Posted by Joe P in Questions for the Candidates - COVID-19

Posted by Captain James Sinclair (Vice Presidental Candidate) in Questions for the Candidates - COVID-19

Posted by Fleet Captain Jerome Davis (Presidential Candidate) in Questions for the Candidates - COVID-19
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
This is another question for anybody who wants to answer.

By far the biggest event in real life around the entire world has been the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although the worst of it may be over in some parts of the world, in other parts it is still going on, and it could get worse with very little advance warning unless herd immunity is achieved (hopefully with a reliable vaccine) or the virus mutates and becomes less deadly.

The pandemic has obviously affected the club; at least one member has died (Liz Rahuba), I know some other members have lost their jobs or have had to adjust to working under less than ideal conditions, or have to deal with children in the home all the time instead of being in school, and I think many of us also know someone in our friends or family who may have gotten sick.

On the other hand, many people are spending a lot more time on the Internet, and that means we also have a lot of people who are in the club and doing things here now that they wouldn’t have been otherwise inclined to do. That’s a small thing in the grand scheme of everything that is happening in our lives, but it’s kind of a big deal for the club. The club has reacted to all of this in different ways as the situation developed. Sometimes those reactions were not entirely consistent. Other times, those reactions might have been based around the idea that this was a sort of short term emergency that would quickly resolve itself; now it seems like the pandemic is going to be a “new normal” that we have to adjust to for a while.

As of right now, there is no ticket that has said anything at all about the pandemic, yet the pandemic is actually having some pretty dramatic effects on the club in a very direct way that we’re not used to real life events doing. So, I’m just curious:

Is there anything you plan to do about the pandemic during the next term if you are elected President? If yes, why? If not, why not?

Joe

Hey Joe,
As one of those that lost their job and was personally touched by COVID (my mother’s sister contracted it and though she made it out alright, over a dozen people in her little nursing home died), I think the pandemic is the elephant in the room everyone has tried to ignore but it hasn’t worked. The pandemic has, honestly, opened up a lot of people’s time and encouraged us all to connect and engage (sorry, couldn’t help it!) in ways different than the ‘before times’. While the community has organically rose to the occasion, as far as what I and James would like to see is us to turn a bad situation into a good one by reaching out and loving on members in new ways… if for any other reason than for us not to feel so alone.

I would like to see monthly (or weekly, depending on interest) Discord-supported watch parties for the movies and maybe even some favorite episodes. Further, maybe establish Discord-based Discussion panels for Concellation 2020 to discuss the history of our organization and Trek online RP in general. I think it would be a great way to reach a group of over 30,000 people from all over the world about how great our club is! In addition, I would also love to host weekly Social Hours on Discord chat to bring people together to visit more outside of text.

In general, while the world is taking a breather, we should be reaching out to those that want something fun and enjoyable to take their minds off the collective mess we find ourselves in! Together, I think we could not only grow the club but come closer as a family as well.

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

To build a bit on Jerome’s statement. Another initiative we have discussed is seeing if there is any interest in moving some social engagements to another platform like Zoom.

One of the biggest obstacles we have in this club is that 99.9% of what we do is text. We as human beings are not designed to truly engage with one other via the written word. By bringing some events to a platform where we can see one another, watch as smiles and laughs come through in a conversation… this is truly important; especially now as the dangers of feelings of isolation and disconnection come through.

This club is a truly amazing place. It is filled with creativity, compassion, and mutual support. But it is harder to tap into that in a text thread than it is to tap into the negative. By bringing us closer, really knowing who we are talking to… I think that will help to alleviate at least a little not only the isolation and stress many of us feel, but help us communicate as a club more effectively.

James

Hi Jerome,

I am sorry to hear that you have lost your job, and for your mother’s sister’s losses as well.

I have a few follow ups for both of you based upon what you said.

1. What is Concellation 2020? I googled it, but all I got were Facebook pages, and I don’t use Facebook out of principle.

2. I think there’s been some effort to do more watch parties this term. The CMM actually came up with a system for people to do their own watch parties, just whenever; from what I understand, it’s not always worked out so great because people’s schedules are pretty hard to plan around, even now. Is there anything specific that you would do differently than what you’ve seen currently done to make this work better?

3. I think James’ idea of using Zoom is a good one (I mean, at least once or twice), though I also find your mention of it particularly interesting as well, because it seems like there’s a larger problem that James thinks we ought to address, that we could use it to address. I don’t want to put words in anybody’s mouth, but it seems that it is claimed implictly that, there is negativity that is tapped into at times because of the text based medium, and if we had a non-text based medium, that would happen less, or it would be mitigated.

3a. Is this summary of this implicit premise of yours correct?

3b. Could you maybe expand on that with some examples of things you think would have been diffused in this way?

1. You guys didn’t mention anything about any of the normal club rules in your answers. I’m going to ask your opponent a rather pointed question about them, so for the sake of completeness, I’ll ask a related question here: Would you make any changes to things like AWOL limits, due to the pandemic?

Thanks,
Joe

Hey, Joe…

1. I think it’s a FB group, but not sure. Jerome can expand on that.

2. We really like what the CMM has done and would like see that continue. One thing I personally would like to see is a calendar of events put up at the end of the month for the next month’s activities. I know that is asking for a lot of planning ahead,, but I think with the right support we could get it done and see some more uptick in attendance.

3a. You are summarizing my perspective correctly, Joe. From my own experiences and observations, it just seems that if the tone or tenor of a statement on the boards or in Discord could be taken positively or negatively, we as human beings tend to favor the negative. I think that’s easier for us than to try and empathize with a ‘faceless entity’ we are communicating with. Face to face conversations, even via the internet, can clear up a lot of that tendency. And once we have engaged with people in that fashion, we are more apt to remember their face as we read their future statements and remember that we are all people, not just words on a screen.

3b. To be frank, I think one of our disagreements, Joe, could gave been circumnavigated by a face to faxe discussion. There was obviously some miscommunication, and the conveying and realization of that would have come faster, I think, if we had been speaking directly.

1. As far as changing AWOL limits due to the pandemic, as FComm of Pioneer Fleet and CO of one of the ships in Foremost, I did just that. From the end of March through the 1st of June, posting limits were not enforced so that AWOL’s and LOA’s could be handled without any additional stress. That decision was met with quite a few approvals and thank yous from various people in the Fleet. If the pandemic continues on it’s current trajectory, more and more of our members will be affected. Jerome and I and the other governmental entities would certainly discuss another temporary suspension of the enforcement of posting limits.

James