IBC

A few weeks ago I sent out an email about when things are put to a vote and when they aren't. With major league changes, I said that I could not foresee a situation where major changes would be made without a league vote, but that it was a possibility.
Such a time has come.
I'm retiring as Commissioner of the IBC. i've been getting more and more weary of the role for quite a while and I no longer feel like I am able to dedicate the time necessary to do what's right for everyone in the league and I feel I owe it to everyone, including myself, to take this step. I can't even take steps to work on my own team without feelign bad about the things I ought to be doing for the elague. The commissioner authority will go to an Executive Council of 6 members, 4 selected by me and two to be elected by the league ASAP and their scope will be overseeing the rules of the IBC. All members will have completely equal authority. Decisions of the Ex-Co will be by vote with 5 out of 6 to approve. The four appointed members are myself, JP, Shawn and Brett Perryman.
My last acts as Commissioner are thus. We will have a 2 week trial of the Daily DL system, starting the week of June 25th. The principle issues with the Daily DL issues have been 1) the West Coast time delay, 2) The inability for many GM's to make daily roster adjustments and 3) My own overload. To address the first issue, we'll move the Sim time back to 12pm EST, which will make it much easier for West Coasters to get their roster adjustments in daily. For the Second issue, we will expand, for the period of the DL trial, the official roster maximum to 30 so that GM's may carry additional players and set up their depth charts in case of injuries to crucial player. The Minimum will remain at 25, expanding your roster will still carry the risk that a player you don't want to play, will play. Third, as will be seen, it's my intention to significantly distribute the responsibilities and tasks that I have been undertaking throughout the history of the league.
Outside of my role as one of the Ex-Co, the only duty I will retain is downloading rosters and simming. Weekly database updates and DL moves will be distributed among other members. Every GM, beginning with the newest members, will be expected to take on some task, even if it is just one day per week of reporting what players were placed on the DL.
Roles:
1-2 GMs - Weekly transactions
1-7 GMs - Daily DL reporting. This task could be divided among 7 GM's if necessary, each taking an assigned day of the week to track. GM's will email the whole league as to what players were DLed and activated on the designated day.
1-7 GMs - Daily DL check. Like above, could be divided among 7 GM's. This GM would take the updated Database each day and go through it and DL any players who need to be DLed, then email the database to me for simming.
Other roles include the TRC and Ex-Co as well as Shawn's extensive work with the OOPSS system.
There will not be enough responsibilities for all GM's. Some GM's will not be able to contribute regularly because of connection issues ( i.e. Nate and Nils) or other commitments, with priority for such waivers going to senior GM's. It's also important for there to be spare GM's to cover for GM's who have responsibilities but who go on vacation, get overwhelmed temporarily by work or school or who quit.

I have to say, i am remarkably underwhelmed by the response to yesterday's email. Not a single comment of "It's about time", "Good/Bad idea." Not one protest about the changes, not even a complaint about "Why didn't you ask me to be on the Executive Council?" Does anyone give a shit anymore?

When a lot of unilateral decisions are made (seemingly without considering input) it kinda discourages people from offering input. I gave a suggestion for the DL process which a few people liked. Initially, you didn't even pay it lip service. When you did dismiss my suggestion, it certainly wasn't in a way encouraging further discussion. All of the rants about personal responsibility and the ever-increasing penalties outlined for terrible transgressions like illegally trading a draft pick or playing an injured player have taken some of the fun out of this. Maybe instead of trying to penalize everyone into raising their level of activity to that of the most active members, we should be focusing on how to accommodate a wider range of activity (like, say... finding a way to DL players each week before the DB goes out so that there's no need for a "penalty" system). I know we've lost a few good GMs this season because of time constraints in their personal lives, which is always bound to happen, but isn't it better to have a moderately active experienced, good GM than a very active bad one?

Bren, in the 3 or 4 years I've been in this league, I've greatly appreciated your hard work and committment to the league. I've also thought that for the most part your decisions as commissioner were fair and typically made with the feelings of GMs in mind. I can't say I've felt that way of late. I've been in this league for a while, and done a good job (I think), but I was inactive at the end of last season (one in which I did not contend) and part of the offseason, and without even a personal email asking what's up, you put me up for league vote to be booted. You'd think I would have at least earned an email, or the benefit of the doubt until the new season began.

I also have to say (and I wasn't going to publicly, but you wanted comments) that I brought in a guy to be a GM who I was certain would do a good job. He had a bad roster, no software, and took some time to get to know his roster. He emailed you telling you he was busy at work, and there would be a period of inactivity (to which you did not respond). Then when he had some more time and was familiar with his roster, he did start making roster moves, and submitting lineups through the site (yeah, he didn't know that didn't work). He emailed you asking why his lineups weren't working, and your response was extremely disappointing, essentially indicating that he wasn't "worthy" of being in your league. I didn't have a problem kissing your ass to not get kicked out a few months ago b/c I've put hell of a lot of time into this league. However, I'm not so sure my friend is as inclined to beg back in after having his roster taken away just as he got rolling.

Bren, I've got no personal grudge against you and have always found you a reasonable guy. I've disagreed at times, but never gone out of my way to unnecessarily criticize your decisions. Your hard work in making sure this is a great league over the past few years has really been awesome, and those of us who have enjoyed the league appreciate it, whether we've said so or not. However, you wanted a response, and that's mine. I just think that the way certain recent issues have been handled have been a little too geared towards forcing on everyone an ideal of how the league should be, rather than trying to work with what we've got and keep it fun, even if it means we can't have 30 GMs operating at the highest level of activity year-round.

Wow.. not completely sure what to say at this point. This kinda hit me like a brick. Connection issues are not so paramount anymore - its time thats not on my side. Everytime it appears that my business and personal life will slow down so I can again pay attention to my beloved IBC Reds, shit pops up. This has just been a crazy 6 months since I started working again - been thrown all sortsa curve balls, breaking balls, slurves, and what have you.

I'll be around for the ride. Glad to see you're doing what you feel is best for the league. I'll chime in more when I can, but Bren... your dedication, efforts, and contributions to this league have not been unnoticed by this original member.