Bear makes a good point. I think it's right to focus fewer, better, more active guys, than hundereds of some good, some bad, less active people. I think we should fill mabye three or four squadrons, and from there become a force to be reckoned with. When that happens, mabye expand to a couple more squadrons, but that would be as far as we go. The only question I have is where would the people who actively play both of those games go?
 
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Tactical Officer Colonel TJ
TO/COL TJ/HC-5//VE{CDSx2}{ES}{CM GW}{LoCx7}{MSM}[IOC]
Executive Officer Rear Admiral (Lower) PJ
X0/RA(L) PJ//VE (=A=){SVx2}{VC-Silver Trim}{NDM}{SoV}[BRC][IOC]
/SG TJ//VEDJ

ok, i'm going to reply part by part comments will be marked by brackets and will be at the end of each pragraph Now.. Everyone wants the Navy to be great "again". Lets take a good look at this "again" bit.. What (who) is the Navy missing? The older ones will know.. the newer ones probably won't. The "old" Navy was a huge, sprawling mass of active people, led by a couple of good, solid, inspirational people. But that Navy was the old Navy.. It's over, in the past, etc.   [No.1- the again bit you have a point, but really we were just starting to fly when we got shot down. It was when we had Niksa and Crow and all the other people who started the navy. origianlly there was just the army. The navy was added because there was a group of people that really wanted one and they worked hoard to get it. They led it well because they didn't want to lose it and becasue they loved it. They were connected to it. Chances of Crow or Niksa coming back, slim to none and slim is about to leave town. I really wish it would happen.   Wasn't particularly huge, just active and compact. It had a good size but was "compact because there weren't 3 squadrons with 4 guys each, there would be  full squadron. just an example, not hard data. I can't say a lot cause i was just getting on board as the navy started a downslope. It'd be nice to get back to what i new of the old navy. activity was high, morale was great and we loved our leaders and saw them regularly.] What the Vast Empire Navy needs to do now is to move away from the thousands of members idea that a lot of clubs think is the best way of doing it. The EH has over a thousand members, but in some things they are still only mediocre at. What the VEN needs to do is to become more individually specialised, and more.. more professional. We need to sort the individual specialists into differant Squadrons, differant Wings and differant Flights. For example, an XvT Squadron, an XWA Squadron, etc.   [good point about EH. However, seperation and specialization don't have to come together. i'd prefer integration. Say someone with access to the roster notices that one squadron is amazing at XWA and another squadron doesn't even have a decent flyer in the whole thing. I want to see one of the aces go to the bad group and encourage them to keep flying and get better, even help. seperating the great flyers from the bad ones won't necasarlily bring us closer together.] In this "New Navy", training would be done at Wing or even Squadron level. Its no good somebody who plays XWA training somebody who plays XvT. And its no good a story-writer training a graphics dude   [That's why we use tests. right now we don't train you to be good at something, training is to make it so you can make yourself good at something. it's kind of like Lukes jedi academy. all he does is lay the framework and he lets the trainees build the house. more sqecialized training would be a plus but do it as organized optional things staffed by volunteers that are doing it because they want to see good flyers or because they believe in the futre of the VEN. tht's the only way to do it in my mind. And the storyteller-graphics thing, that's why mentorship type things are optional. that graphics guy good help the storyteller learn graphics while the story guy taught the graphics guy how to write a good runon post. That's why we need to know each other nd communicate and be friendly.] The chain-of-command has to be ripped apart and started again, as does the ranking system. Right now, Admirals have almost total power at their finger-tips, and just don't know what to do with it.. Crewmen have practically no power, but have good opinions and ideas, and need to be able to show that to us all.   [Bear, admirals are supposed to have power. Its their job to use the power to shape the nvy to how it will be a efficient organization. as for crewmembers with ideas, if they tell an admiral and the admiral likes the idea and uses it that will definatly help that crewmember get promoted so he can use his ideas. Promotion systems work like that. If that crewmember tries he really can make a difference and get the power so he can help other people. works great as long as the investment of time and faith is a two way street] I also feel there should be an "Elected Representative", elected every month, who, for their month (and they can only stand for election 2 months in a row) sit next to the NCC and help him control the VEN.. a bit like a President. This position would have to be unpaid, because if you got paid a million credits a month for doing it, any half-wit would stand for election   [giving your ideas to high command is a good idea. having a rep isn't necassarily needed. just e-mail people and they listen. If they don't tell someone higher or cause a raucaus until they do listen. it's a military organization, not a UN set up government. i really don't think it's needed but we do need to encourage people to communicate with the uppity ups (my thanks to Kip for introducing me to that phrase).] Recruitment is another problem. Instead of trying to get hundreds of recruits into the Navy, why not just get a dozen GOOD recruits? Recruitment would be done at Squadron (possibly Wing) level, so that Squadron can individually choose and train their new recruits.   [good point and an opinion i share about the recruits but we need universal training to be carried on later by mentorship and self advance. if you let squadrons train each person you end up with someone saying "ok you can spell Vast Empire Navy and read. You passed now go read the manual." that trainee has no reason to go read the manual and will probably go inactive by the end of the day. Hehas to have a training program to go through, and then when he gets into a squad needs to communicate with his SC so that the SC knows what hes good at and can help him develop and get noticed and show the newbie ways to have fun in the VE we really need more communication, it will help the navy more than anything else.] Thats all I'm willing to disclose at this early stage. If anyone likes this brainstorming, feel free to email me at [email protected] and I'll give you some more ideas. Or just post some ideas here   [theres your ideas you requested.]

First off, (I always start my paragraphs like that ), I'd just like to thank you all for the comments and feedback you gave me. Its got the ball rolling, so don't go shouting at me for saying it all Keep inputting on this post, and I'll probably organise a meeting on Saturday.. say at 9pm GMT (United Kingdom - Use your windows clock to find out your time) ?? We can discuss everything more fully there. Everyone is invited
 
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WC/CMDR/1LT Bear/Kaph 1-1/1/mSSD Atrus/1ESF/VE/VEN/(=A=) [BRC] [BRC] [NDM] [LSM]

1st Lieutenant Bear
Kaph Squadron Commander
Wing 1 (Elite Wing) Commander