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Revision as of 10:23, 9 February 2015

By Kitan Tataru

This page explains TarValon.Net’s established process for an Accepted or Soldier to choose an Ajah or Company, also called a “community group.” This is known as the “guesting system.”

History

In the Wheel of Time series, no one is a member of an Ajah until they are raised to Aes Sedai. At that point, they choose the Ajah they wish to join. These people have had many years to discover what the different Ajahs are about and where their personality fits.

Our community was once set up so that Accepted/Soldiers could only access one Ajah/Company at a time, and they rarely changed groups. However, we found this led to people assuming that once an Accepted/Soldier chose a group, they were a full member of it. Accepted/Soldiers were allowed to take full part in discussions about topics that only affected the Ajah’s/Company’s members.

More importantly, there was an expectation that Accepted/Soldiers were locked into their choice once they made it, and changing groups was considered extremely bad form. This was not what the administration wanted or intended to happen, so the guesting system was implemented to change the reigning culture of inflexibility regarding finding one's home within our community.

Initially there was a lot of concern when the guesting system was introduced. Some people thought that Accepted and Soldiers would be constantly in and out of the Ajahs’ and Companies’ sitting rooms as if there were a revolving door. Others thought that anything shared in an Ajah's or Company’s sitting room would soon become public knowledge.

Ultimately, privacy concerns and other fears did not come true, and the system became one of the best changes TarValon.Net has ever made. Accepted and Soldiers are no longer afraid to change Ajahs/Companies; they feel free to find the place where they truly belong. The Tower community as a whole has been brought closer together - people who would not have known about each other because they were in different Ajahs/Companies found themselves with new friends. People aren’t cloistered in their community group with only a few friends outside of it. Our members also have a better understanding of how the different Ajahs/Companies work, lending to more cohesion amongst the Tower as a whole and particularly among our Senior Members.

Guesting

This is how the guesting process works.

How to Guest

For the first six weeks that someone is an Accepted/Soldier, they must guest with two Ajahs/Companies, as appropriate. At any time, they may change which groups they are guesting with, so long as they are in two groups at a time (not one, not three, just two).

An Accepted/Soldier may spend as much or as little time as they wish within a given group. Some people will join an Ajah/Company and immediately know that it is not their home. Others may spend 8 weeks within an Ajah/Company before deciding that it not where they belong. Some may guest with every single Ajah/Company during their time spent as a guest, just to make sure that they are not overlooking a group that might fit them the best. Some people do two or more “rounds” of guesting - they will guest with every Ajah/Company, then revisit the few Ajahs/Companies they think might end up being their home. Others may know exactly which Ajah/Company they will Aspire to as soon as they are able and will not participate much at all within their second chosen group. All of these paths and more are perfectly acceptable ways of finding one's own home within our groups.

Should an Accepted/Soldier wish to change one of the groups that they are guesting with, they should alert the Head of Ajah/Company Commander that they wish to leave. If it has been a week after they have alerted the Head of Ajah/Company Commander that they wish to leave that group and they have not been removed, they should email membership@tarvalon.net. An Accepted/Soldier should only be able to see into two groups at any given time.

Etiquette while guesting

The message in this part is important enough that it deserves its own section. An Accepted/Soldier truly is a guest while they are in the various Ajah/Company forums. Remember that this is where many of our Senior Members consider their homes to be. That means that personal information is often posted in these forums. Under no circumstances should an Accepted/Soldier discuss any information they read in those forums with anyone else not in that forum. They should not allude to that information by any means, manner, or form. They should not repeat it. They should not copy/paste it anywhere. They should not paraphrase it.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

If anyone is found to break this ethical code, the punishment will be severe. An Accepted/Soldier should not join an Ajah/Company just so they can gawk at the skeletons in the closet.

Aspiring to an Ajah/Company

Once a member has been an Accepted/Soldier for at least six weeks, they are eligible to Aspire to an Ajah/Company. This means that the Accepted/Soldier declaring that this is the group they intend to join once they are raised to Aes Sedai or Gaidin. This is a necessary part of being an Accepted/Soldier--they cannot become a Senior Member until they Aspire. When an Accepted/Soldier has Aspired to an Ajah/Company, they are called an Aspirant.

An Accepted/Soldier does not have to Aspire to a group right at six weeks; some people take several more weeks or even months before deciding to Aspire to a particular group.

Each group has a different process for Aspiring. One will learn about that procedure either by looking through the stickies in that Ajah's/Company’s forum or by contacting the group’s Head of Ajah/Company Commander.

Once an Accepted/Soldier has officially Aspired, they should alert the Head of Ajah/Company Commander of the other group they were guesting with to have themselves removed from that group's forum. This means that until they become a Senior Member, an Accepted/Soldier will only see one Ajah/Company forum.

Aspiring to an Ajah/Company does not mean that an Accepted/Soldier is a member or even a half-member of that group. They are still free to explore other Ajahs/Companies should the desire strike them; they just need to alert the membership administrator of the Ajah/Company of their intentions to un-Aspire.

Accepted and Soldiers: Please do not let reluctance of offending the members of the group to which you currently Aspire impede you from finding your true home, if it is not there. Senior Members realize that sometimes it takes time to find the right group, and they respect that.

Choosing to Demote

Sometimes, for whatever reason, an Aes Sedai or Gaidin feels they do not fit into their Ajah/Company anymore. If the Aes Sedai or Gaidin is not able to resolve this problem, they may choose to voluntarily demote to Accepted or Soldier to find a new Ajah or Company.

All demotions are voluntary. Aes Sedai or Gaidin are not demoted as a disciplinary measure.

The process of voluntary demotion is a difficult one, and is set up as such on purpose. The prospect of leaving one's Ajah or Company is not to be taken lightly, nor should it be taken for granted. The Administration and Membership take a Senior Member's changing of Ajah or Company very seriously, and it should only be done as a last resort.

Petitions for voluntary demotion will be examined by Administration and either approved or denied. Not all who petition for voluntary demotion will be approved. Those who are given approval to leave their Ajah/Company must meet certain criteria. It is important to understand that voluntary demotion is not a procedure that is easily approved.

A Senior Member wishing to change Ajah/Company affiliation will petition the Director of Membership, giving valid reasons for the demotion. The Director of Membership must receive the petition before the spring or fall term, which start January 1 and July 1. If approved, the Senior Member will be required to demote her/himself to Accepted/Soldier and partake in the guesting system. He or she will guest in two Ajahs/Companies at a time, like any other Accepted/Soldier, but will not be able to Aspire to his or her newly-chosen Ajah/Company until after after twelve weeks of guesting (rather than six weeks, like the usual Accepted/Soldiers).

Community members who voluntarily demote are not eligible for raising to Senior Member until six months after they have demoted, and many have found that it took them longer to be raised again to Senior Member than the minimum length of time required. This happens for many different reasons.

The voluntarily demoted community member will be a Junior Member in truth, rather than any special in-between rank. Although he or she will be given the courtesy of not being required to give further required-for-raising contribution or project to the Tower, in all other ways he or she is to be treated in the same manner as any other Accepted or Soldier. He or she will be raised eventually through the Hall and will be subject to all the strictures inherent of the Junior Member rank.

At the same time, it is important to know that guesting after demoting will not be the same experience as it is for other standard Junior Members. Demotees have a history already formed with many other Senior Members, and this history does not just disappear. Voluntary Demotion should not be perceived as a slate clean, do-over option. It is, rather, a shifting from one situation to another.

The voluntarily demoted Community Member must appreciate that other Ajah/Company members might have a hard time getting used to the demotee having a different rank. Members, especially of the new Ajah/Company to which the Community Member would choose to Aspire, might be overly cautious. It might be as simple as wishing to know for certain that the Community Member will not change his or her mind again, before warming to the concept fully of him or her as a member of their Ajah/Company.

At the same time, it should be respected that the Junior Member chooses the Ajah/Company, not the other way around. Raising to Senior Member for a voluntarily demoted Junior Member is not up to a vote with the new Ajah/Company. Of course, members of this group will have input which may be put into the raising packet gathered by the Head of Ajah or Company Commander and shown to the Hall, but ultimately the member’s raising is up to the vote of the Hall, like any other raising.

The voluntarily demoted Community Member is encouraged to take his or her time in deciding which group to Aspire to, and to not try to rush the process. Likewise, someone who has demoted should not feel that other people are rushing them through the process. If you find that you are being pressured to choose (or to not choose) a particular Ajah/Company and that you are not being allowed to fully enjoy the guesting, please contact your Membership administrator.