Posted by Vice Admiral Krystelle Knight (President) in Academy Ship Discussion

Posted by Captain Christopher Logan (Engineering Director) in Academy Ship Discussion

Posted by Vice Admiral Krystelle Knight (President) in Academy Ship Discussion
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Opening Discussion Question

Due to the recent decision to place the Academy ship USS Challenger into hiatus as a result of the current lack of an XO, Department Heads, and a dedicated GM, Command would like to open a discussion with the membership.

Given these staffing challenges, what do you feel is the best path forward for Academy operations and new member training?

1 - Focus on rebuilding the Challenger as our primary new member training option. This option will require members being willing to step up and support the Academy ship.

2 - Move to a more robust mentorship model within the main fleet. This means placing new members onto the Main ships with an assigned mentor. Which we are doing in the interim.

3 - An alternative third option, please bring your ideas if you have one.

We invite members at all levels—cadets and veterans alike—to share their thoughts, concerns, and ideas so Command can make an informed decision that best supports the health and future of the club.

Krys

Honestly, option 2 feels like the best choice for now. I really think strengthening the mentorship program gives new people the option to pick a ship and jump in. If you have the right people in mentorship positions on each ship, then it has the potential to really bring life to our ships. Otherwise we are waiting for graduates.

-Tony

Thx Tony! We really appreciate the feedback.

Krystelle

Evening all,

I’ve been looking forward to this discussion, so that everyone’s voice is heard and we can reach the best outcome.

The truth is for the majority, we do not know what STF without an academy would look like, its been the starting point for a lot of us over the years, however change isn’t always bad, and reviewing our approach helps guide us towards a stronger futureproofed club. Like Tony, option 2 is my favored option. Lets take our mentorship program back to the drawing board and see what we can do to make it stronger. This is something I have been bouncing a few ideas around about since the term started. What can we do to ensure that a newer mentor program covers from newer first time members right up to department directors. What’s the downside to this approach? a solid mentoring approach for new members ensure smoother transition, leading to a higher volume of new members remaining active and a more authentic RP’ing experience. Furthermore, adapting the mentor program to the OOC side as well ensures DH’s/XO’s/CO’s are set up for succession and working to deliver there best and more members are upskilled in the OOC side allowing for each department to reach there maximum potential and there’s more eligible members to fill roles ensuring that during times of low active members all areas are covered ensuring smooth operations.

This is not to say that returning the challenger in the future wouldn’t still be a viable option, but I am still conscious about how intakes of cadets vary and at this time i am unclear how we could avoid another situation where we have a training ship operating without a group of cadets.

Cheers,

Captain Louis Harvatt
Academy Commandant
CMMB Lead

Thx Louis!

Krys

If I may chime in as somewhat of a newcomer (old fart simmer returning), I think option 2 is good, but we definitely need to guide and mentor newcomers - and returning members who’ve been gone a long time - fairly well and with some sort of measures of success. With the Academy ship, you had some basic goals to meet before you were placed, and I feel it would be prudent to have something similar with the mentorships. I don’t know that I have detailed thoughts on what that looks like, but I’m sure some sort of “rubrics” could be met, akin to the Academy specialty courses, to ensure newcomers and returnees are getting what they need to write well, have fun, and help the ships succeed.

-Chris

Excellent point, Chris!

Krys

I like option 2 but agree that there needs to be some sort of basic framework for success and goals so that we don’t lose what the Academy ships were supposed to provide. The mentor program would need to be really solid and have some specific criteria for being a mentor. Some thoughts I would have:

1. Mentors would need to be experienced members and would need to be good writers themselves, evidenced by their posts. Otherwise, bad habits are taught.
2. Mentors should not be overcommitted so that they are able to quickly respond to new members to keep them interested and engaged.
3. Mentors should perhaps collaborate with the new members’ initial posts before they actually post them to the ship. Perhaps just those initial check-in posts the mentee would send to their mentor first for review and feedback before posting a final product to the ship.

Change is hard, but necessary for growth and/or survival.

Thanks,
Scott

All excellent points, thank you Scott! Louis will be following this discussion as well so he will be taking down these suggestions.

Krystelle

I also wanted to pitch in with my 2 cents. I feel like that option 2 is most definitely the best option. The ones who are mentors of said vessel that they are being assigned to should be able to look over the check-in posts, like Scott had said. Which I for one 100% agree. But I also want to bring up that maybe having some 1 on 1 with said mentor on board of said vessel, and do like a scenario situation and do a 1 on 1 interaction, see how the new member is with his and or her writting, and if the mentor feels like that they are a good fit. Allow them to discuss it with the CO of said ship and allow them to do a 1-on-1 interaction as well, see where they fit in the most, and then help them along the way afterwards. I also agree that the mentor should not overcommit themselves. So otherwords what I’m trying to say is have a 1-on-1 with the mentor and then a 1-on-1 with the CO or someone that is a DH and see where they are most comfortable with.

Captain Chris Logan
Engineering Department Director

Thx Chris! All good suggestions!

Krys

First I want to thank Jack for pointing out the issue with the hiatus declaration by the Academy.
Now, about this idea.

We’d be replacing an entire team dedicated to helping newcomers - every single member of the crew that is not a cadet - with one effectively part-time person. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this idea, but I think it’s important that we set the appropriate expectations with ourselves about what the outcomes could be. It’s entirely possible the members that “come out” of going through a mentor-only program instead of an Academy ship will be just as good, but we need to prepare for that to not be the case and determine what will be considered an acceptable outcome.

Nathan
TECH Lead