From the Office of the Chief of Staff — May 2021

May 16, 2021

Hello, Bravo Fleet! It’s time for the regularly irregular Chief of Staff Report. Not much happens in the Office of the Chief of Staff that is worth reporting. A lot of pencil-pushing, button mashing, soul-sucking… that type of stuff. Not to say what we do isn’t important. In fact, the OCS is really the lynchpin of the fleet that keeps a lot of the wheels greased. What we do is just very… daily! But the time has finally come for a report due to a few bigger changes.

The Office of the Chief of Staff is undoubtedly the department I obsess over the most. Where other groups are out there obsessed over replicating their competition, my main goal (and a lot of you have heard this!) is to obsess over our members. What can we do to help reward you for your time here. What can we do to become and remain the most member-oriented Star Trek club on the internet. Nearly everything we do has those things in mind from taking risks, to constantly experimenting, to focusing on growth. The Office of the Chief of Staff is the main driver for how we do a lot of these things.

And with that, I bring you…

New Awards

Minnow and I have been looking at the current merit award structure. Part of our findings was that there may not be enough disparity between the awards in both tier 1 and tier 2. There were two options: increase the requirements between awards, or add new ones. We sort of took a hybrid approach and did both. We started by working the numbers regarding activities we’ve been getting to make the entire system more sensible and providing that information to task force leadership. And then we decided to add two awards:

Sitting directly after the Star Cross, the Legion of Merit is a medal that bridges the gap between the recognition awards and higher-level merit awards. This can also be rewarded for extraordinary amounts of activity in a large-scale competition such as a Fleet Action, where the very best are rewarded for their efforts. However, for those having achieved an outstanding amount of general activity over a longer course of time, this award may also be given to reward such accomplishments. Nominated by a Task Force Commanding Officer or higher.

 

 

 

 

 

Being placed directly after the Jonathan Archer Order of Merit, the Rachel Garrett Order of Heroism is awarded to those who have shown that much can be accomplished when one focuses on a specific task, whether it be leading a task force or working on various projects for Bravo Fleet Command. When such work reaches levels of exceptional value, a token of appreciation is needed to honor such tasks. As such, bearers of this award have shown their dedication and focus on furthering one aspect of Bravo Fleet far beyond what was expected of them. Nominated by a member of the Bravo Fleet Command Senior Staff or above.

 

 

 

 

 

New Staff

I recently put out calls for applications to join the Office of the Chief of Staff. This is largely a huge learning opportunity that could blossom into more down the road. But the primary goal right now is to get more people learning the ropes of the office and being able to relay that information back to their task force leadership as needed. I’m happy to announce that after reviewing applications I’ve decided to bring on two new people: Thrace and Treylana Hess!

Congratulations to both of you! It is also my hope that by bringing in some new blood and old blood, neither of whom have been particularly involved in the OCS administration, we might bring some new perspective to help to continue to mold and shape the Office of the Chief of Staff into what helps Bravo Fleet best!

Wiki

I’m a big fan of using the Bravo Fleet Wiki. Not only is it a great resource for the Loremaster’s corner of Bravo Fleet, but also ours. Aside from the content on BFMS, I think replicating it on the Wiki is worth the effort for the simple fact that the Wiki has a built-in changelog. Because of that, I’ve slowly been trying to get all OCS Policy-related pages also on the Wiki. It’s a slow process, but we’ll get there. So check back in that space periodically to see what might be new coming to the table.

Other News from Around the Fleet