Squirtle Squad

The Squirtle Squad is a collective of outcasts and misfits who happen to grow up in the same small town in Texas. The Squirtle Squad discord serves as a refuge for its members to come crack a cold one after a long days work. Currently lead by DanDanWhatUp and JoosyP, the discord serves as an oligarchy, where the Elders decide changes through democratic process.

## Ideology

The Elders of the Squirtle Squad always wanted the server to be a place were its members could come to relax and be comfortable. Elders strive to mold the server into a space free of stress, no expectations, and no unwanted drama. Some Elders differ in their image of the server. Some prioritize the comfortability of all members, where some prioritize the experience of Elders. This difference is often discussed amongst Elders openly. BradleyVargas is a well known advocate for the care of all members time in the discord and often publicly advocates for it, saying "Everyone deserves a good time while they are here", stated Oct 13, 2016. This ideology aligns with those known as the Bradlites. JakeShakeRake is a stark believer in the prioritization of the Elders experience, and makes it apparent to everyone, saying "We don't give a shit about the little person here" Nov 11, 2023. This ideology aligns towards the followers of DanDanWhatup, known as the WhatUpians.

## History

The Squirtle Squad was created by DanDanWhatUp in March 2016. The founding members were DanDanWhatUp, Goldmars, 00spongedude, Sad Robot, BradleyVargas and JoosyP. Originally, the Discord server served as a place to post the most heinous memes, and annoy each other with the Text to Speech feature. Soon the Discord had swelled with many new members, all friends of the founding members. This is when DanDanWhatUp made the executive decision to create a new category called, Elders in August of 2016. DanDanWhatup appointed himself and JoosyP, the most loyal follower of DanDanWhatup (Whatupian), Leaders of the Discord. The rest of the members of the Squirtle Squad remain nameless.

## Government

Early in to the creation of this space, Elders began to disagree in the ways this comfortable environment would be facilitated. This lead to the discussion of a democratic process for all major decision within the discord. Leaders DanDanWhatUp and JoosyP and Elders BradleyVargas Goldmars QuiQue and Schmig decided that any Elder (including the standing two leaders) have the authority to create a vote at any time. This vote would be made apparent to all Elders and would be open for at least 24 hours but not longer than 7 days. The vote would have to pass by 60% for the change to be made to the server. The vote maker would be responsible for making the change in a reasonably fast and easy manner.

##### Elections

Annual Elections are held during the last week of November. During this time, Elders may vote for new Elders to be added to the group, and new leaders are voted for to replace the current two Leaders. Many elders, such as And340G, Jakeshakerake, ManicMissiveManifest, and SanguineTonyTTV have been voted in using this process. Currently DanDanWhatUp and JoosyP remain the two members to ever be leaders, instated at the creation of the role. DanDan's role as leader was nearly ended in the 2020 election by BradleyVargas and the Bradlites. Though due to "The Great Recount", DanDanWhatUp and the Whatupians remained in power.