WildCard & Storm Platoon Competitions
Keep an eye out for announcements on this new event! WildCard and Storm Platoon Commanders are working together to release Platoon-wide competitions at the same time (individual/separate stories to my understanding). These should be out within about a month's time.

The Squad Leader/Platoon Commander Relationship
Squad Leaders: you have the responsibility of creating, maintaining, and participating in your squad's stories.

Platoon Commanders: you have the responsibility of managing your platoon.

The SL/PC authority lines have been skewed, however, and some may have a hard time discerning what duties the SL has and what duties the PC has (and what duties seem to overlap). 'Managing your platoon' is a very broad term, and it's just as "general and encompassing" as it sounds.

It's my goal to get the Platoon Commanders more involved with their platoons. This is what's going to happen:

1) Before a squad story is created, Squad Leaders must submit the following to their Platoon Commander for approval: main story premise and mission objectives. This will ensure that quality/reasonable story lines are created and posted on the StoryNet. This sounds just like what it implies: Platoon Commanders, you must remain active! You will be receiving many story ideas, and you will need to be making decisions on authorizing those stories.

2) Platoon Commanders must pay attention to their Squad Leaders: there are many Squad Leaders that are doing a fantastic job and they're not being rewarded for their efforts. Lately, it has been up to the AHC to figure out which SL is deserving of a promotion and/or a medal, and that shouldn't be the case. It is the duty of the Platoon Commanders to make sure their SLs are rewarded and brought into the spotlight when deserved.

If there is any ambiguity in the above, let me know.

Squad Leader requests and squad updates
Any and all of the SL requests and squad updates should be sent to your Platoon Commander. The squad/platoon is the domain of the Platoon Commander, and going directly to the AHC for requests is a clear break of the Chain of Command. SL/Squad requests include: roster updates, story/mission outline and objective authorizations, promotion/medal requests, etc.

Weekly Squad Reports
Squad Leaders: squad reports MUST be sent in by 11:59pm PST. At 12am PST, the squad report topics will be locked. If you do not get your squad report in before that time, your squad will not be represented that week.

STC Website Update (Manual)
The STC manual will soon be receiving an update. The Medals page and the position-descriptions page (description of the SL, squad member, PC, etc.). It's long overdue, and that should be done by the end of this week.

Site of the Week
Fix up those websites and get them lookin' pretty! There's a section on the domain titled Site of the Week that hasn't been used in some years, and I would like to see that back up and rolling. I'll be talking to Kadann to see what rewards can be given out to the winning webmasters. Site of the Week isn't just for squad sites - Platoon Commanders: you can create (or have someone create for you) the web site for your platoon, and you can have that submitted.

***NOTE: for the Navy personnel reading this, Site of the Week is a feature on the domain that ALL divisions can take advantage of.

Army members: if you currently maintain a VE-related website, send me a PM with the URL to the website. There's an Army medal that can be awarded to members that create and maintain a VEA website, so I want to make sure you get that if you haven't already.

Code of Conduct
As a reminder to the Corps, the Code of Conduct is the primary document that maintains order in the Vast Empire. Disobeying it will generate a chaotic and confusion-filled atmosphere. The CoC applies to the ComNet and the #vast_empire channel.

As of late, the CoC has been quite the topic of discussion. You can discuss the CoC all you want in a PM with someone and you can feel free to voice your complaints/opinion of the CoC in a PM to a superior officer, but just know that the CoC is set in stone. No amendments will be made to that document. We have stood resolute since 1998, and a club such as ours doesn't survive for 11 years without the existence (and enforcement) of order.

Army channel ops/moderators: you do not have halfops/ops solely due to your position. You are given moderator status in the main channel because you sit in a senior position of power, and it is assumed that you have the knowing-responsibility of maintaining order. It is your job as moderators in the main channel to enforce the CoC (which means abiding by the CoC yourself). This means: no kicks without warning (unless they've demonstrated prior insubordination that warrants a kicking without warning.)

Any continued disregard of the CoC and/or abuse of your moderator status can and will result in the loss of your halfops/ops.

Those in power without ops should also abide by and maintain the CoC.

Above all, remember the following rule: Praise in public, punish in private.



That concludes this Prefect's Report.



All hail the Vast Empire!

As Storm Platoon Commander I recognize Angel has been doing an amazing job, and request he be promoted to Captain.

Yillis is correct. Squad Leaders have until midnight (PST) Saturday to submit their reports before the Storm/WildCard Platoon Reports topics are locked.