Posted by Rear Admiral Krystelle McLean (FComm, Infinite Fleet / CMM) in Discussion on Responsibilities of FComms/AFComms

Posted by Ray Branch in Discussion on Responsibilities of FComms/AFComms

Posted by Commodore Cale Reilly (STF Surgeon General) in Discussion on Responsibilities of FComms/AFComms
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

For point of discussion, how does dropping the requirement for a particular FComm/AFComm to serve in their fleet affect their ability to inspire fleet-wide culture? Theoretically, neither individual could have a character anywhere in the fleet. It’s interesting that that hasn’t been brought up before as a FComm’s job and everyone seems to be in favor of removing the fleet service requirement.

Also, I wanted to mention that the list above was constructed from everything thrown out by everyone, so it’s truly a master list of all of the possible ideas people think FComms should do, not my personal opinion. :)

Sarah

In all honesty you don’t need to be a member of the fleet to work on fleet culture. The original fostering of fleet culture and the requirement we are talking of removing was there to try and ensure that the fleet history etc was maintained however because so many ships have moved and fleets are a missmash it makes no difference.

If we remove the fleet restriction for fcomms and make fostering the culture of their fleet with those in it a focus as it once was it won’t matter if they have a character or not in that fleet. They are supposed to be a facilitator for other people’s characters and fun within their fleet and yeah it’s a volunteer role but it’s a club that’s supposed to be fun but you should be more focused on helping your fleet and those in it develop than your own characters etc in such a role in my opinion.

I think since the fleet structure itself is broken anyway we may as well use this as an opportunity to clarify with a Fcomm should be doing, remove the restriction to allow a greater pool of people to fulfil the roles and give them the chance to reboot one of the biggest elements of our community.

Just my two pence worth

Cale

I think an FComm should fit the needs of a fleet. I was thankful enough to have been an Assistant of Black Fleet for a few terms before actually becoming the fleet’s FComm. While I was an extremely active CO, I tended to work behind the scenes as FComm. I knew that I had extremely experienced COs at the helm so it wasn’t required for me to constantly check up on them. I made sure to send a monthly reminder for reports or reach out when I saw characters or members that were AWOL, I allowed COs to appoint XOs or promote a member to Commander (all they had to do was drop me a line in discord or email). I even played out my position on OED V for a few months. What I found most difficult wasn’t reading each ship, but to conjure fleet culture.

Maybe the responsibility of fleet culture should fall on the GMs since they create the sims?

-Ray

The only caveat I have with making the Fleet Reports automated is that I, as an FComm read everyone of the reports submitted from my Fleet’s Command staff and bearing in mind what was reported, report on my own impressions of the ships.

As to the Fleet Culture idea when it was used more commonly it took a wide variety of people working together on it to make it work. It took the FComm to spearhead and the CO’s and GM’s to assist in providing the staging ground on the ships and type of sims. I have to say of my own impressions since the great decommissioning, in both of the Fleets I have worked in since then, has been a daunting idea because the present fleets have been so mixed up by ships having been moved around.

What I have tried to do in the Infinite Fleet is to encourage the GMs to write sims keeping the present placement of the Fleet on Lind’s new map. We are smack dab between the Klingon and Romulan Empire so I ask that they bear that in mind and use it in their sims and not place their ships way out yonder on the map where they’d have no business being. In that regard we are still very much using our Fleet Identity.

Now as too say a Fleet Wide Sim, they are very difficult and time consuming. They require extreme cooperation between FComm, CO’s/XO’s and GM’s and not very many people seem to have the ability to pull off such a feat anymore. Other then Robert Archer, when he had the time. But Rob is an epic GM:) I have been involved in quite few Fleet wides over the years and they are very hard to coordinate.

Krys

I find Ray’s and Krys’ comments both very interesting because I was a CO when Ray was A/FComm in Black Fleet, and because Rob Archer was my GM when Rob pulled off a very complex multi-ship (but not actually Fleetwide) mission. So, I’ve basically been on the other end of all the things they were talking about when they happened in “recent” years. And I think those events can be contrasted with what Andy was talking about in his really very long post where he talked about his experiences in Meridian Fleet with Sidney and several other people.

Krys is absolutely correct that these sorts of things are hard to pull off and require lots of people involved in them, probably with a core of people who are all on the same page about what the vision is supposed to be. It sounds like Andy had that in Fleet 5 with the people he mentioned. I don’t know how common that actually was elsewhere at the time. Even though Fleet 6 has usually had experienced COs as Ray mentioned (and just to be clear, Ray’s description of himself is spot on; even though he was in the background, we knew he was there and actually doing stuff and actually helping), that sort of conversation never really has been present in Fleet 6 in the time that I’ve been present. It hasn’t been for lack of people trying to do culture.

One problem there is that the people who have been most interested in it have been single individuals who were very invested in a particular vision, but haven’t been able to make that vision clear enough to other people such that they can keep running with it when they’re inevitably not around. I think that’s happened at least twice since I’ve been a CO there, where the big Fleet culture plan was very hyped up very big, where we’re going to have a big fleetwide sim once we get all the people on our cool starbase and they’ll do cool stuff and it’ll be so cool like a party but also a sim and lots of party sims and mingling and a big Fleet maneuver with all the ships at once, and then then the one key person suddenly got busy and everything turns into a giant directionless dud. And having a dud like that builds up resistance to even trying anything like it again, because it takes time and effort away from our ships. Nobody wants to be the one left holding the bag when the bubble bursts.

The other approach that I’ve seen taken in Fleet 6 was to try to start a cultural conversation among senior people in the Fleet, and to sort of build up from that to something. That’s a very hard conversation to start from nothing, and any little problem can ruin that while that conversation is just starting. In a particular case that I remember, one effort got derailed when one of the COs in the Fleet (who has since been banned from the club permanently for totally different reasons) decided to act like a willing participant on the boards where the discussion was happening, but in IRC was basically trash talking every single thing the Fleet Commander was trying to accomplish. Word got back to that FComm and… well… I don’t exactly know what happened but everything kind of fizzled out after that.

So… yeah. I think this Fleet culture stuff requires an atmosphere of trust so that willing collaborators can create a shared vision and evangelize it. I think happens naturally on ships where people are having fun. It definitely does not naturally happen at the Fleet level.

Joe