Bravo Fleet
Now that we’re in the new year, Bravo Fleet, its time to start off with a fleet report! This one will be focused on a singular topic, but a very important one: the Bravo Fleet Charter.
A few months ago I released a report where I talked about “Bravo Fleet Command”. As a refresher and if you don’t know, Bravo Fleet Command is:
In addition to these staff changes, a bit of an update about something that Emily and I have been talking about doing for a long time. As it is, a lot of decisions are made within the Bravo Fleet Admiralty. This works out really well and has been historically significant for Bravo Fleet; however, it can at times be an echo chamber. With that in mind, we’re finally enacting a new program of sorts where all policy discussions and proposals now go through the fleet staff level, now known as Bravo Fleet Command. Bravo Fleet Command is composed of the BFA, all TFXOs, and all department deputies, with a few other vital roles included. Our hope is that with an increasing number of voices we’re widening the berth of the fleet’s leadership body, and hopefully bringing new and more unique voices to the table. The BFA will remain, but will largely just be an administrative voting body for when votes are needed, and otherwise very quiet.
Suffice it to say, this has been a huge success. After the BFA returned to the new year, after some private discussions, I proposed the idea of dissolving the BFA to all of Bravo Fleet Command.
Cue the shock and awe.
At one point, this was a crazy idea that was sheer lunacy, but the reality is that the “Bravo Fleet Admiralty” is a bit of a relic of the past. It at one point was at best a good ole’ boys club and at worst one of the most toxic features of Bravo Fleet. I’m well on the record saying this, but I’ll reiterate it. When I left in the early 2010s, I had plenty of time away to reflect on Bravo Fleet and did so more than once. In that reflection, I quickly came to the conclusion that “the BFA” was a major source of problems with Bravo Fleet. It was everything bad about a parliament, concerned with strict adherence to the rules, people who were friends would turn on each other to get things past a BFA vote. It was the worst part of Bravo Fleet, hands down.
Since I took over as BFCO this past time, the BFA has not been any of that. However, it’s also been not as actively concerned with trivial things, either. Department Heads and TFCOs alike are always working hard at improving their portion of Bravo Fleet. Things are shifting in a new direction overall, and I wanted to make the “switch” to Bravo Fleet Command more official.
After much back and forth within Command, the BFA got together and drafted a revised Charter to reflect these changes. The general idea and/or Cliff Notes behind the changes were to address the dissolution of the BFA, shift the BFAs executive authority to all of Command, better define some parts of the Charter that may not have been as clear, and even fixed a few speeling and grammer errors, too! It was decided that while the BFA of the past has led to many toxic problems due to its voting mechanism since the Charter and Magistrate Code are our most important documents to our member’s rights, that going forward they will still be voted on by “eligible voters”, which are simply certain positions in Command that are tasked with actually voting once a discussion is done. However, given how little we actually change either of these things, for the most part, this will be a very as-needed basis. On top of those changes, we also addressed what I felt was a huge omission from the BFCO removal process which was to allow a second method that wasn’t reliant on the Magistrate.
I won’t go into the minutiae of each change because this announcement would be 100 pages long and no one would want to read the wall-o-text. However, you can view the new Charter here, with the changes here. Similarly, the Magistrate Code was updated for language only (BFA to BFC) and can be found here with the changes here. If you have any questions or concerns with any of the aforementioned minutiae, don’t hesitate to reach out to any member of Bravo Fleet Command and ask. If you’re interested in a Bravo Fleet Command position, you can find the available positions from our new and improved staff page here. Again, reach out to any member of Bravo Fleet Command to find out how you can apply!
