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ORDER ONLY
Feb. 15th, 2014 01:10 pmFirst of all, I hope everyone is having a lovely Valentine's, and I hope the distribution of the books went well. We'll have to wait and see how they're received. If our Hogwarts people could keep a careful eye on things over the next few days, that would be appreciated.
With the distribution of this book, and an increased radio presence, I’ve been giving some thought lately as to how we might capitalise on this exposure and expand our circle safely and effectively. We’re doing fairly well with the connections we’ve made in the camps, and the Order members at Hogwarts have done an admirable job cultivating a group of trusted people, but one thing working with Dogstar has shown is that they are far better at recruiting and gathering a network of wizard informants, and we are at a disadvantage for it.
I believe that our mission and message is worth fighting for, and that if we were to recruit people to hold buttons to pass on relevant information, and potentially be on-hand to provide small scale support (providing temporary shelter, passing along needed supplies they can access, standing watch if we need an extra set of eyes), that would be something worth pursuing. Not everyone needs to be a full member or know everything about our organisation right away, but I’d imagine there might be several people out there who start off as button-holders who could end up becoming a great deal more.
Tonks, Remus, Sirius, you’ve spent a while cultivating a group of regulars at Laszlo’s. Perhaps it might be time to take that one step further, and see if any of your trusted clients would be willing to do this? Lee, Fred, George, Jeremy, Cedric, you might think about some of your recent classmates. Bill, I know you’ve got your network of informants well-established, but perhaps ask them if there’s anyone they would trust to start expanding our circle? Molly, what about your old bartering network? Poppy, Pomona, perhaps some of your trusted colleagues might fit the bill?
This would have to be carefully done, of course – we’d have to sort out how much we would share about our organisation, security in case a person we think would be trustworthy turns or gets caught, and to be ready with Obliviation if an initial conversation goes pear-shaped. I know that as the primary contact for these recruits, you all would be at a higher risk of exposure. I’m hoping that we keep this initial circle of people who can be linked directly to us a tight one – people we trust, people we know directly – so that we can be responsive, and know what we’re dealing with. I'm also hoping that eventually, they in turn can establish their own networks, to make future recruits a little less directly linked to our core members, but still a trusted circle. Would this be something you would all be willing to do?
On a related topic, now that we’ve had some space, it’s high time we reconsider the question of Ms Brodie. What is our current state of boomslang skin and our polyjuice supply? Can we afford to pass along some boomslang to Dogstar in exchange for Ms Brodie? And should we? The offer is very tempting, but comes with a high degree of risk. I know we’ve chewed over it before, but we need to come to a decision while the offer is still on the table. I would be willing to take on Ms Brodie – I think she’d be quite the asset, and believe she has a firm enough understanding of how to manage risk so that she wouldn’t put us in too much additional danger – but I would want to be sure that she’d want to join us, and to very carefully sort out what her continued role with Dogstar would be.
With the distribution of this book, and an increased radio presence, I’ve been giving some thought lately as to how we might capitalise on this exposure and expand our circle safely and effectively. We’re doing fairly well with the connections we’ve made in the camps, and the Order members at Hogwarts have done an admirable job cultivating a group of trusted people, but one thing working with Dogstar has shown is that they are far better at recruiting and gathering a network of wizard informants, and we are at a disadvantage for it.
I believe that our mission and message is worth fighting for, and that if we were to recruit people to hold buttons to pass on relevant information, and potentially be on-hand to provide small scale support (providing temporary shelter, passing along needed supplies they can access, standing watch if we need an extra set of eyes), that would be something worth pursuing. Not everyone needs to be a full member or know everything about our organisation right away, but I’d imagine there might be several people out there who start off as button-holders who could end up becoming a great deal more.
Tonks, Remus, Sirius, you’ve spent a while cultivating a group of regulars at Laszlo’s. Perhaps it might be time to take that one step further, and see if any of your trusted clients would be willing to do this? Lee, Fred, George, Jeremy, Cedric, you might think about some of your recent classmates. Bill, I know you’ve got your network of informants well-established, but perhaps ask them if there’s anyone they would trust to start expanding our circle? Molly, what about your old bartering network? Poppy, Pomona, perhaps some of your trusted colleagues might fit the bill?
This would have to be carefully done, of course – we’d have to sort out how much we would share about our organisation, security in case a person we think would be trustworthy turns or gets caught, and to be ready with Obliviation if an initial conversation goes pear-shaped. I know that as the primary contact for these recruits, you all would be at a higher risk of exposure. I’m hoping that we keep this initial circle of people who can be linked directly to us a tight one – people we trust, people we know directly – so that we can be responsive, and know what we’re dealing with. I'm also hoping that eventually, they in turn can establish their own networks, to make future recruits a little less directly linked to our core members, but still a trusted circle. Would this be something you would all be willing to do?
On a related topic, now that we’ve had some space, it’s high time we reconsider the question of Ms Brodie. What is our current state of boomslang skin and our polyjuice supply? Can we afford to pass along some boomslang to Dogstar in exchange for Ms Brodie? And should we? The offer is very tempting, but comes with a high degree of risk. I know we’ve chewed over it before, but we need to come to a decision while the offer is still on the table. I would be willing to take on Ms Brodie – I think she’d be quite the asset, and believe she has a firm enough understanding of how to manage risk so that she wouldn’t put us in too much additional danger – but I would want to be sure that she’d want to join us, and to very carefully sort out what her continued role with Dogstar would be.
