Well, to be honest, I like option 1 best.

As for option 2, it's impossible because I don't have any power to modify the family.  No one does. 

As for option 3, I think you mean for me to approach mods and ask them to give place an option on prominent piranha members' account page for them to join the 'Piranhas' family in the ICC politics challenge.

But to do so, I would have to name names and reveal the Piranhas' membership.  I can't do that. 

As for making my own contest, I think not.  I like your idea.

However, perhaps instead of having a round with players being recruited to a fam, arbitrarily assigned to a fam, randomed to a fam, or sent by invitation to join a fam, why not just let players or choose to assign themselves to a fam for a change. 

I think how it should happen is when everyone goes to their account pages, they see a link for 'Join ICC Politics Challenge'

Then players select the fam they want to join from the following list:

Left Wing Fam (These fams implement a Family Bank System of income redistribution aka Communism)
<list of fams to join>
Right Wing Fam (These fams implement a Team System of income redistribution, aka Facism)
<list of fams to join>
Piranhas~!  (These fams implement a Self-Sufficient system with no income redistribution)
<list of fams to join>

It should be set up so that in a Communist fam, the fambank is built into the game.  That is, when a player logs out, their res and income is automatically deposited into the fam bank, and when a player logs on, they have access to all the family's income and res (but not if the leader has assigned rogue status to them).  Food is automatically redistributed by need to positive income earners / bankers each tick and income is automatically redistributed by need to all negative income earners each tick, so no bankers run out of food and no resources / attackers have their fleets disbanding.  What makes this team communist is basically the automatic fam bank.  You don't really need a strong, trusted leader to redistribute wealth, but you do need a strong comradeship, with everyone trusting each other not to waste the Fam Bank income.  Leadership is voted in as it is now, and can be changed when the majority simply changes their votes to someone else.

In the Fascist fam, however, the leader is elected once at the beginning of round by majority vote, and no change is possible all round long unless by a unanimous vote (except the leader's vote, of course).  As for the fascist fam's income redistribution system, first of all, the leader assigns players into teams.  Like automatic fam bank for the communists, each team of member has access to each other member's income / res.  There is what you could call a Team Bank, though, rather than a Fam Bank, operating in the same way as the Communists' Fam Bank, except only for that team.  You can have two teams, five teams, whatever, in a fam.  However, what makes the family facist is the leader's power to rearrange teams (and thus the entire system of income redistribution of that fam) at will.  Such a fam would need a strong, trusted leader for this fam to be successful.

As for the Self Sufficient fam, it's quite simple, really.  It operates pretty much as is now.  No automatic Fam Bank nor Team Bank.  What can happen, though, which sets the Self-Sufficient Fam apart from the others is that Fam's exclusive right to use current system by which resources and income are currently sent to other fam members, the system which the Facist and Communist fams WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO DO. 

In effect, there needs to be an automatic Fam Bank / Team Bank system built into the game, and in Fascist Fams, they have no choice but to use the Automatic Team Bank System, and in Communist Fams the Automatic Fam Bank system, and in Self-Sufficient Fams, the current system, without access to the new automatic bank system.

Xeno: You are proposing a complete change in the game itself to go along with the ideals of a politics community... however this is silly and incorrect, and just shows you to be a small child no longer worthy to be part of the discussion... go post in ideas and get shot down

My dismissal of the idea is because you are proposing a complete change to the gameplay of the game, which is not what Zarf was proposing... Go post in ideas if you want this change...

As for my other posts indicating my delusion, prove it by referring to my other posts.  Back up your claims, or, actually, continue in your delusion that I am deluded.  I don't really care.

I still maintain that you are aiming this at the incorrect forum... please get it moved to ideas forum... this is not a recruitment for an ICC fam but an idea for a complete change in the way the game works, thus is ideas not politics...