Bravo Fleet
Bravo Fleet’s new model brings changes to key aspects of our community. We have a new way of organizing activities, and thus we require a new set of rules and priorities. Earlier tonight the Bravo Fleet Admiralty unanimously confirmed several changes to the Fleet’s Charter and Magistrate Code:
The first change comes to Article I, Section 3 of the Charter. When the Admiralty looked at this section, several factors influenced our decision to update CO Voting. First and foremost, we debated whether Commanding Officer/Game Managers were more important than regular members in our new model. We agreed that our members are the fabric of our community, and Game Managers are not more important now that we’ve expanded our activities into competitions, events, and gaming. The second factor was the participation we’ve had from CO voting. In response to the 26 Commanding Officer votes over the past year, we have an average response rate of 43.79%. If you remove the individual Task Force votes, that participation rate drops down to 36.62%. If we counted our votes by the total number of eligible voters, none of our votes would pass and the Fleet would have stalled months ago. All of the statistics are available in the Fleet’s Official Record.
As such, the Admiralty has decided to eliminate the following from Article I, Section 3 of the Charter:
- All affirmative votes by the Bravo Fleet Admiralty must be confirmed by a simple majority of respondent, sitting sim Game Managers before being enacted.
- Game Managers are free to abstain from voting. Should a member abstain from voting, the required number of votes to pass the measure is reduced by one.
- For the purposes of these votes, members with more than one sim will still only count as one vote.
- Voting periods for COs is 48 hours.
Bravo Fleet puts the rights of our members above all else. The original writing in Article II, Section 1 of the Charter that defined Member Rights was fairly verbose and convoluted. We have updated that section so it’s easier to understand, without changing any of the core rights previously defined:
- The first duty of the fleet’s leadership should always be to serve the organization and its members, recognizing that the members and our shared community here are the reason why the fleet exists in the first place.
- Every member has a right to be treated with respect and without bias or disregard, irrespective of their tenure or position in the fleet, as all members are valuable and deserve to be here, as long as they participate in discussions and other fleet activities in good faith.
- All members regardless of their position shall be held accountable under the same standards of conduct.
- Every member has the right to a fair and impartial system of justice. All indictments, trials, and subsequent punishments will make no distinction between members based on tenure or position within Bravo Fleet.
- Every member has the right to bring their concerns or complaints to the fleet’s leadership through their task force staff or through the Bravo Fleet Magistrate, without fear of reprisal or negative consequences for their standing within the fleet.
- Every member has the right to be adequately acknowledged and rewarded for time, activity and efforts, and shall not be denied adequate and timely recognition based on personal bias and prejudice of their superiors. All rewards, promotions, and recognitions are given according to merit.
- All Bravo Fleet members are entitled to a harassment-free environment. Any act of harassment and/or discrimination based on race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation, an order of protection, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, disability, genetic information, unfavorable military discharge, status as a veteran, or sex is a violation of this policy and will not be tolerated.
- All members of Bravo Fleet have the right to bring forth a proposal to the Bravo Fleet Admiralty, through their task force staff or through public commenting options located within the fleet’s communication platforms.
The next change comes to Article III, Section 2 of the Charter, adding in a clause defining the section as “In order of succession” (to the Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer) and removing the Academy Commandant position from the Admiralty. It was important to clarify the language of this section to match Article IV, Section 2. We also decided to remove the Academy Commandant as a member of the Admiralty because the position doesn’t impact the entire fleet. Before the updates to BFMS, we lacked the infrastructure to sustain a full Academy, which meant the Commandant needed to be involved in Admiralty discussions. With the removal of the BFA-level position, we decided to integrate the Academy with the Communications Office with the Commandant serving as a Command Adjutant. The Commandant will still operate the day-to-day operations of the Academy, but now they will report to the Communications Officer.
The Admiralty has confirmed the following updates to Article III, Section 2 of the Charter:
…
- The Bravo Fleet Academy Commandant is charged with the administration and oversight of the Bravo Fleet Academy.
As you all know from our previous announcements, we’ve changed the structure of our Task Forces. Every member now belongs to a Task Force, and the Admiralty has decided to update Article III, Section 4 to reflect those changes. We have also created an additional Task Force Senior Staff position, the Task Force Chief of Staff, who will help TFCOs coordinate new members and maintain the Task Force roster.
The Admiralty has confirmed the following updates to Article III, Section 4 of the Charter:
- Members of Bravo Fleet are either members of the Reserves or members of a Task Force.
- Task Forces are the primary units of Bravo Fleet. Each Task Force has a Senior Staff, composed of a Commanding Officer, Executive Officer, and Chief of Staff.
- Task Force Commanding Officers are in charge of the oversight of each Task Force.
- Task Force Executive Officers are charged with assisting Task Force Commanding Officers with the day to day operations of their Task Force.
- Task Force Chiefs of Staff are charged with maintaining a Task Force roster, tracking activity and coordinating new members.
- Task Groups are the basic organizational division of Bravo Fleet. Each Task Group has a Task Group Commanding Officer. Each Task Group will be assigned to one of Bravo Fleet’s Task Forces.
- Task Group Commanding Officers are appointed by Task Force Commanding Officers.
The last change to the Charter relates to the terms of a Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer. Previously, the Charter mandated a 3-year term with no options for serving consecutive terms. The Admiralty decided to remove the term limit because it could force the ascension of people who may not be ready for the position. The Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer will now serve 1-year terms, and the Admiralty will reserve the right to reconfirm the incumbent after each term. The rules for BFCO confirmation still apply: a unanimous vote from the Conservatorship can veto a nomination, and another unanimous vote by the Admiralty can overturn a Conservatorship veto. We feel that 1-year terms, with the option to reconfirm, is the perfect fit for the fleet because it allows the Admiralty to reassess a BFCO’s performance every year.
The Admiralty has confirmed the following updates to Article IV, Section 4 of the Charter:
- The Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer is limited to terms.
- Each term is a period of 12 months from the day of the appointment.
- A Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer may serve more than one term, and given the specific nature of the Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer, may serve unlimited consecutive terms following the guidelines in Article IV, Section 2 at the end of each 12-month term.
- A Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer who has not had their term renewed shall not have the ability to nominate a successor for ratification or vote in any further elections.
- The procedure for appointing an interim acting Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer in the event of the Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer not having their term renewed shall use the chain of succession based on position of order in Article III, Section 2, then time served, without requiring a vote. This acting Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer shall not have the power to amend the Charter and is required to stand for a vote of appointment within two weeks of assuming the position as outlined above.
- If the interim Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer is not confirmed within the two weeks, the chain of succession based on position of order in Article III, Section 2 begins until a nominee is confirmed as the new Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer.
- The Bravo Fleet Commanding Officer may resign at any time during their term.
The only change to our Magistrate Code is in relation to a member having multiple accounts on the Bravo Fleet Management System. In this new model, each member has an individual dossier with awards and achievements. Cloning, or creating multiple accounts, can give a member an unfair advantage with competitions and it allows them to manipulate the Fleet’s system without the leadership’s knowledge. As such, the intentional creation of multiple accounts is now a punishable offense by the Magistrate. We’ve already seen users creating multiple accounts in the past, either because they forgot their password or for other reasons. If you’re locked out of your account, please contact the BFMS admins by emailing bfms@bravofleet.com or using the @BFMS Admins tag on Discord.
The Admiralty has confirmed the following updates to Section 4 of the Magistrate Code:
- Cloning – Members must not, without prior approval of the Magistrate, have more than one Bravo Fleet account within a single household or on a single connection. Any offense committed by such an unauthorized clone will be attributed to the original member. Matching IP addresses create a presumption of cloning that can only be rebutted by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that two people exist.
- Cloning is the intentional creation of multiple accounts to manipulate contests or other fleet systems to a member’s benefit, and, as such, situations in which two or more members share an IP address (including but not limited to residing in the same household) must be cleared through the Magistrate, as shared IPs are prima facie evidence of cloning. Any offenses committed by suspected clones or duplicate accounts will be attributed to the original account.
