Quote: KO|HG|CHM|Cosmic: Commodore Shazam, you have the Navy report today?
COM_Shazam: Ah, howdy
COM_Shazam: Yes I do
COM_Shazam: Well, I'm actually going to hand the mic over to Ibram here in a second; I no longer really have the pulse of the Navy down, but Ibram does, so he'll be giving you the skinny on current activities in the Navy
COM_Shazam: However, I do have a little bit to say about the academy, as that's the position I've been helping out with in what time I have to give to the VE
COM_Shazam: First and foremost, as you've all seen, I'm no longer on the staff, meaning that the VENA-S has had something of a changing of the guard; I just had a conversation with Talon the other night about how every TO has put his own twist on the academy, and I'm very interested to see how the staff manages and what it comes up with in the coming months/years.
COM_Shazam: And, interestingly enough, they're not waiting; they've been busy behind locked doors. While none of this is necessarilly official, the drafts and how things link up looks really, really good, and I'm going to try and finish up my part so that they don't have anything in their way if they choose to pursue it.
COM_Shazam: Some of those topics include: standardizing promotions/medals; we've always had trouble getting our people promoted on an even keel, so this would definetely make it clear as to what our expectations would be in regards to that for both pilots and their commanders.
COM_Shazam: 2. Creating an actual Commanders manual; I had an interesting little epiphony about a month or two ago regarding our current exams. They're basically knowledge quizzes over a set list of materials; while that's all good, they really only seperated people according to their drive and want to be a commander. How much would you put up with, basically, to get a commander job? So, they identified people according to their characterisitcs
COM_Shazam: Instead of actually teaching them to be commanders. So we're fixing that.
COM_Shazam: However!
COM_Shazam: We're not just going to drop all those materials we put together; what we'd like to do instead is turn them into articles and offer some kind of extra-credit/extra-something in return for reading them, as they can actually improve a writer's ability to be more realistic, and more thoughtful with their writing process. Thus, people actually 'want' to read the materials instead of feeling like it's another wall in the way of higher posi
COM_Shazam: Anywho, the idea is to form a more even, more easy to follow method of getting and keeping our people on track without losing what we've already put together (quite a library of interesting information.)
COM_Shazam: We've already come a long way with the wiki, for instance; we can keep track of our member's promotions/medals very, very well because of the employment of wiki profiles.
COM_Shazam: Anywho; that's kind of what I thought I'd share with you, other than the fact that I like how the squadrons are looking. From my point of view, and my experience, though some of the numbers may fall because of vacations around this time of year, people, when forced to depend on themselves, actually become much better pilots and tend to have a lot more fun. So maybe Ibram can tell us more about what's happening there and what we have
WO2_Tyrol: Greetings everyone
WO2_Tyrol: Unfortunatly Denethor couldn't make it today

WO2_Tyrol: Being a slightly smaller division then our land-based cousins
WO2_Tyrol: we don't have as many people at the top to 'fill in' as it were
WO2_Tyrol: So I'll be giving the Navy report today
WO2_Tyrol: In terms of activity,
WO2_Tyrol: things have been slightly lower then what they usually are
WO2_Tyrol: This is due to a lot of leave time being taken by our members
WO2_Tyrol: Can't be helped, Real Life comes first as you all know
WO2_Tyrol: But hopefully when everyone is back, we can get things up and running again to how they used to be
WO2_Tyrol: As mentioned in the last report
WO2_Tyrol: there is a competition in the works
WO2_Tyrol: and Denethor, along with the Squadron Command staff, are currently talking things over so that we can make sure it's a competition worth doing
WO2_Tyrol: and not one for the sake of it
WO2_Tyrol: At the moment, each squadron is around half way through their own stories, so it'll be a while off yet
WO2_Tyrol: but it is being planned, so don't worry
WO2_Tyrol: In other news
WO2_Tyrol: Coming soon will be a collaborative project
WO2_Tyrol: between my own Squadron, Viper Squadron, and the Army
WO2_Tyrol: We're looking for one or two squads that would be interested in such a project
WO2_Tyrol: I've been talking it over with Doc, so speak to either him or myself if you are interested
WO2_Tyrol: It will involve both parties taking part in the same story, at the same time
WO2_Tyrol: The story will be coming from myself, so that bit is pretty much done
WO2_Tyrol: however the logistics have yet to be finalised
WO2_Tyrol: So stay tuned
WO2_Tyrol: As Shaz mentioned, we've been slowley but surely putting our own touch on the VENA
WO2_Tyrol: and things are coming along quite nicely
WO2_Tyrol: recruit numbers have been a bit low this week, but we'll be working on that, as well as trying to up the numbers of those who actually stick around
WO2_Tyrol: Unfortuantly, there are no rewards or promotions this week
WO2_Tyrol: but from a personal perspective, I've got my eye on one or two people, so you never know
WO2_Tyrol: That's about it from me, thank you all for listening