Academy Report - March 2021

Academy Ship Report
USS Challenger

Commanding Officer: No report submitted - Excused- LOA

Executive Officer: Daniel Lerner

Crew Posting Level: 7
Senior Staff Posting Level: 7
Overall Ship Health: 7

Ship Status: I asked Cale to excuse me from submitting a report for March. She refused. Therefore, I am submitting this report. :P

(Side point from the Commandant: I did indeed forcibly extract this report from the poor ships XO. This report was written under duress and is therefore stricken from the official report....even though I have left it here for posterity)

Spotlight:

Vacancies:

Gamemaster: Geoff Joosten

Crew Posting Level: 8
Senior Staff Posting Level: 8
Overall Ship Health: 8

Sim Overview: The sim is just about to wrap up. Our brave cadets have found the landing site of an ancient civilization and discovered that it isn’t what it should be. The next sim, if I am re-appointed, will focus on what happened at that site and what to do next.

Spotlight:

Acmdt Comments: The challenger has seen some excellent action over the last month with the main sim just ending and cadets ready to move onto new challengers or in some cases new positions. Well done to everyone involved.

Mentors Co-Ordinator Report
Submitted by Sharon Miller:

As planned for this month, I reached out to the current active mentor and mentee pairs to asses whether the mentorships were still ongoing and also gather any feedback on the experience. Replies was received from both mentors and one mentee, with one mentorship now completed and the other still ongoing.
Additionally, we had a new request for a main fleet mentor this month and are just waiting to hear back from the mentor themselves.
This brings our current counts to the following:

Active main fleet mentorships = 1
Pending main fleet mentorships = 1
Active command (CO/XO/DH) mentorships = 0
Pending command mentorships = 0

The figures above do seem to suggest a degree of under-utilisation of the mentorship program. Is that a problem? Possibly not and in fact, a lack of demand for mentors could potentially point to success in other areas of the club, such as the Academy ship and courses. Which would be fantastic.

However, as Mentors Co-ordinator, it is my responsibility to ensure, where possible, that there are no gaps between what the mentors program is providing and what the club actually needs from the program itself. To that end, I did begin a discussion in command this month on potentially moving away from ship-based mentoring and towards subject-based mentoring instead. The discussion is still ongoing and can be found here if anyone would like to participate: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/command/command/posts/124812/

For the coming month, my plan is to hopefully conclude the command discussion and, depending on the outcome, either begin the work of implementing a subject-based mentoring program, or burying it in a very deep hole so that it will never be mentioned again!
Other than that, if anyone has any ideas at all for things they would like to see provided by the mentorship program at STF then please just let me know, as I am always open for suggestions or requests.

• Sharon Miller (Mentors Co-Ordinator)

Update from the Academy Fleet Liaison Officer:
Owen has now completed the check of the pages and we now have a firmer grasp of what to start with for updates.

Academy Courses

The revamp of the courses continues with current course tutors working on the drafts. So far now the Counselling and security course is completed with the Engineering course close to being completed. We also have a new Marine course ready for vetting. Huge thank you to James and Tyra for their help with this.

The discussion on the rewards of sitting and passing the courses is still ongoing with some issues being found in the wording of MOO and CADET which are up for discussion closing soon.

Moving forward the plan over the next term is to look at completing the other courses and switch old for new on the academy pages.

Graduates update

Ship Graduates:
Gavin Burkhardt - USS Challenger, promoted to COS
Callie L - USS Challenger, promoted to CMO

Course Graduates:
Nicole C - CNS Course
Matt Bongiorno - Science Course
Kirt Gartner - Gamesmaster Course
J Ridgley - Gamesmaster Course
Matt Bongiorno - Department Head Course

Huge congratulations to everyone!

Overall comments: There isn’t much to say over the last reports discussion. Our ship continues to do well with its excellent command crew with some amazing players graduating into the main fleet and as cadet mentors. As we continue to turn our attention to the other aspects of what we have to offer we have lost some momentum with the end of one term and the beginning of another. This should settle as the new term begins and we can get stuck in.

The mentors programme is still in discussion and Sharon and I will be updating everyone soon on this and any changes we are proposing. Please if you want to be a mentor get in touch with myself or Sharon.

It’s a busy time in the academy, and we want you to be involved. Please get in touch if you’d like to help, be involved, suggest some things or weigh in in our current discussion in command.

The campus board is open and willing to entertain suggestions, discussion or, why not grab a friend and take a side sim break over there with some old academy characters and have a little reunion thread? You never know what inspiration may strike. Just make sure you label the posts as IC otherwise who knows what we may think you’re suggesting! Dear me! The point is get involved.

The Academy Adventures of the Mysterious Aquatic D

We join our hero, the mysterious Aquatic D as a young cadet attempting to save the famous marine biologist Edward Squid and his assistant Patrick from a fellow cadet who has defected to the side of a new marine terrorist cell who call themselves PlAnkt’n.

As he reaches the rendezvous point later than planned due to a freak ion storm, our hero he finds himself on an M class planet where his quarts trail leads. His shuttle managing to detect life signs in the planets core he does the unthinkable and beams himself down into the unknown. Once the sparkles fade the Courageous Cadet is relieved to find himself not melting in hot magma but rather inside a massive subsurface dome. Unfortunately in the midst of some sort of ceremony. Before him, a glowing orb affixed to an eerie alter and the missing professor and his assistant Patrick…

“Welcome!” The professor laughs. “Your just in time…for the end of this world!”

What does this mean? Will it interfere with our hero’s plans for dinner with his sweetheart? How did the the dome get there? Stay tuned for next months instalment of the The Academy Adventures of the Mysterious Aquatic D!

The Academy March report. Brought to you by the number 8, and the colour orange.

No geothermal engineers were harmed in the creation of this report.

Calé