So first off many sorries for not getting this up sooner! But it got pushed to the low priority order of things due to many other things in my life recently and in STF.

Anyhow here we go, for the sake of privacy I won’t be outright naming names of who was in, if they read this they are welcome to mention their names etc, I also won’t be going into more private detail of some topics since just as in the chat I did not go into more detail there since the people inquiring about it did not need to know such information of those involved, I’ll note those things were appropriate.

So first off some amazing news! This Voice Of The Club for the end of April (happened on May 1st), was the largest we had out of the three previous events combined! It was also the longest by far! Combining the past three events the average number of people attending from start to finish was roughly 3 or 4 people, and on average the past three events did not last much longer than 45 minutes to an hour or so. While that is not to say none of the past three were not useful or informative, they were in fact I felt. This was overshadowed by this last event having from start to finish 9-11 people throughout the events run, and to top it off it last just a hair over 3 hrs when I got off, and in fact was later told another hour or more went by after I got off with 4-5 people continuing to enjoy and chat up each other on different things. So all in all on that point alone I was floored by its success!

Now, topics covered in no particular order:

1) The theme throughout the event was highlighting players, groups of players, or such that really emphasized supporting each other, STF’s community, and/or ships, whether it was in character or out of character. Several groups highlighted were the current round of Academy cadets, also mentioned was the work of the XO on the now decommissioned Viking, and others on that ship finding a new home on the Saracen. Others that got called out were members of the PDept who gave insight and help to the players on the Viking for finding a new home for their ongoing characters. I was also called out for my own work in working to better the club, as well as engage new and old members alike and listening to as many people ‘down in the trenches’ so to speak as I could even if this meant I was putting a lot more work into being President of STF then normally done. Conversely I also highlighted the efforts of my vice president for his support and the like this term with me, noting how well both of us got along together and talking about issues we feel are worth bringing up or that the club is facing and how we might resolve or approach discussion to resolve them. Other shout outs went to several COs, one being the former CO of the Viking and the current CO of the Saracen, there was also a shout out to the CO and crew of the Wolverine and detail highlights of fun sims/side sims going on were shared by all.

2) During the event several former Viking crew members who were fairly new to the club inquired to me why the Viking was so quickly decommissioned. I explained that there had been several factors at play that the VP, FComm and I had to consider once the former CO stepped down, this included that two DH spots were open as well, and uncertainty if the current XO would remain and that they did not want to move up yet to be a CO (Even though we felt they could do it with a little mentoring), I also explained how the AWOL system works in more detail as well as things dealing with FCOMM. We also spoke lightly about the troubles recently being faced over the past several terms in filling positions such as CO/XO and especially GMs and other Cabinet roles. The long and short answer I gave in the end was that there were too many unknowns given the lower count of STF’s player base to know if the Viking could be sustained, so I made the call to decomm it. I pointed out that I was not happy about my choice but that it had to be done. Overall I felt and hope the reaction given by those present was understanding, some were still disappointed it had to happen, but they agreed to the issues I highlighted. Further to this discussion was explaining to the new players attending that while OOC when a ship is decommed it is not usually where the ship is literally then in character scrapped for parts which would have lead to several awkward stories happening for those who just recently got assigned to the ship a few weeks ago. We also went into explanation that just because a ship is decommed does not mean it can not be brought back for some reason down the line if the support for it can be managed.

3) Following this was a lengthy bantering on current and past memories of character development that all had experienced. It was to me a much well received change of topic from that can before. Many memories were shared about current or past PCs many of us had not even read about, and many games of ‘what if’ were shared and much laughter was had by all. We also shared our thoughts on how people could do further advancement of characters stories one thing that came up was how to best write in current of past main sim events into stories, and how best to reference them down the line in future ways and if one solution to a problem in one main sim could it work in another main sim in the future, the general answer was ‘maybe, if the GM allows it’.

4) This last point led then into many ways people could contribute to STF that did not require any rank perks. Much detail was given how the process of ship design, tech design, reviews, and custom species/powers could be done by anyone for submission for others to use in STF. Also given was a highlight of how people could use the new GM ideas thread in the GM Dept to help out current GMs. We also went into detail how someone could take the GM Exam and how the GMT testing process worked. There was a strong vibe of interest on many of these points by those in attendance, and indeed I myself had several more conversations on these topics with some of them days later. Whether anything will come of this we will have to wait and see

5) The last thing covered in the event was a in general topic of how STF can only exist in our current form by the help of new and old members stepping into ooc roles. Details were given of what one needed to do to be an AFComm/FComm and what the different cabinet roles did. The in short point though was ‘know your limits, keep an open mind to learn, and just because you may not succeed at one area of ooc stf, doesn’t mean you shouldnt try another if you got the time’.

So all in all these were the 5 topic points we covered over the 3ish hours I hosted the event, what came after I left to go to bed I’m unsure though I heard it was still enjoyable by all long into the night.

There are plans for another Voice Of The Club event for the end of May already in the works. Stay tuned for more information on that, if anyone has any questions, comments, or concerns, please let us know!

Robert Archer