Bravo Fleet
Now that we’re in the Endgame post-Fleet Action times, I’m happy to announce that we have three major staffing changes that are effective immediately.
But first, because I know everyone is going to be asking: expect the full Fleet Action results sometime this week or next weekend. Much of The Lost Fleet is already graded as the BFSS has been diligently grading each phase as we step into the next. The final phase, the FA-wide competitions, and a little QA/QC will take us some time, however. Stay tuned for that. Also, if you haven’t seen the event notification yet, Frontier Day is coming up! Surely it will go off without any problems. Expect some upcoming guidance from the Intel Office on what we’re planning for that, but I will say that it will be very laid back and more free roam for everyone to do what they want! Now, onto staffing…
About a month before the Fleet Action, RAdm T’Vrell (Tia) informed me of her intention to step back as Judge Advocate General of Bravo Fleet. This is a position that Tia has held for almost two years which is a long time for someone to be in any position in our hobby. Tia’s tenure has been a relatively quiet one, and I think she would be the first to tell anyone that means it was a successful one. The primary job of the JAG office is to mediate disputes and redirect concerns back to the chain of command to be handled. I can attest from behind the scenes that Tia has been able to successfully do that throughout her entire tenure as JAG. Luckily, Tia agreed to hang on as JAG until the end of The Lost Fleet so that there was continuity throughout the Fleet Action and would give us time to find a replacement. Tia will still be around, so be sure to thank her for her time as JAG!
Finding a replacement for JAG isn’t an easy one. To paraphrase my comments when I finally nominated someone: the JAG should be someone who knows the inside and out of Bravo Fleet, someone who is well respected within our club, and someone who understands that JAG doesn’t primarily serve as a mechanism for punishment but rather rehabilitation when at all possible. The JAG position is all but tailored to being someone who is a former BFCO. Retired BFCOs are people who would have all the working knowledge needed and the respect to be listened to. However, they (you know who you are) won’t let me resign. So, since we don’t have any of those in the current era, we have the next best thing. Back in May, I nominated FAdm Ezel Virem (Emily), our current Bravo Fleet Engineering Officer, to serve as the next Judge Advocate General of Bravo Fleet. Emily served as Bravo Fleet Executive Officer for almost three years and was heavily involved in crafting many of the rules and policies that govern the fleet. Emily’s nomination passed unanimously, and now that the server time has rolled over into the 18th of June, it takes effect immediately.
Emily’s transition to JAG has left a glaring hole in one of our most important positions in the fleet: Engineering Officer. This position is the person who controls our lifeblood through our online assets, specifically the Bravo Fleet website: BFMS. Emily has been the creator, developer, and steward of everything you see on our site today. You can’t just pluck someone off the street to replace that level of talent and dedication. Emily has spent, quite literally, years working on a system that was never meant to do what it currently does and she beat it into submission to do exactly that. After a lengthy conversation with the rest of the BFSS and then BFC, I’ve decided to appoint the current Deputy Engineering Officer, Captain Deckard Wright (Liam), to the position of Engineering Officer. The Engineering Officer is perhaps the only position we have in the entire fleet that takes a specific set of real world technical skills and knowledge to be able to be successful. Liam has that from his professional career. It also helps that he actually served as the very first Bravo Fleet Internet Officer all the way back in 2012, the precursor to the current Engineering Officer position. This transition makes sense for a lot of other reasons, but the main reason is that the next version of our website, BFMS, is already in development. I have spoken about this before very lightly because I want to manage expectations, but Liam has been spearheading that project as both the manager and a coder. There was a point where Emily was discussing new features for the current WP version of BFMS (BFMS2). The reason those features haven’t materialized is that the next version of BFMS (BFMS3) kicked off, essentially placing BFMS2 into maintenance mode. Critical bugs or broken features already in the system will be fixed, but no new features will happen. The time that would’ve gone into the BFMS2 features has been better spent working on BFMS3. I won’t get too much more into the weeds on what the Engineering Office is cooking up because I’ll let Liam do that in an announcement once he’s ready!
And finally, one more staff change. Over the past two years our BFXO, Admiral Liam Dahlgren (David), has been chipping away at making a sustainable, long-term Bravo Fleet Academy which can serve as both an activity for people to participate in and a place to develop skills that will help someone succeed not only in Bravo Fleet but elsewhere. David and I recently discussed how we felt about the Academy, and that it was in a really good place for someone new to finally step into the Academy Commandant role to pick up where David has left off after creating five extremely robust Academy programs. Not only will this free David up to focus more on other initiatives, but it really speaks volumes to how far the Academy has come under his leadership from something that didn’t exist at all just two years ago, to a small project he was managing, to now being something that people really enjoy participating in and getting the feedback that the Academy provides. Several months ago David brought on Captain Andreus Kohl (Brendan), current Task Force 17 Commanding Officer, to be Deputy Academy Commandant in order to help smooth out the courses in the Academy as well as help with grading as the Academy has been quickly growing and growing with participation. Brendan has been a star as Deputy Commandant (and TF17CO!), and with the Academy being in the state it is in currently, we see no reason why Brendan can’t take over as Academy Commandant right away. The Academy Commandant is a Charter’d position and serves on the Bravo Fleet Senior Staff, so congratulations to Brendan, and welcome to the Senior Staff!