From Twisted Minds...
By KwISt
"THE IMPORTANCE
OF BEING KAG"
Showmanship. No summary of KAG's history or function
would be complete without talking about Showmanship. Keep that word capitalized.
Use permanent marker. Teach it to your kids in seven languages, then encourage
them to use it in naming your grandkids. If KAG ever stops being about
Showmanship, then it has lost its roots that set it apart so brightly from
the drek that saturates the rest of Fandom. I call that the "Put Up or
Shut the Hell Up Factor." (Feel free to abbreviate that "PUSHUF.")
KAG was born on a stage in Indianapolis. Not in a letterbox on someone's
desk. Not in a basement, nor a candle-filled monastary. It was born on
a stage, in front of a cheering crowd. It was born during a time when it
was easy to conform to the mainstream by playing the role of a federation
officer. Or worse, not playing the role, just filling out paperwork. Words
without substance. Tell me, where's the Fun in that?
Sentience. It took independent thinkers to want to play Klingon.
It took production-minded, vision radiating, tenaciously persistant, bright,
creative loons to give it substance. And it took an experienced leader to
build it on as simple a foundation as The Five Rules of KAG.
Throughout the fan community, organizations were repeating the same mistakes...
Bureaucratic architects would run amuck turning a simple hobby into an overregulated
rat's maze, based on imaginary bean counting, or ego-centric loyalties,
or insulating members from communications ...anything but a common interest.
(It's worth noting that a cult is easily identified if it abuses members'
time, money, and relationships. To KAG's credit, our leadership has worked
hard to prevent any such abuse from entering KAG.)
Clubs in that day took big bucks to run. Email and the web hadn't taken
off yet, so phone bills and a lot of postal correspondence made the bloodline
of such organizations. Dues were charged, sometimes on multiple levels.
Financial considerations could only add to the unfairness of clubs in that
day.
Along came KAG and introduced so much that the fan community needed desparately.
No dues required, Promotion based on communication and cooperation... the
level of service we provide to our many fellow warriors. You get out of
it just what you put into it. Glory is Chief. Humor is celebrated. Why?
Because it's all for the Fun.
Success. Since the time of KAG's birth, many attempts have come
and gone, trying to outdo the success of KAG. Strangely enough, none of them
really tried beating KAG at its own game. Where KAG deregulates, they craft
their countless bureaucratic commandments to "re-regulate" fandom. Where
KAG builds community, they isolate and insulate their own membership lifeline.
Where KAG puts substance and action to their talk, "Lightning before Thunder,"
the others degenerate into paper empires and self-aggrandizing titles. It's
little wonder that the death of such clubs often comes quickly.
So KAG grows due to its openness, its simplicity, its lunacy, and its Showmanship.
In short, it grows for its Fun.
- KwISt "the twistai guy"