Shine a light

Merry Monday folks!

Hope y’all enjoyed the weekend – and many *HUGS* from all of us here to all of you. Here at Rusty Towers we continue to be overwhelmed by your support and generosity in these times. Indeed this newsletter is now going out to over 4000 Patrons! We still remain committed to donating 10% of our Patreon income to the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, and as of the end of April remain on course to donate nearly $4300 to it.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that we were looking at new milestones that we can introduce for Patron support. Obviously your contributions have made such a major difference to the way Rusty Quill can work and support a growing crew, for some of whom this is their primary income source. That you all are able to make this possible, is a massive achievement, particularly with the impact the current situation and sustained cuts have had on the arts and independent creators.

So, we’re introducing a new range of targets that we feel are will help secure the work we do, now and in the future. We’ve also included a couple of historical ones, so that you can see some of things that you’ve directly contributed to.

$20,000 – Equipment boosting, providing remote recording equipment (audio & video) to our regular performers and stocking up on backup equipment for guests.

$21,000 – Wages increase, improving all crew wages to a minimum of £10/hour.

$23,000 – Expanding RQ Streams to open more slots for streamers and content from Rusty Towers.

$25,000 - Appoint a Communications Assistant to work with Anil.

$26,000 – Investigate sustainable way to provide transcripts for Stellar Firma & RQGaming.

$28,000 – Wages increase for all RQ employees to above London Living Wage.

$29,000 – Special Fanart Contest to commission new design(s) for merchandising.

$30,000 – Improved HR Platform.

As you can see, the first three of these milestones have already been passed, thanks to all of you. I’m pleased to say that remote recording is now in place for all show regulars and we are building our supplies of loan equipment to send out to guest VAs. In addition, as of March, all RQ employees had their hourly pay rate increased, and we were able to offer more paid hours to a number of crew. And we are currently working on a framework to showcase more folks on RQ Streams, so look forward to seeing some new faces alongside Mike and Anil on that project!

You may note that these don’t specifically refer to adding new shows, new content to Patreon or art for this year’s additional merch drops. That’s because we’re making them part of our ‘business as usual’ operations, and whilst your support definitely enables us to do more on those fronts, we’d rather they weren’t to tied to specific goals as we’re going to be working on them regardless. There will be new art, new productions and more bonus material, whether or not we make any new milestones.

As for the future goals, a couple of points worth clarifying. These are very much aspirational, and whilst we feel they are realistic at present, we may need to change them as the economic and artistic landscape changes. But we’ll be sure to make folks aware if we need to alter them significantly.

Secondly, with regards to the Comms Assistant, we strongly envisage this person coming from the fan community – after all, who knows our shows and our fans better than one of our own? Whilst we’re not in a position just yet to hire someone, if you feel this is something you would like to do, have the social media awareness & writing skills to do so and could work with me, we are accepting expressions of interest for when/if the post becomes formally available. To do so, please send a CV and covering email to hr@rustyquill.com.

Thirdly, with regards to transcripts, we know that there are various fanscribers who work on these already and if we can find a reasonable way to work with them, this milestone will allow us to investigate that, though we don’t rule out using professional services to get us where we want. Obviously there is also the issue of the gaps in the TMA transcript archive. 

What I can say that is that the bulk of the work to get us up to speed has been done and paid for – what we are waiting on are the quality control aspects that I have to do. Now, there was a plan for this to be done by the start of Season 5 which unfortunately was shelved due to the pandemic as my time had to be diverted elsewhere. That said, now that things are settling down, I should be able to return to that task, so expect some movement on that front shortly.

It was another very fun weekend over on RQ Streams as Mike helmed the weekend’s shenanigans, including a very question-packed AMA on Sunday as he covered everything from his university days to what dogs he’d like. And there certainly were a lot of dog pics looked at, much to the edification of all. If you haven’t managed to catch the fun over on Twitch, then you can revisit them over on our YouTube channel. And thanks to the keen work of Mike & Rusne, we’re also looking to put out highlights of the various goofs and laughs we have, starting with this compilation from January & February! 

Now, for any Eurovision fans in our community, this week on RQ Streams we’re going to be putting on something special to make up for ESC2020 in Rotterdam being cancelled. Introducing EuroQuill 2020 – a fan contest! That’s right, we’re going to ensure that this year’s contestants still get some kind of chance at competition and we’ll see who gets to receive the RQ fandom crown.

Hosted by me, and starting with two semi-finals on Tuesday & Wednesday, we’ll watch and vote on who we want to join the Dutch & ‘Big 5’ entries in Sunday’s Grand RQ Final to find our fan winner (with maybe a surprise or two along the way)! By the nature of what we’re doing, these will be one-off live events, there will be no VOD and no YouTube archiving of these shows. Fans wanting to talk about the contest should also join our Discord, where we have a dedicated #eurovision channel to talk about the show and where we’ll announce any changes to this week’s schedule.

And in associated streaming news, former crew member James Ross (Sir Bertrand MacGuffingham on RQGaming, ‘John Smith’ in MAG100), coiffed comedian extraordinaire & host of the Quantum Leopard comedy night, will be bringing a very special gaming experience to the airwaves this Friday! Join James and special guests Desiree Burch, Elf Lyons & Bryn Monroe for Dungeons & Leopards, a D&D5E game under the expert guidance of DM Autumn Jarvis.

Tune in at www.twitch.tv/quantumleopard on Friday 15th May, 7.30pm BST (setup) for 8pm start, for what will no doubt be an adventure with hearty laughs! 

And, here's what you can expect from us this week (all shows release at 4pm UK time, unless otherwise stated):

Tue 12th May
RQG155 – All Hail the Dragon King* (Patreon)
RQ Streams – EuroQuill 2020, Semi-Final 1 (5pm)

Wed 13th May
MAG167 – Curiosity (Patreon)
RQG155 – All Hail the Dragon King* (Public)
RQ Streams – EuroQuill 2020, Semi-Final 2 (5pm) 

Thu 14th May
STL048 – Faces and Aces (Patreon)
MAG167 – Curiosity (Public)

Fri 15th May
Citizens/Knight/Noble Bonus – Meet the RQG Editors
STL048 – Faces and Aces (Public)

Sat 16th May
RQ Streams – Mike plays… The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Part 3 (3pm)

Sun 17th May
RQ Streams – EuroQuill 2020, Grand Final (2pm)

(* Provisional title)

Have a great week all!

Anil
Community Manager