**CHANGES TO AETHERBOUND ACADEMY**
As times have changed, so too have the motivations of many. Having looked out over the Academy and the people of the Crystal Data Center RP community, one thing has become clear: A lot of people like magical things!
But not everyone is in it for teaching or being taught.
Now, this is not a bad thing, not at all! We made the Academy what it is so people from all walks of life in-universe could come to our school and learn in a variety of ways.
Today, we're changing how we go about it- by making Aetherbound Academy into a research institute.
What does this mean, exactly? Well, where we once were a school, we are now becoming a place for all sorts of people to gather. A school setting implies that one is there to *teach*, or to *learn*, and that’s not the best for the growth of everyone. To work towards this vision of growth in all things, we'll be changing our structure and purpose. As a research institute our Academy building will become an open access building where researchers, scientists, machinists, magitek users, mages, aetherologists, and more can come to make use of laboratories, libraries, resources, and professional opinions. We’ll be doing renovations as well, from the main floors to some of the back rooms, so forgive us if things aren’t in the same places as they used to be! This’ll also encourage people making different kinds of rooms, and allowing people to come and go as they please within them.
IC, we'll also be offering research grants to independents to help fund their processes and procedures. This’ll allow more people of greater knowledge to come in and make use of our resources- aka, our people- without feeling obligated to teach. Naturally, this only applies to IC gil, NOT OOC gil. What’ll be accepted or not as a research project will primarily be up to the Board of Directors, and we’ll encourage those who are doing so to run events and the like around them, either independently or with the assistance of staff members.
Now, current and prospective students of the Academy, do not despair! Teaching will, of course, still be a thing! All our teachers who wish to continue teaching will gladly offer their lessons, especially Anhe. But it won’t feel as limited as 'you're here either to teach or learn', and people can come and go to not only have lessons, but practice their various crafts and skills in our many workstations. For students who have worried ‘I haven’t been around for lessons, I’m probably not welcome here anymore’, that’s not the case at all. You are all 100% welcome around!
Our Faires will become quarterly (4 times a year) instead of bimonthly, and predominantly feature displays of what people have researched and done from talks and displays to practical demonstrations- if we don’t have much, we do fun and games with magic, as we have before. This’ll take some of the stress off, and ensure that we’re not rushing every two months to put something together.
For our staff, staff meetings will become significantly less frequent as well- likely once every other month instead of every month- with everybody operating basically on their own instead of needing direct oversight. We’ll all be encouraged to operate as equals in staffing and learning, working alongside students and your fellows to achieve goals.
There will also be a restructuring of the rank system in our discord and in-game, but that is still in the works. We’ll let you know when this is ready to roll out.
Bear with us as we change names and things, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask any of our moderator team!