Here is a comment I received from Mark VanderMeulen, which I think
expresses exactly how I feel about the teams concept. I have now decided
that letting the Individual SC member organise their own groups is a better
idea given that some like this concept, while others don't.

Mark's comments:
I am really of two minds on this concept, and so have not commented up
'til now. On the one hand, I can see how these things could be handled
differently. After all, buildings, shops, fields, gardens, forges, toll
bridges &c. all exist on a very different time scale from the people who
live in and use them. A building will typically last numerous
generations, and in one sense, the people must adapt their own lives to
deal with the environment they find themselves in. I can see interesting
concepts arising from such a structure: a dyer's guild which has recently
been rejuvenated by the discovery of new dye-bearing plants from the
colonies in Aduria, and subsequently having outgrown their usual
facilities, and spilling over into some other property which they are
converting or making due with.
On the other hand, being familiar with the way that I design things
like cities and buildings, this subdividing seems strange. I tend to start
with a concept, and out of that concept grows both the buildings and
assets and the people who live in them. Ideas from one set influences
decisions made about the other set and vice versa, feeding off each other
in a synergistic fashion. Such feedback would be nearly impossible if the
aspects were subdivided the way described above, unless the subdivision
were to take place only after the initial "tossing-around-of-ideas" phase
of development. In this case, it does seem to be a good way to split up
the actual work of writing good ideas down into a usable form, but can
only take place after the ideas are gelified into their near-final form.

This sums up how I feel about the subject very well, and I think that if
everyone agrees, we should let the subject rest and leave internal group
organisation to the individual SC members.

Simon

Simon Graindorge
Coordinator, Birthright Online City Project

E-mail: slg@nw.com.au
Online City Project Homepage:
http://darkstar.cyberserv.com/netbook/city/index.html