Ah- good questions.  First- you are authorized to move people on, but not necessarily grade their work.  So if you look at a bio and you think that it has the qualities I'd be looking for you can move someone on, even give your own suggestions before I actually get to the grading process.  I'll make some final recommendations and then officially pass them, meanwhile you've already had them complete chapter 2 and have their wiki set up- so I can just kind of assess it all at once.  Then you and I and whomever else is around for the training process can help assess where he or she should go according to need as well as chemistry.

As for the fellow staffers- I'm not sure they're around, lol.  I forget the problems we ran into with Cyleaf- he may have just faded out.  But I believe Demonic is going to be making a pretty strong move to the Army here pretty soon- he should be sticking around for a while but I can't recall the last time I saw influence from him in here.  So- consider yourself head operator for the time being

Edit: No need for reports if you're active enough that I can see what you're doing.  What would be nice is if we could kind of keep eachother in check and share the duties- both of us do our part with the recruits as well as look at the VENA-S account to make sure there's a reply going out to everyone who joins. 

-----------------------
*Flash Was Here...*

WC|NTO/LCP Shazam/Phoenix 1-1/Phoenix Wing/mSSD Atrus/1VENF/VEN (=A=) (=*SA*=) (=MA=) (=*FOCE*=) [CBV*] [LoM] [LSM] [MC2] [VC:S] [SV*] [DSM] {Platinum Writing Medal}

Phoenix Wing Commander and Training Officer

By all means- every member of the VENA-S is allowed to check and handle the VENA-S messages, as they are meant for us all.

I'd like to further emphasize that we should be getting people to welcome these new recruits- make people feel at home.  We don't want to miss out on people because they didn't feel like they were within a community.

Erm, I don't know about you but I have been. I usually have e-mails sent out by the next day at the latest. I have edited my welcome e-mail with the last new recruit, hopefully that helps things.

Is there any way I can join once I finish training?

Ok, heres my rough version of a welcome message for new recruits. I am not sure if i am missing anything, so if i am let me know.






Welcome to the Vast Empire Imperial Navy, (**INSERT NAME HERE**).
I am C-3PX2, I am a Vast Empire Imperial Naval Academy (VENA) Operator.

By posting here you have completed Imperial Initiation (II), the first step of your Basic Training (BT). The Next step in Basic Training is Flight School, the Final Phase of Basic Training. The first step in Flight School is Chapter 1: Character Development. This is where you create your character; their physical characteristics, history, ect. The link above is to the Flight School section of our Wiki, it has very useful information and I encourage you to read it about the area of training you are in.

Once you complete the Biography on your character, post it in this topic and it will be graded by a staff member of the VENA, after which they will move you on into the next section of Basic Training.

If you have any confusion, writers block, or problems with any of this just let any VENA Staff Member know, you can get in contact with a VENA Staff member though a Com-Net Private Message (in the message center), e-mail, or in IRC (using MIRC, the Java Client, or whatever program you use). Any way of communication works, and we would be more than happy to assist you if have any questions or concerns.






Should I add / remove / reword anything?

Shazam I'd like to re-apply for my academy job again if it is possible.

Tomas, C3,

Here is some info I am going to need to edit the WIKI.

Contact Information:
e-mail
messenger(nick name)

Credentials:
Other then your rank and position held I need exams completed and special accomdations(like top pilot ESC) also DJO if applicable(Tomas :P).

Once I get that info I'll edit the page.

Edit: You both are started, this includes a rank update for Shaz, Jaden and myself. I will being adding the medals in shortly.

Shaz, is my promotion to Trainer permanent or just while you are really busy?

Grats Tomas! Hey I still need that info to edit your wiki though.

Thought I might ask for a kind of casual report from all of you folks- haven't seen Cyleaf in a long time so we'll definitely need to hear from him.  Regardless, I just need to hear where we're encountering difficulties, what needs to be fixed, etc- we'll be tackling those subjects this weekend.

Remember that you can start out a wiki profile by entering their name into VEN wiki 'search' and then clicking "create page under this title" option, C-3; we want to avoid them having to switch from User: Name to the page with just their name.  Also, let's encourage our recruits to put some detail into their maneuvers answers; lastly- remind them that we continue to judge them a week after they've been placed into a squadron.  Thanks for the report, C.  Any problems or suggestions on your end, Tom?  I'm thinking we need to be adding to our list of maneuvers and tactics as well; I'll weed through our pages first, but we should revisit and try to expand a bit there, as most people will probably be able to use it.

I am wondering, for the new recruits Wiki's...is the idea that we want them to learn how to use the Wiki so they can help in the future?

The reason I ask is that I could make a standard page and create (via copy and paste of code) a page for each pilot once they complete the third step of training.

Regardless, I will be updating the Character Page Tutorial wiki page to include Doc's templates.

Alright- haven't used this in a while, but I think we, as the staff, actually should use this quite a bit more.  My goal with the staff is for each member to act as an extension of another: in other words, where one person leaves off, one of the other members starts.  So: a couple of things-

1

If you guys are going on leave: even if it's for only two days or so, at the least: please leave a message here as well as on the leave forum- it'll help us to know if someone is ganna be able to pick up our slack or if we're ganna have to push it a bit further ourselves. 

Two

We really, really need to make sure that, after our first reply to a new member's thread, that we send them an e-mail.  It's a bit of extra work, I know, but I'm only asking you to do it for the first reply: you can do it for additional posts if you really want, but that first one is the absolute most important.  That's the one that reminds everyone: "Oh!  I joined the Vast Empire Navy!"

Back to that whole extension of every member bit: if you get the first reply to a thread but suddenly realize you have no time to send off that notification e-mail- you need to let others know that it hasn't been done.  The best way I can figure we do that is by leaving a sign for everyone else at the bottom of the post.  Thus, from now on, if you don't get that e-mail off because you can't, you need to leave: (E-Notify) at the bottom of the post.  And, please, if anyone sees that and that new member hasn't come back yet: e-mail them with the vena-s account.  Once you've done that, just leave a little quip on the thread- "I notified the recruit through e-mail for ya, Tom."  Somethin simple, but not robotic, lol.  I know this is kind of nitpicking, but really: I'd love for us to get to the point where we've got that kind of chain-reaction efficiency.

Quatro menos uno

Alright- everyone knows that the first reply to a new recruits thread is the one that gives them the basic instruction (always remember to include info and encouragement toward j or mIRC), the basic materials like the Flight School page.  That's great: but what happens after they're in and they complete a bio?  They just do their assignments and get out?  That's great the way we have it set up, yes, but it's kind of boring.  Rather, I'd like us to give our recruits the chance to experience more of the VE and VEN by giving them additional information outside of their training materials.  Just make little notes, preferably over these three topics and in similar formats (keeping them in a sequential order will make it a bit more uniform as well, so maybe sticking to this order would be good):

OOC:

Now, between your assignments and communications with others on IRC, we at the academy believe it's nice to have a little additional information; you can choose to take a peak or ignore the information entirelly, but we present it to you in the hopes that it'll help enrich the training process by making you more aware of the VE and its many service.  So, how bout we start out by explaining where you are in terms of position, rank and possessions/money.

Well, just as every member does, you will begin your naval career at the bottom- Crewman (CRW), and the position known as Trainee.  However, upon completing BT, it's very likely you'll be promoted provided you put in the proper time and energy; people count on our leaders so we like to make sure people are promoted for the right reasons.  Note, however, that you're not perfectly poor- we've given you a starting balance of 1,000 ICs (Imperial Credits), and some rather useful and/or interesting items.  Essentially, you use the money that earn to buy items; you'll be able to use these items in your stories so the more items you have, the more developed your stories become: use them wisely.

You might be wondering where you see and buy all of these items?  If you look down the left hand side of the main page in the navigation, you'll see that you have a First Galactic Bank account- that's where these items are stored.  The Imperial Center Store is the primary mode of purchasing for members in the VE- perhaps you'd like to shop around yourself?  Note that if you're short  on cash, the Pay Per Click link, also in the navigation, allows you to earn easy ICs and help the VE community at the same time; I think it's estimated you can earn about 9,000 ICs a day, so it might be nice, even if you're not strapped for cash.

OOC:

Also, should you find the time, now would be an excellent opportunity to get your wiki character profile created- you can find a walkthrough here.  If you have any questions about it, however, simply leave your questions here or contact us via IRC; most people could probably help you on IRC, specifically our staff in the #VENA room, actually.  Regardless, the wiki character profile doesn't have to be done for you to pass Basic Training and be placed in a squadron, so as long as you give a report and read those materials, then you can be placed into an active fighter group.  However, as this character page will have to be created eventually, getting a head start might be of interest to you if you find yourself without other activities to pursue.  If you're ever curious about where you are in those fighter groups, once you're assigned, simply check the Roster, found in that same left-hand navigation on the main page; once you're in, click the "Roster" option underneath "Imperial Navy."

This continued information, never done consecutively before the new member replies to a previous reply (we don't want to look like we're overloading them- it needs to be spread out evenly in a kind of every-other-member posting scheme), helps out in other ways.  The major one is that new members get to see more faces and become familiar with more folks: I hope you guys can encourage members to welcome new members through your own means.

FOUR

Note also that we need to remind recruits that, if they have maneuvers or tactics not seen on our pages, during chapter II that is, they can suggest them and, if we find them acceptable: we'll let them put them on the pages themselves.

5!

Can someone edit the wiki page on Pilot Proficiency to say what I just mentioned in "FOUR" ?  When they've done so, it's be awesome if they could notify us here.

Seis...

Almost done, lol.  Thought I'd mention, for the sake of clarification, that everyone, currently on the academy staff, is able to move members from chapter to chapter.  That is a rule we developed as we progressed into this new staffing style: operators on up can do that.  Note, however, that only myself and the TX can grade exams and place members.  If you have any questions about your roles: bring 'em up here, please, so that other people can find it if ever we have new members or whatever may be the scenario.

Sleven

Alright- finale, folks.  Do we all remember about a month or maybe less ago when we kind of went about assigning projects?  If I recall, C-3 was assigned to split up the pages between maneuvers and tactics, Ibram was working on the Pilot Skills and Studies and Ships/Fighters pages, and Tomas was doing what again?  I know you're all very busy and even reading this reply is time consuming, but an update on your progress, what it is exactly you're doing: that'd be superior.  I'm not ganna ask for reports, but something similar by just updating each other via this thread would be awesome.  Again: picking up where we leave off with one another.

I urge you to use this thread, stick around the #VENA room on IRC, and, if we can manage it, maybe look for one more recruit, preferably from Nazgul squadron.  Currently: we have no representation there: that needs to be worked on.  Replies on the topics above are my major concerns right now.  If you have any questions, comments or concerns: bring 'em up here: I don't wanna see 'em in my message center inbox.  Note, however, that you folks have been doing a spectacular job thus far: I'd like to see a bit more C-3 on the new recruit thread so it's not just myself, Tom and Ibram out there, but, again, I'm not totally aware of what's all being worked on by ya C: either way: let's help each other out folks.  Have a great week

I really, really like your thoughts on Three, there, Ibram.  I'm trying to make this as simple as possible for you folks as well, and I know putting all that information up is a hassle- I could see that as I was trying it myself, lol; I'm just glad someone made a good suggestion.  As to the necessity: Ibram- I don't think any of this is necessary.  We put this academy in place for the sake of efficiency- otherwise we'd just have FLs do all of the teaching.  It's still my belief that the academy and FLs should really be partners in some ways, possibly by introducing some of this information as you mentioned (we already do that with the AE), but a lot of weight falls on the academy to ensure success at the squadron level- that requires interest.  Furthermore- we're a barrier.  As you were saying: if they can't stand a little trial by fire- do we want them here?  Most people don't have a problem with the exam, and if they do- well...  Fudge   And I understand that you think that information is overload: but it's not- we're not going to be forcing them to pay any attention to it whatsoever- not like the three chapters we already have.  While I agree that putting all of that information into every thread is obvious overkill- I think that information should be easily accessed, as you had said.

So here's what I think we should do: first- contact Kad to see if an e-mail is sent to new recruits about these programs and if we're just wasting our time.  If not- maybe we should suggest that one is sent or create a page that introduces new recruits to these elements of the VE (maybe we can help out the Army a bit as well by doing so).  If not that: then we create our own brief page for it on the Academy wiki, a "Start-Up" as you called it.  Whichever way they get that additional information, we'll simply refer to it like we do these other pages, continuing to frame it as "optional information."  Really- that's what it is, but we're also allowing ourselves the opportunity to better immerse and enrich our recruits experiences.  Is any of this necessary?  Again- no.  But we're a club- we're not a traditional business: we're not about a commodity.  While we produce a product, yes, it's not something we're trying to sell exactly- our product is our people: we're a group of people having a good time.  We expect things out of one another, like activity, but only so that we can be active as well. 

Everyone gets something different from this club: I simply wish to help familiarize people with some of this information so that we can better retain our new recruits by holding their interest long enough to at least try the posting bit.  It won't be in the way, it won't be overexerting- it'll be helpful.  Who knows what it might be, but certain aspects of this site are just captivating- they're awe inspiring enough to help people stick around a bit longer: props to Kad for that, of course.  I mean, we always need to keep in mind that we may very well be someone's first stop on the RPG trail: it certainly was for me- and I'd say I was a pretty serious RP'er by the time I finished my SC position up.  I loved the IC, personally

Thought I'd let you boys know I'd be gone tomorrow (Thursday) as well as, most probably, Friday.  I should be back by the weekend, however; I may not be around Monday and Tuesday as well.  Feel free to burn this place to kingdom come while I'm away- though: just keep the cats out of the garage and clean up when you're done.