Edict #93 - State of the Onion

Edict #93

“It took us 15 years and 3 super computers to MacGyver a system for the gate on Earth.”

State of the Onion

Introduction

Here we have it, ladies and McGerms, the last State Of The Onion, the last gasp, of the Robinson Administration. When the idea was initially proposed for a termly speech that spoke to the goals, aspirations and achievements of a term, it was my hope to do two, one at half term and one at full term. Sadly (though perhaps not unfortunately, given the incredible length of the things), I’ve only managed one per term. I still consider it an excellent tool, not only as a measure of achievement and aspiration but also as a method of recognising those events and individuals that would perhaps otherwise be left out.

For ease of digestion (failing that we have rennie available in the gold trays at the end of the report) the State of the Onion has been broken down into sections, by department, fleet, EA and miscellaneous headings. As before, i’ve made the SOTO an edict to ensure that it remains a part of my administration permanently. I continue to hope that my successors will take note of it and would encourage its use in future administrations as a method of better communicating achievements and goals to the membership at large.

STATE OF THE ONION

Promotions and Appointments

First things first, we have some vitally important issues to discuss. A number of promotions have been made since my last report, each one of them worthy of note and recognition:

• Robert Archer was promoted to Captain and assigned command of the USS Rogue.
• James Merrett was promoted to Captain and assigned command of the USS Asimov
• Jack Dipper was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral for his long and distinguished service to the club, particularly to the Academy
• Joe Fahey was promoted to the rank of Commodore for his long service to the club, particularly in his frequent Academy and FComm performances.
• Brian Olinski was promoted to the rank of Commodore for his outstanding service in a number of departments, as Captain of the Entente, Apollo and in his tireless work as Personnel Director
• Kevin Harbison was promoted to the rank of Commodore for his long service to the club, particularly for the untold hours spent updating and completing the GM Department mission archive.
• Gene Gibbs was promoted to the rank of Fleet Captain for his outstanding service and commitment aboard the USS Draco in taking her from strength to strength.
• Amber Hagan was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Victorious
• Luke Hung was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Curie
• Emily Stephenson was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Victorious
• Linda Gray was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Saracen
• Ian Kirby was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Lexington
• Anthony Findora was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Dresden
• Mike Montemayor was promoted to the rank of Captain and assigned command of the USS Columbus

Along with those promotions were a number of appointments worthy of note. Many of these were made to people who had more than proved themselves worthy of the positions. Those mentioned here were of particular note because of the selfless manner in which they offered to fill the shoes of a suddenly departing predecessor:

• Jack Dipper was assigned command of the USS Seraph after his predecessor Doug VanNess was removed from his position
• Brian Olinski was assigned command of the USS Apollo in the Academy after her previous CO was sadly forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Jen Herr was re-assigned command of her old ship, the USS Genesis after her previous CO was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Jerome Davis was appointed Marketing and Advertising Coordinator after his predecessor was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Jody Romero was appointed Fleet One Commander after Dave Wonderly was forced to resign due to injuries he’d sustained in the performance of his duties in the US Navy.
• Symon Silvester was appointed command of the USS Olympic after his predecessor Missy Bradley was forced to cut back due to real life commitments
• Jim Hosick was appointed command of the academy ship USS Challenger after his predecessor Krys Bromilow was forced to cut back due to real life commitments
• Joe Bradley was appointed Gamemaster Director after his predecessor Dave Wonderly was forced to resign due to injuries he’d sustained in the performance of his duties in the US Navy
• Wail Qasim was appointed Internet Director after his predecessor Russell Watt was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Chris Grinder was appointed Fleet 2 Commander after his predecessor John Lucas was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Geoff Joosten was appointed Fleet 5 Commander after his predecessor Ryan Empson was forced to cut back due to real life commitments
• Jen Herr was appointed command of the academy ship USS Challenger after her predecessor Jim Hosick was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Robert Spicer was appointed command of the USS Alliance after our longest serving continuous CO Larry Garfield was forced to cut back due to real life commitments
• Amanda Noon was appointed Gamemaster Director after her predecessor Joe Bradley was forced to resign due to real life commitments
• Robin Bird was appointed command of the Academy ship USS Columbia after her predecessor Gene Gibbs was forced to resign due to real life commitments.

And because they are so rarely thanked, it is worth noting some of those brave and committed souls who step into the breach and temporarily hold a ship or department together after a sudden departure:

-Anthony Martin, who stepped into the breach as Internet Director and has held the position throughout the past six weeks after Wail Qasim was was forced to step down due to real life issues.
-Amanda Noon, who stepped up when Joe Bradley was forced to resign and held the acting GMDir position before being offered the position permanently.
-Joe Fahey, who was willing to fill Jack Dippers immensely large RAF sized shoes after he was forced to resign as Academy Commandant due to real life commitments.

If I have forgotten or overlooked anyone, you have my sincere apologies and I must point to what remains of my blond head for doing so. You also have my thanks and respect for the job that you have done.

My thanks go to each and every person mentioned above. In instances of promotion, it’s clear recognition of their hard work, colossal effort and incredible commitment. In particular, special thanks go to those individuals who are so rarely recognised for their hard work in holding a ship, department or fleet together when real life grabs their QDir/CO. It takes a massive amount of commitment to perform multiple duties at once (as Anthony Martin has in holding down both FComm-3 and aIDir in the past few weeks) and quite clearly anyone who is willing to do so has balls that are both large and muchly brassed.

Command

I think everyone involved will agree, the last eight months of Command activity have been, to say the least, hectic. We’ve seen the most revolutionary changes the Presidency has ever undergone and the end of a very long road towards a bills and bylaws system of governance. There have been some very heated discussions and at times things have gotten out of hand, but these were very passionate issues that establish the future of STF’s method of government and I think we can all understand the occasional heated exchange or unthinking offensive comment. By the end of the discussions, when the documents we needed had been hammered out, we had in our hands the single biggest revolution since the creation of the Presidency. It has been a very long, very complex and very tiring process. My thanks go to each and every participant in any of those discussions for their thoughts, ideas, patience, determination, drive and their unfaltering stubbornness when it came to a point they were convinced was a good idea (that’s how EGO came into being after all).

Prezolution: Such a simple term for such a massive concept. Prezolution encompasses the Bills and Bylaws Edict (BABE), the Prezolution Implementation Edict (PIE), the Establishment of Executive Government Oversight (EEGO) edict, the latest version of the Government Organisation (GO) edict and the most recent amendments to the Member Order and Organisation (MOO) edict. These documents in collection have established a system of membership control, limiting the powers of the President, establishing a three member oversight council, established an impeachment system, a new bills and bylaws system that provides for the membership to take action against unfair or unwise legislation and the redefinition of the term member, expanding it to those people who may not have the time to commit to a roleplaying position but want to give something back to the club that has offered them so very much. We’ve seen the election of the first Egotists, Symon Silvester, Larry Garfield and Jack Dipper, as well as the beginnings of the final move from a set of charter documents to their final incarnation as a unified bylaws document. Much of the coming term will be taken up in the library by this conversion, but the end product will be well worth the wait. Despite what my own ego (my actual ego, not the council EGO) would like, I cannot take all of the credit for this though. It took a lot of hard work from a number of Presidents to establish the library, charter edicts and to begin refining the STF legal process into a smaller group of manageable edicts that can now, with my final additions, become the bylaws document:

• Mike Ballway, who held the very first constitution discussion in ye olde mists of time (otherwise known as 1996)
• Scott Dale Robison, who gave us the very first unified departmental edict in 2001 with the Omnibus GMD Revisions Edict (OGRE)
• Larry Garfield, who sowed the first germs of the idea with his Articles of Organisation (with Mike Ballway) back in 1997 that competed against STF Charter (text for which has, in the intervening years become the basis for many of our charter edicts), as well as the creation of the first unified policy edict, Fleet Command and Other Mundane Matters (FCOMM) in 2001
• Pamela Dugan, who gave us the first Academy Edict and a revision to OGRE as well as the Constitution Committee Report which served as the basis for our final impeachment process.
• Jack Dipper, who began the process in its current form in 2005 with the establishment of the Library which granted a place to store those few existing charter edicts for easy reference, the first Personnel Department Edict (PDICT), revision to the Academy Edict (CADET) and gave us the Internet Department Edict (SCSI)
• Jen Herr, who continued the process with the first Engineering Department Edict, a revision to FCOMM and CADET and the first version of the Elections (LEGOE) edict.
• Sarah Hemenway, who further refined the process with a further two versions of FCOMM, two revisions to LEGOE, the STF Awards Edict, the Coder Edict (CODE), Government Organisation (GO), Member Order and Organisation (MOO), the creation of the Marketing and Advertising Coordinator and a new version of the Terms Of Service.

Further Changes And Amendments

Prezolution hasn’t been the only achievement since the last State Of The Onion, we’ve seen a number of additional legislative changes, amendments, revisions and creations, including:

• The final abolition of the acting presidents? requirement to append any edict issued in their capacity with an alphabetical suffix to the last full Presidential edict.
• The amendment to our Terms of Service that finally brought us in line with US legislation concerning online privacy and the membership of minors which limited membership age to 13 years and older.
• The addition of the ranks Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral to the STF Chain of Command.
• The introduction of promotions guidelines defining the basic criteria a member must achieve in order to be considered for a rank above that of Captain.
• The introduction of promotions restrictions preventing more than one promotion for any member within an eight month period and the restriction of promotions to a single step at a time.
• The amendment to the definition of member to include those who hold administrative positions but not roleplay positions.

Discipline

Unfortunately, the last term and a bit hasn’t been all lightness and pie. Shortly after the last SOTO, I was forced to ban two members, one temporarily and one permanently. It’s never a good situation, but it’s one that every president must face at least once. I believe that my reasoning was sound and my judgements fair, attested, hopefully, by the fact that there was no public outcry when they were issued. Cheryl has returned to us after the expiration of her ban and seems to have settled well into life back aboard the Polaris as their counsellor. Therle, unfortunately, will remain banned indefinitely (provided he chooses not to pursue the EGO overturn route). After his threats against the site and our host, I still believe that at no point in the future should he be permitted to return to the club. Atop that of course, we’ve seen a couple of firings of both CO’s and cabinet members. It’s never a good thing to have to fire anyone in the club, but the interests of the members must come first and sometimes that means that when all other options have been exhausted, it’s time to get someone new into the position. Undoubtedly and perhaps understandably, it’s created some bad blood, but I stand by each decision and hope that in time, the members involved come to realise that the decision was the right one, made for the right reasons.

The Cabinet

In my previous SOTO, I made a point to highlight achievements within each of the departments and fleets, but through the last term I’ve deliberately taken a more hands off approach, partly because of the energy required to craft Prezolution, and also because people were beginning to itch underneath the weight of the Wolfe on their shoulders. Because of that, I’m going to focus on the more specific outstanding achievements in departments during the last term.

Personnel Department: By far the busiest department throughout the last term, the PD staff have performed far in excess of the call of duty. With the release of the new movie, we saw a truly massive influx of new members, handled at an astounding pace by each member of the PD team. They handled both member placements and mentor requests with a degree of professionalism and commitment I have not seen outside of paid employment. With the release of the movie on DVD and the continued rekindled interest in the franchise, the team has continued to handle their duties with speed, efficiency and determination, despite two thirds of the senior staff running in the election. I would like to personally thank Brian, Emily and Harley for their outstanding work in the past months. There will be some very big shoes to fill in the coming term and I hope that everyone remembers their sacrifice, determination and commitment to their duties. Throughout the last term we saw not one, but two versions of the Personnel Department Edict (PDICT) as well as the official removal of the Yearbook Coordinator position in line with the plans to further integrate the yearbook into WeBBspace. The discussions that led to these decisions and the final drafts of both PDICT’s reflect the highest standards of this club and thanks go also to everyone who participated in those discussions.

Engineering Department: With the sad removal of Wail as Engineering Director we were looking at a very shaky ED. With Jen Herr taking over from my temporary handling of the position we have seen an influx of new designs, new ideas and new concepts that I have not witnessed for many a long year. The open door policy and the return of several former ship designers as well as the opening of a new Dreadnought contract to replace the obsolete Nimitz Class have contributed to the massive workload the department currently handles. We’ve also begun a review and revision of the New Navy Plan, the first since its inception nearly a decade ago. This combined with an aggressively pro alt-rpg stance has allowed us all to become a part of the revitalisation of imaginative design that makes this Engineering Department one of our strongest in at least five years. My thanks go to all of those who have made the ED what it is today, but special mentions go to Jen Herr, Sam Bibb, Lee Bridegford and his New New Navy Plan team and all of the designers who have graced the ED’s halls in the past eight months.

Starfleet Academy: The Academy has seen some upheaval recently. With Jack Dipper stepping down after a marathon stint that has literally changed the face of the fleet and department, we have a lot to be grateful for. He provided us with the groundwork and eventual evolution of rules that have led to the current Academy standards in the CADET edict. There were a lot of goals for the Academy in the 2009 election campaign and, through a combination of my hands off approach and the curse that is RL, we’ve missed out on a lot of those goals. The most important recent achievement in the Academy was the final slog to the finish post and the publishing of the first Academy newsletter after massive discussions, prodding and near war on many fronts to get it off the ground. With its publication, we see the start of yet another new era for the Academy, an era that brings the Academy both closer to the mainstream club and provides an avenue for early administrative involvement for newer members and cadets that they previously didn’t have. It’s an important step forwards and one that I hope my successor and the person chosen to fill Jack’s massive shoes will continue to support. In the coming months, I would encourage the new administration to look at the discussions had throughout the election concerning the Academy and begin to look closer at the ideas put forwards for revitalising the Academy and supporting the recent steps forwards. My thanks go to Jack Dipper, Joe Fahey, Helen Hosick and Harry Matthews for their outstanding work in the past few months.

Internet Department: The Internet Department has always been one of the most difficult to staff, often seeing the introduction of near dynastic groups of directors and assistant directors borne from the sparse expertise available amongst volunteers at any given time. With the loss of both Wail and Russ as IDir, we’ve had a rough time of it, but the work of the department has continued, seeing the introduction of some new and not so new STF faces. Rob Burnham, a returning member with an incredibly impressive resum? has been introduced as Assistant Internet Director and has demonstrated an almost limitless enthusiasm and drive to learn and adapt his skills to better serve the club. Peter Hinton Smith, by far the most junior member selected for ID service in quite some time, has taken to his role as 2AIDir like a fish to water and is learning everything that he can. These two are ably and expertly managed by the only man I could consider holding the top spot through the last month of the term, Anthony Martin. Despite maintaining his duties as FComm-3, Tony took the reins of the department and has maintained the day to day management of the department without a single complaint despite the enhanced workload. Each and every member of the department deserves to be recognised for their contribution and the next President could do far worse than consider these members for continued service in one of our most important departments.

Gamemaster Department: The GMD has taken some hard knocks in the past term and RL has been a curse upon every director who has sat in the chair. It’s an unfortunate occurrence that seems to have hit us hardest here during the past eight months. With the loss first of Kevin Harbison to RL, Dave Wonderly to injuries sustained whilst serving in the US Navy and then Joe Bradley to RL, the department took a big toll in terms of its agenda for the term. There has however been a silver lining in the form of Amanda Noon, repeatedly taking on the acting GMDir role and finally holding it permanently through the last months of the term despite a hectic RL schedule. By the end of this administration, the GM archive should once more be back up to date, missions logged and referenced correctly and I foresee no problems in a handoff to her successor in transition. My thanks to her for her continued service and dedication to a department she has been involved in for a long time.

The Mainstream Fleets

Fleet One: The first term saw a lot of troubles strike our first fleet. We saw three Fleet Commanders rotate through as they were each attacked by RL and, as is always the case with the RL disease, ships began to suffer. With the appointment of a first time cabinet member in Sam Bibb as the new face of the fleet at the beginning of the second term we saw him apply the same outstanding drive and enthusiasm that made the Lexington the ship it is today. For the first time in many years, Fleet one is stable, healthy and active on every ship. With the adjustments of some posting speeds and the reinvigoration of many of the fleets MOTD’s, new life has been breathed into our Foremost Fleet and Sam and Sidney both have my appreciation and admiration for their outstanding work these past eight months.

Fleet Two: With the loss of John Lucas to the evil and now thematic RL, I had thought that all of the incredible work (quite literally blood, sweat and tears) that John and Cale had put into the fleet was going to be lost whilst the fleet slipped back into a depression. I couldn’t have been more wrong. With the appointment of Chris Grinder as his replacement and the continued support of trusty AFComm Cale Reilly, they have more than met my expectations. John set the bar incredibly high, making Fleet Two one of, if not the (don’t tell Fleet Five I said it) finest fleet in the club. I didn’t think it would be possible to maintain those incredible standards, but Chris has managed to do so. Each ship in the fleet continues to be very healthy, with rosters bursting at the seams (just look at Polaris if you don’t believe me). It was a Herculean task to rebuild the fleets health after the long period of slump it had experienced and it requires so much more to maintain those levels. Both Chris and Cale as well as the command staffs and crews of the Fleet Two ships have my thanks for their dedication and determination to maintain their place at the forefront of the club.

Fleet Three: Speaking from my own experiences, it is very tough to balance more than a single cabinet position at a time, particularly when one or both are struggling or historically difficult to manage, but Anthony Martin has been truly outstanding in his role as FComm-3. It can be intimidating to have the President as one of your subordinate CO’s within a fleet and I encouraged Tony from the very beginning to tell me when I was doing my ship and her crew a disservice. He never balked, never sweet talked or tippy-toed around me when the ship began to suffer as the Prezolution discussions ate more and more of my free time. When my CO/GM posting faltered and the ship began to fail, he kicked me, smacked me, poked, prodded and pushed me to keep going, to do what needed to be done including updating my MOTD regularly, maintaining proper sim updates and even little things like actually posting using the right character so that it didn’t look like my GM hadn’t posted for months. The amazing thing is that he did this whilst not only managing the other ships in his fleet, but reinvigorating one of our most struggling ships after taking command of Outpost 42 and then not only participating heavily in the terms Prezolution discussions but also, at the end, managing this all alongside his role as acting Internet Director. My thanks, my respect and my admiration to the two Tony’s (Martin and Findora) for their outstanding work this past term.

Fleet Four: In my last SOTO, I offered praise to Krys Bromilow for her outstanding work in turning the fleet around in the first months of my first term after taking over from resigning member Rick Gruby. This has made her, alongside Jack Dipper, the second longest serving single cabinet officer of my administration and she has earned that title well. Since the last SOTO, those ships which had continued to struggle during the first term have seen massive improvement. Even Starbase 202, which has been one of our most difficult ships since I first joined the club has turned around despite some initial issues with GMT placements. The decommissioning of Crell left a hole in the fleet and Krys has sought to fill that. As well as providing some truly outstanding MOTD’s for her fleet ships, we have seen the first outlines of the first fleetwide sim this club has seen… Well.. Since the last fleet four fleetwide many moons ago. It is my hope that my successor will recognise Krys’ hard work throughout the last fourteen months of her time in post and her continued goals as she and Larry Garfield continue to plan what looks to be a truly exciting adventure.

Fleet Five: I have always considered Fleet Five my STF home. My first command was the Draco, my first cabinet experience as FComm-5, a position I have held four times now. I always find it tough to criticise a place I love so well, but we did have some struggling ships throughout the end of my first and the start of my second terms. The Curie, Seraph and Odin were heavily bogged down, posting rates plummeting and crew rotating out almost as fast as they could be added. This unfortunately culminated in one CO resigning and another being relieved of his command. Since then, and with the return of some of Fleet Five’s golden boys to the Meridian Chair, including Ryan Empson and Geoff Joosten, the fleet has begun its turnaround. Seraph is continuing its careful rise under the care of Jack Dipper and the Curie has seen a complete turnaround under the hand of one of our newest CO’s, Luke Hung. After taking aboard TJ Morgan as XO, the Odin has gone from strength to strength, with a comfortable roster and some excellent posting statistics. Despite some troubles due to various RL situations cropping up, Entente, Draco and Endeavor remain some of the strongest ships in the club and it is my hope that in building upon the recent efforts within the fleet, the coming term will see Fleet Five steal the crown back from Fleet Two and take its rightful place as the best fleet in the club. My thanks to each of those mentioned as well as the command staffs and crews of every Fleet Five ship.

Fleet Six: At the beginning of my second term, Fleet Six was beginning to suffer. We saw the removal of the Vanguard CO from her position and the installation of Al “Nessie” Sutherland as her new Captain, a position that he has fulfilled admirably. The fleet has suffered a spate of RL issues taking many of its senior members away on LOA’s and there has been a high rate or turnover throughout the last eight months. With the installation of Sy “Bunny” Silvester as FComm-6 at the beginning of the second term we have seen some outstanding achievements in terms of improving ship health, maintaining MOTD’s and being the most dominant in rebranding the fleet with a new identity and the beginnings of a back story for the Fleet. There are few people who have managed to effectively contain the madness that seeps from OEDV and infects the rest of the fleet, but Sy is uniquely suited to this position and he has both my thanks and my respect for his achievements since returning to the club. With the continued work on developing a full and unique backstory and identity for this most chaotic of fleets, I would encourage my successor to look at the great strides taken in the last term when considering their cabinet. My thanks to both Sy, his laser encrusted Tribble sidekick and their Slothly companion for their outstanding work in rebranding and revitalising the Fleet.

The Executive Assistants

Marketing and Advertising Coordinator: MAC has been a position plagued with troubles since its first inception, largely due to the specialised experience and commitment that are needed to make full use of it as an effective marketing platform. We saw a number of Coordinators roll in and out of the MAC Ship throughout the first and start of the second terms, but in recent months we’ve begun to see some improvements with Liz Caro taking the role. The introduction of an STF briefing and marketing pack to be used at expositions and conventions as well as the further expansion into roleplay listing sites and the enhancement of our listing position on search engines has been a positive step forward that I hope will continue into the next term. This is still one of our most underutilised assets and it can become one of our strongest in the coming term and beyond.

The Library: The Library will take on a monumental task within the coming term in converting the standing charters book into a single, unified bylaws document. It is my expectation that this will take at least the larger portion of the next eight months, if not longer. It is a vital step in finalising the Prezolution process and I am confident that with the support of the newly elected Egotists and a successor to my Presidency, the Library can continue to grow in its role into areas such as Q&A and navigation assistance as we continue to seek ways to integrate the library components into WeBBspace.

WeBB OOC Area

In the past few months, a renaissance of sorts has occurred, with the surprise discussion in the middle of the slog of Prezolution concerning the WeBB OOC Area. It was determined by a fair few members that it could be better utilised and despite my initial scepticism, I encouraged them to explore alternative ways of updating and bringing to the fore the WeBB OOC Area as a method of encouraging community spirit and teambuilding. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. It has been a truly outstanding process that has left us with a completely new WeBB OOC Area, new discussions, monthly quizzes, the beginnings of gaming leagues for the first time in many years, random jokes and the potential introduction of the official STF Animal Petting Zoo to keep track of the myriad of STF Captains Animal Nicks that have grown up over the past few years. The OOC Area has become vital again, brimming with enthusiasm, drive, humour and, most importantly, fun. My thanks, respect and admiration on behalf of a grateful President go to Helen Hosick, Sam Bibb and TJ Morgan for their incredible work in reviving an area that has been devoid of life for many many years.

WeBBspace Development and Drupal 6

It has become something of a golden legend whispered in hushed tones when the Tribbles aren’t looking that one day we might actually achieve the mighty ascension to Drupal 6 and be able to institute the myriad of feature requests and new modules that have been floating around since WeBBspace first went live. Unfortunately we’ve spent the past 18 months waiting for external volunteer assets to finish the last few components needed to complete the upgrade and it is my sincere hope after two terms of little movement that we may achieve this mythical state within the next eight months. It will come and with it will come some massive and positive developments within the WeBBspace system, but until they do, I urge everyone to continue to be patient, to pray to all the Bunnies, Wolves, Bears, Garfields and Bourdaa’s who may be listening that someone plants a size 13 on the heads of whoever is still holding us up!

Conclusion

And thus ends the Robinson Era. All that remains is that last mad dash to the curtain calls, promotions, official thank you’s and the 100 edict record. Completely boring or irrelevant as it may be, my time in office has officially made me the most verbose president in the history of STF three times over. I’ve broken records for most first term edicts, most second term edicts, most edicts of all time and, hopefully, the only President to ever issue 100 edicts. This confirms for all time my status as a Windbagged Wolfe Of Wicked Presidential Proportions (I was going for alliteration there but ran out of W’s). it is my hope that the future will regard my administration kindly, but I know I?ve made mistakes. I’ve turned left when I should have turned right, issued warnings that were perhaps a touch too harsh. I’ve been alternately accused of being too hard arsed and too soft, but I have been grateful for the opportunity to give something back to the club that has given me so much enjoyment during the past five years. I hope to continue to do so in whatever capacity I may for many years to come and thank all of those who have supported me throughout my time in STF.

I would urge my successor to take note of both my mistakes and my achievements, to learn from them and encourage them to always act in the very best interests of the membership and never their own. I thank you, one and all for the chances that you have offered me during the past sixteen months. To anyone that has managed to slog through this near six thousand word document (there’s a bottle of scotch for anyone who has), It’s been a blast and from the top of my soon to be passed baton of Fleet Admiralness to the bottom of my secretly stashed Fleet Captainly pips I offer my parting goodbyes from this Wolfely president!

Farewell, adieu, auf wiedersehen my friends!

Fleet Admiral Andrew “Wolfe” Robinson
STF President
3rd December 2009