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The Augustan Society Wiki: A Handbook for Society Operations
The purpose of this wiki is to act as a Handbook for The Augustan Society, Inc., providing a complete description of Society operations, procedures, policies, forms, and traditions. It is yet in its infancy, having begun on 1 September 2014, and there is much yet to be loaded. Once that phase is complete, corrections and additions will be solicited, and the editing will begin in earnest.
John F. Woods, a computer programmer active in the last decade of the 20th century, famously wrote, "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live." Authors of pages here are thus admonished to make sure that what is written is not only correct and complete, but well organized, so that our successors may take up the reigns from us with minimal trouble.
The Society is organized (somewhat informally) into ten Departments:
- Administration
- Chivarly
- Genealogy
- Heraldry
- History
- Royalty & Nobility
- Library
- Museum
- Communications
- Sub-Groups
Those charged with building and maintaining this wiki are likely to tire of the tedium of this task, and to ask if the effort is of any value. This writer has two things to say which I urge you to remember at such times:
First, that our founder left the Society with essentially no instructions on how it operated. He kept most procedures and policies in his head (and changed them as he saw fit). Thus the second managment team had to invent all from scratch, a job much more difficult that it needed to be. Please have pity on your successors, and upon mine.
Second, I would offer a quotation from John F. Woods, a computer programmer from the late 20th century, who advised, "Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live." This is the same message stated a bit more (perhaps too) strongly — that you should leave such careful instructions, and explanations for those instructions, that those who follow will never have reason to curse your name.
