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| A Wiffle Ball Bat to the Face of a Dead Horse | Started by: Raghnall on May 28, '09 02:29 |
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A dapper looking chap leans against a oil lamp post and clears his throat I know I am new to the Slanty ranks and I am about to hit an already beaten dead horse with a wiffle ball bat to the face BUT here I go anyway. The thing that has really racked my head and brain is growth and recruiting... First it pains me even to have to mail new people to our shores... I know being nice does not come naturally to me which is part of the problem I suppose. But the other part is the fact that we should be waiting to accept the best of the best. NOT accepting everyone with a common sense written 1 paragraph mail. What exactly does that prove? It proves that if push comes to shove they can string together a few sentences and words coherently. I guess the solution isn't easy, after all none including myself I will assume is patient enough to allow un-sponsored members of our world to rank to ooh lets say Goomba so that we can see how they interact and handle themselves. I feel at times recruiting/welcome emails are an issue similar to steroids. Since most families do it, whether it is know to the leader or not. A family not wanting to partake in that has an up hill battle to put it mildly. We have seen how recruiting can turn ugly quickly, directing people to take their lives simply to jump ship. I understand that sometimes extenuating circumstances can come up but this is a business, negotiations etc can and should take place. Now I believe that ugly head (recruiting sponsored) is not the norm but neither should recruiting in general be. Why can we not make people wait to get into a family? Why not make them actually prove their worth to a family and city? I guess to some degree, I am venting openly hopefully in a constructive and respectful manner. More than actually asking for guidance, who knows this old fool might simply be rambling. Any input, even if impractical would be appreciated though. As the stone mason once said "twas not the 100th blow that broke the rock, it was the 99 before it." Looks up taking in a deep breath of fresh air |
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Well. You bring up a valid, and un-discussed point. It seems people have been beating around the bush at this one, rather than taking it head on to decide the scope on the matter. Is one side wrong? Is one side right? Are we SUPPOSED to act like mobsters? All of these are questions that guide us closer to the answer you seem to be looking for. You mentioned that you wouldn't wait around until the new guy is... say... a 'Goomba' or 'Earner'. With the current 48 hour rule in place, people take what they can get and kill off anyone that's gone unprotected longer than two days. In some ways, this is productive. If someone can't prove themselves worth a spot in a family within 2 days, they probably aren't worth the investment. However, with this time cap, no one can really see how the kid operates once he completely understands how our world works. If you feel people should be given more time, have some type of way to protect these people without actually having them in your family. Then you can monitor them without them taking up space in the HQ. In essence, there are many things that contribute to what has become, our daily recruiting strategy. Each of these components must be intricately solved to produce a greater outcome. If Our Thing is willing to go through that, anything can be fixed/solved. |
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| Reply by: Prophet at May 28, '09 02:38 | |
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What gets me is the speed with which some families recruit. Only occasionally are the people truly new to these shores, many youngsters fresh off the boat are still clinging to the pages of journals written by their mom or dads. While these children often find solace in the bosoms of their parents allies, other new comers are left to scratch and claw their way into this life, and usually with little guidance. Recruiting, as some people call it, is more than nailing an invite to your crew onto a young civilian's skull with a tack hammer. It involves coming to the docks, looking for new talent, talking to promising prospects and assessing their mental and physical acuity. An invite to your crew should be earned, not tossed out like war propaganda. In other words, it would be nice if there wasn't such a mad scramble to cram people into crews. |
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| Reply by: Pickles at May 28, '09 03:04 | |
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Lately just word "recruiting" have negative connotations, while I understand why ( especially in light of TDK incident) I tend to disagree. While it's true that it's a bit unselective and a lot of thrash find their way to join respectable crews but lets face it,they don't last. Fact that you are ignorant ass is hard to hide,so all of them end up in funeral home before week end. Without recruiting we would have piles of youngsters on streets corners screaming "I wanna join a family", after all we had two already. That being said I agree with Pickles,recruiters should take their time to know who the hell they inviting in their families. I was lucky enough to witness both kinds of recruiting when I first arrived to these shores,first one jumped me and shoved pamphlet in my face saying "join ? family".Second one approached me and we talked for 30 minutes before he offered me a place (Caius GRHS),in my opinion that's a way it should be done.Anyway I bored you enough already,thanks for your time. |
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| Reply by: Grudge at May 28, '09 05:25 | |
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Don't do it then. Whoring is an inevitable side effect of having so many people running distinct HQs. Until the balance is found, it's going to happen. It shouldn't happen anyway, regardless of this balance, but it does because people have no patience. I could reel off a big rant on this but I've said it all in recent months and would bore myself to near death if I started again. |
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| Reply by: Manson at May 28, '09 06:23 | |
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It basically comes down to a fine balance over time. Do you hold onto your principles of only wanting the best of the best and to hell with idiots. Or do you finally convet your ways after watching everyone else whore the arriving boat goers like a pack of wolves, only because they know at least 75% of them will fuck up or even bother trying to succeed.Therefore turning into cannon fodder for the hitmen. This will never change,basically because everyone has a survival instinct. And survival means having a well trained gun. |
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| Reply by: Focus at May 28, '09 10:44 | |
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It's a bit of a dichotomy. On the one hand you want people involved in your family that you can trust. People that pull their own weight and contribute something in return for the opportunity to be in your family. That is what it is essentially. An opportunity. The chance to prove themselves and pay you back for the faith put into them. When speaking with potential family members you really have to address all issues and stipulate what is expected of them. You have to have a good feel for sussing out personalities and go on your first impressions. One can make a direct comparison to a "straight" job interview; you have one chance to knock it out of the park. The onus is on the potential recruit to show that they "get it". Some of the time you get lucky and find yourself being approached by a son or daughter whose family have been in the business for years and know how to conduct themselves accordingly. Times like that make your life easier. At other times you have to work a little harder to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Realizing that we all inherently have the power to do great things or cause equally great harm helps one to focus and be selective in whom we choose to allow to work with us. On the other hand, no one came into this life knowing all the answers. We've all had someone take an interest in our development and guide us towards realizing our true potential in this thing of ours. We've made our mistakes along the way and we have learned from them. We have had the four pillars inextricably intertwined in our souls. We did not walk this path alone but were helped every step of the way so that we could become men and women of honour, and by virtue of our birthright it is our responsibility to help others that desire to follow in our footsteps. Dig out that dusty old journal that belongs to your great-great-great-grandfather. In it you will find stories of how families back in their era had their own universities set up in-house to help mold the mafiosa-y-mafioso of the future. The young ones were schooled in the tenets of that family. They sat at the feet of the intelligentsia and absorbed the lore and accumulated knowledge of years worth of experience. They weren't expected to come in and immediately be shoved out on the street and treated as little more than cash cows. It was understood that they did not know how to conduct themselves. Instead they were shown how. Through example. By being patiently taught. From acorn to mighty oak. I realize that the discussion was opened on the topic of recruiting itself, and I have steered it tangentially off on debating "selective" recruiting, so back on topic. It is not a numbers game. Having the most members doesn't insure that you have the best family. It is the quality of your family members that count, not trying to amass the largest headcount. What matters is what's in their hearts. When people leave the old country and the spectre of the fascista to make a new life for themselves here they have ample opportunity to find what is right for them. Forty-eight hours from when they first walk down that gangplank with their belongings in a dufflebag slung over their shoulder is plenty of time to put an ear to the street and meet people. Anyone with initiative will stop someone passing by and ask them about job opportunities. People who are happy within their own families are the best source of information. We don't, in my opinion, need someone on every streetcorner passing out fliers because it is their job. It comes off as desperate. Word of mouth is usually sufficient to help newcomers find their way to a new home. Recruiting techniques are as various as they are numerous. My favorite is non-intrusive and in my opinion the most helpful to new additions to our shores: a simple letter of introduction welcoming one to America, with helpful literature and directions to the church where one might find a copy of our bible. It gives them pertinent information and a new found friend without putting any pressure on them. My least favorite is when someone is sent an invitation to a family whom one hasn't even approached or spoken to. There is a medium ground here that we all can establish as protocol for what is acceptable behaviour regarding the process of recruitment. We just have to agree on it and follow it. |
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| Reply by: Vincent_Cotroni at May 28, '09 11:48 | |
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I often look around the new comers to the shore and know within an hour of hitting land they are sponsored by a family even with only one mail or telephone call completed. As much as i would like to think this is returning family members it is fairly simple to watch the new comers to the shore and see how many join certain families quick even though poor/very poor and not in contact with people. Being in a family is supposed to mean something but some people look at it unfortunately as well if they get lazy they always make great target practice and what they earn when here is a benefit. New blood to these shores have different levels of ambition and ability and is something that needs to be developed and nurtured as you never know one day they could be don. The practice of recruiting from other families brings a sour taste to my mouth as shows the problems of even fine recruits aren't always what they seem even when rough round the edges at first and the fact people have that much disrepect for a leader. Maybe i live in the past with my ways, but if you take in any waif and stray sooner or later will bite you in the butt. |
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| Reply by: Carlo_Brescati at Jun 01, '09 13:57 | |
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It is preety easy to see who is guilty of the tactics mentioned above and who is not. We see new leaders fill up quickly, with multiple inactive members for target practice who have trouble having activity within their walls, and we see organizations that thrive, activity is very common with most of the members active and representing the family in a positive fashion. With the amount of criminal organizations around these cities, new mobsters to our world have a lot of different choices, so they should take their time to look around and not accept the first helpful mobmail/recruitment attempt, and talk to others who they meet to see who treats their family well and who doesnt. It has always been a tough subject, some get away with it and some dont. A full family should take some time to achieve, as said above family should be a privlidge not a right. When you die unsponsord, from a bullet in the head because you failed to try work hard enough and network yourself into a family, you tend to learn the lesson. Its a tough one.. leaders need/want members for strength, money and inactive kills and if they are willing to send the invites, new mobsters dont know the difference and are willing to accept them. Wrong, but thats the trend and until some massive changes are made I dont see it going anywhere else. |
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| Reply by: StripheVenzetti at Jun 03, '09 04:06 | |
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