Posted by Katherine Dedul in Mandate on the Selection of Academy XOs

Posted by Commodore Jennifer Ward (Academy Commandant) in Mandate on the Selection of Academy XOs

Posted by Commodore Jennifer Ward (Academy Commandant) in Mandate on the Selection of Academy XOs
Posted by… suppressed (13) by the Post Ghost! 👻
A new update to the CADET Bill has been posted in command: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/265174/

The XO position is now a training position. Criteria for selection of XO training candidates needs to be determined, as well as a way to evaluate their performance and provide feedback. Thinking about an XOs role both IC and OOC within the club, how as a CO (those that are) choose their XOs, what JOs look for in an XO, how do we determine criteria for both things. I have several ideas but I would like feedback and input from the club at large.

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant

I know from experience, having DH experience and being at the club for a while (i would say at least a year or 2) would be required before being able to take the XO cadet position. I think having an understanding and the needed experience to be a DH prior to this would be ideal. Maybe I’m crazy but that is how I felt as a player.

Captain Strong, XO Tutor

I would agree with Clayton here about definitely having someone with at least a decent amount of DH experience. We could go with the typical three months experience as a DH (thereby indicating they have been in the club longer as a JO), I say three months because that’s typically the length listed for requirements for other ship positions outlined in CADET (such as the CO and the CNS, specifically). I viewed those requirements as the bare minimum, when I was Academy CO, typically looking to find people with more experience of course.

I feel this is a bit restrictive. Although I do agree that ideally we want someone who has been a DH, many of the DH positions are filled with experienced players that have been DHs for awhile, and aren’t going anywhere. We have very few ships which means a small pool of available DH positions. The same is true of our current CO and XO positions. So how do we address people who want to try for more, but haven’t had the chance due to limited positions being available? Do we count time in x-fleet?

As for evaluations, we could look to how we evaluate cadets and adapt that rubric into one for the XOs. Many of the criteria we evaluate cadets on for their graduation would be similar to how we’d want to consider a training XO (such as posting abilities, etc.) We’d need to add more position-specific questions such as:

-Do they understand how to read the roster and assist in managing AWOLs on the ship?
-Can they provide a commanding presence IC for players (are they comfortable delegatings tasks, etc.)

I can’t think of any more specific questions, but I’m sure someone else will chime in. :)

-Kat

These are great questions to start with. We could also review the XO exam to make sure that both the XO -it and the exam are looking for similar skills.

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant

In my opinion, this position is designed for someone who may need a little more help becoming an XO. There are some people in the club that want to be XO’s but have been passed for this reason or that and this position in the academy is a training position for someone to get the experience needed to be an XO in the main stream fleet. Not to open a can of worms here but on the course side, I believe that in order to be a DH, XO or CO you should have to complete the DH, CO or XO exam just like the GM’s do but this is a whole other discussion.

As far as candidates for the Academy Ship XO position, I believe this should be a recommendation from a CO or higher position about people on their ship or in the fleet that might be a candidate for the XO position. Then just like on a normal ship, the CO (Steve) and Academy Commandant, (Jennifer) would sit down and discuss and decide on the best candidate.

As a previous XO of an Academy ship, I believe this is a good thing that is happening.

These are just my 2 cents.

Captain Richard Gruby
AFCOMM, Pioneer Fleet
Captain, USS Memorial, Foremost Fleet
Starfleet Academy Counselor Tutor

For me I do concur with a lot of this as well. As a department head myself on different vessels here in the club and someone who has been passed over as XO. I do agree on with Richard is talking about. It is a position that someone can go for on the challenger of course and take it as a learn experience. I myself as a DH on all the different vessels I’m on I got to admit it takes time for someone to take up that role. And it is the same thing as the XO on the academy vessel. But it is for the training.

I do however agree with all of ya are saying about it cause it’s all true. So that’s my two cents.

Lieutenant Christopher Logan
Vice Academy Commandant

I’d be okay with forgoing the DH requirement, but I do think we need to have some wording somewhere about length of service in the club (ie: you have to have been a member for x months type of thing). As much as we love our new members, they need to focus on learning how a ship runs a simm and the posting mechanics of that. This program should be for members who have those skills and are showing glimpses of a command personality.

I think it’s important that those who get this role be members of the club who have already had at least once simm under their belts, if not a few more and we aren’t having to teach them posting skills as well as the other skills that are going to be taught in this program. We can even add back up wording, similar to when we can’t find a candidate we pick a seasoned XO for a period of time until we do find one, we can specify the months served as a preference to selection, but still encourage everyone to apply.

If that makes sense.

-Kat

Yes that makes sense. Okay so we don’t want to open this up to brand new members or Cadets. We want them to have some experience within the main fleet. DH experience is preferable, but for those who have not had the opportunity could we substitute in passing the DH exam?

We also want to factor in length of membership. I am thinking a minimum of 4 or 6 months in the main fleet? Do we want to look at rank? At least a Lt?

Recommendations from CO, XO, DH, or GM?

Also if anyone wants to be tagged in this thread, let me know and I’ll add you to the campus board roster.

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant

I would definitely say 4 to 6 months within the main fleet and definitely the rank of Lieutenant. It’ll give them a better chance to give it a try at it then.

Lieutenant Christopher Logan
Vice Academy Commandant

I don’t know about rank or position as a requirement. It was my experience that by keeping an eye out for DH vacancies, I was CE of the Olinski and went from Ensign to Lieutenant within a couple months. I wanted to advance quickly and I made that happen.

Time in the club. That’s a much better metric to me of understanding of how things work. I would say 6 months minimum. Perhaps that and a recommendation from a CO or a passed XO exam to demonstrate baseline understanding and readiness.

-Fleet Captain Sage Pennington
CO, USS Asimov

I agree - there’s such a variability in the time it could take someone to get to a specific rank. Some people - like you, Sage - might get there quickly, maybe because they start characters on new ships at new ranks, or maybe because they have a CO who promotes more frequently; some might take longer because they stay with one character on one ship, and a CO who promotes less frequently (say, only at the end of a sim).

My two cents would be to create base requirements so that people looking to obtain that position in the future know what the requirements are and know what is expected of them to get there.
I like 6months in club, including at least two months in DH position, at the risk of excluding myself for the position in the future, I would recommend some sort of language around AWOLs obviously many of us run into problems with it from time to time, because RL, but is it a constant issue that is causing delaying or issues in their DH roles ect. Something like No AWOLs in the last two months, or no unexcused AWOLs?
Then wrap it all up in a neat, Commandant and Challenger CO can override the requirements bow.

GM Challenger

Time-in-club is going to be the most equitable measure of “experience” to use; but that’s also a quantitative measurement. Including a qualitative measurement like a CO, XO, or GM recommendation alongside that, as you said, would help provide a balance.

I disagree with using AWOLs, as currently Exodus does not actually track AWOLs - there’s no record of counts, duration, anything like that. AWOL status is determined at the time an MOTD is generated based on the date of the character’s last post and is displayed, but that status isn’t recorded anywhere. You’re thus relying on someone having actually been logged in to see that someone was AWOL and the memory of a human being - and human memory is notoriously fickle, especially in questions like this dealing with time. There’s even a name for this psychological effect - telescoping, where time can seem dramatically reduced; this results in people thinking “AWOL? Oh, yeah, he was AWOL recently.” when that was three months ago. Even using the post list wouldn’t be accurate, because you cannot tell if someone was AWOL or on LOA during a long period between posts.

I’m going to add on here that saying “no AWOLs” could preclude a candidate who went a day over limit once even if we had the data to do it. It’a an intense level of vetting that would be near impossible to conduct and eliminates too many people who might otherwise be ideal for the program.

Richard mentioned who he sees as the target applicant pool for this, members who may need a little more help. How do we approach this for, say, applicants who don’t need a little more help - that might be ready but are just waiting on an XO vacancy? Are they denied in favor of someone who does need the training?

Nathan

As far as I understand it, this is voluntary training to prepare someone to be an XO in the main fleet and also to add a credential to their application so they are more likely to be accepted in the future. What I would suggest is if there is a choice to be made, priority is given to the candidate who most needs additional training. But the other applicant(s) are put on a waitlist. Provided they’re not accepted to a main fleet XO position first, they can undertake XO training when their turn comes.

-Sage

Alright:

Mandate 20: Executive Officer In Training program

1. Establishment of the Executive Office In Training Program (XOit) - The following is copied from Central Academy Directives for Education and Training CADET pertaining to the establishment of this program:
   The XO position is primarily a training position, which will have the powers and responsibilities of a mainstream XO, and hold the rank of Lieutenant Commander. The position is open to all STF members who already have an existing character and have not held the position of XO on any ship previously. The Academy Commandant will run a selection process prior to appointing a new XO at the start of each sim, which is to include input from the ship’s CO. The Academy Commandant is responsible for setting out the selection criteria under an Academy Mandate.

On completion of the mission, the trainee XO will receive feedback on their performance, which can be used when applying for XO and CO roles. Should a trainee XO be appointed on a mainstream ship as XO whilst they are undergoing training, they are permitted to continue to the end of the current Academy ship mission.

Should there be no suitable candidates identified during the selection process, the Academy Commandant may appoint an experienced XO. In this case, the character rank of the XO must be Commander and the individual must have held the position of XO on a mainstream ship for a minimum of three months.

Should an XO position become vacant mid-mission, the Commandant may either assign another candidate or an experienced XO at their discretion. To ensure minimal disruption to the ship, there is no requirement for the selection process.

The XO position is not a permanent position, and will change over at the end of each mission, through the selection process. An experienced XO may be reappointed to the position if there are no suitable candidates.

1. Criteria for Selection of XOit personnel - Ideal candidates should have passed the DH exam, served at least 3 months as a Department Head (DH) with 2 recommendations from COs, XOs, or GMs. Secondary consideration will be given to candidates who have at least six months of club membership within the main fleet (time as a cadet will not count for this requirement) and have passed the DH exam and 2 recommendations from COs, XOs, or GMs. Final selection is will be determined by the Academy ship CO and Academy Commandant.

2. Criteria for XOit Evaluation - (We haven’t discussed this yet, but will be added here.)

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant

Alright, with no feed back on the selection process, let’s move on to the evaluation: Part 3 of the Mandate 20:

I propose to use an evaluation form, similar to the one used for cadets. I propose a “Fail, In Progress, Passed” rating for each. Along with a section to provide clarification.

• Understand the roll of the XO within the chain of command In Character
• Understand the roll of the XO within the chain of command Out Of Character
• Show an ability to appropriately guide DH and JO to follow orders and/or interpret them - IC
• Show an ability to appropriately guide DH and JO to follow orders and/or interpret them - OOC
• Shows leadership and example
• Allows the crew to shine rather than needing to be ‘the star of the show.’
• Understands the role of the FComm
• Able to update the MOTD or ask for help when needed.
• Understands the proper procedure to helps problem solve for IC and OOC problems

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant

I have nothing further to add at this point, looks fine to me and I’m sure if we determine in the future we need something further, we can make amendments. :)

-Kat

I agree honestly.

Lieutenant Christopher Logan
Vice Academy Commandant