“In my dreams a candy coated train comes to my door
With a little girl I can’t have any more
You know a letter washes up to the shore
That I cannot read and I probably should ignore”
Edict #13
As directed in Dipper-3 Edict #15, commendations are to be awarded to individuals or groups of individuals within STF “to recognise the work they have conducted above and beyond what is required of them”. I would request that the next term’s administration hold a presentation for these commendations as set out in Dipper-3 Edict #15.
The following commendations are being awarded.
Cabinet Level Commendations
Krys McLean is awarded a cabinet-level commendation from the Gamemaster Department:
“I would like to recognize Krys for a cabinet-level commendation for her significant contributions to the Sim Excavation Project. Without her, it is very likely we would not have completed the data collection.”
Presidential Commendations
Adam W., Amanda Mercer, David Shotton, James Sinclair, Levon Johnson and Lindsay Bayes are jointly commended for their work as volunteers during the transition to Exodus. This group of individuals worked together and in shifts for days to ensure every active member in STF was able to seamlessly transition from WeBBspace to Exodus, usually with only delays of a few minutes. At the same time, they remained active in Discord answering questions of how to navigate the new site so that TECH could continue to focus on their work behind the scenes. From June 23 to June 25, 2018, these volunteers processed approximately 95 membership transfers, and made it look easy. We have often said how smooth the transition to Exodus was, and that was in a large part due to the work of these volunteers.
Adam W. and Lindsay Bayes are jointly commended for their work in authoring the Exodus Primer. Exodus is fundamentally different in how characters are created and added to ships, and the skills members learned in WeBBspace would not work in Exodus. Members would need to be able to hit the ground running, having information at their fingertips in how to re-create their second (and third and fourth characters) and how COs could add them to their ships to rebuild their rosters. On their own initiative, Adam and Lindsay took the time to author the Exodus Primer to provide that information, which turned out to be priceless in the first couple weeks on Exodus.
Owen Morgan is commended for his work on on the ship, department and fleet MOTDs in the lead-up to Exodus. A major issue 10 years ago with the move to WeBBspace was the unfortunate discovery that a number of the MOTDs from the older system (effWeBB) could not be displayed in WeBBspace. Trying to have a ship without an MOTD is extremely problematic - more so if you then have to spend time to either discover what the problem is or find someone to design a new MOTD. That problem did not happen with Exodus because of Owen’s work. In the weeks leading up to the move to Exodus, Owen painstakingly went through every single MOTD to see if it was compatible with Exodus and make changes to the code where changes were needed. The result: every ship had their MOTD waiting for them when Exodus launched, all thanks to Owen.
Steve Johnson is commended for his design of the new club logo. During beta testing of Exodus, it was clear that the old STF logo needed to be replaced - we couldn’t even show it on the new top banner. As MAC, Lindsay Bayes initiated the idea that the old logo had served its purpose and needed updating, and she commissioned Steve Johnson to design the new logo. Steve agreed, and I think everyone agrees that he did a fantastic job for STF. I have only heard positive things about the new logo, and it’s versatility allows it to be used in a new branding campaign for STF (check out how the new logo is being used in Discord, Facebook and Twitter).
Thomas Bates is commended for his research into MAC. During the discussions this term regarding the community organizer and the Marketing and Advertising Coordinator, Thomas presented to Command the results of his research into the historical aspects of MAC. I cannot imagine how much time Thomas spent on that research, but that data was both useful and compelling - such that it pivoted the whole discussion into a more fulsome review of MAC, which I think the club is better for it.
Congratulations, everyone!
Daniel Lerner
President