DATE: 03/14/12

PROPOSAL BY: AdamMcBain Stratten

GROUP NAME: Coalition of Municipal Workers (CMW)

TYPE: Union/Welfare/Advocacy

SLURL: Teleport

BACKSTORY: The Coalition of Municipal Workers will be a collection of HPD and FDH employees ranked Corporal/Detective and under (HPD) or Paramedic and under (FDH) and persons who were rendered unemployed due to an injury sustained at work while employed by the HPD or FDH. Currently, HPD officers are organizing to create the coalition, which will organize for higher pay, better equipment and job security while hosting social events such as pub nights, dances, lectures and workshops, parties and other gatherings designed to allow members to get to know each other outside of working hours and to help facilitate the strong bond which is needed in a job where lives depend on each other. The coalition will also host charity events and raffles to support injured officers and HPD/FDH widows. Some of the fundraising ideas would include creating a topless FDH/HPD calendar (or a bathing suit one), a "Win A Date With _____" raffle, etc. One of the primary goals of the CMW would be to facilitate a mediation process between members and ranked officers of the HPD (Sergeants and above) and the FDH (Lieutenants and up). There will also be an emphasis on welcoming rookies and probies.

UNIQUE: For starters, the CMW will be a non-profit organization. The funds generated by charity events and raffles will go to injured officers and widows, as stated, and a modest membership fee will support the maintenance of the group's office. In addition, it would probably be the first union-type organization in the city. The CMW would facilitate more connections between the FDH and HPD and would encourage off-duty friendships between all the employees, create a welcoming environment with newcomers and would attempt to foster positive relationships between the city workers and civilians.

EXP:In RL I have had the pleasure in serving in many leadership capacities, as well as at the bottom of the industrial hierarchy. I've been, among other things, an NCO in the Canadian Army (special operations medic), a union representative and an arts administrator with a prominent theatre company up here. I've also had jobs in which I had little authority, such as a municipal garbage collector. In this sense, I've seen both sides of the workplace hierarchy, and I believe my training as a conflict mediator (part of my medical training and my union training) makes me capable of providing a roleplaying atmosphere which is free from drama and in which there is an equal division of labour, responsibility and authority. I know the other contributors, and advisors, to this proposal also have backgrounds in leadership, municipal work (firefighting, policing, paramedicine, etc) and other roles which carry responsibility and leadership qualities.

IDEAS:I'm pretty sure the introduction of an FDH/HPD smokin' hot calendar is good enough, but if it's not then there's the following: The Coalition of Municipal Workers will better the CD community by providing an IC way for officers and FDH employees to better their conditions and circumstances, and to have people who will advocate on their behalf in times of conflict with their superiors. Our charity, office and fundraising events will provide youth, do-gooders and criminals (that want to extend their RP by being sentenced to community service or something) with volunteer opportunities and will facilitate (or try to facilitate) a way for civilians to get to know their public workers as humans, outside of their uniforms. The group will also strive to welcome rookies and probies both ICly and OOCly, which will hopefully boost rates of retention and overall happiness.

OTHER:ICly this group will be created realistically. It will likely develop through a slow process of paranoid officers meeting in somebody's house to discuss the U-Word (unionizing). People will be privately invited at first, because the organizing officers know that a collective bargaining movement is easy to crush when it has no momentum. Slowly, fliers will start to appear announcing meetings or events, and invitations will reach a wider audience. For me (Adam), staying as true to reality as possible (while allowing for enough leeway and imagination to make RP fun) is important in roleplay like the kind that happens in CD.