According to the country's official statistics, we currently have 353 ranked citizens walking these streets. Of those, 51 are uppers. That leaves 302 ranked citizens who aren't.

Now here's the part I genuinely don't understand.

In all this recent talk about the lack of activity, lack of events, lack of communication and nobody doing anything, I've never received nothing personally in my own mailbox from any those 302 people asking for an event, suggesting an idea, volunteering to run something themselves, or even just saying "Right, this is boring, what can we do about it?"

And before anyone misunderstands me, I'm not saying "everyone else should do the work instead of uppers." Contrary to popular belief we already do a considerable amount of work managing crews, maintaining things, dealing with problems, communicating behind the scenes and generally keeping this place functioning, along with doing a other work for ourselves.

What I'm questioning is when exactly we decided that the other 302 people should simply be hand fed entertainment and activity by the 51 people who already do all that other work. There are obviously limits to what ordinary citizens can do and there are things that require the authority or resources of uppers. I'm not pretending otherwise but not every activity requires a godfather to personally arrange it.

Surely somebody has an idea that doesn't ultimately boil down to "Communicate more and for the love of God murder somebody because I'm bored."

Or by all means, keep telling us things are boring, but I'd actually like to hear what people want to do and how they are going to do it.

The Great Enricho enjoys surfing these streets for entertainment! I don't hear every little thing that goes on, nor do I engage in every topic a soap box brings us, however I do not have a feeling of boredom! I agree that it is also our responsibility to find ways to enjoy ourselves rather than sitting in a corner complaining.

I, The Great Enricho don't find much enjoyment out of the thrill of murder! I find losing people to these rogues is more tragic than fun for me, personally. My crew is my home! My home has been taken from me too many times by spiteful individuals and I find that it makes me want to walk away from this life. Maybe be a barkeep and hold the towns gossip while keeping myself where I want to be: friends with any and all mafioso!

Maybe we could post a bulletin board and hold weekly poker nights. If anyone is interested in that idea, I'll break my rule of no gambling! Though I might get shot for my temper about losing.

I nominate Matty as the official do'er. 

Ideas:

Each district sacrifices nominates one person to represent the district in a dueling tournament to the death.

Each city allows anyone to set up 5 person HQs 

We abandon one city completely and remove all rules within its borders. 

All crewleaders compete in a drawing contest - one submission per week until someone draws the mystery subject 

We take turns making fun of Jest, publicly 

We fill up a jar with candies and whoever guesses the number of candies gets to shoot whoever they want

Contest to see who can take the largest poop. 

communicating behind the scenes

This is forbidden. 

Right, excellent.

I'll personally organise the duelling tournament, establish the lawless city, create the five-man HQ system, commission the weekly artwork, publicly bully Jest, acquire the candy jar, count the candies, appoint the executioner AND somehow judge the international poop championship.

I'm beginning to understand why everyone is waiting for the uppers to provide all the entertainment.

I'll get right on it.

I hear you Matty and I think you make a lot of solid points.

A few additional points to add in on my end. I think we see that those who want activity and who have high activity are often made uppers. One of the reasons we don't see a lot of folks who aren't coming out to do events is because those folks who do events and extracurriculars are usually quickly recognized and put to use either in that aspect or directing their energy towards managing a crew.

The reality is we have a lot of part time mobsters in our world. Those who are full time mobsters could absolutely do more I agree. 

Myself, I'd love to host a trivia contest. I'm no upper right now and know that I can give some more back to our community. I hope more folks can see that those of us who spend a lot of time on these streets can be a catalyst for other folks to spend more time here as well.

Tussy stood nonchalantly leaning against a lamp-post in the half-shade, listening to the conversation going on. He usually kept himself to himself, save where he could aid in a worthy cause and to him this was just that - worthy. Stepping out into the open he nodding appreciatively at Matty, then tipping his hat at Cherokee 's contribution. It was time the proletariat stepped up their game. 

'Having been on both sides of the Upper Structure pressure scenario, I can only concur with the words from the right honourable Godfather Chairman himself. There are hundreds of us, quite literally, not currently engaged in ensuring the safety of our respective families, maintaining order in the cities, and supporting the growth and development of our peers. It is the free who have the time and space to explore creative means for enhancement of the day to day.'

He stopped to take a long drag on his cigarette, then continued.

'Furthermore, I'd add that is is the responsibility of ALL to engage in the community, that we might build a better world for ourselves and our future generations. To attract more...'legitimate business people' into this thing of ours. Our lives can only be enrichened by interaction with others, whether we have a lot of time to spare or mere minutes a week. I often wonder around the streets of all cities, only to find the business districts empty, the proprietors long gone and none come to replace them, and more activity mourning those who led than becoming new leaders in greatness.'

He paused briefly again, only to realise his rambling had gone on long enough to extinguish his current light. Naturally he lit another.

'So it is here, in the streets and out in the public, that I announce there will be a nation-wide competition held 3 weeks today. I shall return within a fortnight with full details to this very spot, and lay it out to the masses. I shall start with a commitment from myself - will anyone else dare follow?'

Archy listened quietly as the discussion unfolded around him. Eventually, he decided to add a few words of his own.

I think Godfather Matty raises a fair point. Activity is not something that can be handed down from a throne every week. While leadership certainly has a responsibility to create opportunities and keep communities engaged, not every worthwhile idea needs to originate from an upper. Some of the best events I've attended began because somebody simply decided to stop asking for activity and start creating it. The reality is that many cities are still recovering. That takes time. Progress may not always be as visible as people would like, but that does not mean it isn't happening.

Anyway, that is why I appreciate seeing suggestions such as Cherokee's. A trivia night, a poker tournament, a writing contest, or anything else that brings people together is exactly the sort of initiative that helps keep these streets alive. We’re already seeing people step forward and commit to doing something about it. I would also like to thank Tussy for taking the initiative. I look forward to the competition he mentioned and I hope it proves successful.

If there is enough interest in an idea and someone is willing to put in the effort to organize it, then bring it forward. The House of Scarab would be more than happy to lend a hand where we can, whether that's helping with prizes, promotion or simply getting more people involved, good ideas deserve a chance to succeed. After all, lively streets benefit every family, every business and every citizen who calls these shores home.

Could we have an inquiry, chaired by a panel of Uppers, tasked with finding out as much as possible about LostBoy?

Woah now Anton. Matty is clearly already overwhelmed with the immense amount of work that is required to lead a family(Basically none), please dont ask him to do any more, he may crash out, cry, or have another speech that makes him look like an absolute intellectual with a complete grasp on how everything should work around these parts.

Anytime anyone else has been in charge it's been on the leadership to promote activity and engage the community, why would anything change now? Anything that goes wrong here it falls on the leadership of the community to fix, this doesn't change because the leaders shrug off the responsibility. 

This can all be solved by playing A LOT more mafia basketball.

So Matty gives us a speech here about shifting blame for others (uppers) being shitters, when it's always been the uppers' responsibility, and he argues me and tries to diss me elsewhere when I try to address that in my speech. In this, he's admitting there's something wrong, but he's misguided on who should be fixing it. Clearly, he doesn't know what standards are and is just trying to deflect because he blindly follows and defends apathetic and lazy leaders. Leaders lead activity; that's all. If they don't do shit, then why are they leaders? Good job, Matty. 

Woah now Anton. Matty is clearly already overwhelmed with the immense amount of work that is required to lead a family(Basically none), 

That there self-righteous and selfish mindset is no surprise coming from you. You are not fit for leadership. But you are happy with being propped up and running gossip rings where nobody would pay .10 cents to get a front row seat. 

As I mentioned earlier, everything starts from the home. A decent leader will keep the focus on their crew. The made and sponsors should play a  roll in assigning jobs to keep the crew alive. If a leader has a captain the focus is now shifted to both crew and district lounge. All the while keeping the city lounge as a place where all can hang out to get acquainted. It takes work to build and gain trust. 

Nowadays when one takes on GF and their capatains take on the sleepy heads. Nothing worse than a boring GF crew. I guess on the flip side a GF should be set and not in need of donations. At least one would think. 

Times have certainly changed and it should not be acceptable, yet it is where it hurts the most. Lazy, and inept leadership. The regime in coontrol is responsible. Grant it the current regime did make a concerted effort to undo the massive damage of the previous regime. And there was some success. Their success fell by the wayside applying the wash, rinse and repeat within a group.    

I appreciate the people who engage with me in good faith, even when we disagree. That's how these conversations are supposed to work and I'm grateful for those who can do that simple task.

To the rest who seem to want to derail a conversation with insults, it speaks volumes that the best you can come up with is "but its always been this way" with sad pouts on your faces.

Why not throw your dummies out the pram at me whilst you're at it?

Being lectured on leadership by people whose own recent results don’t exactly qualify them as case studies in it is woeful.

Rogues: kill active and engaging leaders.

Activity drops

Community of worms who support rogues: Shocked faces

In case you didn't realise Spikey you and your ilk are the problem 

Whilst having my morning coffee, I’ve realised I may have been far too quick to judge my esteemed colleagues critiques.

I’ve been looking through some of our history books and found an ABUNDANCE of positive and highly complimentary reviews about what being part of their ancestral families is really like, and I must say, I’m genuinely impressed.

Due to this revelation, I’ve decided I’m wasting my time with this whole leadership nonsense and will instead focus on:

1. Doing absolutely fuck all whilst desperately attempting to remain relevant.

2. Remaining silent, pretending to be someone else and training my gun during one of quite literally the easiest eras imaginable to do so.

Spikey: “WHY THE FUCK WON’T ANYONE THINK ABOUT THE COMMUNICATION?!”

Also Spikey: “Fuck you and your silly communication.”

Simply inspiring.

The challenge in forming a society together is not about agreeing on an absolute truth and then put that in place.

It’s embracing it’ll never come and together move in a sensible direction regardless. I think Matty in a way attempts that by raising we have a joint responsibility. The wording could be better, but he’s not pushing away responsibility, but laying out it is a shared effort to keep this community going. Majority of us are born with Consigliere-level knowledge which we tend to use to show leaders why they’re wrong, but we don’t use it to contribute for our collective betterment. Many of us are experts until it stops being convenient for us and it’s fair to question that.

Leaders should create opportunity for activity, but not necessarily organize it themselves. If anything they should mobilize their family members to run things. The best is if everyone gets off their high positions and makes an effort to build something together in the middle ground, rather than hope to convince their point of view is best. The people who claim to know best might actually be the reason the majority suffers.

That is not what I said, and it is improper to put words into my mouth. You were contradicting yourself between the two speeches. Your reply to me in my speech, and your speech here, which was obviously influenced by my speech. 

On top of that, you are suggesting the responsibility should fall less so on the uppers which is not how things work here. Check yourself b'fore you wreck yoself. 

I get that you're green or something when it comes to standards and this thing of ours, but ignorant isn't a good look. I am not sure why you are so passionate about me, but I have complimented you in the past genuinely. You are a trier, or at least that's what I sense. I do not take things so personally and you shouldn't either. It's not healthy. I view you as a learner as well, but to be a learner, you have to be open to learn some things. You have things to learn, and I do not say that to belittle you. There are different perspectives, and there are histories, and other things you do not know. You should be open to them and understand that everyone has their own opinions, and maybe you do not have the most knowledgeable one. 

Thank you for trying. You are one of the ones that I implied was actually doing stuff... Despite how I know you feel about me, for whatever reason.