Planned Expansion

[Patroklus Murakami]

At one of the election events I held, we were throwing around some ideas and we talked about expansion. Now, I'm a notorious fiscal hawk so my main concern was whether we could afford to pay tier on new sims. (We had previously ensured this by only buying a new sim once we had presold the lots on it.)

Those present thought we could easily rent out a new sim and this led me to suggest the following: that we commit as a general principle to opening a new sim every six months from now on.

Now, I would have to feel more sure we could afford it to go with the idea but I think it has lots of attractions. Each RA and Chancellor would get to plan and open a new sim. There would be a strong focus for community activity and lots of experience for builders. We would always have new land in the pipeline for new citizens and we would have to continually market the CDS in order to maintain growth.

What do people think? Is this level of expansion desirable and sustainable? Is it something we should aim for as a community?

[Beathan]

I think that this is a good plan. However, I don't think that we should commit to a rate of expansion unrelated to population change. Instead of aiming for a new sim every 6 months, I would build a reserve to allow for expansion and then have the expansion trigger be at a particular vacancy rate (perhaps 85% occupied).

However, my thinking could change if people more involved in marketing our project can tell me that we could maintain a predictably steady fill rate for our sims and could plan expansions based on that fill rate.

Beathan

[Cindy Ecksol]

I think it's just a little crazy to make a blanket statement that we're going to open a new sim every six months. We can't even manage to stop quarreling over silly stuff with the population as it is now and no big projects going on!

OK, not just a little crazy....I think it's completely crazy

Cindy

[Rosie Gray]

I have to agree that opening a new sim every 6 months is WAY too ambitious, and why would we even need to do that? What we need to do is plan on what we'd like to have within a feasible length of time, work out a budget, designs, and timeline for it, and begin to put the plan into action.

Personally, I think adding 2 sims within the next year would be wonderful and workable.

[Patroklus Murakami]

I think it's just a little crazy to make a blanket statement that we're going to open a new sim every six months. We can't even manage to stop quarreling over silly stuff with the population as it is now and no big projects going on!

OK, not just a little crazy....I think it's completely crazy

Cindy

One thing I've noticed when expansion happens is that - we still quarrel, but we do so productively

Opening Colonia Nova, Alpine Meadows, Locus Amoenus - these all gave us something to unite around even where we disagreed about the details. I think it would be helpful for us to focus on something big and important. That way, we are less likely to sweat the small stuff.

Now that the merger and its aftermath is behind us, we need to expand if we are to grow as a community.

[Beathan]

I think it's just a little crazy to make a blanket statement that we're going to open a new sim every six months. We can't even manage to stop quarreling over silly stuff with the population as it is now and no big projects going on!

OK, not just a little crazy....I think it's completely crazy

Cindy

One thing I've noticed when expansion happens is that - we still quarrel, but we do so productively

Opening Colonia Nova, Alpine Meadows, Locus Amoenus - these all gave us something to unite around even where we disagreed about the details. I think it would be helpful for us to focus on something big and important. That way, we are less likely to sweat the small stuff.

Now that the merger and its aftermath is behind us, we need to expand if we are to grow as a community.

Hear! Hear!

This is very true. The CDS has been prone to conflict. It's part of our culture. I think our trick is to channel that impulse into productive conflict rather than destructive conflict. Expansion has done that in the past and, I'm sure, can again.

Also, we need to grow our citizen body by welcoming (as opposed to ostracizing or disenfranchising) new citizens and by making room for even more of them.

Beathan

[Bells Semyorka]

comment placed in the wrong thread. Silly me

[Bromo Ivory]

I agree - I bet we could not only get a new SIM, but could fill it and keep it full!

[Beathan]

I am working on and am planning to propose a "real estate commission act" to encourage citizen sales of land for sale by the CDS. Cleo's effort last term showed that a motivated private citizen can, through virtually single handed effort, sell all vacant land the CDS has for sale. However, we can't expect our citizens to act as Cleo did -- especially if we "reward" them with hostility as we have with Cleo.

Therefore, to motivate such activities, I would propose paying an 8% commission on the sales price (set by the Chancellor) for any such property to any citizen who sells it.

With such a commission act in place, I think that Pat's proposal of a 1 sim per RA term rate of expansion would not be unrealistic (at least for the foreseeable future).

Beathan

[Sudane Erato]

Therefore, to motivate such activities, I would propose paying an 8% commission on the sales price (set by the Chancellor) for any such property to any citizen who sells it.

To quote a well known former US "statesman", "Here we go again."

May I plea that the glorious inventiveness shown by our honored representatives be tempered with just a mere whiff of practicality?

I assume that this commission would apply only to land sold by the community (i.e. not private land sales). How in the name of our lord above would you propose to administer such a scheme? Citizen A chats with Citizen B one day, and suggests, 'You ought to buy Parcel 309'. Citizen B flies over and buys it. The commission is paid to Citizen A, when.....

1. Citizen A says, "I convinced Citizen B to buy Parcel 309"

2. Citizen B says, "Citizen A convinced me to buy Parcel 309"

3. Both of the above

4. Neither of the above. A chat recording system shall be signed out by Citizen A and attached to their avatar. During all conversations with other citizens and potential citizens, this system will log all conversations onto third party targets. When Citizen A steps up to claim their bounty, a sub-committee of the SC will convene to examine these chat logs, and then determine in their best judgment whether the nature and intent of the words spoken was such to convert a formerly dis-inclined Citizen B over to an attitude of willingness to buy Parcel 309. The committee's decision can be appealed to the full SC if the claimant (Citizen A) finds the decision unacceptable.

Jeez....

Can we get real?

Sudane............................................

[Beathan]

Sudane,

What I have in mind is actually work selling property -- like that shown by Cleo last term. That is easy to tell apart from the situations you describe.

Even if the proposal requires something more complicated, it would be much better to put in place a system to handle it rather than go through a period of prolonged vacancy and stagnation as we have been until recently.

That said, I think that the solution is to ask the new citizen -- "Was any particular current citizen particularly helpful or influential to you in your decision to purchase this property? If more than one citizen was, please only identify the person who made the most difference." That doesn't seem hard to me.

Beathan