The Town of Odyssey

Fellow Town members,
When you bind yourself to a work, and later feel compelled to make a decision that could be construed as reneging, it bears giving an account of your reasoning.

You can probably see that I've been a little less than active over the last few days, contrary to our expressed goal. The time is now right for me to say that I am stepping away from active leadership here.

The reason for this is that I've been convinced over the past little while that I can't be properly Christ-centered, and also active on the Town of Odyssey in the way that I have been, at the same time.

That's hard to say when you've just finished running on a platform of 'we're going to be really active, and we're totally going to do all this stuff', and you really meant it, because you felt like it was the right thing to do. Maybe it was the right thing to run, but my experiences in the last few weeks and the messages I've heard in the last few services have shown me it would be wrong for me to stay.

I don't think it is just a Town thing, for the record. I suspect the best thing is to avoid getting entangled in things, and, at least at this point in my life, to hold off on making much in the way of long-term commitments, online or elsewhere, that aren't closely related to God or the church in some way.

With this being the case, it was necessary to find someone who can continue the work that our team committed to. I'm pleased to announce, for the first time, the staff member who will assume control over the Odyssey police force and assist Bren in keeping the Town and platform moving forward: Thank you all very much for your interest, kindness, and understanding, in the time that we've had together. Take care!

Welcome to the team @bookworm. I look forward to working with you the next 3 months to continue to better our town.

Good evening fellow citizens. This is not at all how I ever thought my first experience as administrator would come about. This request was not something I agreed to lightly, I gave several days of thought to what the right response was before accepting.

Several factors led me to the decision that in these circumstances agreeing to join the team was best for the community, to assist Bren in preserving as many of his original goals for the term as are feasible. Most importantly was the recognition that this kind of event, though thankfully rare, does have precedent (from Term 18), which makes me more comfortable about agreeing to be involved in a midterm changeup than I otherwise would have been.

I will also let something now be known that I hadn't planned to share, because it wasn't important for anyone else to know until this turn of events made it relevant. That is before the election Bren and Bob had actually asked if I would join them on the ballot as a three admin team. I declined, because I believed they were fully capable of being great forum leaders as a traditional two member team and I felt that return to normalcy would be welcomed by the community. But this development has made me think perhaps this was meant to be after all.

When this second request was asked of me, I felt a responsibility to step up and assist Bren where he needs to prevent him from having to abandon too many of the plans he hoped to achieve while in office. I appreciate and agree with the focuses and hopes he and Bob presented in their campaign, which was why I supported their team, and I will do what I can to aid in making continued progress toward those goals in spite of this unforeseen development.

I'm not putting my name to any specific planks of the B Team platform as I had nothing to do with the ideas or planning of any of those concepts, but I will do my best to help Bren see the remainder of this term be as successful as the start has been so far.

Sad to see you go @Bob, but welcome @bookworm to the team!

Thank you Bob for your planning and for facilitating a transition in leadership.

Welcome to bookworm, and many thanks for stepping into the admin role in the ToO's time of need!

@Bob:

Congratulations on becoming an official administrator, bookworm! How are you liking the purple name?

snubs wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:21 pmCongratulations on becoming an official administrator, bookworm! How are you liking the purple name?

It's actually incredibly surreal to me that that just happened to be a side effect of all this, since it's legitimately something I've wanted to obtain in some way for years. I think you were aware of that at one point, is that why you asked? If so, it's nice you remembered.

It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pm It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

Yes, that's really one only reason we picked him. Otherwise it was a tie between you, EK, and Top.

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pmIt's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

As I said, they had originally wanted me on the team from the beginning, I expect they chose the team name with that ticket in mind.

Egh, I woulda picked Bookworm too, from those choices!

Catspaw wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:30 pm

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pm It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

Yes, that's really one only reason we picked him. Otherwise it was a tie between you, EK, and Top.

I’m too busy being entangled with the trucker convoy.

EK wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 am

Catspaw wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:30 pm

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pm It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

Yes, that's really one only reason we picked him. Otherwise it was a tie between you, EK, and Top.

I’m too busy being entangled with the trucker convoy.

Yes, I hear that honking a horn all day near residential areas can really cut into people's free time. Good thing we went with bookworm!

bookworm wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:30 pm

snubs wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 11:21 pmCongratulations on becoming an official administrator, bookworm! How are you liking the purple name?

It's actually incredibly surreal to me that that just happened to be a side effect of all this, since it's legitimately something I've wanted to obtain in some way for years. I think you were aware of that at one point, is that why you asked? If so, it's nice you remembered.

Yes, I knew you liked the color purple, so I figured you would be excited about it.

Catspaw wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 5:55 pm

EK wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 am

Catspaw wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:30 pm

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pm It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

Yes, that's really one only reason we picked him. Otherwise it was a tie between you, EK, and Top.

I’m too busy being entangled with the trucker convoy.

Yes, I hear that honking a horn all day near residential areas can really cut into people's free time. Good thing we went with bookworm!

Yikes, in all seriousness, are you experiencing this? Obviously I think their protests are silly, but to do it near residential areas is obnoxious to say the least.

EK wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:53 pm

Catspaw wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 5:55 pm

EK wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 am

Catspaw wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:30 pm

KODY 105 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:57 pm It's a good thing your name starts with the letter b.

Yes, that's really one only reason we picked him. Otherwise it was a tie between you, EK, and Top.

I’m too busy being entangled with the trucker convoy.

Yes, I hear that honking a horn all day near residential areas can really cut into people's free time. Good thing we went with bookworm!

Yikes, in all seriousness, are you experiencing this? Obviously I think their protests are silly, but to do it near residential areas is obnoxious to say the least.

Not me personally, fortunately, but there was a three week trucker convoy protest in Ottawa (Canada's capital city) where many regular citizens put up with honking every day, and nights too sometimes, not to mention blocked streets etc. Regardless of one's opinions on various Covid issues, I used to think that people could at least agree that such behaviour was not a great way to try to communicate a message. I was wrong.

welcome aboard bookie!