To whom it may concern,
We are representatives of the overwhelming majority of the current raid teams within A Night Off, with all of the organized teams save for Cat Nap. The raid teams make up the majority of activity within A Night Off - even our social activities are largely populated by our players. We have representation within the farmer program, recruitment, the creativity committee, even other games and media. The raiders make up the core of A Night Off’s population.
We attempted to have an earnest discussion with Jazz about our concerns at 6:00 PM, the 17th of November, 2022, the topic of which would have been the contents of this letter. We were told no, she would not sit down with our representatives, and we are, as such, forced to make our position clear in this manner.
We are, as a group, profoundly concerned about the events that took place on Wednesday, the 16th of November, 2022. Following a discussion about the removal of a member, Jazz declared she was ‘done GMing.’ While it is her prerogative to feel she can no longer continue as leader of this organization, Jazz informed us in the Leadership Discord, that, after one month has passed, she intended to disband the guild entirely. She told us we had until the weekend before she informed the entire guild.
Our response is an unequivocal, ‘No.’ We have put forward a tremendous amount of energy into this guild as well; we have made it our home. Many of us merged into this guild with the clear expectation, at the very least, it would continue to exist. We do not believe Jazz, or anyone, has the right to remove this cooperative organization from us, from our teams, from our players. We have all benefited from this structure. We have worked together; we have made friendships; we refuse to allow the future of our home to be decided, arbitrarily, without our input. We are not comfortable with, and we will not accept, a guild where the ability to eliminate our home is dangled in front of us as a negotiating tactic for any purpose, and given that Jazz backed down from disbanding the guild only a few hours later, we are not willing to accept the premise this was a legitimate threat, and was instead an attempt to take our guild hostage to have her way.
A fundamental, absolute trust has been broken by this action. There are steps the GM should never, under any circumstances, take. We joined this guild, we interviewed members who we convinced to come, we recommended it to friends and family, some of us brought entire guilds in with us, on the premise that this would be a safe place for us to thrive, and while we are not under the impression things will always be perfect and harmonious, the least we expect is to have a voice, and not to be threatened with the annihilation of our community if we do not accept the decisions of the Guild Master. This community is larger than us, and it is larger than the Guild Master. There are hundreds of active members in our raids alone, and we refuse to let this be their situation.
We have been patient with numerous issues that have tested our trust in leadership previously. On more than one occasion, HR complaints have been ignored, or decisions overruled, either directly, or through intense pressure campaigns, for no evident reason other than that they were about friends of Jazz’s. What were ‘hard lines’ for other people, were ‘mistakes’ for people to whom she had a personal connection. ANO has promoted itself as a ‘safe space’ for women, and minorities, but the teams do not agree with this sentiment due to the inconsistent response going back many, many years to hostile actors. We have tolerated numerous decisions that we vehemently disagree with, not only for our teams, but for the community at large, as an acceptable, if undesirable, cost of being in this community. This violation of our trust, we will not tolerate, especially not on the back of prior ones.
We have discussed it at length, and we, as leads, have taken a vote of no confidence. The results were unanimous across all teams present; without a single dissenting vote, we have agreed Jazz cannot remain as Guild Master of A Night Off. We are not willing to accept this leadership structure. We are not willing to allow Jazz to continue holding the power to eliminate this guild and our infrastructure, to destroy the materials we have farmed, the links we have formed, our contacts with our teams, unilaterally, whenever she so chooses. This was a power we were comfortable with her having when we trusted she would never go so far as to threaten to utilize it - when there was an understanding that, even if Jazz chose to leave, the Discords, the guild itself, would be passed along to a new owner, and our community would remain. It has been made apparent to us that our homes exist at her pleasure. This trust cannot be rebuilt. We do not see, nor will we accept, any alternative other than Jazz and Z immediately giving up all power to destroy our homes. We ask power be relinquished to a council formed of the teams, as well as meaningful representatives from other sections of the guild, to make decisions democratically going forward.
Ugly though the word may be, this is an ultimatum. We are prepared to take whatever actions are necessary to safeguard our continued existence, our community, and our continued mutually beneficial status as a unified group. We no longer see a way forward in any of those respects with Jazz in a position of power.
Solemnly,
Gefflesby, Accidental Competence Lead
Wild, Accidental Competence Lead
Maur, Alpha Raid Lead
Saylen, Commit Red Lead
Blitz, SNM Raid Lead
Lexie, SNM Raid Rep
LaVidaVee, Commit Blue Lead
𝐻𝒶𝓌𝓍(𝓏) SNM RL
Aengus, SNM Rep
Pandorria LPE Rep
Mirlo
MayChi- Accidental Competence
Macabre, Commit Red Rep
Ciruccy - Goonies Co-raid lead
Horcrux - Goonies Raid Lead
Ovie - Mutiny Raid Lead
Slurpyturtle, Organized Disaster lead
Shal, PRN Lead
Svedt, Crayola Lead
Nama, SDP Lead
Daz, LPE Lead
Shamrocked, Pillsbury Lead
Tourin, Former Raid Lead