Bravo Fleet
Happy New Year members of Bravo Fleet!
Over the past year, Bravo Fleet has gone through a major transformation. For the first time in over 20 years, we’ve fundamentally changed our group, what we offer, and how we interact. No longer is Bravo Fleet merely a “sim group” as all the other Trek organizations are. In April of 2020, we shed the dying one-trick pony in favor of a format that allows our members a huge latitude in what they want to do and how they want to interact with us. Some have kept to their corner of the sim world within Bravo Fleet, but many have really embraced what we’re going for and have blossomed as a result. I can’t help but thank all of you for all of your support, ideas, and interactions with us over the last year and I can only hope that 2021 is an even better year for Bravo Fleet to grow.
With that being said, it is no secret that I never had any desire to be BFCO again. When the transition was happening in mid-2019 after the stabilization of the fleet amidst the chaos by what is now the Conservatorship, I was merely a moderator of sorts for the Bravo Fleet Think Tank. Incorporating ideas together into a format that was a compromise for those who volunteered to be a part of the Think Tank. During that time it was a balancing act between some really good ideas, and some really not so good ideas given by people in bad faith who had no intention of sticking around. In the end, we ended up with the Bravo Fleet Charter and Bravo Fleet Magistrate Code, both of which have evolved even since then. Once the Think Tank was done, it was time to put in place a leadership group that would return Bravo Fleet to normalcy. It is no exaggeration to say that I was the last choice, and that was by design. The Conservatorship went through about 8 or 9 people who all turned it down and I made sure I was last to give literally anyone else the opportunity to run Bravo Fleet the way they saw fit. I had no desire to run Bravo Fleet, I had no power play, and I mostly wanted to just quietly go back into my little corner of the fleet. It came down to me, or the unknown.
2020 made me very glad that I said yes. Once I took over as BFCO again in 2019, the BFA sat down and decided which direction to head into. That led us to April 2020 and the relaunch of Bravo Fleet as an entirely revisioned internet Star Trek club. Along the way in 2020 there have been quite a few people who made that possible.
One of the revisions of Bravo Fleet was the comprehensive and merit/activity-based award and promotion system we put into place. I’ve often said that the BFA is responsible for awarding their staff and members, but it is my responsibility to award the BFA. So now, I present to you some New Years’ awards and promotions for the BFAers that have helped make it possible through 2020 (not counting those who have been already been awarded earlier in the year for their service, you superstars!).
LadyBlue
Christopher Pike Medal of Valor
Since her last promotion, Cath has made the leap from Chief of Staff over to Loremaster. In her capacity as Loremaster, Cath has overseen a huge revamp in Bravo Fleet canon. One of Cath’s first and most important directives as Loremaster has been to finally unchain task forces from geographical areas of operations and into themes in conjunction with taking task force canon out of the hands of requiring task force staff to fulfill their canon requirements. The Lore Office now fully supports the development and creation of task force canon for any task force that is unable or unwilling to do it themselves. This has allowed TFs to spend more time on a myriad of other things, or choose to delve into task force canon themselves with Lore Office assistance. Additionally, under her guidance, the forums have been reorganized to allow for better usage of each task force and upticks in fiction writing there as a result. Cath has also been hard at work at the wiki revamp that started a few months ago which has seen a rewrite of many prominent canon articles to be in line with the new 2399 Bravo Fleet canon, many written by Cath herself.
For all her hard work over this past year since her last promotion, I’m happy to award her second Christopher Pike Medal of Valor!
Slagar
Star Cross
Recently, Slagar went through unprompted and began an evaluation of the awards that Bravo Fleet offers. Part of that was a lack of consistency in our award imagery. Ribbons didn’t match up with one another, bolts were all over the place, cats and dogs living together. Chaos ensued. Slagar created an entirely new graphics set for the OCS including all awards and almost all other ribbons and pins. For all of the time and effort put into this graphical OCS undertaking, I’m happy to present Slagar with his first Star Cross.
David
Christopher Pike Medal of Valor
David has been one of the most active members of the BFA since the relaunch of Bravo Fleet in April 2020 as evidenced by his recent Star for Distinguished Service. On top of his general activity, David also has been active in staff roles during that time as TF38CO for a short while until shifting over to TF9CO where he built the task force from the ground up, creating canon and driving activity for it during that time. While still TF9CO, David also proposed the idea of what is now the Bravo Fleet Operations Officer, a position he has held since. The position, and David’s tenure in it, have been wildly successful and since then he has helped to streamline many more of our activities including recently moving all games over into the Fleet Operations center and helping each task force staff to create, organize, and deploy “task force weeks” of competition events the past few months.
For all of his hard work, I’m happy to award him with a Christopher Pike Medal of Valor!
Capierno
Jonathan Archer Order of Merit
Over the past six months since his promotion, Cap has really grown into his role as Communications Officer. Cap has led huge social media campaigns to promote Bravo Fleet, pushed recruitment ads, and kept people up to date on social media on what we have going on in Bravo Fleet at all times. On top of that, Cap has done some policy updates recently including the recent update to our Discord policy. Congratulations Cap on your second Jonathan Archer Order of Merit!
Sean
Jonathan Archer Order of Merit
Sean has, what could be summarized succinctly, as one of the most important yet thankless jobs in all of Bravo Fleet. As Magistrate, since his last promotion, Sean has had the luck of only having to oversee one trial, but numerous disputes mediated. For a position that is mostly a quiet one, he’s actually done quite a bit. He oversaw the team that rewrote entire sections of the Magistrate code to fall more in line with the spirit of Bravo Fleet, ported over legacy cases from the last time the current Bravo Fleet justice system was in place and updated them accordingly, and also created a place for public viewing for disciplinary issues that happened when Bravo Fleet had no justice system. Sean has been a wonderful Magistrate, a great voice in the room, and excellent at dealing with anything thrown his way. For all of his hard work I’m happy to award him a Jonathan Archer Order of Merit.
Dave P
Silver Palm
Since becoming TF86CO, Dave has been diligently working to generate activity and guide members. Recently he ran the TF86 week event, Adventures in the Triangle, which has been a huge success. On top of his regular duties, he has also been working consistently with the Lore office to bring TF86 canon up to date with our new 2399 reality. For all of his work the past few months as TF86CO, I’m proud to award Dave with a Silver Palm.
jonileth
Silver Palm
Returning to the BFA recently as TF72CO, Mark has shown exactly why he was suited for the role. Continuing his progress he started as TF72XO, Mark has continued to lead TF72 in pushing activity, developing canon along with the Lore office, and more recently ran the Sentinels of Peace event to great success. For all of his work the past few months as TF72CO, I’m proud to award Mark with a Silver Palm.
Reece
Silver Palm
Although Reece is no longer on the BFA and his time as Internet Officer was short, it was eventful and important. During his tenure as Internet Officer, Reece helped really kick off some serious movement on BFMS2 which has gotten it to where it is today (behind the scenes!). On top of that, he continually executed the day to day operations of the office by helping set up Nova sites for games, fixing bugs throughout our infrastructure, and assisting members with technical questions they may have. The Internet Office is one that is often used and just as often under appreciated. For all his hard work during his tenure as Internet Officer, I’m happy to award Reece with his first Silver Palm!
Chris
Star Cross
Chris served as TF72CO during the summer and fall of this year. In that capacity, he oversaw the games within 72, promoted their activity, and promoted activity and engagement throughout TF72. On top of that, he created or contributed to several formerly 72 canon articles that were later used to create new content on the wiki. For his time as 72CO I’m happy to award Chris a Star Cross!
KyleB
Jonathan Archer Order of Merit
Since his last promotion in June, Kyle served as TF86CO for several months. During that time, he was tasked with creating and implementing the new canon for TF86, a newly reactivated task force at the time. He diligently and expertly created extremely detailed articles on several canon aspects including the Klingon Empire, Gorn Hegemony, and the entirety of the Orion canon! This is on top of his normal TFCO duties of engagement, pushing activities, and being a super active member in Bravo Fleet! For all of his work, I’m happy to present Kyle with his first Jonathan Archer Order of Merit!
Leah
Captain
Since the relaunch of Bravo Fleet in April 2020, few members have been as active as Leah. One look at her dossier and you can easily see the awards she has racked up. Since her last promotion in July, she has continued to be a powerhouse of activity in all facets of the fleet as evidenced by her recent Christopher Pike Medal of Valor. In that time she has also racked up two Silver Palms and served as a member of the Appeals Panel during the first Magistrate case since bringing the judicial system back to Bravo Fleet. Aside from her general activity, she also served as the Dean of Cadets for several months helping to bring in new members, acclimate them with Bravo Fleet, and answer all of their questions which was nearly a full time job! Recently she swapped over to TF93CO, and has shown no signs of slowing down. For all her hard work and dedication, I’m happy to promote Leah to the rank of captain!
Slagar
Fleet Captain
Since becoming the Bravo Fleet Chief of Staff, Slagar has been an invaluable member of the BFA both in his position and the BFA at large. There isn’t a discussion that is had within the BFA or BF Command that doesn’t get a positive gain from Slagar’s input. As OCS, he recently finished a complete review and partial overhaul of the award system as well as a complete overhaul of the cadet and junior officer progression system. This is on top of his regular duties as Chief of Staff which require the daily processing of awards, ribbons, promotions, and competitions in the current BFMS which is not an easy task by any stretch! For all of his hard work over the past 10 months, I’m happy to promote Slagar as our very first fleet captain in Bravo Fleet!
FlyingGremlin
Commander
Since coming on as Deputy Gaming Officer, and later elevated to Gaming Officer in mid-November, FG has been a huge boost to our gaming corner and activities. He’s helped to drive activity in STO, an uptick in activity submissions for STO, and improving in game quality for our STO players by increasing fleet assets there. On top of that, he’s already begun outreach programs which have been getting positive feedback and requests for new gaming platforms. Already in the works is World of Warships support for Bravo Fleet.
Congratulations on your promotion to commander!
Congratulations to all of you, and thank you for all your hard work!
