Posted by Robert Archer in Questions for the candidates -10 Questions at random
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This question is for both tickets and running people in general. (I really struggled to word that sorry, no idea why.)

1- If you had to choose, what one thing would you say was the thing you were most proud of in your time in the club and why.

Hmmm most proud of? Oh boy....I would say my work over several years to turn around the poor view the club at the time had on the EDept and make concentrated efforts to bring new life and participation into it.

2- What’s currently in your fridge?

1x Gallon of skim milk, 1x Gallon of turkey hill diet green tea, 1/2 lb of sweet Lebanon bologna, 1/2 lb of sliced pepperoni, 2 1/2 lbs of pepper jack cheese, 3 bottles of various salad dressings, 1x 16oz jar of pickled veggies, 1x 32oz jar of home made red beet eggs and pickled red beets, 1x gallon of orange juice, 1x 16oz jar of mayo, 3x green peppers, 3x red peppers, 3x sweet onions, 1x red onion, 9 individual stalks of celery, 1 half bottle of low salt soy sauce, 1 half bottle of A-1 Steak sauce, 1x 32oz bottle of Franks Red Hot sauce, 1x 8oz jar of pickled ghost peppers stuffed with blue cheese, 3lbs of no salt sweet cream butter sticks, 1x 32oz tub of ‘diet’ margarine (so much yuck I do NOT know how my parents like that crap!), 1x opened bag of mini pita pockets, a Tupperware container worth of shredded lettuce which I keep telling my parents has gone bad but they just wipe off the dampness and eat it (seriously its GROSS and far beyond its edible date with how brown and mucky it is but i get in trouble if i throw it out so i just shrug and let it happen), and 3x 4oz cans of lite beer that I use for baking or cooking

3- If you had to pick any Pokémon to be your starter in a world of Pokémon what would it be and why?

Beats me pokemon was after my time and I never got into it, go look up my younger brother if you want and ask him this lol

4- Choose a fantasy table top RPG character class and tell us what it is, where it’s from and why you’ve chosen it. (ie: Spellweaver, Gloomhaven, because it’s epic and elemental spells are doss.)

Hmm.....another tough one. Especially given I’ve been the GM on so many table top games of all times I havent played a PC in AGES. But I do have a fondness for the old AD&D 2nd edition ranger kit the Feralan Ranger, I had a grey elf who got raised by wolves. Rping her was some of my most favorite moments in tabletop gaming before I switched over to being a GM.

5- Scenario question: You find yourself in Arkham where the veil between words has more holes than Swiss cheese. Which Lovecraftian monster would you be most worried about turning up?

Oh god yes! I love this question, Call of Cthulhu is one of my MOST favorite games to play in RPGs. So I’m assuming we’re stuck to only the Arkham area, hmm well in that case I’d be on the look out for Children Of Chaat - http://yog-sothoth.com/wiki/index.php/Child_of_Chaat to me they’re creepy in so many ways I cant describe.

6- What is your thoughts on ALT rpg areas?

I assume you mean in STF. In which case I love them! This should be most evident given I GM 3 of them! In fact back in mid-2006 when I stumbled across STF it was the Merrimack that made me want to join the site, and man was I so disappointed at the time we weren’t allowed to join it as a new comer! Suffice to say within months I made a ‘2nd character’ there and moved on in. For me right now at least there is something for everyone in STF among the main alt-rpgs, and we got things in place to try out others (like in xfleet).

7- Following from question 6, in a world where Trek has moved on from just the standard TNG era timeline most of our ships exist in, how will you ensure that our club manages to ensure diversity or if you’d rather encapsulate the different eras, genres and subtle differences we know exist in the trek verse.

So I think how STF terms the ‘tng’ era needs to be greatly revised. Picard season 1 and 2 moved us up to 2400s now, while it’ll be a few years yet till STF hits that, I terminology really should reflect something more appropriate. That said how we term the other eras, especially the Prime TOS era that the sentinel is in and is covered by both season 1-2 of Disco, plus SNW still is fine, same for JJ TOS on the Chernov. Though personally for the Merrimack I would reterm it to a ‘lost era’ alt-rpg vs the TOS Movie era given the ship long ago moved past st6’s timeline in the 2290s (we’re atm playing in 2302 though that may change between me and the CO)

8- Every election, people talk about giving ‘new blood’ or ‘new players’ a chance in roles over ‘the old guard’ (i hate this term btw) which is fine and as it should be to avoid stagnation, however there are people who may have been in the club a long time who haven’t ever had a chance to do much outside of writing on a ship, how will you ensure that club members are able to explore roles and positions as volunteers in the club they may have never tried before regardless of years or lack of years being here.

So if a ‘older member’ has never been a CO/XO/FComm etc and not ever applied for such then to me they would still be termed ‘new blood’. To me ‘old blood’, are those who have held a role repeatedly over and over and keep getting it even when others who could do the job new or (less) old apply. So in short when I organize say the cabinet this last term or if elected next term, I will consider as many variables to ensure anyone new or old that applies is given a fair chance.

9- Rank promotion and commendations exist. Awards exist. The GM Dept has its own recognition system. And yet it’s easy for people not to be recognized or not to receive rank promotions at the end of sims IC or just chug away in the middle writing and being awesome at that. How do you intend to ensure not only that recognition is ongoing and robust for club members but also that the middle group of people who maybe don’t volunteer to do more than write or get involved in other aspects of the club are recognized.

So I’ll speak about this end of term commendations. At first I got almost NO commendations or such submitted to me until like literally 0-hour on the day I was going to close acceptances. Up to that point I had only 2 people submit three others for commendations and such. Further during the term I repeatedly had asked CO/XOs and FComms and directors to submit happenings or such to highlight for the voice of the club events, again beyond 2 people i got almost literally nothing and had to go with my own ideas of things I saw from my own eyeballing of ships that caught my attention more often then not. Obviously I as president can not be everywhere I rely on my cabinet and they in turn the CO/XOs to communicate, if this does not happen the whole thing breaks down. So I feel the heart of this issue is people at all levels need to communicate more and be willing to do so, and any blockers to that say problems with the STF Forwards, or other forms of contact are minimized or resolved.

10- Scenario question: Someone in your cabinet comes to you and says they are aggrieved in some way over something you have done or said. How do you handle this?

Thanks

Calé

So if it was someone in my cabinet came to me with an issue over something I did or said I would first listen to what the problem was, I’d then try to get a feel for how they feel impacted or effected. I’d also want to make sure anything unclear they said or explained was understood by me. I would then ask they allow me to give my thoughts, views, and reasons for what I said or did and my intentions. Again making sure they understood these things clearly as for example text ‘tone’ does not always read clearly as we well know. I’d then try to work things out the best we can together to learn from the issue and move together on ahead doing what is best overall for the club and community at the end of the day.

Hope these answer your questions Cale, thank you for them!

Robert Archer

Thank you Rob

Calé