Weekly Minutes of the Second Fleet
1/3/09
Meeting called to order by Garbo
Roll call:
Arachnidus, Teg, Garbo, Jackson, Pelter, Stark, Virali, Mystichal
Agenda:
New weekly meeting time and setting a second meeting for those on GMT time
Reviewing of procedure for promotion to Captain or higher.
Departure of Dunn from fleet
RP threads
Posting minutes and news
Reports:
Adm Garbo: An announcement was made that Capt. Dunn of the E&RD has resigned and is now a member of the Order of the Bat’Leth. Garbo indicated h was not terribly concerned about the departure nor that it was unexpected. Garbo asked if E&RD needed to adjust for the departure, but Teg indicated that VADM Jackson had already reassigned officers in the division and Teg had approved those reassignments.
Adm Teg:
1/3/09
Meeting called to order by Garbo
Roll call:
Arachnidus, Teg, Garbo, Jackson, Pelter, Stark, Virali, Mystichal
Agenda:
New weekly meeting time and setting a second meeting for those on GMT time
Reviewing of procedure for promotion to Captain or higher.
Departure of Dunn from fleet
RP threads
Posting minutes and news
Reports:
Adm Garbo: An announcement was made that Capt. Dunn of the E&RD has resigned and is now a member of the Order of the Bat’Leth. Garbo indicated h was not terribly concerned about the departure nor that it was unexpected. Garbo asked if E&RD needed to adjust for the departure, but Teg indicated that VADM Jackson had already reassigned officers in the division and Teg had approved those reassignments.
Adm Teg:
Teg announced that during a meeting before the holidays, he had met with the Diplomacy officers and the Rear Admirals to increase the activity of the fleet’s formal diplomatic efforts. Specific officers were assigned to be liaisons to particular groups to provide a direct line of communication from their command staff to ours. The liaison officer also monitors that fleet’s thread and provides a summary to Teg so that posted activity can be monitored. Capt. Thokk is liaison to Lone Star Fleet, Capt. Arachnidus is liaison to Serenity Station/Firefly Fleet, and RADM Zedi is liaison to the Order of the Bat’Leth. Teg also indicated that a team building effort similar to that executed with E&R is underway with Diplomacy, and a similar effort will begin with Medical as soon as a meeting took place. Finally, Teg reported that due to inactivity, VADM Kilund has been removal to SB 21. He was given a clear notice via PM to increase his activity but failed to due so. He has one final window of time to reclaim the position. If he does not, then a new VADM will be required.
No Division reports were delivered.
Agenda items:
New meeting time/multiple meetings. Based upon data collected by Teg and the E&RD, Saturday night was a common time that people listed as available. This was a primary reason why this meeting was held on Saturday, not Sunday. However, this timing still does not address the problem that those in GMT and in Pacific time zones have with the current meeting times. A second meeting time was discussed as a means to allow officers in those time zones a chance to meet. Lt. Cmdr. Pelter indicated that he thought Saturday’s were ok for a meeting, but pointed out that Saturdays are often an evening for social outings and might be as acceptable. Another officer noted (Arachnidus?) that Saturday would be better because it is not a school night. Garbo indicated that he was indifferent to the specific day. He also reminded those present that attendance at the weekly meeting is not mandatory, but is one way of displaying activity. Activity can also be demonstrated by posting on the threads or engaging in organized divisional activities. The main requirement is some form of activity, anywhere. VADM Virali also noted that Saturday is the night to go out, but with two meetings, then people could attend one or the other and still be in the loop. Teg noted that senior ADM (Garbo or Teg) will likely be at all meetings so it would be acceptable for an officer to come to either meeting during the week and still be in the loop. A straw vote was taken to table the discussion of meeting times and dates until more people were present.
Policy for promotion of officers to Captain:
No Division reports were delivered.
Agenda items:
New meeting time/multiple meetings. Based upon data collected by Teg and the E&RD, Saturday night was a common time that people listed as available. This was a primary reason why this meeting was held on Saturday, not Sunday. However, this timing still does not address the problem that those in GMT and in Pacific time zones have with the current meeting times. A second meeting time was discussed as a means to allow officers in those time zones a chance to meet. Lt. Cmdr. Pelter indicated that he thought Saturday’s were ok for a meeting, but pointed out that Saturdays are often an evening for social outings and might be as acceptable. Another officer noted (Arachnidus?) that Saturday would be better because it is not a school night. Garbo indicated that he was indifferent to the specific day. He also reminded those present that attendance at the weekly meeting is not mandatory, but is one way of displaying activity. Activity can also be demonstrated by posting on the threads or engaging in organized divisional activities. The main requirement is some form of activity, anywhere. VADM Virali also noted that Saturday is the night to go out, but with two meetings, then people could attend one or the other and still be in the loop. Teg noted that senior ADM (Garbo or Teg) will likely be at all meetings so it would be acceptable for an officer to come to either meeting during the week and still be in the loop. A straw vote was taken to table the discussion of meeting times and dates until more people were present.
Policy for promotion of officers to Captain:
Garbo mentioned that there had been some miscommunication regarding the promotion policy established a couple of months ago. Garbo reiterated that VADM have the authority to promote at their discretion up through the rank of Commander, but that if a VADM wants to promote an officer to Captain, that officer must be reviewed by the senior staff for final approval. The reasons for this policy is that Captains have their own share of command responsibility and need to be individuals who can display the necessary leadership skills. These skills are also important because a Captain is only one step away from an Admiral’s position and even greater responsibility. If an officer is on an administrative career path, that person should be vetted by the command staff. Teg added that the process is largely a formality because the command staff may not be personally familiar with all officers in a division so the information provided on that person would be useful in familiarizing the admiralty with that officer. Garbo echoed this sentiment, pointing that the former VADM Gloocose posted people to higher ranking positions based upon friendship, not qualifications. Garbo finished by saying that this policy was a type of check-and-balance system and, largely, a simple formality.
Departure of Capt. Dunn:
Garbo reiterated that Dunn had left the fleet to join the Order of the Bat’Leth. He wished Dunn well, noting that even though he told no one he was leaving, he did not leave on bad terms. Teg pointed out that the posts made earlier in the day on the threads were unnecessarily inflammatory because his reason for departure had not been clearly established. Stark pointed out a post on the Order of the Bat’Leth thread indicating and invitation to Dunn to join that faction. A question was raised as to whether this constituted “headhunting”. Teg countered by saying that the post itself may not have initiated Dunn’s departure and may have been a formal post to validate a transfer already in progress, so it is not possible to conclude that it was headhunting without additional information. Garbo stated that he did not think that the Order of the Bat’Leth was formally targeting our members for recruitment.
Lt. Cmdr. Pelter’s opinion was that irregardless of how the discussion started, the Order accepted him, which he thought was rude. Teg thought that statement sounded a bit elitist as in could be interpreted as a suggestion that someone who wishes to leave Second Fleet shouldn’t join other fleets. Pelter (later in the meeting) clarified that he was referring to a situation where an officer left without even the common courtesy of telling anyone in Second Fleet that they wished to leave or had problems that they felt were not being addressed. VADM Virali agreed that this common courtesy of notifying us before leaving would be the decent thing to do. Garbo ended the discussion but again reminding everyone that he left in good standing and that’s that.
Role playing thread:
Capt. Arachnidus indicated that the new role playing thread “Regeneration Period” was up and running under the direction of Ensign Chrepht. Arachnidus also stated that Chrepht had put a considerable amount of effort into the story and the management of the activity. Teg agreed, stating that as a coauthor of the thread, he knew that the storyline would be very detailed. Teg also indicated that people outside Second Fleet had been invited to participate (e.g., Serenity Station). Garbo complimented the storyline and Chrepht’s efforts, noting the quality he had seen so far. He encouraged others in the fleet to join in. Teg noted that the current battle in the role playing thread is about to come to an end and new people might want to wait a bit for an opening to join in.
Posting of agendas, minutes, and news
Garbo noted that there had been several discussions about the difficulty in locating news, minutes, and other information on the threads and that some officers had asked if a way to simplify that process could be developed. Garbo reiterated that Second Fleet wished to keep some material, like meeting minutes, in the public domain because some potential recruits have viewed the minutes and taken it as a sign of our organization, thus it has value as a recruiting tool and a means of displaying the range of activities we are involved in. Stark asked if Garbo had reviewed his proposal for a Blogspot site to provide this information clearinghouse but Garbo responded that he had not thoroughly reviewed that proposal but thought in principle it sounded good. Teg reminded the group that Kovaghn had also proposed a clearinghouse of sorts and had put some effort into developing it. Garbo also pointed out that FADM De Vito, as a highly proficient computer programmer, has always planned an extremely detailed, functional website to provide all of these resources and much, much more. However, personal commitments have slowed his efforts to complete the site. But since he had already put considerable effort into the site already, it would be unfair and a waste of De Vito’s effort to abandon that idea for another mechanism. Capt. Arachnidus suggested that a MySpace site might be a possibility, which Garbo thought would also be a good way of promoting our efforts. Prompted by Teg’s suggestion that an interim mechanism was still needed until De Vito’s site was fully functional, a committee was formed to discuss various options and present them to the fleet. The committee included VADM Jackson (committee chair), Capt. Stark, Captain Arachnidus, and Lt. Cmdr. Kovaghn. This committee was asked to submit an update on their efforts at the meeting in two weeks.
Open forum:
Teg mentioned that his character’s page on the STO wiki site had been selected as a featured article, provided excellent exposure for Second Fleet. Teg also indicated that this honor would not have been possible without VADM Jackson’s contributions, so he saw this as a honor shared by both officers. Garbo asked Teg to post a link in the threads when the featured article was posted.
Meeting adjourned at 9:24 PM MDT.
Departure of Capt. Dunn:
Garbo reiterated that Dunn had left the fleet to join the Order of the Bat’Leth. He wished Dunn well, noting that even though he told no one he was leaving, he did not leave on bad terms. Teg pointed out that the posts made earlier in the day on the threads were unnecessarily inflammatory because his reason for departure had not been clearly established. Stark pointed out a post on the Order of the Bat’Leth thread indicating and invitation to Dunn to join that faction. A question was raised as to whether this constituted “headhunting”. Teg countered by saying that the post itself may not have initiated Dunn’s departure and may have been a formal post to validate a transfer already in progress, so it is not possible to conclude that it was headhunting without additional information. Garbo stated that he did not think that the Order of the Bat’Leth was formally targeting our members for recruitment.
Lt. Cmdr. Pelter’s opinion was that irregardless of how the discussion started, the Order accepted him, which he thought was rude. Teg thought that statement sounded a bit elitist as in could be interpreted as a suggestion that someone who wishes to leave Second Fleet shouldn’t join other fleets. Pelter (later in the meeting) clarified that he was referring to a situation where an officer left without even the common courtesy of telling anyone in Second Fleet that they wished to leave or had problems that they felt were not being addressed. VADM Virali agreed that this common courtesy of notifying us before leaving would be the decent thing to do. Garbo ended the discussion but again reminding everyone that he left in good standing and that’s that.
Role playing thread:
Capt. Arachnidus indicated that the new role playing thread “Regeneration Period” was up and running under the direction of Ensign Chrepht. Arachnidus also stated that Chrepht had put a considerable amount of effort into the story and the management of the activity. Teg agreed, stating that as a coauthor of the thread, he knew that the storyline would be very detailed. Teg also indicated that people outside Second Fleet had been invited to participate (e.g., Serenity Station). Garbo complimented the storyline and Chrepht’s efforts, noting the quality he had seen so far. He encouraged others in the fleet to join in. Teg noted that the current battle in the role playing thread is about to come to an end and new people might want to wait a bit for an opening to join in.
Posting of agendas, minutes, and news
Garbo noted that there had been several discussions about the difficulty in locating news, minutes, and other information on the threads and that some officers had asked if a way to simplify that process could be developed. Garbo reiterated that Second Fleet wished to keep some material, like meeting minutes, in the public domain because some potential recruits have viewed the minutes and taken it as a sign of our organization, thus it has value as a recruiting tool and a means of displaying the range of activities we are involved in. Stark asked if Garbo had reviewed his proposal for a Blogspot site to provide this information clearinghouse but Garbo responded that he had not thoroughly reviewed that proposal but thought in principle it sounded good. Teg reminded the group that Kovaghn had also proposed a clearinghouse of sorts and had put some effort into developing it. Garbo also pointed out that FADM De Vito, as a highly proficient computer programmer, has always planned an extremely detailed, functional website to provide all of these resources and much, much more. However, personal commitments have slowed his efforts to complete the site. But since he had already put considerable effort into the site already, it would be unfair and a waste of De Vito’s effort to abandon that idea for another mechanism. Capt. Arachnidus suggested that a MySpace site might be a possibility, which Garbo thought would also be a good way of promoting our efforts. Prompted by Teg’s suggestion that an interim mechanism was still needed until De Vito’s site was fully functional, a committee was formed to discuss various options and present them to the fleet. The committee included VADM Jackson (committee chair), Capt. Stark, Captain Arachnidus, and Lt. Cmdr. Kovaghn. This committee was asked to submit an update on their efforts at the meeting in two weeks.
Open forum:
Teg mentioned that his character’s page on the STO wiki site had been selected as a featured article, provided excellent exposure for Second Fleet. Teg also indicated that this honor would not have been possible without VADM Jackson’s contributions, so he saw this as a honor shared by both officers. Garbo asked Teg to post a link in the threads when the featured article was posted.
Meeting adjourned at 9:24 PM MDT.
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