Some musings on Joining and Recruiting.

Day 1,903, 22:33 Published in USA USA by Clint Carmel

As of earlier this morning, I joined my first political party, WTP. If things work out, then it will also be my last. If not, then at least it shall be the first of many. And you always remember your first.

I will devote a future article to that particular party, once I know them better. Today, however, I simply desire to discuss the act of joining itself.

First of all, I must give credit to their recruiter, Alleyrat. Here in the eUS-- and I am sure this is true for many countries-- there are many political parties. We have a top 5, but there are at least a dozen more. There are even more micro-parties that have only a few members each. Perhaps these are remnants of earlier days, or vanity political parties, or fringe political parties. And the awesomeness that is "Serious Monkey Business" can not be overstated. But in any event, there are many of them.

Out of the many, many political parties in this country, major and minor, I will share a little tidbit that any admin (who can access e-mail and messages) can verify: of all these parties, only two (2) had their recruiters send me a letter of greeting.

I don't claim to be anyone interesting or unusual. But I'm a new citizen over level 13, and I imagine I can be of some minimal value to any party I join. If not now, well certainly in the months to come.

I'm a fair man. I looked at all the top 5 political parties, and even some of the smaller ones. I visited websites, gained 'visitor' access where allowed, joined various #irc channels. I even corresponded with the AFA, as I really do believe myself to be a fair man. Ultimately, their size worked against them in my particular case: I can't help them climb any higher in rank or size, and one of my own goals is 'to feel useful.'
But you will note, if you look at the comments I have written on Nuno's posts and elsewhere that I have been civil and even-handed to them.

We have some amazing parties in the eUS. I was very impressed by the websites of the American Military Party and the Federalist Party-- Finger clearly put much work into her powerpoint slides for ebabes--, and I have only good things to say about their #irc channels. The USWP has the first guy who posted in my thread on the eUS forums. I thought Vox Populi had a spartan but useful site.

In the end, it just came down to recruitment. Mazzy and Alley did what a PP and a party recruiter should do. They made me feel wanted, and they made me feel WTP was a right fit for me. And shouts from Hale, posts from AV... quite a few others have e-mailed or befriended me. If you're reading this and you're not in a top-5 party, think about this: it all starts by making sure you're sending out that first welcome e-mail to a new player. If you can't, make sure to delegate it to someone who can. Most political parties probably have some form letter that won't take more than 2 seconds to send off. Personalize it if you can, but even that 2 second letter is better than none.