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We have always thought of the Dogz as self managing. The "Quorum" was not formed to act as "Mummy". It was just in case we needed to make a ruling on something. Everyone can see the donations thread without asking to do so, so at any time can see how things are going. Notifications of donations go into the Propaganda room for which there are no restrictions. I am as guilty as the rest of us for leaving it till the end of the year before we get the "oh sh*t" moment ref the finances. I just did not bother to check or to ask. Everyone can look to the forum and see that it is quiet or see that there are very few posts in the Welcome thread. Anyone, of their own volition seeing its quiet could have decided to go out into the virtual world to do something about it. That is why I reached out to the 352nd to organize something, and not because I was tagged as being responsible for any particular role. I did it because I WANTED to do something. GBS has died to a certain extent, and I am not taking responsibility or blowing my own trumpet, but due to me finding DCS a lot more exciting now and also stuff going on in Real Life V1.0 has meant that I lost the drive to spend hours and hours building missions in GBS, also planning special events for the Dogz to do. I also got "burned out" with hosting duties on a Tuesday and Sunday, as I think FT did originally which I why I stepped up without being asked and offered to take over otherwise GBS might have started to peter our sooner. I offered to run mission building training sessions for others to learn, just as I had to, nothing really happened. I offered to help others to host co-ops, again not much happened. Sid stepped up and did for a while until his Real Live v1.0 took over, again as far as I am aware no one else who played offered to take over hosting to keep the Thursday mornings going, apologies if that was not the case. I put out many appeals for ideas to build scenarios but never really got anything back. "What ever you do Friar is fine by us" helped me not one bit. GBS is dying because key individuals who did the majority of the heavy lifting got tired and no one else came forward. EDIT: I am speaking for GBS in the UK time slots, I think it still gets played within the Dogz North American members when the players require it?

Fen, I have stopped recruiting as I dont feel comfortable saying "fly with us its great" and then just 3 or 4 show up on GBS night. I used to encourage people to join in even a year ago. The thing about GBS is people know that its end of life, DCS on the other hand say lots of stuff coming in the next few years so that make people feel positive about DCS and negative about GBS. Do any of the Quorum members still fly GBS except for the fortnightly campaign? As for missions being repetitive yes they are as we can only shoot stuff down and bomb stuff. At least with DCS we could do carrier and inflight refuelling. Also would DCS players turn up on the old GBS nights? I think that the last point is important. I know that you find DCS a far more fulfilling sim but what about the others who have turned to DCS (I nearly said the Dark Side)

I agree Crash. There are several points to address though: 1) Membership numbers. There's a lot of lamenting the poor attendance of the Dogz, but little I have seen in any active, meaningful recruitment efforts by anyone lately to redress the very natural wastage that occurs in any online community. It's always someone else's job... 2) Attendees. If you can't find the numbers for GBS then it's time to ask why? Ask it of the guys we do have and for us all to be honest; is it the game itself?; do some feel that the missions become repetetitive, unimaginitive or not quick enough on the turnaround?; have you just got burned out from combat flight simming in general?; or has real life thrown you curveballs that have prevented you attending? That way we can see if there are any particular trends and then work out ways to address them. 3) We have twice as many turn up for DCS nights as for GBS. Is this chance? Considering the numbers who 5 years ago said that DCS was too in depth for the Dogz (and 5 years ago I would have agreed), well something clearly has changed. 4) Finances and servers There is an effort in hand to streamline our server usage and thus reduce costs; this will help, but regular reminders to make small donations will I suspect be required going forward to mitigate the end of year "Oh Sh*t!!!!" situation that we found ourselves in this past month.