Can someone bring me up to speed on the new Order?

I told Aqua that i feel things are a lot calmer and more balanced here and that there is more focus on study. For me study is more important than fretting over change and over people that have their reasons for not being here. But then , i dont fret over a lot of things anymore

That’s a wise perspective to have serenity. Stressing over the small things is something I wish more people would give up. It makes life so much simpler

Whyte Horse wrote:

What happened to VTOG? She was barely out of diapers back when I was on here .

The person you remember is now called Ben and he is very well! Am not sure how he'd take being referred to as 'just out of diapers' though . . .

Zero wrote: I think my (and councils) biggest concern is the several new and returning members who keep mentioning a new order. There is no new order. Yes We have new ip lessons, yes we’re creating new lessons for the degree scheme. But that’s about it. Our existing council members have all been on council for many years. Our rules and policies haven’t changed much since I came here 5 years ago. So my question is a simple one, why are all you returning members convinced there is some new order? Who has convinced you of some non existent big change? Being someone who has logged in to the temple daily for working on 5 years, I can promise you that short of a few new ip lessons, totjo hasn’t changed much at all. Curious to see who responds to this with an actual answer.

The new Order means the people who replaced the ones that were here back when I was doing the IP some 8-9 years ago. There was Br. John, Jestor, Wesclii, Brenna, VTOG, and a few others I'll probably remember. I do realize people come and go, the council has turnover, the moderators have turnover, etc.

To me it seems like a period of exploration and observation would be the best way to get exactly the information you're looking for. And then if you have some more specific questions, those might be easier for people to answer.

For myself, at least, I have no idea how to answer something as broad as "what's changed since 8 or 9 years ago."

Most of the people you listed are still here. BrJohn, wescli, even brenna pops in an out every so often. Loudzoo discussed VTOG/ Ben. People come and go quite often…..but the temple website, it’s rules and policies and goals haven’t changed though.

Loudzoo wrote:

Whyte Horse wrote:

What happened to VTOG? She was barely out of diapers back when I was on here .

The person you remember is now called Ben and he is very well! Am not sure how he'd take being referred to as 'just out of diapers' though . . .

Oh wow that was unexpected. I think we started here around the same time, maybe he was here longer.

Member turnover is actually a pretty big problem here. This past year was the exception as we had like 6 new knights. But in the 6 years before that, we had like 4 new knights in all those years COMBINED. We’ve had 356 new members since October, of which maybe 5 or so are still here. We get several new ip journals every day, but in the almost 6 months since we implemented the new ip, NO ONE has finished it except knight river why dry ran it for us. No new initiates means no new apprentices (excluding the moratorium). Everyone shows up either excited to be here or excited to be back, but 99% of people don’t stay once they hear it will take at least 2 years to become a knight, or that we actually require training to be completed before we hand out the rank.

Zero wrote: Everyone shows up either excited to be here or excited to be back, but 99% of people don’t stay once they hear it will take at least 2 years to become a knight, or that we actually require training to be completed before we hand out the rank.

2 years??? I'm out... hehe jk. I think what held my interest in the old IP was that I was doing it out of order. Personally, I would arrange the lessons like this: 12,11,10...5, 1,2,3,4,13. It goes from defining religion, to defining the force, and then through the smaller bits of Jediism, and then it gets into the temple and all of the jedi code, doctrine, etc. See, nobody cares about the people or the temple when they first start. The first thing in a person's mind is to answer the question "Are there real Jedis?". That lands them here on the web site. The next question is "Can I join them and/or become one?" and that lands them at the IP. Then they want to know how it can be a religion ->boom, lesson 12. Then they want to know what the force is ->boom, lesson 11. Once they're sold on those two things, they have a natural inclination to want to learn more about the people and the temple. Once they do that they have an inclination to want to get involved with them; to become knights.

At least that's how it works in my autistic mind. I hate learning a bunch of stuff I'm not interested in before I've had a reason to get interested. It decreases engagement. Imagine if you went to learn about a church/religion and they started you out by learning who's in the choir, who's in the food bank group, who's doing missionary work in Africa, etc. No, they'd probably start off explaining religion, what they believe, and then tell you you can come to hang out on Sundays for more in-depth sermons and get to know some people. That might evolve into you getting involved with the church in some way at which point you'd need to know more about the church and it's inner workings, who's who, etc.

You’d be surprised how many people end up needing to know who’s who in the first cpl hours they are here. Espically those with reasons for needing to know those people, like youth needing to connect with a youth officer for example, or people with learning disabilities who need members of the ip team for help. That’s all covered in the very first lesson for a reason.