“Drove back to town this morning
With working on my mind
I thought of maybe quitting
I thought of leaving it behind
I went back to bed this morning
And as I’m pulling down the blind
Yeah, the sky was dull, and hypothetical
And falling one cloud at a time
That night in Toronto
With its checkerboard floors
Riding on horseback
And keeping order restored…”
Edict #19
With less than 3 hours left in my term as President this should (hopefully) be my last edict of the term.
First, an explanation of the theme of my edicts this term. Shortly before this term started, Gord Downie, lead singer-songwriter for the Canadian band The Tragically Hip, died at the age of 53. His music was a constant for my adolescence and young adulthood, and was often considered one of the most influential voices in Canadian music (and later, with his activist work on important Canadian and international causes, an influential voice in Canadian identity). This term, I decided to share some of my favourite lyrics from Gord Downie in my edicts (saving the best for last…)
This was an usual term to say the least. We moved to Exodus this term, which was a huge success. We created a new approach to MAC and our community events, which I truly will have long term benefits to the club’s ongoing success. We have created a new foundation for our mentorship program, and I am excited to see what new developments that sparks in the Academy.
I also was pleased with how on one hand we have been taking steps to make major changes in the club this term, but on other hand the club has remained so stable. Overall, we had very few changes to our COs this term, which causes me to be hopeful that we are entering a stage of long-term stability in the club.
As has become tradition with these final edicts (a tradition I may have helped start :P), I would like to thank and acknowledge a few people for their work and support this term, especially those I haven’t yet had a chance to acknowledge in the last few edicts.
Amber Hagan
It was probably around a year ago that I decided I was definitely interested in becoming President for this term. But there was one person I really wanted as my Vice-President, and that was Amber. I vividly remember Amber’s agreement (and I’m only sightly paraphrasing):
Amber: Okay, but if you resign then I have permission to come over there and murder you.
Daniel: Fair enough.
Amber and I spent a long time thinking about how we wanted our term to go, what issues we wanted to address, and how we wanted to work as President and Vice-President. The entire theme for my presidency came out of those early discussions.
Amber and I were also preparing even before the election for an usual term. TECH originally though we would have no choice but to move to Exodus before January 2018 (i.e. within weeks after the election). Amber and I began plans of what those first few weeks would look like and how we would plan for a such a quick move to a new site. Fortunately, that requirement changed a bit, but it definitely meant Amber and I knew we had to plan for an unusual term.
Our term was cursed a bit, though. As the election started to really pick up steam, Amber started having health issues that was affecting her in STF. She persevered, and continued as a valuable vice-president - especially through some very difficult decisions about the new cabinet, our early plans for MAC, our on going difficulties implementing those plans for MAC (see Edict #17 for more on that), the behind the scenes work in re-staffing the Personnel Department, and the early communication issues that started coming up between TECH and the rest of the administration (see Edict #15 for more on that). But Amber’s health issues continued, and Amber had to eventually step down as VP. However, Amber’s influence - especially in those early discussions - continued through the rest of the term, and Amber was still able to continue as Fleet Commander for the rest of the term.
One of Amber’s influences this term has to be specifically recognized. If Amber was going to be Vice-President, she told me that one the term’s priorities had to be to address community events and what we do on Discord. That we needed a position that was going to plan and organize regular events - she felt that it was something we had lost from her earlier days in the STF, and it was vital we do something about it if we were going to keep people interested in STF. That early idea of Amber’s continued throughout this term, and I think the work so far in the new organization of our community events has been a huge success for STF.
Cale Reilly
After Amber stepped down, I needed a new VP to assist me for the rest of the term. Discussion items were planned that were coming up, the final Exodus timetable had just been completed, and I needed someone to be my new VP.
Cale didn’t threaten to murder me, fortunately. She just called me crazy (and continues to call me crazy even today).
Cale became Vice President at just the right moment. Because of both major RL issues and ongoing major stressful STF projects, a lot of senior members were under a lot of unusual stress (this includes me). Discussions in Command were starting to reach a low point, tempers were flaring a bit, and people were making unfortunate comments. At one point even I had to step back and take a break. It was into that fray that Cale, the newly minted Vice-President, stepped in. Taking over as a moderator in Command for a while, talking in DMs with various people, making calls - she was everywhere at once to help get things settled down. Her role at that time was invaluable. She continued to be an important adviser for me for the rest of the term, and someone to help me bounce my various ideas off of.
I also have to acknowledge Cale’s role in the Personnel Department this past month. For certain reasons, during the month of July, the Personnel Department needed someone to help out in a fairly large way with processing new member applications. Cale basically stepped in and started taking a major role in processing the applications, and re-writing the welcome email to take into account the changes from Exodus. It should probably be noted that it is not as if Cale had nothing else important this past month that she was planning for… (wait, she got married today?! oh, right..) :P
Finally, there is the move of the mentorship program to the Academy. This actually goes back to some earlier discussions Cale and I had about a year ago, when Cale wanted to talk to me about concerns she had started to observe with the mentorship program as it was run at the time. That led to a brainstorming session, and my eventual crazy idea that the first step needed to be moving the mentorship program to the Academy. That was also around the time I was planning to run for President, and Cale was the first person I tested my new idea on (before I started running it by others). So the genesis of the change to the mentorship program this past term definitely began in that discussion I had with Cale last year.
Lindsay Bayes
I’m not going to repeat what I have said about Lindsay in my prior edicts. However, I also have to thank Lindsay for one last thing. Part-way through the term, I was having certain difficulties related to Command. Without getting into the details, Lindsay helped me through it. I’m sure she knows what I’m referring to, and she has my sincere thanks.
Kat Dedul
Kat has been my rock in the Academy. She was an early supporter of my idea that we needed to start focusing on the department aspect of the Academy, and she was a big believer in my idea of moving the mentorship program to the Academy. She has also been a valuable adviser to me throughout this term, and someone I know who will just listen when I feel the need to rant (an important job for anyone helping an STF President :P)
Kat has also been a big help for me with the Endeavour. I think it goes without saying when a ship CO becomes President, it is the ship that often suffers. My absences from the Endeavour this term have been unfortunate, but Kat has been a big help throughout it. First in her role as Commandant, but then when she agreed to step in as XO during my massive shake up of the ship’s officers (which she then had to help me streamline).
Amber DeSaider
I’ve mentioned three of the four members of TECH elsewhere in my edicts, but Amber’s role has also been extremely important, particularly in harnessing her RL skills and knowledge to assist in a lot of TECH’s work. For example, using her RL skills, Amber was able to identify 19 issues just with the registration application - many of them as a result of typographical errors that no one had identified for however many years we had been using that code. Amber has also been a constant this term in giving specific, actionable feedback - an example of which is the unique feedback she gave that resulted in a redesign of the Exodus Profile page between the beta version and live version.
D Grisham and Krys McLean
Mid-term changes to the cabinet suck. It is hard enough trying to put a cabinet together at the start of the term, but a President is often left scrambling when trying to make changes part way into the term. Both D and Krys stepped in very quickly to take over Fleet Commander positions when changes were needed.
Both also took on those roles in not easy situations. D had to address an messy situation with one of the fleet’s ships shortly after her appointment - a situation which would not be easy for most FComms to handle. Krys took on her FComm position just after she took on being XO for a newly promoted CO on the Bonaventure, and around the same time she agreed to be the CO for the Chernov.
The entire membership
I really did not know what to expect this term with the move to Exodus. I relied primarily on my prior experience as VP and Prez during our move to WeBBspace, but we also knew that this move would be very different from that prior move. I can honestly say that this move was a huge success, and it was in no small part to the support of the entire membership. There were no complaints, arguments, pitchforks or torches. The launch placed a lot of the pressure on the membership (re-creating your characters, having to save your recent posts, having to re-register for new accounts in Exodus) - and yet we got through that weekend with almost no bumps at all. I cannot thank of all you enough for your support and enthusiasm of the move this past term.
Thanks, everyone!
Daniel Lerner
President