Several things....
First, your FS of 21 players has
10 inactives (black triangles), which means half of them are not contributing anything even outside FA because they aren't even playing. The good news is you're the AM so you can boot them. The bad news is recruiting is a thankless and endless job.
We’re a young fellowship from different time zones.
Second, you can leverage this to your advantage. I am the AM of a FS that just turned 1yo in May. We have a lot of new players.
Here is an example of a chap 4 city that went all in on bracelets. She averaged 7 bracelets every 3hrs. Since she sacrificed her T2s and T3s in favor of all T1s, we took care of her T2/T3 needs. She also knew to stock up on those before FA knowing she's putting them away. She anchored our bracelet needs up til the final 2 hours of FA when she finally ran out. I also put
all my factories away knowing a smaller city's got our bracelets. Teamwork.
If you want to talk time zones, I've got Aussies/Kiwis, a bunch all over Europe, and scattering from East Coast to West Coast North America. We can't have Pit Parties because the time zone difference is too wide. Some are a full day ahead of everyone. BUT time zones work to your advantage in FAs because we have farmers/blacksmiths rolling in at various points throughout the day as people's overnights are collected sometimes mid-afternoon in my time zone. Work with who and what you've got. Play smarter, not harder
We finished with 70k+ points last FA, but we're taking it easy this FA bc too many people are on vacation, traveling for work, or experiencing health issues. There's no point in going all out when we'll just end up middle of the pack. We know when to pick and choose our battles and don't go all out every FA. That's how you avoid burnout too.