The BeerGods are in a righteous mood. Hearing all the bullshit on the streets and no real topics has cause them some relentlessness. So they instruct the saint to say some things that are long overdue. It will please some, piss off some, and eho knows or cares what else. But none the less, its a reminder that this is way the streets are here.

Excuse me! My fine ladies and gentleman of the wonderful world we have here. I bring a little article of speaking that my gods have said is due to be brought up. Many around here want to be taught, or want to know how to be a better......person and so on. The real question I think is. How do we make a better leader. Through time if you search any journal, you see a trend. But this trend is one i think we need to address. Everyone raves about how to be a "better button man/lady. How do we make it worth what once was and mean something?" Everyone wants to make drastic changes and all that bullshit about being MADE. Yes it is a honor and thats another topic, not why I am here. To me the real question is, How do we make better Leaders?

The SaintEA sees people stirring and starting to back up as this is a slippery slope.The SaintEA takes a deep breath and explains.

There are many many fine leaders on these shores. Many a good man/woman that are doing very well with very few things to worry on. Godfathers, Crew Leaders and hands alike, we have a great many that are just that, good leaders. But. BUT! We also have some others. We have some that if you delve into their histroy, its repeated and shady would be a good term. I am a saint yes, but my bloodline is not great. A decent leader(in times) I would like to think yes but I am sure others may disagree. But I want you all to look a little deeper. There are ones who tend to repeat themselves but always have a spot hanging around when they resurface. Though everytime(or most and tends to happen over and over) repeats but here they are. As a hand, A crewleader, a Blah GodFather.

Shock arises from the crowd!

I know I know! People can change, what ones father did is not them ect ect. But just think back on some of them. Maybe them sleept too long, a bunch of times. Maybe they flipped on their (crew/district/city) more then once or twice and yet again here they are. Nice shiny suit and looking good. With everyone waving a happy face and all is well. Maybe they slacked so much or did things I cannot even mention of this world and were rewarded and back again(justifing or no) to show they are still not worth the pot they piss in. Do we not think we deserve better? Do we not thin k there are better suited then these repeat offenders, or fake leaders? All I say is fuck worrying about the standards of the "button", worry about the standards of the leaders. See if they really are worthy of that status. Not cause they are a "name" but if they actually deserve it.

I can sense some will not like this, but its a logical and honest question. If you cannot see that, then you have not looked around fully!

"You got a point, a city is nothing without its leader. I myself might be new but my family has been around these shores for years and I can tell you what, it was the strong leaders that made her stick around. There were many more leaders however that made her and my other ancestors ask "how the hell did they manage to gain a position of power?" regarding certain leaders and even godfathers. What makes it more is how often these peoples lineage would regain their powerful positions over and over again and falling into the same patterns. 

What makes a leader great is the way they care for their city and their people, the way they interact with those under them. From crew leaders to godfathers, these men and women are the ones who are out in the streets talking to their people, they're the ones who pull you into their office to ask you how you're doing, they're out in the businesses getting to know people and greasing palms. In their families these are the ones who run a tight ship, the men and women who serve under them want to do their best because they know their leader has their back and they know one toe outta line means curtains for them. When my ma ran a crew in New York she ran it to the best of her ability but she was always looking for feedback too. She talked to her godfather and asked him for advice on how to better her crew and to this day people still remember her name. 

I can tell you in my family there were names that were spoken with respect, those who were honored and remembered fondly. There were also the names that were spat out with venom, the leaders who let their members down by not keeping them in line or by being right jackasses to them and to everyone else. They gave no respect and they certainly didn't gain any and time and time again they and their families were shot down. 

I've said my piece so I'll step back and let someone else talk it out but when it comes down to it, to be a great leader you gotta respect the craft and respect your crew and you'll be a respectable leader."

SaintEA, alas the Great one probably isn't best suited to comment on this. There are a few reasons for that. My family line isn't guaranteed anything in this life. The Rock has had to work to get were he is. The Rock has had to work damn hard in fact. The Rock's family doesn't always rise to the top. In fact it was 4 years ago that the Rock's family was last in a bold suit. Likewise, the Rock doesn't do things the way every other CL does. My door is always open, if any of my family feels I'm not doing my job right, they are welcome to come and tell me that. I regularly discuss what is happening in the family with the other members. The Electric company is their Family, I'm just its head. The Rock is just the guy who works to keep them safe, and give them a place to shine. The Rock would therefore like to think that every member of his family is happy.

To the best of his knowledge the Rock is the only crew leader that offers each and every member of his family a 3 day free pass. Come in, look around, get to know the family. If within 72 hours you aren't happy, just tell the Rock, and you are free to leave. Free to seek out another crew to swear your allegiance too. That's not to say that the Rock's family is an easy ride. No sireee. The Rock expects every member of his family to work just as hard as he does. There are no long term free rides in the Rock's family. You get out what you put in when it comes to the Electric Company.

The main reason though that the Rock isn't best suited to comment though, is that for the most part the Rock's family have always joined strong, decent crew leaders. The Rock takes his time to look around, smell the coffee, and see for himself which side the grass appears to be greener on. You see, our society is geared to allow what is euphemistically called the cream to rise to the top. Time after time after time, the same bloodlines wear the same suits. Sometimes this is because their bloodline certainly is the best and the brightest, but sometimes its perception. Its because people look around and say, oh we need to promote someone to CL, who can we trust. Oh there's good old SaintEA, his pappy was a Cl, his grandpappy was a hand, his great grandpappy was a HSL for Roman, he must be good. They know nothing about you as a person, just what they know of your family, so you are handed a bundle of cash, kicked out the door, and handed the keys to your very own HQ.

So who's fault is it that the same old tired faces keep getting to be the same old tired faces in bold and italics? Is it Curtis' fault? Is it the Rock's fault? Is it Chun-Li's fault? is it Tetley's fault? Is it that jabroni over there's fault? No, let the Rock tell you who's fault it is. Its your fault. Its the peoples fault. Too many people sign on with shit leaders. They don't do their research. They speak to one or two individuals and they join a family. They don't take the time to find out which leader best suits their style. They don't take the time to see if their leader can talk the talk, or if their leader is a slack jawed retard that can't string 3 words together. They decide to join a crew in a city that is full of idiots because their father died in a war where his city was wiped out by another. I can't join New York, you killed my pappy. I can't join Chicago, you killed my pappy. I can't join LA cos you killed my pappy. I can't... ah hell why don't you just shut the hell up. The people complain about being given a fresh start. About separation of the deeds of their father from their own deeds, and then they refuse to separate these things themselves.

The Rock will happily give anyone a second chance. In fact the Rock has a few people in his family working their asses off, living that second chance. There's an old adage, cut the head off and the body dies, but the opposite holds true, cut the body off and the head dies. No CL will succeed if he doesn't have the support of the people. So tell me again why the same old shit always rises to the top?

the rock is right he gave me a second chance and is a great leader!

This is a subject that I feel needs to be answered on my behalf as I have actually been accused of this with my bloodline in the past year or a little more. So let me start off by putting some simple terms here and that is if I do not feel that I can put my all into a Crew leader run, unlike many others in the past who still accept it, I do not. When my bloodline was approached by the late JohnnyNoName, I was asked to be a Crew leader under him and as I did not have the passion for it at that time, I declined it. I knew I would be one of the Inactive Leaders that I complain about on a daily and I am not one to be hypocritical, I may find myself being a little hypocritical at times not trying to be, but I for one will never accept a Crew leader opportunity if I cannot or am not willing to put in the time.

Now on that note going to being a Leader like I am right now, I hold myself to certain standards every time I lead, I do not deviate away from it at any time, ranks will always be earned not given. All members are held to the same standards as the others, no free passes. I will always be here, active, responding to members, helping them out with whatever may be needed, I also try to do my part in recruiting so that people realize I am a Leader willing to show my face to people and speak to people, these are things I do every single run to ensure that I stick to trying to be a good crew leader every single time.

Who's fault is it that bad Crew Leaders exist I do not know, but what I do know is as Mr Vaughn has pointed out, if you join a Leader that has no activity, no morals, no standards, and could care less how their family looks to the public, then it is nobody's fault but your own. I personally will never join a Leader that does not have goals for themselves. If a Leader just wants to be the Leader for the bold suit and nothing else I will find somewhere else to go. It is really that simple for me and will continue to be that way for as long as I am here.

The place I'd put the blame for poor crew leaders is the same place as my line has been putting it for quite some time now. The place I'd put the blame is on the fact that our world has too much space to fill, too many places to expand it's influence in, for the population of our people. 

What does this mean? Quite simply, it means that Godfathers end up short on options for authing people, for choosing who to put into bold suits, slanted suits, for this role, for that role, and that sometimes (and it becomes brutally clear when this is happening), they have to put people into positions that they are in no way suited for, because many of their preferred options are tied up elsewhere. My line has been a victim of that and a beneficiary, I say this seeing both sides of that call. But because of that, we end up driving the standards that people expect from leaders in this world dramatically downwards. 

So how would I have us fix this? We need to accept that the Gods have handed us opportunities to expand outwards that are far beyond the means of our population. We need to stop allowing crews to house inactives, we need to stop feeling the obligation to expand outwards as constantly and as quickly as possible. A city is empty? Great, lets fucking leave it empty until every other city is full. I understand that personal ambition is a powerful thing, but restraint is often needed. The Gods don't seem to want to move our world back to a system of cities rather than districts and that is something that we need to accept, but that does not mean we need to continue to try to manically fill every single empty district. It's not even worth pretending anymore that this is done to spread the power across the world, because at most there are two or three very strong cities and the rest very weak, and that has been the case since the May War after districts came in to our world - up until a few months ago, it had traditionally been Chicago and New York, now it is New York and Philadelphia. Power is not being spread when the places power is held are all allied (the same as when the group that must not be named were in power - while they may have had Godfathers in New York and Chicago it made no difference to our world because they were allied together), so we may as well have been allowing other cities to properly grow before filling more. 

I won't even begin, to rant on about how my bloodline CL's were this or how they was that.  Because the truth in the matter is that if I named my bloodline that has been CL 90% of you will have no idea who Im talking about.  With that being said my bloodline has not made a big enough impact where I deserve to even speak on it.  I will say this though after my grandfather's crew demise all of his fellow comrades next of kin kept close contact with me and continued to come to be with questions etc, seeing how even in my most busiest times I would help them as much as i could, which to me is what its all about

Every leader i have came in contact with over the last several months I will give them the applauds they deserve as they as are very willingly to help you out if your under their organization.  I think we can all agree that majority of the CLs we have are willing to do that at least.  Its a lot of the behind the scene actions that the lower in rank mobsters don't see that we all question and will forever question.

I very much enjoyed Moxie's comment as well and I strongly agree with her.  Back when we had about 4-5 cities meaning only 4-5 godfathers and our chain of command was much smaller, our world seemed to be a little more interesting.  But her point brings me back to a point I made here in the streets some time ago whereas if we stopped killing for a while and had time to populate this world it would look and feel better.. But thats a topic for another place

Archy was on a road trip with his friend Astro, when he noticed a saint standing on a soap box and a lot of gatherings around him, he told Astro to stop and the two got out, Archy started to wonder what this man might be doing in our streets, is it the Sunday church lesson in public? The two made their way into the crowd, hearing some rumbling and whispers, also some of the respected men and women talk, they got a figure of what was going on... Archy smiled, what a thorny issue! He thought to himself. Archy waited as the men and ladies before him shared their thoughts then stepped forward and cleared his threat.

I have to agree with the thoughtful opinions shared already on this subject, our world is indeed too large for our syndicated and sometimes that costs us on other aspects. It's a "quality vs quantity" game, the spots are too many, I am not here throwing accusations at anyone or claiming that I have the right to judge their leadership abilities, but yeah we have seen so many bloodlines screwing up and their kinds getting the bold suits, I think that's where the "connections you got" part comes in.

Is it really the problem to identify what's a good leader? I think not, as we all might differ on this point, some would see a good crewleader as one who can run his family firmly, interact and aid his people and city fairly. I would never disagree on that, but then some could be less active and do the same -It doesn't take much to spend a few minutes exchanging conversations with your fellow gangsters, but that still remains a factor. I personally see that street presence is worthy more points on anyone's agenda. After all that's what we have been trying to promote in the past few years, a good crew leader in my opinion, should have the ability to interact with the rest of the world, not close his headquarters' door on himself and his members, in my own humble opinion that would show nothing but the lack of abilities they might have to run a crew. And then another question pops up "How can we promote interaction and street presence when not so many crew leaders are supporting that cause?"

Archy notices The Rock and walks over to him, he shakes his hand and the two exchange a welcoming smile.

I have to say, I never knew of the 72 hours permit, but that's a great addition to your crew, only shows how much of a fair person you are, sir. But I have to disagree with you here, if the fault is on the people, I am sure that only the slightest share would fall on their shoulders, there's never too much info about a leader in the streets nor at their headquarters' doors. How can a fresh off the boat, who's just made his way into the country know if their choice was best, most get scared of our way of life and just try to seek the first protection offer they chose. However, that's where your permit fills in efficiently, but I am sure not everyone would agree, hence why I think it also falls on our shoulders as leaders and Godfathers of this world to maintain quality among us and remove the bad blood from a position they have failed to prove themselves worthy of.

Archy then turned to Isabella and smiled at her.

That's an easy question, within a family a real one, your closest relatives always have the advantage, I don't see a reason for that to be any different in our world. However I guarantee that is not 100% true, I personally have two hands now that our bloodlines never came across before, they worked for me and proved themselves worthy, each in his field. They earned their spots and I sure am grateful for having them.

Back to what I meant to say, the problem isn't identifying who's a good crew leader, but what are the requirements to set one? Is the one street presence rule enough? Should there be more rules of that kind set by the Godfathers commission? I leave that up to you...

With that Archy patted Astro on the back and they both took a few steps back, giving space for someone else to step up.

This is a neat issue you touch on here SaintEA. Most usually come out here and speak about Made's and the responsibility upon them and other members of our society. But none really speak about the leaders. And part of that is because, well as a lowly members its not proper to critique someone that is a leader. And most leaders won't critique other leaders because it hinders good business practices. So this is a little out of the main stream...what your touching upon here. 

But I think becoming a good leader starts from the very basics of this thing of ours. I look at some of the records of my fore fathers bloodlines and I must say it was the grooming that other leaders provided to my line that has brought me this far. I can't say I am a complete mafioso, there is always improvements that can be made on all fronts. But from my reading of my fathers records my line has come a long way. It has made mistakes, it has been bold, it has fallen on its jaw flat!!! All part of the learning process. As I read my fathers logs, there was one of us who was bold ages back, our GodFather shot him down for making a mistake. Thats kinda rare in our business, leaders don't usually get shot for mistakes...my forefather did. But he took that as a learning experience he went back to the same leader and learned more. I mean the fact that she was the first GodFather in ages, had something to do with that. But it was her knowledge of this place that eventually my father learned some great things from her. Then my fathers line was able to work with other such leaders of magnitude. With every experience my forefathers learned something new. There were obviously mistakes made in the process...but to be a good leader one has to be able to learn and expand upon qualities that they have already. No one is perfect, hell if someone was...they would never die in this thing of ours. So even some of the greatest names did something wrong somewhere. 

So I would say it really boils down to the leadership and the mentors. I could easily name bold suits today that are leading their first ever families in their line. And they are doing a spectacular job. But everyone of them was groomed for this job. And the better ones never stop asking questions, they always want to get better. Its that never ending quest for perfection that drives them to be better leaders. You have to be hungry to learn, to adapt, to be able to make right mistakes that you may have perhaps made. Thats what makes a good leader!!! 

And Ill tell you something else, every minute that I spend with a aspiring member at the moment is me kinda grooming them. And that goes for all other leaders. These very members that sit in our crews today aspiring to take our place tomm are sitting and collecting knowledge and experiences from us the leaders. It is here where we can do our best to teach these guys how things are done proper in this thing of ours. This interaction between crew leaders and their members is the building of the future...if we the leaders do our jobs right, the future leadership will be polished and more prepared to be leaders that others follow. 

That to me is the sticking point. A leader, once a leader will rarely make drastic changes, but its when someone is on the path to leadership where most of us can make our mark, do our duty to train and groom leaders of tomorrow. This is where standards are made and held...and enforced. 

Listening from the crowd seeing many great leaders gathered as well as some previous leaders children, knowing something of importance is going on around his area he sees Saint speaking and many people listening closely.  Of course he sends his guards in opposite directions to watch the area and ensure Saints safety, although probably not needed he can never be to certain.  As everyone finishes he speaks up.

While I agree with quite a few people here, myself holding CL I always made it a point to talk with my members in my crew.  Because believe it or not there are things I learned from my own members.  Being a CL should be a learning/teaching experience every single day.  While there are new bold suits that are first timers there are also the same repeated bold suits.  And some people I could say just have the position of a bold suit just to have that fancy suit.

I have been in crews were it's utterly dead and everyone does their own thing and there is no family, there's also the CL's that pretty much make their hands the leader while they chase tail or do nothing at all. I have experienced this first hand by being a RHM, while I am far from pointing fingers I do say to make a great leader it takes someone pure of heart with great rapport.  Someone who can see every end of the spectrum and doesn't jump to conclusions.  Leaders come everyday, but a great leader comes at a cost.

The cost part in which I mean is sacrifice, you have to really play both sides when being a great leader and hear everyone's angles.  And then you have to support the side that you think is the winning side (kinda like Mussolini).  But no in all sense a great leader is rare, and why I say this is because i guarantee everyone here in a crew will say their leader is a great leader. As of now my father and his father and etc before him can name 8 people that were great CL's I can name 3 currently.  And that's simply because they respect their crew and their crew respects them, the crew is active and knows each other well, and these CL's make it a mission to check on each crew member daily.

Finishing his part he falls back and leans against his car watching the other people speak, he pulls out some freshly wrapped cookies from the cafe and quietly snack on them inspecting the area.