Welcome to the first ever State of the Squad SITREP. This will be a quarterly update to the FoddSquad on all of the events, programs, and other happenings that FODSQD has going on as well as a look back at the past 3 months. This SITREP will also serve as an update on the money side of the FoddSquad so that when you amazing Squadmates support the Squad financially (whether it be via Patreon, Twitch subs, tips, or otherwise) you know that your money is going to a good use! Think of it almost like a digital newsletter. With all the explained, let’s get to it!
So far, 2021 has been a great year for the FoddSquad. We conducted a full custom Arma 3 Antistasi campaign as the Scorpions of Anizay, which was super fun. The Official Scorpion patches (as well as assorted other paraphernalia) are currently on Preorder, so make sure you get in on that in the Discord so you can lock in the at cost + shipping rate! We’ve run 3 big FoddSquad meme operations (Christmas, $GME Stonks, and Easter) as well as several impromptu Zeus missions and there have also been a ton of allied organizations running ops and crossposting them in the Arma channel, which has basically resulted in at least weekly ops for our Squadmates to play in. Lastly, we’ve also obtained our own TeamSpeak server to fully support the Arma 3 operations of the Squad and had a very generous donation of a G-Portal Insurgency: Sandstorm server by the fine folks over at Black Site (Black Site: https://discord.gg/wyucsmP, Check partnerships for 5% off a G-Portal server) which we launched with some awesome coop and outpost games a few weeks back. I’m hoping to get mods on that server soon so we can have some runs in ISMC and on some cool custom maps.
The past few months have also seen the FoddSquad making some excellent connections with other cool communities. In addition to the Black Site and Tactical-Gaming.net folks, we now have strong ties with the Arma 3 machinima and screenshot-oriented community of Ceb.Cin and I’m working on stronger integration with the exploding community of tactical gaming darling ControlledPairs. We’ve also had some operations with JTF2, though it seems like they’re on a temporary hiatus at the moment.
Lastly, the community support in the Discord has continued to be absolutely amazing. A lot of us struggled over the winter, especially with the added difficulties of COVID-19 lockdowns. But I’ve seen a lot of checking up on one another, games being played together in the voice chats, and an overall positive atmosphere continue to be the hallmarks of our community. My mission has always been to create the most diverse, supportive, and positive community on the Internet and many of our newer members have commented about how we’re doing just that, so I’m extremely proud.
Now, looking out towards the Spring and Summer, I’ve got some big and small goals for the FoddSquad! First of all, I’m working on another custom Arma 3 Liberation campaign, this time centered in a much wetter climate. I’ve been working in the background with a couple folks, but I’ll need some beta testers soon who can help me make sure I haven’t messed up the scenario and also to help me shoot some promo stuff. If you’re interested and willing to help me keep a secret, either DM me or post about it in the #JTF-REDACTED channel. There will also be an Arma 3 charity event soon™ and I have a few half-finished missions on the back burner that I’d like to run in the next couple of months.
On the allied communities front, I’d like to continue getting more involved in some Ground Branch, Sandstorm, and still secret operations with ControlledPairs as well as get integrated into some of Karmakut’s SquadOps stuff. They are both putting together amazing events and it would be so cool to see more FoddSquad faces in there! I’m also watching BDGxGRIM and JustinRed/Cobra493’s new Arma unit and would like to see if we can get involved in any way there. In addition to all that, there are a ton of amazing new military and tactical games coming out that I’d like to get more involved with (OHD, Enlisted, etc), so if anyone gets into open betas/knows some people, definitely let me know so we can get some keys for our Squadmates.
Finally, on the FODSQD internal side, I have two big goals:
1. Expand the Patreon: When it comes to bang for your buck, nothing beats Patreon. For every $5 sub on Twitch, Amazon takes $2.50 and then I pay taxes on the half that’s left. Patreon, on the other hand, takes a total of $0.60 for that same $5 support, which would mean hundreds of additional dollars in the FoddSquad war chest per month if every Twitch sub we currently have were to change over. That’s not taking into account Twitch Prime subs, etc, but I’m going to try to work on the Patreon to ensure it’s giving at least equivalent value to entice some subs to switch over and make their generous monetary support go farther for the Squad.
2. Discord overhaul: I’d like to do a top to bottom look at the Discord and figure out if there are any changes we can do to make it work better for our Squad. For instance, we likely have too many channels and perhaps we could merge/eliminate some of the lesser used ones. I’m also considering adding a sort of VIP/Distinguished Guests role as we get some of the bigger names coming into our Discord, which is a standard for bigger servers to kind of provide social proof of how important the server is in the overall gaming community. I’m extremely concerned about alienating some people, though, so I’d love feedback on this idea. No one in the FoddSquad is more important than any other and I’d hate to give that implication, but I would still like to find a way to show off some of our bigger members.
As a small goal, I’d like to start putting out new merch on a regular basis, perhaps as a monthly release thing? I admit merch doesn’t bring much money into the FoddSquad coffers, but I love seeing it out there in the world and it makes me feel really awesome when people share comments made about the products. If you have an merch designs you’re willing to donate/make on the cheap, definitely DM me and I’ll see if we can integrate them into the store!
WOW, this post is running long. Thanks for everyone who’s made it this far, because that shows some dedication. Now I’m going to put down some rough numbers for FoddSquad Q1 (January through March). This won’t cover literally everything, but it should give a good idea to how the money is flowing in and out of the warchest.
Inflow (Revenues):
Twitch Payouts: $403.27
Patch and Sticker Sales: $204.87
Stream Tips: $71.25
Outflow (Costs):
CTF Jaguar Patch Cost: $146.30
Patch and Sticker Shipping: $29.95
Server Costs: $63.07
Games: $170.95
Charity: $128.93
Giveaways: $22.00
Advertising/Support: $140.00
Stream Related: $12.22
Discord Yearly Cost: $99.99
Business Costs: $17.00
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