Message posted on Stardate 06070.6 at 1410 hours
Posted by Fleet Admiral Jen Herr (President).
Edict #31
All good things pt. 2
I must first apologize to the club and the crew of the Paladin for delaying this decision for so long. I was surprised with the reaction to the initial announcement, and it made me pause. I listened to everyone’s concerns and gave a lot of additional thought to the final decision. There are a lot of issues involved here, and I want to take a moment to explain the reasoning behind this.
The most common argument against decommissioning a ship is ‘but we can save it’. It is true that it happens relatively often that we have a ship that is struggling, and a change in command staff brings it back to full life. I have no doubts about this process, nor do I doubt that with a new command staff, the Paladin could have become strong again. However, the individual ship’s health is not the only thing that is considered at this point.
I spent the last year as Personnel Director, and I used that opportunity to track member status. I won’t bore everyone with the details, but the bottom line is that we have a declining membership, and we’re having trouble retaining members. The recent census data supports this claim. In addition, I have noticed that we seem to have about two ships that are seriously struggling at any one point. When we save one, another starts to struggle.
The solution is to decommission two ships. Ideally, the ships we decommission are inactive, as was the case with the Nautilus. Unfortunately, the Paladin was also in a state of extreme disrepair. I made the recommendation to the FComm to decommission her, and the FComm concurred. The Paladin has been threatened with decommission due to inactivity twice now, and once additionally due to declining membership.
The crew of the Paladin has done a marvelous job reviving her. I have never doubted the crew’s ability to do so, but I applaud them nonetheless. Unfortunately though, the question was never about reviving her. The Paladin has had her chance to remain active, and it did not happen. We need to decommission a ship for the good of the club, and in this case, the Paladin is it.
I hereby decommission the USS Paladin in Fleet 6. The crew has two weeks to finish up the current sim and find replacement positions for their characters. The Fleet Commander and Personnel Director will assist in finding alternate positions if the players would like help. The Internet Department is instructed to archive all remaining posts on the Paladin and it’s Captain’s Log in 14 days, and delete the ship from the server.
I want to make it clear at this point that the final decision to decommission the Paladin was mine and mine alone. The Fleet Commander was prepared to keep or decommission the Paladin, but I made the final decision to decommission her for the health of the club. I would like to thank Sy for his work on this issue. It had been a tough one for the entire command staff involved. Thanks also go out to Chris Jones for leading the Paladin with extreme dignity during her last weeks, and for helping make this process as easy as possible. Thank you gentlemen, your dedication and hard work are most appreciated.
Jen