Volksschutzbrigaden

The Volksschutzbrigaden (People's Protection Brigades), formerly known as the Volunteer Defense Association and the Syndicate, was a Garry's Mod faction dedicated to protecting servers from minging.
==History ==
===Formation===
The Volunteer Defense Association arose some time around March of 2021. During the time between March of 2021 and June 2021, the VDA would create bases throughout the server of [TKZ] Build to Kill. However, the VDA wouldn't become very active until late June of 2021 after a set of rules for the group was formalized.
===Name Change===
On July 1, 2021, bagels725 created an amended version of the groups charter renaming the faction to "the Syndicate", which was inspired from the group of the same name in the game Unturned.
=== Constitution Change & Restructuring ===
On October 16, 2021, bagels725, the Admiral of the group at the time, changed the groups ruling document to the Constitution of the Volunteer Defense Association, citing Article 9 of the groups old Charter to justify it. The Constitution, which was largely based off of the post-1996 constitution of the Provisional IRA, reverted the groups name back to the Volunteer Defense Association. Under the new Constitution, the VDA was organized into groups known as Contingents, each led by an Commanding Officer (CO). Each Contingent would be able to send delegates to an annual General Army Convention occurring at the beginning of each year. The General Army Convention would elect a Chief-of-Staff to the Army Council. The Army Council, composed of the elected Chief-of-Staff and each Commanding Officer of the Contingents, would act as the central leadership of the Volunteer Defense Association by representing the Association in foreign affairs and managing the "personnel, armaments, equipment and other resources of the Volunteer Defense Association" (Article 4, Section 3 of the Constitution). The Army Council would also have the power to appoint CO's to Contingents, and would exercise its powers through written bylaws known as General Orders.
=== Dissolution ===
On the 6th of November, 2021, at 5:14 PM, the VDA Chief-of-Staff, Bagels725, made an announcement in the VDA's Discord server stating:
As the Chief-of-Staff of the Volunteer Defense Association, seeing the lack of interest 
of the members in maintaining the group due to the amount of bureaucracy I have created 
and other factors, I hereby declare General Order No. 2 - Ceasefire & Dissolution:
1. Effective at 5:30 PM EST on November 6, 2021, all military operations and activities
of the Contingents and the Army Council shall be ceased.
2. Effective at 12:00 AM EST on November 7, 2021, all Contingents, the VDA Army Council,
and all official positions within the organization shall be defunct.
The group would later cease to exist on November 7, 2021.
=== Brief return as the Volksschutzbrigaden ===
On March 12, 2022, a new successor group to the VDA calling itself the Volksschutzbrigaden (People's Protection Brigades) announced its foundation on an undisclosed Discord server. The new group would not last however, and fell into inactivity as soon as it started.
== Objects ==
The goals of the Volunteer Defense Association, as stated in its Constitution, was "to combat the presence of mingebags, kleiners and the like on Garry's Mod servers through various means" and "to protect the builders, coders, and creative players from mingebags, kleiners, and the like". The group's emphasis on attacking mingebags and kleiners only in defense was especially highlighted in its name Volunteer Defense Association and with the statement in Article 3 of its Constitution "and to achieve both with a mindset of defense rather than one of offense".
Due to the objects of the organization, the groups Chief-of-Staff had implemented a non-interventionist foreign policy of only interacting with other groups and alliances of groups if it could benefit the Volunteer Defense Association itself.
==Typical Activities ==
Due to the small size of the group in manpower, technology, and influence, the Volunteer Defense Association did not typically do activities as often as other, much larger groups would. On the uncommon occasions that Volunteers did activities in the field, it was usually patrolling servers in vehicles adapted from public dupes and engaging in PvP battles with mingebags.
Not much activity occured off the field, though the group's Chief-of-Staff was attempting to find ways to develop the organization and its strategies to attain its goals of server defense.
==Technology==
Most of the technology used by the Volunteer Defense Association was lightly modified publicly available contraptions. Due to the short existence of the group and the lack of building skill of most of its members, no domestically-made technology made specifically for the group had been made in its existence.
Vehicles modified by VDA Volunteers usually consisted of publicly available ACF/Wiremod cars and combat vehicles, sometimes modified to include the groups name and flag as decals. The Volunteer Defense Association also had some air and sea vehicles, though they were seldom used. The group's Chief-of-Staff, bagels725, also had extremely old vehicles from a former group known as LordDeath Inc. (LDI).
The Volunteer Defense Association also created bases on server maps, usually always in their capital. Bases created by the Volunteer Defense Association served as outposts for Volunteers to defend and to plan their activities when active on a server.
Category:Factions