Posted by Vice Admiral Sarah Hemenway (President) in Discussion: Academy Course graduates

Posted by Nathan Miller in Discussion: Academy Course graduates

Posted by Rear Admiral Calé Reilly (STF Surgeon General / Academy Commandant / AFComm, Pioneer Fleet / EGO) in Discussion: Academy Course graduates
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

So, I’m going to go off on a wild hair here and suggest the following:

1) We add a New Member Course that grants a promotion to Lieutenant Junior Grade (I can’t stop abbreviating this Lieut (j.g.) like effWeBB, even though that’s the totally wrong abbreviation).

This would match up with allowing the Lieutenant Junior Grade “promotion” for graduated cadet DHs to affect member rank and the standards should align there based on the Academy syllabus for what people will know about the club.

The information for the course should be included in the welcome email new members receive, whether they are placed on an Academy ship or not (with the caveat that the promotion is for after they graduate like was mentioned above).

2) We find a different way to incentivize gaining department-specific knowledge or it’s a further promotion to Lieutenant, which is the rank most DHs hold around the mainstream ships. To me, that’s a good point where having some kind of ability to RP field-specific knowledge really does make a difference.

Sarah
President

So the question becomes then, how do we wrap the DH course into this then as well?

Maybe an STF 101 type course to get Lieutenant JG, and then the area specific course and the DH course to get Lieutenant?

Steve

I like the idea of the DH course continuing to be something that should just get you priority for a DH position. The three command courses were written while I was President (yes, they’re that old) and the intent was always to maintain a list of recent graduates and to try to work with the Personnel Department to make sure those people got a good shot at a DH, XO, or CO position.

Random thought – the training that we do for graduated cadet DHs on the Challenger should probably match up with the DH course and count as “passing” it…

Ok so say we happen to have a draft cadet course done already. Would this be you can sit this while a cadet or a new member as an ensign and if you pass it you get promotion to Lieutenant jg club rank, when you graduate or in general if you are in main fleet.

The DH courses you get full Lieutenant.

But what if you aren’t an academy graduate who was a DH or haven’t sat the cadet course. Do you need to to do the department ones because we currently haven’t got that.

Calé

I’ve been following the discussion and for what it’s worth I think this is a great incentive for people to conduct the course beyond that they now have the corresponding qualification, It also gives new members to the club a reason to start out in the academy path beyond the scope of learning, giving them a clear goal and a better sense of achievement!

Jake

Apologies for the double tap here, I have just been reading the COs Course Information and this is under the **In Character (IC) Powers. heading.

• ‘When someone is an Ensign in a particular field and passes an academy course for that discipline, they are entitled to ask for a promotion for their character to Lieutenant Junior Grade.’

Would this indirectly imply that their OOC rank is also met and raised to LT JG meaning this motion is already unofficially in force?

Jake

That would indirectly imply that the CO course hasn’t been updated since this was a thing. :)

As far s I can tell it was something we used to do and somehow we sort of stopped it. So hopefully we can come to a consensus on what that will look like and have it in the actual bylaw.

Well spotted, I had totally missed that in the CO course.

I’d like to suggest the following changes to CADET but obviously am not set in the wording as others may have a better idea.

ESTABLISHMENT OF ACADEMY COURSES

The Academy shall maintain a set of courses, which must at least include a course for Engineering, Gamemaster (in coordination with the Gamemaster Department), Medical, Science, and Security. Additional courses are at the discretion of the Academy Commandant. These courses are taken on a voluntary basis. Should a member pass one of the courses, greater consideration for a Department Head position should be granted. Passing one of the courses does not guarantee a promotion.

To

ESTABLISHMENT OF ACADEMY COURSES

The Academy shall maintain a set of courses, which must at least include a basic Cadet course alongside department speak is courses in Engineering, Medical, Science, and Security. And a Gamemaster course in coordination with the Gamemaster Department. Additional courses are at the discretion of the Academy Commandant. These courses are taken on a voluntary basis.

Should a member pass the cadet course they will be granted a promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.
Should a member pass one of the departmental courses they will be granted a promotion to full Lieutenant and greater consideration for a Department Head position should be granted. This promotion will only be applied once for each respective level even if the member passes all of the department courses. If the member is in the cadet at the time of passing the exam with the rank of cadet the club rank promotion will only come into effect once that member has graduated from the academy.

I would also like to suggest that the last part of section five be altered as well.

ACADEMY FLEET COMMAND STRUCTURE

• With the exception of Cadet, all Academy ranks do not affect the player’s member rank.*

To

ACADEMY FLEET COMMAND STRUCTURE

Recently graduated cadets who are retained as DHs at Lieutenant Junior Grade (Lt (j.g.)) will receive the club rank promotion to this.

Or something similar?

Calé

I think the course details are meant to be established in a department mandate. Have we taken a look at the one dealing with courses to see what that covers?

I personally prefer to keep the bylaws as vague as possible to make sure that we aren’t having to update them a lot. I’d rather see that bit written like this:

The Academy shall maintain a set of courses, which must at least include a course for Gamemaster, in coordination with the Gamemaster Department. Additional courses are at the discretion of the Academy Commandant. These courses are taken on a voluntary basis. The current set of courses, along with established criteria to pass the course and to receive any promotion to member rank, must be established in an Academy Mandate.

Sarah
President

To clarify, CADET currently requires that the Academy maintain courses for the basic departments and a GM course, with other courses available at ACmdt discretion. Your wording here would change that to only requiring that they maintain a GM course, with others at the ACmdt discretion. This implies that in the future an ACmdt can choose to only serve the GM course. Am I understanding this correctly?

Correct. I think the ACmdt should have the ability to pull the courses down if they are out of date or not felt to be relevant anymore or completely redesigned if there is a better way for them to serve the club (maybe the DH course should touch on each area instead or something like that).

If Sarah’s suggestion ends up being the way this goes it probably would be good to put some kind of limit on how high the Academy can promote a member.

Adam W.

I like the flexibility that gives actually.

The current mandate states:

Mandate 3: Academy Courses
1. ESTABLISHMENT OF INDIVIDUAL ACADEMY COURSES

There are six examinable courses provided by the Academy: Counseling, Engineering, Gamemaster, Medical, Science and Security. The role of these courses is to improve the knowledge of role players in STF, and to qualify them for more specialised positions. There are also available, three leadership courses: the DH Command Course, the XO Command Course and the CO Command Course. For the purpose of classification, the ‘Administration Menu Course’ is now classed as an article.

1. ACADEMY COURSE TUTORS

Each course will be tutored by one individual who will be referred to as the Course Tutor. Any exam submissions, or questions about the course, should be sent to them. The Course Tutors are required to reply to any questions and mark any submissions within two weeks, unless on a declared Leave Of Absence. Course Tutors are also required to update the graduates list for their course, and to read the STF Question and Answer ship.

1. COURSE CONTENT AND EXAMINATIONS

All active members may take any examination. Members who pass a course will be put on the graduation lists. Members who do not pass may retry the examination at any time in the future, except in special circumstances including, but not limited to, plagiarism. These circumstances must be approved by the Academy Commandant.

Course Tutors may change the content of the course, including the examination and its pass mark, with the consent of the Academy Commandant, and in the case of the Gamemaster course, with the consent of the Gamemaster Director as well. Due notice to the general public must be given.

When a course is changed, the previous graduates of the course remain graduated, and therefore will remain on the graduates list for the course.

1. LOCATION OF THE COURSES AND EXAMINATIONS

The Academy Courses shall be kept in the STF Library. The Academy Commandant is required to ensure that the courses, and the contact details of the tutors, are kept up to date.

So we can certainly do it that way and tidy up the current mandates in general if that’s ok with everyone.

Calé

Nathan

Sarah
President