The Dabrowski Initiative

The Dabrowski Initiative's main role within the Federated Commonwealth of Western Pennsylvania is to provide electricity to New Dunston. They provide and maintain the streetlights throughout the city as well as providing electricity to all of the factions, for a price of course. They also perform most of the other miscellaneous maintenence of public parts of the city. Although the Chamber of Commons refuses to grant the Initiative an official monopoly on electricity, they've kept the secret of how they provide it closely guarded, giving them a monopoly anyway. When pressed, members of the Initiative tend to give evasive answers concering the powering of New Dunston. People that pay attention sometimes get the impression that most of the members don't actually know the full answer anyway.

Internal Structure

The Dabrowski Initiative has been structured like a modern utility company since the death of Sebastian Dabrowski. Their relatively small size compared to the size of the area they service means that the vast majority of the members faction work at least in some capacity as service people, with no full time "executives." By virtue of having a seat in the Chamber of Commons they do keep a Director of Public Relations in order to sit on the seat. The Public Relations Manager is the closest thing the Initiative has to a leader in the vacuum of power created by Sebastian's death. Since then the Initiative has lacked for strong leadership—Sebastian was too much a megalomaniac to give anyone else a firm position in his faction—and six different people have served as Director of Public Relations since, none lasting more than two years before losing credibility and being forced to step down.

The current Director of Public Relations, Bill Walsh, has spent most of his 2 years in the position attempting to diffuse the dislike of the Dabrowski Initiative that was left by Sebastian's rather aggressive establishment of the faction.

Relations with Others

Sebastian ran the group until the last decade, and pursued an aggressive, expansionist policy to the best of his ability. This has earned the Initiative more than its share of enemies, ranging from his old faction, which he never forgave for not buckling under, to several of the factions that have on occasion found themselves without power due to "mechanical difficulties" that seem to be caused primarily by disagreeing with him in the Chamber of Commons.

Since then, the Initiative has been doing its best to improve the opinion most other factions have of the Initiative, but it has been slow going. Despite their efforts, the Initiative maintains only two close allies: the Smiths who are forced to put up with them despite their past leadership, and the Post Office, who share common practical interests with the Initiative.

History

In 1908, Sebastian Dabrowski, a member of the Tinkers, informed his faction that he had a means of bringing electricity into Pittsburgh. In exchange for telling them how to do it, he demanded not only leadership of the faction, but an expansion of power that would have made him a near-dictator within the Tinkers.

They refused, remaining loyal in both name and belief to their founder, and Sebastian left with two followers. They went to the Union of Workers, the little respected faction responsible for basic maintenance work in the city.

Sebastian offered them power and respect—and a reduction in their workload besides—but demanded complete obedience. Unlike his home faction, the Union accepted. In late 1909, the Union completed the first stage of the electrification project, bringing electricity to their home territory. Sebastian attended a meeting of the Chamber of Commons to personally announce the development—and that the Union was renaming itself The Dabrowski Initiative.

The Initiative made a fortune over the next ten years as it electrified the other faction's territories—charging fees for the process and more fees to get it done quickly.