other Clans, Consuls interact with one another on a daily basis, using one another as resources for help or as a point of contact should there be any problems with members from each Clan.
• Master at Arms – As Consul, you are in regular contact with the MAA staff as they review all position appointments, medals, and promotions. If you believe a member has earned a medal higher than a Sapphire Blade or may be ready for an Elder promotion, consult with the MAA. Otherwise, go ahead and submit your recommendation through the website for their review.
• Other Dark Councilors – As a Consul, you are likely to have at least occasional interactions with other members of the Dark Council, including the Voice, Herald, Fist, Regent, and Justicar. You will be their primary points of contact for matters affecting your Clan that fall within their respective domains.

Proconsul

• The Proconsul is the second in command of a Clan. They are not just the Consul’s assistant, but serve as a viable backup to the role when needed, and bridge the gap between the Consul and the House Summits.
• Proconsuls may also be called upon to vote as temporary members of the Electorate in the absence of their Consul.

While they are not guaranteed the position of Consul, Consuls are expected to train them to be able to fulfill any and all of the responsibilities in the event of something happening to the Consul.

Core Requirements

• Perform any of the core requirements of a Consul.
• Assist the Consul as a liaison to the members and Clan Summit.
• 24-48 hour turnaround on communications (Discord, Email, etc.)

Above and Beyond

• Discuss Dark Summit and Clan Summit matters with the Consul in private, while always supporting them in public.
• Work with other units and the Dark Summit to find solutions to common problems or challenges that arise across units.
• Be willing to cover for any Clan Summit members, including Quaestor, Aediles, and Battleteam Leaders when needed.
• Mediate/resolve conflicts or disagreements between Clan summit and/or members.

Quaestors / Aediles / Battleteam Leaders

• Much like your Proconsul, you should be in contact with your House Summit at all times. Through them you will know the state of your Houses in a much more intimate fashion. As well, you must at all times ensure that the House Summit is performing their job up to your standards, and is a positive force on their unit.

General Membership

• While it may seem counterintuitive, this is the most important role within the Brotherhood. The general membership far surpasses the individuals in leadership and are the reason the organization exists. They participate in competitions, create works of fiction and art, game, and socialize.
• It is important to keep a pulse on what activity your Clan wants to participate in as it will vary with time. Are they focused on gaming this quarter whereas last quarter it was fiction? Are a group of them attempting to raise their ranks in a specific society (e.g., Shroud Syndicate)? This will inform what types of competitions you want to run to maximize their enjoyment.

Operational Expectations

Although most of the duties involved with the Consulship will vary due to the dynamic nature of the Brotherhood and the Clans, certain duties are expected from all Consuls. The below list will give you a general idea of what your daily engagement may look like:

• Welcoming new members to the Clan. This is simply done by keeping an eye on your email inbox and checking when the MAA sends an email showing a transfer request from either the SA or the Rogues. It is recommended that you maintain and leverage the system-generated welcome email template to open the lines of communication with new members joining your Clan.
• Overseeing promotion and medal requests done by the House Summits. Generally keep an eye on whom the House Summits award medals and promos to. It is recommended to house a shared document to track previous discussion on recognition for your Clan members.
  • It will be your responsibility to submit awards that are beyond the range of your House Summit to submit (e.g., Sapphire Blade). You should still have your House Summit write the recommendation, review it for accuracy, and then post on their behalf.
• Track House competitions being created by the Summit and members and the corresponding participation levels.
• Provide coaching to your House Summits, whether it’s feedback on member engagements to how to structure competitions. Feedback is a two-way street, seek feedback from your House Summit on your performance. Be open-minded and ensure that your Summit has a “safe place to fail”, which is to mean, they will make mistakes as they’re learning. Do not seek to punish errors but see them as opportunities to help improve your Summit.
  • Remember, your House Summit should be your future Clan Summit.
• Run and keep track of all Clan-wide competitions. This gives the opportunity for the Clan members to possibly get a higher quality level of medal, as well as stand out more visibly to the rest of their House or Clan.
• Monitor all DB-wide activity, specifically DB-wide competitions. Keeping track of the status of the membership in regards to activity during major DB events (such as a GJW or RoS) is very important. Not only will the activity of the members make the determination on how your Clan is positioned with respect to others, it also opens up a large opportunity to allow the membership to earn prestigious medals and traditionally opens doors to promotions as well.
• Keep track of general communications between the Clan members via Discord and email). This is a vital task. Do not assume a single forum of communication will reach all members. Assume that a message will need to be communicated multiple times for awareness and action (e.g., Vendetta prep and participation)
  • Be mindful of frequency, while it should be your objective to have high participation the Brotherhood is built around member’s participating in the time and means that engage them.
  • Make an effort to be regularly available via Discord and email. This is to make you more accessible to the general membership, making them feel more comfortable with talking to you about anything that they wish. It’s a leadership function.
• Compile quarterly reports for the Grand Master, Deputy Grand Master and their assistants. The Grand Master generally will give you a format for your report to follow as to let them know what’s going on with the Clan. At the very minimum, you’ll want to put in the status of the Clan as a whole, the status of the various Houses, activities done within the month, the status of various projects, and people of interest within the Clan whether good or bad.
• Send out regular Consul reports to your Clan, preferably monthly. These should be focused primarily on Clan-wide news, ongoing projects, and pertinent news concerning the rest of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. It should also highlight the current competitions as well as point to members who have been going above and beyond what is required of them.
• Attempt to run at least one major inter-Clan competition per year. This allows for a vast amount of activity, and generally are very spirited affairs. This usually is a serious undertaking, as the preparations for this take a few months to completely work out for all the Clans involved. This also helps to develop your skills in running and helping to manage a large project.
• Assist the other Dark Council members with various DB-wide projects. The Dark Council at any given point in time has various large projects going on that they need assistance with. As a member of the Council, and a representative of your Clan, it is your duty to lend a helping hand, as well as familiarize yourself with other high-level responsibilities and personalities within the Brotherhood.
• Attempt to perform a meaningful project that will benefit the Clan. This can take many forms, so this is up to you. However, your superiors expect you to bring a higher level of involvement to the Clan, and anything that you can do to enhance the well-being of your Clan will be viewed favorably. Use your imagination, and you should be ok.
• Assign special projects to various Clan members. This mainly deals with various projects that you’d like to be done, but either don’t have the necessary time or most likely don’t have the skill set to handle the project. This benefits the Clan, and provides an opportunity for the member that is executing the project to shine in front of a lot of important people, which will be helpful when promotion or medal recommendation time comes along.
• Assist with running major House-wide competitions. This is mainly as a back-up to the House Summits, although if you wish you can provide more input. Definitely an important task, as more minds working on a common project tend to improve the quality of the project. Also ensure that you train new leaders in how to run an effective competition.

Position Checklist

This is something that you should act upon immediately upon your appointment to Consul. The rest will follow and should be accomplished within the suggested time frame:

Immediately after your appointment

• Contact the former Consul, and talk to them so that you can receive any and all of the old information that the former Consul had access to. It is also a good way to get yourself quickly caught up on the state of the Clan.
  • A best practice is to set up a shared folder (e.g., gDrive) to house this information between leaders to avoid file size restrictions in Discord or email.
• Get in contact with the Grand Master and discuss your role as Consul and what is expected of you. This is a good opportunity to discuss your Clan with someone who is not a current member, but who has knowledge of it.
  • Take this opportunity to align yourself on any Dark Council level discussions that may require your input.
• Communicate with your Proconsul, if one is in place, and advise him or her of your expectations and what you hope to accomplish during your tenure. Also, give a brief description of your general contact time frames, what method of contact best works for you, and general working/leadership style would be of great help to them. Requesting a status update on anything that you should be aware of—Projects in motion, etc.—should be requested at this time.
  • If no Proconsul is in place, your first task would be to appoint a Proconsul or open applications for the position, and then submit that member for consideration to the Grand Master and Deputy Grand Master for final approval.
• Email your House Summit members. Give them a general run down giving your expectations and what you hope to accomplish during your tenure. Also, give a brief description of your general contact time frames, what method of contact best works for you, and general working/leadership style would be of great help to them. If you were previously a Quaestor within the Clan, appointing your replacement should be a top priority. Requesting a status update on anything that you should be aware of—Projects in motion, etc.—should be requested at this time.
• Familiarize yourself with the Discord commands for managing your Clan text and voice channels. Seek to understand if there are any hidden channels available only to Clan title holders to ensure you’re not accidentally added when permissions are synced.
• Publish a report providing an overview of what you expect to achieve and your general vision for the Clan. This will enable others to offer support based upon their experiences as well as a public promise you are making on what activities you’ll deliver on. It will be important to track and share progress on these promises as you progress in your role.
• Compile a list of any other projects, competitions, or other uncompleted work by the outgoing Consul and triage them. This is especially critical for awards and promotions that are awaiting the Consul’s input.
  • This is important to ensure Clan story lines are maintained. It’s rare that you’ll assume command at a time where a story arc is finished. The Clan members should get to bring the existing story arc to conclusion.
• Run a quick competition. Mainly of the fast and easy kind, this is usually traditional amongst the Clans.

Within two weeks of your appointment

• Ensure that any empty spots in the Clan and House leadership are now filled.
• Ensure that you are on all the right distribution lists, and that you have moderator/admin access to the correct locations.
• Have a solid idea of the current strengths and weaknesses of the Clan, and have a plan in place to address what needs to be fixed.
• Work with your Proconsul on a checklist of what needs to be done with the Clan, and divide the work between you both.
• Complete any tasks that were left uncompleted by the previous Consul, if possible.
• Award any medals or promotions that were pending by the previous Consul.
• Conclude your first competition and award the proper medals.
• Have a clear short-term goal of what you want to do with the Clan, and commence working towards it.
• Ensure that the House Summits are reporting properly to you.
• Send a report to the Grand Master/Dark Council indicating the state of the Clan as you see it and give updates of your tasks, goals and the current leadership.

Weekly Tasks

• Ensure that you communicate with your House Summits on projects, status updates, and general engagement.
• Properly note the activity done by the House Summits.
• Ensure that any newly arriving members receive a greeting email from you; this may be a daily thing.
• Keep in regular contact with your members.

Monthly tasks

• Compile the monthly Clan report.
  • This should include status on all projects underway within the Clan and/or are upcoming to garner interest.
• Evaluate all of your subordinate leaders, ensuring that they are capable of performing their duties.
• Award any medals and/or promotions for the month’s activities. While you may issue awards on a quarterly to 6 month basis, newer members should receive more timely awards based upon their activity to encourage their engagement.
  • New members should generally receive merit awards in order, starting with a Dark Cross, so ensure that you are reviewing members for awards frequently enough to keep up with their merit medals.
• Ensure that there are plans for a decent amount of competitions and such for the Clan in the coming month(s).

Quarterly Expectations

• Ensure that one major intra or inter-Clan competition is being worked on.
• Ensure that the Clan Summit has been properly rewarded for their work.
• Ensure that any big projects are kept on track. A detailed status report is essential.
• Try to ensure that at least one Clan-wide project has been completed.

Annual Expectations

• Write a “State of the Clan” report for your members and the Dark Council including relevant statistics, and completed projects.

Document(s)

Consul's Handbook