Posted April 25, 2022, 6:50 p.m. by Vice Admiral Robert Archer (President) (Robert Archer)
Problem: For some time now, James and I have become aware of a troubling trend where members are feeling burned out, overly stressed, or overwhelmed when it comes to adhering to the current posting standards as defined by FCOMM. This has often led to chronic AWOLs, ‘partial’ LOAs, sporadic posting, undeclared absences, and in some cases outright resignation. As James and I have tried to find a path forward on addressing this issue this term; we began to see a potential, albeit somewhat unorthodox, solution with the aid of other members within and outside the current Cabinet.
Solution Reasoning: In order to address this impact on overall club activity and club membership and retention levels we propose the following idea which once formatted properly later in this discussion, would change FCOMM and other associated documents, and the current AWOL limit standards. We feel this change will help alleviate some of the pressure that our members across the club may feel, as well as give ship command teams and players more flexibility to fit their play styles/lives without causing too many variations that could lead to confusion. Our hope, then, is that members who are no longer pressured by the current standards could become more active on ships and more engaged with the club as a whole. In your discussions here, or with members outside of Command, please be civil, constructive, and open minded to the discussion and others opinions. Given the impact such a change would bring to the club we want to hear from as many people as we can, and take their inputs about it and any proposed changes or other ideas to solve this issue above.
This discussion is open to all members within the club, whether you’re a cadet being here only 2 days, to the oldest time member active or in active. It will last from April 25th 2022 until May 9th 2022. At which time James and I, will take the collective feedback, ideas, etc and amend and expand this issue and idea further then have another discussion later to refine it further etc. Any questions, comments or concerns please let me know.
Proposed Solution: A new way of doing and enforcing AWOL limits is being proposed:
Allow COs to maintain a base posting speed as stated by the current FCOMM AWOL standards. However, each player may then request a separate posting speed from the CO of the ship’s chosen rate, up to 50% rounded up from their current positions’ AWOL limit.
As an example, a JO on a medium speed ship (3/5/7) could request for up to 11 days extension between posts to deal with an issue in their lives.
If this idea is passed, a grace period of a month will be put in place to allow players to request (and COs to approve) their AWOL limits.
CO’s and XO’s would need FComm approval for individual speed changes and those should be approved on an as needed basis, and unlike department head and lower roles, also be a non-permanent, basis.
For example: A CO on a fast ship (2/3/5) asks for an increase. That increase could be approved for, say… two weeks. But after that, the speed returns to normal. COs and XOs should be held to a higher standard, and if they can set the posting speed of the ship as a whole then they should be consistently abiding by that with the expectation of the odd exception.
Thank you all for those giving feedback to James and mine original idea on Friday. I was glad to get the feedback we did to refine our idea and mold it into this above, we feel it is a better choice to everyone, but again we are keeping our eyes and ears open to further refine and listen to what you the club members want to play here and participate in club roles.
Robert Archer
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