RT0610- aCINCSF/CSFO Report

Assembled Delegates,

Please bear with me as I try to summarize the activities over the past six
months; much of this was not my purview until very recently. :) I will also
merge the CINCSF and CSFO report into one for obvious reasons.

The first few months after the last RT were fairly routine, with the major
focus of things being BUPERS, specifically focusing on retaining more
players during the application process. This has not rendered any improved
results in terms of player retention as of yet: we assigned 17 players into
the game since May, which represents somewhere between 30 and 40% retention
rate (I don't have firm numbers on that at this time, but I can crunch them
if anyone would like them- send me a private note about it). This, as I
said, is consistent with what has been the case over the past couple of
years.

However, though results may not show statistically at this time, Jamal Green
and his staff at ALB (JP Balzen, Sean Murphy, Eric Boyum, Austin Forsyth, et
al) have started to hit their stride in terms of player response and
follow-up, and are now locked into a firm 48-hour response cycle and weekly
follow-ups to applicants who don't resubmit, as well as additional support
to those in need of bio editing help. On the whole, this has resulted in an
improved professional and courteous atmosphere, one players want to return
to. So...the changes in ALB may not always be visible from the outside, but
they are present, and now firmly entrenched in its modus operandi. Jamal
Green most of all deserves our recognition here for a job VERY well done.

Obviously, the departure of our former CINCSF Mike Tripp, along with Kevin
Richter and their respective units, has forced us to once again restructure
and adapt to unexpected change. Though we will miss Mike's and Kevin's
presence in ASR's administrative leadership as well as their creativity and
writing, we have indeed adapted...and are arguably stronger for it.

Before summarizing these changes for you, I would like to note the help of
the Flag Council in this, most notably Paul Gilbertson, who despite being
handed a fleet command he neither wanted nor expected, handled the situation
with professionalism and forthrightness. As mentioned, however, the FC as a
whole deserves recognition for making the changes smoothly.

Once Mike and Kevin took their units from SAPPHIRE and re-formed Star Trek:
Frontiers, it became pretty clear that SAPPHIRE could not survive as a
separate entity: she had three units left (AKAGI, AMBERJACK and REPULSE)-
one of which underwent a third command change within a few months as a
result of the departure- and an understaffed MARRAKESH unit on hiatus. So,
after much talking with the various fleet commanders and the unit commanders
in question, the remaining units were dispersed as such:

- MARRAKESH was closed and its players dispersed back into BUPERS for
reassignment;
- AMBERJACK and AKAGI have moved to GREEN Fleet;
- REPULSE has moved to SILVER Fleet.


This makes the current fleet breakdown like so:

GOLD (no change) GREEN (+2)    SILVER (+1)
---------------- ------------- -------------
CIRCE            AKAGI         ANDROMEDA
DS13             AMBERJACK     EXCALIBUR
FEARLESS         COVENTRY      KIROV
KUSANAGI         DAEDALUS      NEBULA
NOVA             KRONSHTADT    REPULSE
TF SIERRA        MACRONIN      YAMATO
YORKTOWN


That leaves ASR with 19 units total. Most of these units are viable, though
a few have some personnel issues that need addressing, but this is nothing
beyond what is normal for BUPERS. We are no worse off than we were before
the departures in terms of player numbers...in fact, we may be very slightly
better.

The departure of Mike and Kevin has necessitated a move of the club's Bureau
of Information wiki, as it was housed on a server operated and paid for by
Mike and Kevin. Temporarily, information can still be retrieved from the
old BoI site, but no information can be updated or changed. This was done
to insure that a stable database dump could be completed. I can report that
we have a stable test database operating on the ASR.org server, and a new,
permanent home will be found within the next couple of weeks. Once that
happens, the database will be open for editing again, even expanded to
include unit sites.

As a side note, Mike has turned ownership of the ASR.com domain to us. We
have not decided what we will do yet with this domain; likely, we will end
up pointing this domain at the current web site, so that typing in both
alt-starfleet-rpg.org and alt-starfleet-rpg.com will send you to the same
place- this will be a boost for our advertising potential. We have also had
some serious discussions about purchasing ASR.net and pointing that to
ASR.org as well to further enhance our web presence.

That takes us to where we are at this moment. Now...to where our game is
headed...

One of the issues Mike cited as leading to his decision to leave was a 'lack
of communication' amongst ASR's administrators. Whether I agree with him or
not on this issue is not important; what IS important is that, for a long
time, there has indeed been a decline in communication on the unit levels in
this club. Unit commanders don't talk to each other any more; players don't
trade ideas with their shipmates and their respective command staffs with
nearly the same level of activity that used to be commonplace in this club.
As such, we have lost touch with one another: we have lost touch with our
fellow players within the unit structure, and we have lost touch with the
other players writing in the same fleet playgrounds as us. This has lead to
an atmosphere that we are more a collection of 19 individually fragmented
units and less a single, unified fleet...and this has been to our detriment.

Folks, we are ONE FLEET. We are an extended family of 120+ players
committed to playing in a common Trek-based universe. And while we enjoy
certain individual freedoms as unit commanders with regards to the stories
we create, this freedom is not total. We sacrifice some of this freedom in
order to play with each other. This game is an INCLUSIVE club, not an
exclusive one- we bring others in, we don't turn away. In order for this
kind of environment to work, we need to re-create that atmosphere of
togetherness and cooperation we once had not so long ago, not the one of
isolationism and separation that we seem to be moving towards instead.

How do we do this? By communicating. Dropping a line to your fellow
players. Pull a couple of people aside and ask them if they want to work on
a common sub-thread within your unit's stories...or tackle a major problem
within the story together. Send them notes outside of the game, in NRPG-
don't just 'tag' someone in a post; though this is good, it does nothing to
communicate creative direction and thought. Talking to each other will
allow us to develop more informal, familial relationships.

Unit commanders: you are the ones that will need to sell this- players take
their cues from you first and foremost. If you want an active unit, then
you're going to have to be active yourself...not necessarily in RP (though
that goes without saying), but at least in directing and administrating the
unit. Encourage participation and discussion behind-the-scenes to help
foster what the French would call 'fraternite'- brotherhood, or more
commonly, friendship.

I also encourage unit commanders to open up lines of communication between
each other and the other commanders in your task force or fleet. Even if it
is only to trade a few lines about what's going on with each other's unit,
this helps bond the unit CO's together through common interest and
storylines instead of fostering separation.

We're not alone. One of ASR's main selling points is it's common backdrop:
it's intertwined stories forming the mythos of ASR. It's one of the things
units are drawn to when they ask to join, and what really sets us apart from
most sims. Other groups may have more units...but they are mostly solo
units who do not contribute to a larger story beyond what they create. If
we want ASR to remain healthy and strong for years to come, we need to
rekindle this sense of being a part of something greater than ourselves, and
the best way to do this is by expanding the lines of communication between
us all.

That is where I wish to see ASR go- or, more accurately, return to. :)

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to continuing to serve this club
in whatever manner it sees fit.


Most Respectfully,

-- Scott Lusby
=^= ADM Sharas Talnor
Acting CINCSF
Chair, October 2006 RT