Posted by Scott Kafader in Mentorship Discussion

Posted by Vice Admiral Krystelle Knight (President) in Mentorship Discussion

Posted by Captain Christopher Logan (Engineering Director) in Mentorship Discussion
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
With the closure of the USS Challenger, STF must reassess how we fulfill our mentoring mandate without a dedicated training ship. The aim is not to recreate the Academy model, but to establish an approach that reflects how the club operates today—supporting new and returning members in a way that is flexible, sustainable, and engaging.
The following topics are intended to guide that discussion.

1. New Member Placement

Previously, new members could request placement on an Academy ship, with Main Fleet placement as a fallback. With Challenger on hiatus and strong support for direct Main Fleet placement, this approach now needs to be clearly defined.
Currently, only seven Main Fleet ships accept new members.

Discussion points:
* Should more ships be encouraged to accept new members?
* What support or criteria (e.g., active mentors, onboarding capacity) should be required?
* Is it reasonable for some ships to opt out, or should this be a shared fleet responsibility?

1. Progression and Feedback

The Academy provided clear progression and feedback touchpoints. In a mentorship-based model:
* Should there be onboarding milestones or early check-ins?
* How should feedback be shared with COs and relevant departments?
* How do we balance structure with STF’s posting culture?

1. Mentorship as the Foundation

Mentorship must now be the core of onboarding and development.
* What expectations and workload are reasonable for mentors?
* How do we ensure accountability?
* What support and resources do mentors need?

1. Structure vs. Flexibility

The Academy offered clarity but lacked flexibility.
* What level of structure is helpful for new members?
* Where does guidance become limiting?

Working through these discussions together allow us to collectively shape and secure the clubs future. If anyone thinks of anything regarding mentoring I’ve not mentioned, please feel free to chime in:)

All members are encouraged to share their thoughts—every perspective helps guide our next steps.

~Krys

Hi y’all I was kind of thinking that one thing we could do it was something that I’ve had in mind for a while since I’ve became CO of the AA. But was thinking like for some ships out there that are like 3/5/7. Or 5/7/10 or even 5/5/5. For those that are like 3/5/7 like Ark Angel, Manhattan, Athena, Chimera, Leviathan, Chernov, Sentinel could possible do it like 3/5/7/9. Like 3 for CO, XO, and GM. 5 for DH, 7 for JO but also 9 would be like cadets do some sort of like a training cruise that changes into like an actual mission like they did in The Wrath of Khan. For those that are like 5/7/10 like wolverine, Merrimack, Memorial (well maybe the Memorial not sure what the plan is) but having those ships be like 5 CO, XO, and GM, 7 for DH, 10 for JO’s and 12 for cadets. Or something along those lines. I also did want to say like the idea I had in the other discussion from the previous day of having like 1-on-1 with mentor, 1-on-1 with DH, and 1-on-1 with CO of said ship and see if that said person is the right fit for that said ship.

Captain Chris Logan
Engineering Department Director

All good ideas, thx Chris!

Krys

Some thoughts on this:

1. Regarding new member placement: I think this needs to be a shared fleet responsibility with all ships being open to accepting new members. In order to qualify to receive new members I think there would need to be one or more mentors with active characters on the ship and some qualifier for percentage of members active (perhaps less than 50% AWOL). I think we should also look at limiting the number of new members on a ship, perhaps 1 per department with a max of 3 across the whole ship and no more than 2 junior officers already in that department. Otherwise, we risk overwhelming crews and not having enough plot line to keep everyone engaged.

2. Regarding progression and feedback: I would envision a new member being assigned to their mentor who does an initial touch base to ask if there are any questions related to the players handbook, club rules, etc. Then, I would say that the initial check-in posts (DH, sickbay, CNS) would be written and sent to the mentor first. The mentor would read over the posts and provide feedback then give the green light for the new member to actually post them to the ship. After those initial check-in posts, if they went well, the mentor could turn the member loose to post independently but provide feedback on the next several posts. Once the mentor is satisfied they can “graduate” from the mentor program. If the COs want to be involved directly in this process they could be CCd on the emails between the mentor and new member, otherwise I would say the mentor could just let the CO know when a person has graduated and is no longer on service.

3. Regarding mentorship as the foundation: I think we want to keep the workload low enough that people won’t be discouraged from taking on the role. Initial greeting to go over the players handbook, direct oversight and feedback on the initial check-in posts, then passive oversight and feedback on a few more posts depending on how well the new member does. I think a mentor should be limited to 2 maybe 3 new members at one time. I also think a mentor should not have more than 3 or 4 of their own characters. That might be unpopular but its important that our mentors have enough bandwidth to really focus on the training of the new members. Perhaps there would be a method to get an exception on character number if one can prove they haven’t been AWOL and they are producing good quality posts for all of their characters. That also brings up qualifying as a mentor: I think there would need to be an application process and whoever is in charge of mentors would actually review the writing style and quality of posts from the applicant, otherwise we risk propagating bad habits. As for accountability, perhaps whoever is in charge of mentors gets CCd on those initial emails too, likely this would be done through the Academy.

4. Regarding structure vs flexibility: I think a somewhat minimalist approach is good here. That is why I propose the first check-in posts are done directly with the mentor and then we turn them loose with training wheels for a few more. I think that is plenty of time to teach all the basics and get people writing.

Chris those are interesting ideas. A little more flexibility on posting time for the new members to give them time to work with their mentors could be a good idea so they aren’t getting discouraged by seeing their name turn red on the roster. I’m not too sure about the training missions. Ideally, we will have new members streaming in at random times so it might be hard to get enough together for a training mission. I worry that it would also be taxing on the crews of the ships to have both a training mission and a normal sim running concurrently and if we hold normal sims to do training missions then we essentially go back to having the Challenger but in the main fleet.

I’m excited to see where this discussion goes.

-Scott

Some ships are second character only ships due to their nature. At the present time they can’t get brand new members according to club rules (or their charter). There are also some that are self sim environments. I’m not sure that either of these types of ships are the best environments for brand new members to the club.

I don’t think full-on training missions on mainstream ships are the way to go either.

I do like the idea of more time for new members to post, however.

Russell