“Let’s go to the park
Let’s go watch them flooding
Out there after dark
Don’t have to think of nothing
And I love that for
For the way I’m feeling
Seven hundred foot
Seven hundred foot ceiling”
Edict #16
It would be fair to say that the launch of Exodus this term was one of the biggest successes of this term. But how did we get there?
As with most projects in STF, they generally rise and fall on the efforts and willingness of the individual(s) willing to do that project. If that individual changes their mind, has RL issues, or can’t keep up with the demands of the project, the project stops until someone else takes the torch. For a long time in STF’s history, that was even how our website projects worked (including effWeBB and WeBBspace).
The problem was that the old individual volunteer wasn’t working for the club’s website. We had a ticking clock to make radical changes to the club’s website before we pretty much lost all support for it. Individuals rose to the challenge, but it was becoming clear to many people aware of the issues that relying on individual volunteers to commit to this kind of project long term (and with little oversight and accountability or understanding of what was needed) was just not working.
Three years ago Thomas Bates began a (then-controversial) discussion to create a radically new system as it related to the technical side of the club - especially the club website. He called his proposed idea “TECH”, which after a lot of screaming in Command formally came into existence in August 2015. Their first big project: create a new website for STF before we run out of time on that ticking clock. The project would eventually be temporarily titled “Exodus” (a name which has become less ‘temporary’).
I can honestly say that but for Thomas’s work in coming up with TECH and seeing it through to the end, we would not have Exodus as it is today.
Since it’s creation, Thomas has remained one of the two members who have stuck with it all the way through. That must now come to an end with his election as Vice-President (which requires him to resign from TECH and have his role there filled by someone else). Given Thomas’s instrumental role in coming up with TECH and being a member of TECH for the three years since, this edict is in order.
Thomas has also had a fundamental role in the design of Exodus, and along with Joe P, has probably made the most contributions to it’s design. Pretty much all of the graphical design decisions can be traced back to Thomas. Related to that is ensuring that the new site would be mobile friendly - a requirement that although Thomas refused to promise publicly, he did everything he could to make sure it would happen with his design choices.
Even without my own observations, it has been made clear to me by others involved with the Exodus project that it would not have been successful without the direct contributions Thomas made to the project.
Therefore, Thomas Bates is promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral.
Congratulations, Thomas!
Daniel Lerner
President