Posted by Russell Watt in Command Report - August 2024

Posted by Vice Admiral Jack D (President) in Command Report - August 2024
Command Report

Hi all,

This is the our first monthly Command Report. The plan is to provide a summary of the key issues and updates that have come out of the monthly Fleet and Department reports from the month before, a recap of the ongoings in the Command Ship (where we discuss the running of the club), and what the Government’s plans are for the next few months.

Steve and I have no doubt that this will continue to evolve, so would very much welcome your thoughts and feedback on how we can improve this going forward.

Timing

Firstly, we want to take this opportunity to re-establish the timelines for monthly reports. At the end of each month, each CO, XO and GM are required to submit a monthly report; they should be done no later than the 7th of each month. This allows the Fleet Commanders to compile the reports and submit them on the Command Ship by the 14th of each month, along with the Departments. That gives Steve and I time to review the various Fleet and Department reports, and submit a single Command report to the Club’s membership by the end of the following month.

Fleets

We only had one Fleet report submitted for July (The Meridian Fleet), although the change between terms is a likely contributing factor. The fleet has had a relatively high turnover of COs, XOs and GMs, although this seems to be stabilising. I am encouraged with the GM situation in the fleet improving, with Sam Haynes starting her GMT sim on the Saracen. One observation I do have is that the Chernov is currently self-sim’ing, with the CO driving things forward. Whilst it is great that this is happening, the CO and FComm, with the GMDir’s support, need to ensure that there is still focus on getting a GM in place, and that continuity is available should the CO need to go on LOA.

I just wanted to slide in here, and let you know that the Chernov was approved to Self-Sim. I can’t remember which edict it was off the top of my head. But it was approved and she is officially a self-sim ship now.

The IRW Rovarran, however, has continued to struggle and, following a discussion in Command, I have decided to decommission her. This doesn’t stop the concept from being developed further within X-Fleet, but there is insufficient interest to keep her in the main fleets.

Meridian Fleet Report - July 2024 - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/252943/

Departments

The Gamemaster Department is soon to start the trial of the GM Workshop, which will provide an alternative route for Gamemaster qualification to the course exam. Further details can found here: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/gmd/posts/226704/.

The Personnel Department has reported an increase in new membership applications, likely as a result of activity by the CMMB, however these do not seem to be translating into active members. I am keen to keep monitoring this, to see if further discussion on retention of members is required.

TECH continue to make significant improvements to the site, including the ability for COs to add available positions to their rosters, the launch of the new library, and a new feature that saves the drafts of any post. There has been more this month (August), but I won’t steal their sandwiches.

GMDept Report - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/252832/
PDept Report - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/252276/
TECH Report - https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/254634/

Command

Command has been active throughout the month with a number of discussions. Of note, is the establishment of Task Force 1, that will be developing the Captain’s Handbook, led by Tom Hillman. I hope to post the commissioning edict shortly, which will set out the terms of reference for that Task Force.

We have also updated the Member Order and Organisation Bylaw to clarify the language around promotions of members to Captain. This also trialed the format for bills, including both the link to the Command discussion (to assist with future interpretation) and an implementation paragraph. This will need to be codified into the Bills and Bylaws Edict in the future.

There are still a number of assistant positions that need to be filled across the club; the Pioneer, Meridian and Black Fleets, as well as the Academy. Please do volunteer if you’re interested.

Forward Look

Over the next month (September), the following activities are planned (but remember, RL can get in the way!):

Command - Discussion on ship health and fleet reports.
Command - Capture of issues across the club.
Command - Discussion on Boards and Departments.
Task Force 1 (Captain’s Handbook) - Engagement with COs, FComms and Departments to understand what they would want to be in the Handbook.
Engineering Department - Start of final review of Ship Standardised Specification Format.

As I said in at the start, this is very much a work in progress so would welcome your input. My intent is to post the next one using the ‘announcements’ feature across the club.

Yours,

Jack

Thanks for the report, Jack, it is great to have such a summary. Here, have a cup of tea. Steve, don’t feel left out, here’s a bunch of bananas.
Edit: I did have a question as well. As a result of that MOO Edict update, there was a promotion as a result of that in member rank for one Captain Amdirgol. Is that another one for that list of recent promotions on the Command MOTD?

Russell

Cmdre Ward, Academy Commandant