Posted by Melissa Aragon in Question for the Candidates: “Encouraging others” to move into higher positions.

Posted by Rear Admiral Sarah Hemenway (Presidential Candidate) in Question for the Candidates: “Encouraging others” to move into higher positions.

Posted by Melissa Aragon in Question for the Candidates: “Encouraging others” to move into higher positions.
This is for both tickets. Whether answered by each of the four of you or as two tickets, that’s up to you.

I hear everyone saying ‘encouraging members to be in higher positions’. Limiting terms, opening other positions, etc.

I have been with the club over 10 years. In that time, “I” asked to be XO, “I” asked to be CO, and until just the last year, “I” always asked for DH positions. So I am guessing I don’t hold the qualities people are looking for to be ‘encouraged’ to be FComm, VP, Prez, or any other cabinet or Exec position higher than the CO position I currently hold.

So with that in mind… what qualities ARE you looking for? That way the new folks know what to expect and those of us who have never been asked can perhaps work on those slights so we can be ‘encouraged’ in the future.

Thank you for your answers in advance.
Melissa

Hi Melissa,

This is an excellent question and one we’re already planning to address in our next platform post, so I won’t be answering as much of the “how” here as you might prefer, but I invite you to stay tuned shortly. In general, the number one quality that I’d like to see in anyone is a willingness to ask questions and to learn.

I’m in the unique position where I genuinely can’t speak for what happened over the last decade. :) My history as President speaks well to my desire to see new members active and involved in the club in the manner which they would like to be. I appointed a new member both CO and FComm (he still hates me for that, whoops) because he was the most qualified candidate at the time. I ran with a new member as my VP to give him the background in STF politics he needed to later become Prez himself (twice over). My terms saw over 15 new members promoted to Captain and assigned to their first commands. We need new members to feel invested and involved in the club.

The feeling that I’m getting from your post is that you’ve been discouraged by the lack of outreach and encouragement at various times in your STF career. Is that correct? I hope that we can discuss that should we be elected; I’d really like to hear about how this could have been handled better.

• Sarah

You responded…
“…we’re already planning to address in our next platform post, so I won’t be answering as much of the “how” here as you might prefer, but I invite you to stay tuned shortly.”

I’m concerned about several of your responses containing “wait and see”, “you’ll find out soon”, “stay tuned”, etc. I can’t speak for all the new members, only myself, when I say that doesn’t sit well with me. How can we be encouraged to ask questions or even make an informed election choice if we have to just hold our breath till you get around to posting a platform tidbit or deciding to answer?

My question to you is, are ALL your platform key points out now so we can get answers to questions directly, or do we need to “wait and see” if our key points are mentioned before asking anything else?

**
“I appointed a new member both CO and FComm (he still hates me for that, whoops) because he was the most qualified candidate at the time.”

Do you think it was better to appoint someone most qualified for a position, despite them not wanting it (as I gather from what you said) or better to put someone eager and willing to learn in that spot with perhaps a mentor? The way you phrased it, there were other options.

Melissa

Hi Melissa,

Rob and I take a lot of time and effort to write our platform posts. We’ve been working on them for weeks now, tweaking wording and action items to make sure that our intent is well-defined and well-conveyed. They are truly the best representation of our hopes and plans for the club, so if a question is going to be directly answered in one of them, we think it’s best to let that get posted and then see if there are any follow ups questions.

In case you missed it, about two hours before your post here, I posted our platform summary: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/election/posts/91779/. Let me know if you have any questions after taking a look at our last platform post (made shortly before that) and the summary.

When that member was appointed as CO, FCOMM required that the FComm be a CO in the fleet. There was not another available CO in the fleet to fill the role, either due to not wanting to be FComm or having another Cabinet role (e.g. one fleet CO was the IDir). The CO in question ended up with a fantastic AFComm supporting him and the part about him hating me was more of a joke in the event that he’s reading this, since we had some fun exchanges recently about those old times. :)

Sarah