Message posted on Stardate 01112.2 at 0027 hours
Posted by Scott Dale Robison (President).
Edict 30:
An issue which has plagued me somewhat of late is that of demotions. Specifically, what rank does someone come back as after they resign.
It is my opinion that if someone AWOLs, they lose all right to their previous rank. Obviously, common sense should be used, and we shouldn’t sit watching with a stopwatch waiting for them to AWOL. However, AWOL policies allow (at least implicitly) a captain to demote someone for AWOLing (if they even allow the person back; a captain has the right to have whoever they want [or not] on their ship per edict).
Further, if a person goes iLOA or eLOA, we don’t penalize them, because they had the good sense to not just AWOL out. However, historically we’ve penalized people for ‘resigning’ from their positions (both RP and govt) by demoting them if they held a sufficiently high rank.
Deanne Ashton (I hope I spelled it right DD) was ‘reinstated’ as FCapt by Nick Lackie despite resigning as a Capt, and I think that was the right thing to do, and I’m not certain she came back as a commander (though I don’t know for certain). In any case, it was the right thing to do in my opinion, and sets a possibly conflicting precedent.
Therefore, I would like to make the following official STF policy via edict:
A person who resigns or leaves STF on good terms by declaring an eLOA or iLOA for any length of time will retain their OOC rank upon return to active service. An admiral returns as admiral, commodore as commodore, fleet captain as fleet captain, and captain as captain. Note this does not affect the IC rank assigned on individual ships, which is COs (and possibly FComm) discretion depending on the rank.
A person who is declared AWOL by the president may be demoted to whatever rank is deemed appropriate. The higher the rank, the higher the standard to which they should be held.
All persons previously demoted because of the old policy, barring specific demotion edict, now hold the highest rank they achieved previously. A rank earned prior to archival of edicts will require a little more thought and research and mental recall. Otherwise, it should be straight forward. Since rank is not authority to weild power, merely recognition of service, it shouldn’t be a big problem in any event.
There are those I know who disagree with this policy. I guess a future prez is free to reverse it. However, I feel it right and proper.
Scott Dale Robison
President, Star-Fleet