Posted by Nicholas Villarreal in Questions for the Candidates - Archer/Bongiorno - Cabinet Streamlining

Posted by Robert Archer in Questions for the Candidates - Archer/Bongiorno - Cabinet Streamlining

Posted by Nicholas Villarreal in Questions for the Candidates - Archer/Bongiorno - Cabinet Streamlining
Hello,

In your discussion of how to rework the requirements for how many people are needed as part of an administration, you suggested the idea of merging the Engineering Department and the Gamemaster Department into an omnibus department, albeit the nomenclature was somewhat vague. I would like you to address a few things:

1. The reasoning you provided behind combining the two was in the inability to fill the role of Engineering Director, and in general to keep the Engineering Department active. None of the issues are related to the GMDept, and moreover, the role of EDept in the club is more passive in general than GMDept (at least right now). Why would turning the Gamemaster Department, which is active and provides a necessary function in the club, into a subordinate department under an omnibus be the best solution to this problem?

Hey Nick, thanks for your questions. So the merging idea not only would allow both areas to continue to do their functions as now, whether actively like GMDept or passively like EDept. But it would allow us opportunities for exchange and consistency of lore and information to occur too, not to mention more eyes on any submissions to either department for reviews. By this I mean it will hopefully create more opportunities to get people who are say submitting a race/power submission to maybe go ‘oh hey maybe that custom race i just did for federation membership could have a support ship made up too!’ this too could be something just off the top of my head that could be said during said race/power reviews. Again the focus here is encouraging community inclusion and participation. So I do believe this is one way to go this way in doing so.

I see two potential issues here:
- This assumes that people would want to be involved in both types of submissions, whether as reviewers or as content creators. As far as club history goes, I can think of exactly one time where specifications and species creation intersected in the manner which you suggest, and it was as an outflow of the Fleet Four Star Wars inspired fleet-wide sim. This resulted in the Crag being entered into the Reference manual, the creation of Crell as an RP area, and the specifications of Starbase 202 and the Yub Nub-class getting added to the Technical Manual. Technically, Outpost 45’s specification was due to the creation of the Flarn. However, since then, you are the only person who created both a species and any sort of specification (in the case of the Flea’tan Alliance, a technology specification).

Given this, I am unsure how collapsing the departments under a single umbrella solves anything beyond a staffing issue. Although I’m sure that it would be nice if GM’s actually paid attention to the specification for their ship before they designed a sim (a failing which has happened club wide since I first joined, so I’m not pointing the finger at any single GM), and for spec designers to consider what non-canon entities exist as a result of STF sims, the desire for synergy at the expense of autonomy doesn’t strike me as a good trade-off.

1. You state in your post:
   “So at a minimum a president would only need to fill 3 roles a term vs 6 as now (edir/aedir/dockmaster/gmdir/agmdir/archivist).”
   Technically, this would reduce the President’s overall responsibility for finding Cabinet members from two to one (RefDir or whatever instead of EDir and GMDir). The respective QDirs are currently the ones responsible for finding their assistants, in whatever manner they see fit (albeit applications are the typical method as of late). Additionally, the Archivist and the Librarian are record-keepers, and are roles which neither OGRE or ENERGIE mandates, but rather serve as a way to allow a QDir to not get caught up in a large amount of data entry. This belies a mentality that the President has authority to appoint an entire department’s staff. Especially if you were one of the people, or the only person, to be writing new bylaws to replace ENERGIE and OGRE, you’re insinuating that the President would have the authority, at least within the new structure, to not only select a QDir, but also subordinates, in the department which you suggest would replace EDept and GMDept.
   Is this an issue of poor wording?
   If not, why do you state that it is the President’s responsibility to find individuals to fill assistant roles instead of QDirs, when both OGRE and ENERGIE explicitly state that the QDirs are responsible for appointing their assistants?

So I can see upon reflection how this would be probably confusing and was poorly worded on my part. The assistant roles would still be there and chosen by the Dept Directors. The roles of archivist and librarian would remain but rolled into the new reference department. Again they could either be separate people as often is now, or accepted as a job for the QDirs if they so choose. So to clarify I meant that the President only is choosing the Ref Dir, EDir and GMDir roles. Any assistant roles would be at the needs of the QDirs.

You just contradicted what you said your plan for EDept and GMDept would be in your post about club realignment. Instead of combining the roles of two QDirs into one, your clarification means that you would be creating a third QDir, who somehow has authority over two existing QDir roles, all of which the President would appoint. This not only breaks established club hierarchy, it would compound the QDir staffing issues already present. Either the heads of EDept and GMDept would be assistant roles under the new omnibus, and therefore should not be Presidential appointments, or the omnibus department should not exist. To further clarify my point, Dockmaster and Archivist are roles that are not edicted, but rather came to being because an Engineering Director and a Gamemaster Director saw it fit to establish bookkeeping roles outside of a QDir and an AQDir. The next EDir and the next GMDir could very well decide to eliminate the roles altogether, and it would be within their jurisdiction to do so, even though it would not be established practice.

1. Would this actually solve the problem, or would it simply be shoving the issue down a level so that now a QDir has to find an Engineering Assistant (as the role of overseeing EDept would no longer be a QDir role)?

Thank you for your responses.

Nicholas Villarreal

So before I answer this 3rd part I want to see what you reply with to my above clarification Nick. Thank you for your question and time, sorry my original wording was confusing, I hope this fixed it up

Robert Archer

Your answers actually clarified that your idea is poorly conceived as stated, as far as I am concerned. Thank you for your responses, however. I realize that you have good intentions with this plan, but you may not have noticed the logistical issues that you would create by trying to solve a current logistical issue.

Nicholas Villarreal

So I do accept what you are saying above Nick. The idea is well intentioned, and probably DOES I grant need further refinement in deployment if I and Matt are elected to make it happen. Is it conventional in the normal accepted way of structure STF has had for years? Probably not, but that does not mean with a collaborative effort to refine it or that the idea is necessarily ‘bad’. Its just different is it perfect? Again probably not but no plan I would bet in stf’s long history is probably ‘perfect’ right away, it starts with one or two or more people who work on it discuss it refine it, and then its accepted in the club. Just because it could be a ‘big change/shift’ in how the club is doing something for 10+ years or whatever should not automatically make it ‘bad’ or ‘poorly conceived’. In either case thank you for your feedback and questions.

Robert Archer