Edict #100
“You wouldn’t think jagged bone digging into raw nerves would hurt, but it does.”
In continuing the tradition from last term, there are a number of people without whom I couldn’t have survived this second term with my Wolfely mind intact. I would like to take a few moments to thank them and explain why and how they have been so invaluable in supporting both me and the membership during the last eight months. On a completely unrelated note, for those who were asleep or smoking less than legal substances, my edict quotes this term (with the exception of my ‘guest star’ edicts) have been taken from the ten seasons of Stargate SG-1.
Brian Olinski
What is there to say about one of my closest friends in the world. Brian Olinski, a powerhouse Vice President and a man without whom I would never have been able to achieve a fraction of my goals this term. At the end of last term, I made special mention of the work that Brian does behind the scenes. He’s done that and more this term. Open government is a good idea and something that every President should encourage, but there are times in which, either for legal or security reasons, or to avoid public humiliation of other members, it’s not practical or wise to publically notify the membership about difficult situations. There have been three during this second term and Brian has been an integral part of resolving each of them. His advice, counsel, pragmatism and keen mind have been invaluable in handling each of these situations. He has headed some extremely sensitive investigations with thoughtfulness, integrity, fairness and a patience that would have long since been exhausted had anyone else been subjected to some of the email and IM content that was launched his way.
Brian and I work well together because we share similar ideals and goals, but we have not always agreed. In those rare situations in which we have disagreed, it’s usually because I’ve been running headlong into a mistake and he has managed to talk me out of it. Beyond his role as Vice President of course, Brian has also spent the two most tumultuous terms the Personnel Department has seen as its Director and his work has been incredible, far above and beyond the base standards of the role. He and his staff have handled the largest single influx of members we have seen since records began, processing upwards of 100 applications a month, many of which included mentor requests, special considerations and singular requirements. All of these required a personal response and he didn’t let them down. This atop his two revisions to the Personnel Department Edict and the Herculean task of cataloguing and analysing the status of every crewmember aboard every ship in the club in the absence of an official census has given us the most informed, professional and committed department that I’ve seen in my half decade of membership. He is my friend, my counsellor and a man worthy of respect and admiration. Thank you Brian, my beary eggcellent friend.
Jack Dipper
One of the hardest parts of life as President is the constant need to remain calm, controlled and professional in the face of some truly infuriating and frequently offensive commentary. The key component to handling this is to have someone with whom you can privately vent the bile, vitriol and rampant soapboxesque ranting that keeps any President sane. Jack Dipper has been the recipient of more than his fair share of this and whilst managing to perpetually weather this storm of abuse, he also manages to cheer me up or at least make me feel better about myself. He’s also never been afraid to tell me when i’m being a moron or when i’m about to do something monumentally stupid. He’s steered me clear of many rash actions and his advice and counsel have been invaluable through both of my terms in office. Despite our occasionally heated exchanges, he remains someone to whom I offer my respect and my admiration. Thank you for putting up with the endless streams of very un PG-13 words Jack and thank you for giving me the first idea for this terms edict quotes :P
Larry Garfield
I’ve often had a very complicated relationship with Larry (in a non-dating sense, though there was that one night in a hotel room with the gerbils.... Bygones…). I’ve often referred to him as my nemesis and we’ve very rarely agreed on anything when it comes to managing STF, particularly anything that relates to the Engineering Department (the first time we ever met, people very deliberately steered us away from talking about STF in case one of us ended up bleeding). We’ve had more blazing arguments than I could ever hope to count, many of them the literary equivalent of a thermonuclear incursion. Over the years though, I’ve come to rely on his historical perspective. He is the closest thing we have to an STF grandfather and i’ve learned that his counsel can be worth its weight in gold. He is a clear and decisive thinker with a very solid idea of where the club is going wrong and how we should go about fixing it. This doesn’t always endear him to people, but it would be a fool who didn’t look for the sense in his words. Five years ago we were very nearly at war, but now I count Larry amongst a very select group of friends. We don’t always agree and I think that if we did, our friendship would suffer for it. He’ll often very bluntly tell me i’m an idiot when I do something he disaproves of and naturally my fur will be ruffled but i’ll take a breath, settle down and I’ll know when he has a point. I shall forever be in his debt for introducing me to my wife, for being a groomsman at my wedding and for helping me through some of the most difficult times in my life, both in and out of STF. Larry has my admiration, my respect and my thanks for always being there when I need a shoulder, an opinion or a spanking.
Helen Hosick
I didn’t really know Helen eight months ago. We’d shared the occasional passed word through my friendship with Jim (otherwise known as the balls and chain :P) but it wasn’t until she’d graduated from the Academy and began to become a more frequent presence in IRC that we started talking regularly. Helen has an interesting view of the world and she’s always willing to cheer me up when I feel terrible. We share a similar sense of humour that frequently gets us both in trouble and her relative newness to the world of STF politics gives her a very outside-the-box view that has helped me take a step back and consider difficult situations from an angle that wouldn’t otherwise have ocurred to me. It’s very easy to become jaded in the world of STF politics, to get dragged under by the often difficult and rarely obvious undercurrents that shift through the command ships and Helen has allowed me to avoid taking myself too seriously, especially when I put my Fleet Admiral hat on for too long and I start to channel my father. Helen is an up and comer and I have no doubt that she will contribute a great deal to the club in the coming years. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be saluting her :p
Joe Fahey
Joe Fahey is the little devil sitting on our shoulder that tells us to stop being stupid. He’s a quiet and publically reserved personality who is often underestimated and more often overlooked in the work he does. His work as Mentors Coordinator these last two and a half terms has been outstanding. He is always willing to step into the breach when an issue crops up and he has probably held more aFComm, aAFComm, aCO and aXO titles than any other member in history. He has a very wry wit and a frequently surprising sense of humour that is always entertaining. The amount of posts, emails, edicts, proposals, crack brained lunatic ideas and rambling rants that Joe has critiqued in the past 16 months would take far too long to list and longer still to fully appreciate. Joe Fahey is a true workhorse in STF and he deserves recognition for his ceaseless efforts over the years. If ever I get some stables, our favourite Pony will always have a home with me.
As a last hoorah, I would like to thank every single member who makes the club what it is. Without you, we have nothing and no reason to exist. You are the heart and soul of this club and it has been an honour and a privilege to serve you these last sixteen months as your President. I thank you for the opportunity and the faith that you have placed in me. It is my hope that history will judge my administration kindly, but no matter what, I am very proud of what we have accomplished together. We’ve made the club a more democratic, fair and fun place to be. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Fleet Admiral Andrew “Wolfe” Robinson
STF President
6th December 2009