Posted by Fleet Captain Jerome Davis (Presidential Candidate) in Questions for the Candidates - 15 Months

Posted by Joe P in Questions for the Candidates - 15 Months
These questions are for everybody.

It was suggested in another question that a candidate may be limited in how effective they could be if they’ve only been back in the club for 15 months after a long hiatus. This inspired me to wonder: “Would we accept this argument about a new person who has ‘only’ been in the club for 15 months?” Then after I thought about it, I realized, I wasn’t really quite sure; that I could kind of see it both ways, and maybe that asking people what they thought would be an interesting way to see how they view the club and the job of President.

1) Do you think a member who joined the club 15 months ago, and was active the entire time, would have the ability to understand the club well enough to be an effective President? If yes, why? If no, why not?

As you stated, this could be very subjective but the short answer… new or old… is no. I believe that the current time and tenure within an organization adds a level of strength, notoriety, and familiarization of the current state of the organization that a less current member simply lacks. There have been many changes in the last 10 years that have dramatically affected the direction of the club and I believe that a few years of active time within the club would give someone the knowledge base of the current climate for one to effectively serve as President.

2) Same question as 1, except replace “President” with “Vice President.” Is your answer any different? Why or why not?

Same answer for the same reason.

I will probably ask follow-up questions based upon people’s answers.

Joe

Thanks,
Davis/Sinclair 2020
Improve, Reform, & Engage

See… I was afraid you might say that. The thing of it is, I don’t think you’ve fully thought through the implications of taking that position, so… I have some follow up questions.

1) Lindsay Bayes’ join date is March 4, 2010. My join date is August 24, 2010. Lindsay Bayes and I ran for President and Vice President together in November of 2011. So, she was in the club for 19 months and 29 days before running for President. I was in the club for 14 months and 9 days before running for Vice President. You were in our cabinet as the Fleet Commander for Fleet 3.

Given that bit of trivia, do you really think that Lindsay and I didn’t know what we were doing? Did you at the time, or do you now, think we were ineffective? Do you think we didn’t understand how things worked, that it was too complicated and that we just didn’t have the knowledge base to keep things going? I mean, you never indicated that at the time, which is why I’m a little confused.

2) You have also worked for Jack Dipper. Jack Dipper ran for President of the club the first time after only being a member for 20 months, at least according to himself (https://www.star-fleet.com/archive/post/791565).

Do you think Jack lacked strength, notoriety, and familiarization of the current state of the organization at that time? I mean, I wasn’t there, and he was newer back then, but those three qualities don’t sound like Jack Dipper, well… ever. This is the other guy who you worked for as a Fleet Commander (though not at that time), whom you’ve said some pretty glowing things about in the past as well.

3) I think familiarization of how the organization works and is supposed to work is obviously very important for a President to be successful. What I’m a bit confused by, is your assertion that someone new couldn’t develop that in 15 months, especially because… promotion up the chain past Commander (where most of that familiarization I think necessarily takes place) is something you’ve highlighted as needing improvement. So, a three part question for you:

3a) What specific experiences do you think are necessary to develop the required organizational familiarity to be an effective President?

3b) If you don’t think a totally new person to this club can experience those things in… 15 or 16 months, what do you think is a more plausible amount of time?

3c) Regardless of whether or not someone who has been in the club for 16 months (let’s round it up to two Presidential terms) can get the required level of experience now to understand how the organization works, do you have it as a goal for someone to achieve that level of experience in that amount of time after all of your initiatives in your platform are implemented? Why or why not?

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Joe