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[Phoenix Valley]

Phoenix Valley
News
08.02 ♣ Ranks updated for the month of August! It looks like our once-a-month system will work pretty well, but make sure you're managing your own activity and taking initiative to getting your threads done and on time regardless that we don't do mid-month checks. ^^ Pack prompts have also been updated, and the bulletin shall be new for October! Congrats to those who were promoted and good luck to those going back to school! On that note, we also bid a great welcome to Alexsandr, Dmiritri and Michael Northman! 08.11 ♣ We bid a fond farewell to Pontiac and Caprica D'Angelo, but say hello to Kris, who took up Pripyat Soul!
Ranks
Echelon
Patriarch	Jefferson Soul
Savant	—
Pundit	—
Elden
Whilom	Geneva Stockholm
Divan
Nuncio	Praeas	Senex
—	Domonick	—
Corones
Tutela	Fueher	Locum
Rio Marino	—	—
Tueris	Fuerre	Tenens
Pendzez Zazkex — —	Xeris — —	Adonia Demos Xion de Heritage — —
Genus	Lucia Marino Carwyn Zazkex (NPC) Delwyn Zazkex (NPC)
Loas	Angelique du Coudray Dmitri Volsky Aleksandr Volsky Michael Northman
Elu	Aquilina
Sulein	—
Scion
Tyro	—
Tyke	Pripyat Soul
7 Males + 8 Females = 15 members (+2 NPC)
Co-Ranks
Lai	Parere	Follis
—	—	—
Apothecary	Medic	Captain
—	Angelique du Coudray	Jefferson Soul
Guardian	Ambassador	Estorie
Pendzez Zazkex	—	—
Thread Prompts: September 2010
1) Xion's Growing Up
Pendzez and Xeris's litter is steadily getting older and are now old enough for the adult ranks. Little Xion de Heritage recently became a Tenens, eager to make her place in the pack as an adult member—but as she is in a training rank, she might need a little bit of practice and advice. Why not ask her player, Silver, for a thread? Your character can show Xion some of the ropes—walk her around the territory, give her tips, or take her along on a task your character might need to do (hunt, check out another pack, etc.) Xion is young and eager to learn, so take advantage of it!
2) It's HOT
Despite the easy slide into September, the weather has been unusually toasty for the members of Phoenix Valley. Summer will continue rearing its head for another month; how does your character choose to cool off and beat the heat? Will they try splashing in the ocean near raven beacon, or stay in the cool darkness of a den or cabin? Whatever it is, bring someone along with you and beat that summer heat!
3) derp!
Lin needs to go to class. Third prompt will be here in a few hours, you eager beavers. O_O
Remember to PM your prompt threads to the leaders to get gamestop points!

Looking for rank descriptions? Click here!

[Phoenix Valley]

Phoenix Valley Monthly Bulletin

Current Update: August 1, 2010

Bulletin? What's This? ♣ The Phoenix Valley bulletin was started in June 2009. Each month, this bulletin will be providing new, important information on changes and news about what's been going on in the pack in the past month or what to look forward to in the coming month. There will be regular reminders, updates on important events, contests and changes in rules or other notions we may see fit for you to know about. You should be reading over every new bulletin when they come out -- they are very important and insightful and will help you keep up with both IC and OOC pack matters!

Notes from the Leaders

1) New and old faces ♣ It's been a while, but some faces that came and went over the past few months were Delwyn Zazkex, Fabayo, Aine, Tangi Maslin, Hayden, and Naiya Rosiearo. We were unfortunate to lose a few of our longer-time members such as Anya, Andrea Newton, Harlowe D'Angelo (moved to Dahlia de Mai), Cerridwyn, and Ty Trenton Nasphrite. With all these changes, Phoenix Valley has a new face and a new batch of members altogether. Get your characters to know each other! 2) Domonick's Promotion to Praeas ♣ As stated in the new pack prompts, Domonick was recently promoted into the Divan tier of ranks as our new Praeas (unfortunately, our former Praeas Ty has ducked out of Phoenix Valley for the time being). Praeas is generally a big deal because it is an all-encompassing rank reserved for members who deem themselves worthy of filling in several different jobs when needed. Congrats to Domonick and his player, Garrett, for his outstanding activity as of late and devotion to Phoenix Valley! 4) Summertime is here! ♣ With summer in full tow, the muggy, humid heat bears down on Phoenix Valley full blast. The scenery is green and alive, the ocean waters warm and frisky, and access to the off-coast islands and territories are readily available for visiting. Now is a great time to see the lighthouse Raven Beacon, Trinity Islands, or plop around in the Splash Zone with a friend, or wander the magical, lightning bug-lit Firefly Fields at night with a loved one when some of the heat has set with the sun. Much of Phoenix Valley is most exciting in the summer season, so take advantage of the setting while you can! 5) Pack party for Angelique! ♣ Manders (Angelique du Coudray) has started an all-welcome, non-mandatory pack thread in celebration for Angelique's completion of Medic training. The thread is located here; why not pop in and give her a congratulations as well as see some of your packmates? :) 6) What's new, Jefferson? ♣ As he is in charge of the pack, it's somewhat important to mention what the Patriarch's been up to. Right now, Jefferson has been rather scarce inside the pack, troubled by his failing mateship with Geneva and her miscarriage a few months ago. Recently, it was revealed to him (and the rest of the pack) that one of the pups somehow survived, a little blue-eyed boy named Pripyat; Jefferson and Geneva are turning over a new leaf, but Jefferson is still somewhat grumpy and antisocial, reverting to his old, loner ways which he is most known by. He is short of patience, cranky, and currently prefers to be left alone. Lin currently needs some threads, though, so if you want to give a shot at cheering him up, give her a PM! ;D 7) Accepting Joiners: An Update ♣ The rules have been modified so that any members in the Divan tier of ranks are now allowed to accept joiners. That said, any member is allowed to greet joiners at the borders and request a leader as always; though the Divan and Whilom tiers are not considered "leader" ranks, members in them are regardless allowed to respond, question, and accept or deny members. The Divan tier, however, must first check with the leaders (Echelon tier) OOCly before coming to any decision ICly.

Out of Character Reminders

1) August Thread Prompts ♣ We will now be listing thread prompts in the same post as our ranks! They will be changing at the beginning of each month with the shuffle. If you have any ideas for some, feel free to PM a leader about it (if you need help with co-ranks but don't know who to ask, this may be a good idea!). Fulfilling thread prompts will earn you some game points if you send us the thread. Completing a thread (as in ICly finishing) from a thread prompt will earn you 25 points towards the PV game! 2) Where the heck was the bulletin all this time?!! ♣ Lin seriously completely forgot the bulletin existed for a couple months. Sorry guys. XD 3) PV Soul of the Month ♣ July's Soul of the Month is going to Alley and her character, Adonia Demos! Adonia is still a little new to Phoenix Valley, but she is a sweet and kind soul. Once a loner, she was influenced to join by the pack and its members and has been a diligent member ever since. Her player, Alley, is very friendly and involved on 'Souls. She tends to work a little behind the scenes, not drawing too much attention to herself, but has been a steady and dedicated player with very good numbers every rank shuffle. She is very involved and we're really glad to have her. Keep it up, Alley, and don't forget to add the new SotM icon into your Catacombs (the code's in the Policies thread)! Congratulations! 4) Activity Requirement Changes ♣ Activity requirements, once again, got switched up. Unlike last time when requirements were changed to suit the auxiliary character requirements, this time they were switched up simply because Lin was having a crazy hard time keeping up with them whilst managing her own activity as well as moderator and other pack duties. @_@;; The new changes reiterate the previous changes of a couple months ago, in that while secondary characters no longer require permission to create, they still require the same amount of threads and devotion than any primary characters. That said, the rank shuffles will be taking place at the start of every month only. If we have a sudden surge in members again, this may switch back to twice a month, but with activity being slow packwide anyway, there isn't much really changing for you guys. In order to remain at your current rank and not be demoted, you need at least ten posts a month. It is advisable to spread them out and not do them all at once. This is no real difference from before, when you needed 5 new posts every half-month to stay at your rank. To be promoted, you need 20 new posts a month and it will assure you an immediate move up (as in, you won't have to be steadily active in the Tueris, etc. ranks anymore in order to move up). Any character who makes less than 10 posts a month will be demoted, and less than 5 will be moved to Elu and evaluated to be removed if necessary within the next few days. Remember that these numbers apply to all characters in the pack, not to players. 4) Table remodels ♣ Lin is currently working on some new designs for all our OOC tables, so keep an eye out for that! ;D 5) Borders are open! ♣ Our borders were closed for a bit longer than we meant them to be, but now they are open again! They remained closed a bit longer than intended because Lin was struggling to keep up, as previously mentioned; now that the ranks have been cleared out a little bit, Phoenix Valley is again accepting members as we are somewhat small in size again. Invite your friends! :D 6) Policies updated! ♣ With the change in activity requirements as well as a number of other outdated things, Lin actually went through the policies post and updated it with new information. Soul of the Month winners were also updated, but I think we're missing a couple despite not doing it every month anyway. If you know of someone who won (or if you did yourself!) and we forgot you, pop Lin a PM and smack her upside the face so she'll fix it! D:

[Phoenix Valley]

Beefing up Phoenix Valley, Cool Kid Style

homie G dawg boiz yo cuz we in da street As you know, Phoenix Valley has always been a small pack and with tight-knit members. That's great! But what we don't want is diminishing numbers. Pack-wide, post numbers have been way down -- with Phoenix Valley's neutrality in the big, ongoing war and its generally calm nature as a pack, we don't want you guys feeling bored or uninterested in the game. The leaders themselves love to see members helping out and get a lot of questions from members asking how or where they can -- but they don't know where to start improving Phoenix Valley. Ideas for contests? Pack pride? Sure, but there are many more places you can help out!

What are some of these "improvements" that I'd know about? If you don't know what we're talking about, here's some examples of things we've established in Phoenix Valley in recent months that, one way or another, have been an actual success: Pack bulletins, containing important OOC/IC information members might otherwise miss accidentally PV Soul of the Month, to acknowledge and distinguish outstanding members Revamp of the website, including a new layout An updated, unique rank system, with more equality and less pressure to move up or down, also including ways for members to move up a "tree" of ranks pertaining to their character's personality or needs Updated rank descriptions, including more specific tasks and responsibilities for all ranks, as well a move to their new permanent location, on the website

All right, I want to help! Where do I get started? Most of these tasks are fairly easy. We already listed a bunch of things we'd love members' input for, but you may be wondering exactly what you can do or where to start. There are no areas that need help more than others, so any help you give us in any area at any given time would be appreciated greatly. PM us any of these anytime -- just know that any script you write may be subject to minor editing for grammar, etc. and all contributions will be credited and linked right back to you! Here are the areas we need help most, but any and all ideas you have are welcome. Most of these just need ideas or some brainstorming and don't require any graphic design or coding. The PV website, located here. Any broken/unfinished links (which is most of them) can be volunteered for improving. Please PM us first if you'd like to work on any of these. Please note that you will be submitting us script and will not have actual access to the webpage. The pack game, located here. We need ideas -- prizes, ways to track, a new point system, whatever! Pack pride (PV banners, icons, or other artistic creations), to be posted here. We have no limit on these, so make as many as you want. Pack-specific advertisements. When 'Souls advertises, they use tables similar to what our members here use for casual roleplaying. Banners also work. Making them invite strangers specifically to PV means more members for us! No pressure to do coding or design -- you can just send us advertising text instead to be put in the tables if you'd prefer. New, unique traditions for the pack, to be celebrated annually (holiday events like Samhain, month-specific hunts, etc). We'd love to hear in-depth descriptions about how they'd go about or why you think they'd be important, too. Unique, creative ideas for pack-wide contests, or even contests that could be suggested to go board-wide Improvements to the ranks, such as new ranks, updated descriptions, or ideas for tasks to be tacked onto existing ranks. And no, this doesn't mean you can invent ranks just for your character -- but you can construct some you think characters like yours would fit in.

All this is well and good, but what do I get out of it? We were hoping we wouldn't have to wave around flashy prizes like titles and icons this time around. By no means is this considered a contest, but members who contribute good, helpful material -- and a lot of it -- can probably expect a big thank-you one way or another. We are hoping members will volunteer to help out because they want to help keep Phoenix Valley alive and attractive.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Ideas, submissions, or contributions? PM them to Lin or Gwen and let's figure it out! :D