Posted by Adam W. in Questions for the Candidates - Difficult Situations
This is a question for any candidate to answer, whoever they may end up being.

Can you please describe a situation where you were in a position of authority in STF and were proud of how you handled a difficult situation? To me how club leadership handles difficult situations that are unexpected is more important than the plans they make.

Adam W.

Hey Adam,

I’m sorry that it’s taken me/us a couple of days to get back to you. I was on LOA this weekend (out of town) and Steve is currently on LOA, also out of town until Nov 10. He’ll be popping in if and when he can.

My answer to this is going to assume that you know nothing about STF history, which I know isn’t true, but I’m sure others are going to read this. Just bear with me.

Back in the mid-2000s, STF had seven fleets that were numbered 1-7 instead of the names that we use today. Obviously, this meant that we needed 14 qualified members to be FComms and AFComms (and it was more restrictive back then – you had to be a present or former CO in the fleet itself, XOs weren’t eligible). When I took office, the club was coming off a really bad eights months politically and there were a lot of problems with burnout, which made it really difficult for my VP and I to put together the needed seven people to supervise the fleets. These people then struggled to find qualified AFComms. Fortunately, everyone managed to get situated and we had a solid fleet command in place across the club, although concerns persisted that people were feeling over-extended in the club, both RP-wise and in government.

And then, two months later, the FComm of Fleet 5 (aka the Meridian Fleet) stepped down. Several curse words were uttered. No one was eligible to take over between having other cabinet roles (for instance, the AFComm was also GMDir) or simply not being able to commit to the activity level required. Actually, one person was eligible, but he had just taken over as CO and that needed to be the focus of his attention.

So, after brainstorming and communicating extensively with the affected COs, we made the decision to move ships out of Fleet 7 into other fleets and then to decommission the fleet. Bringing each fleet to a steady number of six ships allowed a bigger pool to choose FComms and AFComms from and we needed two fewer people in fleet command. The FComm-7’s ship was transferred to Fleet 5 and he became FComm-5 and filled that vacancy.

Why am I proud of this? A problem came up and, through working together with a lot of really invested people, we came up with a slightly out of the box solution that helped stabilize the club and ensure that there was not a drain on the member resources we had. On the more personal side, many of my STF firsts came within Fleet 7. In fact, my first DH position ever was on the USS Polaris when it was commissioned. It was a really difficult choice, especially just a few months into a (first) presidency, to not only say good bye to that, but to need to defend my decision and support others going through the same nostalgia that I was (the fleet history ended up preserved in the Library).

Sarah
Bringing New Ideas, from Years of Experience