Message posted on Stardate 07041.5 at 1621 hours
Posted by Fleet Admiral Sarah Hemenway (President).
Edict #38
“Water.”
The club’s expectations of a ship CO are laid out in FCOMM, in a fairly straightforward manner. The CO is responsible for such things as “ensuring that the crew stays active; managing personnel, recruiting personnel, and enforcing AWOL policies on the ship; ensuring that new members are given adequate assistance as needed; maintaining the ship’s MOTD;…submitting reports to the Fleet Commander as mandated…”
Additionally, the expectations of a ship are laid out as well. “They must maintain an enjoyable environment that is beneficial for both the ship and the club as a whole. They must maintain a crew of reliable players, with the majority within the ship-specific AWOL guidelines. They must maintain, within reason, a full command and senior staff, defined as a Commanding Officer, an Executive Officer, a Gamemaster, a Chief Engineer, a Chief Medical Officer, a Chief Science Officer, and a Chief of Security… They must manage to function as a Standard Ship successfully, with due regard to the current time period and technology level.” The Edict specifies that a ship may be subject to decommissioning if it doesn’t meet these requirements.
The USS Asimov, and her CO, Emma Rouse-Deane, do not meet these requirements. The ship is missing a portion of its senior staff, with the Chief Medical Officer position vacant and the Chief Science Officer position filled by an acting department head. The roster has two individuals who are AWOL for time periods over 30 days and one person who appears to be on a ship-specific LOA. One of the individuals who is now 33 days AWOL never received any support from the ship, nor any question as to why he hadn’t been posting. The last fleet report submitted by Emma, as CO of the Asimov, is the May 2006 report.
This, by itself, may not appear to be a problem. Ships go through time periods where they just aren’t functioning optimally. With this in mind, newly appointed FComm-4 Brady McGuinn checked with Emma regarding the status of her ship, hoping to provide the support necessary to have things running optimally. One of his first steps was to contact Emma regarding the AWOL people on her roster, as the PD can’t assign people to positions that are filled. After not receiving a reply to his e-mail, he contacted Emma in IRC, once again asking about the people on the roster and noting that he would remove them for her, but he didn’t want to remove anyone who had a good reason for being AWOL. Emma responded that they were there for a reason and that she would be “taking it up further” if Brady removed them in his capacity of FComm-4.
FCOMM is very blunt regarding the duties of the Fleet Commander: “The Fleet Commander is responsible for the outward image of the Fleet…Specifically, the Fleet Commander is responsible for ensuring that the Ships under his command are healthy and properly functioning role playing environments…”
Brady was simply doing his job as FComm to ensure that the Asimov would be a healthy environment. This was met with threats. He continued his efforts to ensure a productive relationship between he and Emma as FComm and CO, only to be told that Emma wanted nothing to do with him. After being asked to not continue in IRC, Brady left it at that.
Given that Emma did not want to deal with Brady, but the health of her ship was still in question, Larry Garfield, as AFComm-4, stepped in and sent Emma an e-mail, outlining what needed to be done to ensure that her ship met the requirements in FCOMM. This included filing a fleet report, as well as filling the senior staff vacancies, responding to Brady regarding the AWOLs on the roster, and apologizing to Brady for her behavior. This e-mail was not met positively. The response that Emma sent was full of nasty accusations and blackmail that if she were removed as CO, she would “take it to command where [she] can air [Larry’s] dirty laundry publically.” She also responded with the following points:
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She would find a crew for the Asimov when she found suitable people for the position. However, the Asimov’s vacancies in the PD do not reflect the open DH positions on the ship.
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She does not have to explain her crew roster and that she knows what the situation is with all of the AWOL members. This is not the case, as the member above has never received communication from any member of the Asimov, so there is no way she would be aware of his situation.
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She is owed an apology by Brady for his “continued behaviour” in IRC. Brady ceased his conversation with her when threatened with a complaint, but it was not offensive or even aggressive, as he repeatedly tried to make sure that Emma knew he was trying to act in the best interests of both her and the ship. As indicated before, her response was to respond that she wanted nothing to do with him and to threaten him with a complaint.
FCOMM is quite specific with what should be done before a ship is subject to decommissioning or any sort of penalty: “Before decommissioning an Area, reasonable effort by the Fleet Commander and by the Area Commanding Officer must be made to restore the environment. This may include … replacement of the Area’s Commanding Officer.”
Emma is unwilling to work with her superiors, despite numerous attempts by them to open a dialog and to compromise as much as possible in order to ensure that the Asimov is up to the standard set by FCOMM, a standard she, herself, was responsible for upholding fleet-wide as a previous FComm-4. She has not only prevented her chain of command from assisting her in this, but she has lied to them (for example, regarding her communication with her AWOL crew members), and, in this, sacrificed the health of her ship, For these reasons, she is hereby released as CO of the USS Asimov.
The Terms of Service states that “You are prohibited from posting on or transmitting through STF any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, profane, hateful, fraudulent, racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including but not limited to any material that encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law.” Emma has responded to legitimate concerns for the Asimov’s health with threats, harassment, and outright, public refusal to even attempt to work with her Fleet Commander. This behavior is not expected of any member and certainly not one who is an Admiral with two plus terms as President behind her.
For conduct unbecoming a member of STF, Emma Rouse-Deane is hereby demoted to Commodore.
These are not actions that I want to take, nor are they ones that I take lightly. Emma was a part of my first Command in STF and I have looked up to her CO style in the past as one that I wanted to imitate. However, her refusal to maintain the standards set by FCOMM, as well as her obstructive and harassing attitude toward those who are responsible for holding her to those standards has left me with no choice. I realize that people may not like the others that they have to work with or the government that leads the club. Differences of opinion are encouraged and accepted, but when this extends to sacrifice the health of a ship and violates the Terms of Service of the club, action must be taken.
Finally, this does leave a vacancy in the center seat of the Asimov. When it became obvious that replacing Emma was something that we would have to consider, Brady removed himself from consideration for the position. He felt that it would be a conflict of interest for him to be considered for the vacancy, given his necessary role in dealing with Emma. Sy, Larry, and I have declined his request, as we feel he is the best person for the job, and, fortunately, he has listened to us.
Brady McGuinn is hereby assigned as Commanding Officer of the USS Asimov, Fleet Four. He already holds the rank of Captain, so he does not need to be promoted again.
Congratulations, Brady. Welcome back. :)
- Sarah