Fellow GMs and other interested parties:

Recently there have been many conversations around what happens when a GMT is removed from his/her training sim early, or fails the sim.

There are two scenarios here:
1. The GMT finishes the sim and fails (negative reviews from the vested parties)
2. The GMT is removed from the sim before its completion. (Often because of real life issues or the ship is a bad fit for the GMT’s style)

OGRE provides for what to do when the GMT fails:

If a Gamemaster Trainee is failed from the program or removed for any reason before the mission is completed, he may reapply to the program with a new Mentor or the same Mentor after a two week probation period from the date of his failure or removal. If the Gamemaster Trainee is removed prior to the completion of the mission, the Gamemaster Mentor is required to step in as acting Gamemaster for up to two weeks until a new Gamemaster is appointed, who may be the Gamemaster Mentor himself.

GMD Mandate 11 defines what the minimum requirements for an application consists of.

What isn’t clearly defined is, when someone is removed from a ship before the end of their training sim, what is required to be assigned a new ship?

The original intent of OGRE and Mandate 11 was that: should you fail your sim, you would be required to go back to the beginning and get new recommendations and retake the exam.

Over the last ten years, however, the precedent is that the GMT doesn’t go back to the beginning of the process because the recommendations and test scores are unlikely to change in any meaningful fashion. There are some edge cases where, perhaps, one of the recommenders changes their opinion of the candidate and retract their recommendation, but it seems onerous to legislate every permutation of possible complications when the issues can be adjudicated through the understood precedent of QDir discretion.

Therefore, the GMDept Staff are putting it forward for discussion: What should the process be for when someone is removed from the GMT sim early? Should they be made to get new recommendations and take the test again, or after the two week cool down period should the be placed on a ship that will set them up for success? Whatever decision we decide on will be codified as either a mandate or revision to OGRE

Geoff
GMDir