Posted by Daniel Lerner in Question for the candidates - DH “Concentration”
These questions are for both tickets rather than individual candidates.

So for those of us who look at the master roster on a regular basis, a certain trend has been noticed that I think relates to parts of the platforms for both tickets. Specifically, a trend has been noticed regarding the concentration of DHs into a relatively small amount of the total membership.

Here are the numbers for the main fleets (depending on whether you include or don’t include alt-RPGs). For ‘active membership’ I have used 105, which is the earlier approximately 110 figure we heard about earlier in this election less the number of active cadets who aren’t allowed to be a DH):

Stats not including Alt-RPGs

• Total available DH positions: 64 (61% of the active membership could be a DH)
• Total filled DH position: 61
• Total number of members who hold a DH position: 38 (36% of the active membership)
• Number of DH positions filled by someone who holds more than one DH spot: 35 (57% of all filled DH positions)
• Average number of DH positions held by an STF active member: 0.6
• Average number of DH positions held by current active DH: 1.6

Stats including alt-RPGs (except OED V)

• Total available DH positions: 88 (84% of the active membership could be a DH)
• Total filled DH position: 85
• Total number of members who hold a DH position: 44 (42% of the active membership)
• Number of DH positions filled by someone who holds more than one DH spot: 60 (71% of all filled DH positions)
• Average number of DH positions held by an STF active member: 0.8
• Average number of DH positions held by current active DH: 1.9

With those numbers in mind, here are my questions:

1) Does your ticket believe the concentration of DHs into the number of members reflected above is a problem? If so, why? If not, why not?

2) If you believe it is a problem, is this something your ticket will be looking into if you are elected?

3) Keeping in mind this is just the Election Ship, and approaches and solutions may develop as a term goes on, at this preliminary stage do you have any thoughts about how the problem might be addressed (if your ticket thinks it is a problem)? Would this be in the form of a club discussion, a cabinet discussion, helpful tips, guidelines, or even a potential bylaw amendment? (I promise I won’t hold you to this if you are elected! This is just a preliminary thought your ticket might have :) )

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these questions.

Daniel Lerner

This is a very important topic to Rob and I. We have one of the largest influxes of new members hitting mainstream ships right now and we want to make sure that these talented role-players have the opportunity to advance in the club, a key step of which is DH positions. While I’m not someone who wants to prevent people from holding four CE positions if that’s what they truly enjoy, we need to balance this decision with the understanding that that means taking a fifth CE position away from a new member has a cost to everyone, from a potentially discouraged new member to an experienced member who commits to too much and then can’t meet the posting requirement. We just posted our platform piece about this and I hope you’ll take a look and provide any further question there. I do want to say that I am not in favor of DH-level limitations like we have at the CO and XO level, so it’s unlikely we would be looking at any bylaw changes. :)

• Sarah