The intention of this article is to bring to light the processes of managing an organization as large as Star Trek Online: Stonewall Fleet. It is our intent to share the Admiralty with all of its members so they may know what goes on behind the scenes.
We will share information related to:
- How Admirals are selected
- How Fleet Captains are selected
- How decisions are made
- How Personnel (member) issues are handled
- How big events are planned
The Admiralty is broken down into departments. For those of you who have not made it to the Welcome Center; you can find all sorts of information there from setting up TS to the Code of Conduct but you will also find the listing of Fleet Departments, who heads up each department (the Admiral) and the Fleet Captains assigned to the department.
The Admiral Selection ProcessThe selection of an Admiral seems rather simple really. NicholasJohn16 presents a post in the Briefing Room forum asking interested members to respond to him via private message. The post contains the directions for the response. This post is a “call for applications”. The members respond privately to Nick using the format described by Nick in the post. The responses assist the Admiralty in making a selection of candidates to work with. Nick then privately interviews the selected candidates before making a decision. Depending on the position available the process may also require testing to make certain the Candidate can handle the role they have applied for. In the case of PvP or PvE dept these tests can be anything from various ship builds to running PvE content (STF’s, Starbase Defense and the like). Other things that are taken into consideration are:
Length of time in the fleet, Fleet activity (Fleet Chat, TeamSpeak and assisting other members), Work Related skills such as:
- Project Management
- Resource Management
- Analytical Skills
Once a candidate is selected they will go through an orientation. During the orientation Nick takes them through the inner workings of the website. This orientation consists of teaching the candidate about the rosters and how to add/remove characters. A run through of the forums and how to moderate them. An instruction on adding people in game and promotions. How to administer the in game chat channels. How to administer teamspeak. And finally what is expected of the department they will head up. This usually starts with a “how it was run in the past” and then he completes their promotion and sends them off to try and digest all the information presented and to start working with their Fleet Captains. Once the orientation is complete Nick works through all of the website work to give them the added ability to administer the website and in game promotions and finally posts the announcement in the briefing room.
The Fleet Captain Selection ProcessFleet Captain selection is a bit different but starts with the same process. An Admiral posts in the Briefing Room forum a call for applications. The candidates are sent a set of questions by the posting Admiral. The question set has 2 basic sets of questions. The first part asks things like how the candidate feels about working in the specific department. Can the candidate describe how they could compliment the department etc. The second part is more general questions around use of fleet assets like; Fleet Chat, TeamSpeak and how the candidate would handle mediation (or moderation) of the chat and website forums as well as fulfilling the basic set of duties of all Fleet Captains. Once the applications are collected the Admiral will post the application responses in a special forum that all the Admirals can read through and comment on to assist the Admiral in making a selection for interviewing. Based on the outcome of the interviews the Admiral will make their selections.
Sometimes there can be multiple vacancies throughout the departments. A call is placed similar to the above but the post will ask the interested members to rank their choice of departments. The Admirals that need to fill their vacancies will look at the pool of responses and select a few to interview sometimes a single candidate may interview for multiple departments.
Once a candidate or candidates are selected for promotion they are sent a request for availability for orientation. The Fleet Captain Orientation can take up to 2 hours to complete. This time is decreased for a single Fleet Captain as the attention and focus is on one person instead of multiple people. The orientation is extensive and covers a complete review of the fleets, the departments, the website - specifically how new members are invited, promoted and their characters added to the rosters, in game fleet holdings, in game invites and promotions, the expectations placed on them by the Admiralty, as well as how to moderate chat, Teamspeak and the website effectively. During the review the new Fleet Captains in game characters are promoted to their new rank and they are given extra access to the functions of the website. The final step is to post the promotion announcement in the Briefing Room forum on the website.
How Decisions are MadeDecision making can be difficult but the Stonewall Admiralty has a process! Nearly every big decision that has to be made is debated among all of the Admirals. It starts with a general topic post in the Admirals forums and from there is debated until a majority agreement is reached. In the event of a tie Nick is generally the deciding vote. During the debate the Admirals will weigh in with an opinion. They are each then tasked to back up their opinion with as much fact as they can provide. As with any decision real life experience is used to backup the opinion. These debates can sometimes take a considerable amount of time to conclude. In some cases, if the debate is taking too long the Admirals will discuss in their bi-monthly meeting on TeamSpeak and for lack of a better term, force its conclusion.
How Personnel (member) issues are handledPersonnel or member related issues are a part of every major organization. Stonewall Fleet is not exempt. With as many members that we have not everyone is going to get along even though we all have one important thing in common; we are all part of GLBTA. As leaders of the fleet we have a common goal; a peaceful safe environment for our members. We rely on everyone’s common sense to help us stay the course. Our goal for maintaining a happy peaceful and friendly community can sometimes force us to make drastic decisions to keep the peace. (see the CoC and Member’s Handbook)
When we have issues within the membership where there are members that aren’t able to maintain the peace and moderation has failed, the Admirals discuss the issue and try to determine a course of action. These issues are generally brought to the Admiralty through several sources:
- A complaint may be raised by a member or multiple members
- In the form of a message
- a /tell to a Fleet Captain or Admiral
- Moderation by a Fleet Captain or Admiral
- A complaint from outside of the Fleet (this happens seldom)
Once an issue is brought to the Admirals, we ask the involved parties for the facts so that we can deliberate on the action to be taken. Personnel issues put the leadership in a reactive mode and often a debate ensues until the Admiralty comes to a decision about how to handle the member (see How decisions are made). If the issue is a minor offense then a simple warning can be sent and the issue dropped. In the event that the issue is serious or repetitive (same type or otherwise) and can cause strain on the membership, expulsion from the fleet, chats and TeamSpeak is warranted and carried out. The Admiralty prefers to try and assist the member with their issues and come to an agreement that consequences for further infractions will be dealt with more severely. Most of the time issues can be cleared up by talking with the member. We all have differing points of view, even within the Admiralty. It is paramount that everyone use self control and common sense to avoid clashes within the fleet.
How big events are plannedStonewall puts on many big events each year. Our biggest event, Pride, usually comes around June or July. Almost all of Stonewall’s events use our in game events chat channel and TeamSpeak. In TeamSpeak we have a Live Events channel as well as a Music channel where Fleet DJ’s will spin up the music for the events. Most of you have seen the departments in action with all of the events that are set up. While a specific department might be running an event it really is a team effort as all departments participate. Whether they provide content or even music in TS they work together to bring the members an engaging and fun event.
The methods for planning these events are handled by each organizer (an Admiral) but for the most part start in the same manner. During one of the bi-monthly Admiral meetings the organizing Admiral discusses their event ideas and the other Admirals sign up to help with the event and even host mini events within the main event. For the bigger events planning starts months in advance and progress is discussed during each Admiral meeting as needed until the event kicks off. The Admirals and their Fleet Captains host their own events during the time slots they are assigned as well as assist the other departments during their events. Once the organizer has the list of events for the day or weekend they form the start times and durations of each event and produce a schedule for the Admirals and Fleet Captains. The event is then listed on the Website on the Events page for the members to sign up or just view the schedule. The schedule lists the time each event will start and usually the post includes the start timezone and has a link to converting timezones for the members to utilize. The magic of our Public Relations Officer takes over and the information is publicized on our Social Networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc).
Stonewall Gaming NetworkThe Stonewall Gaming Network consists of 13 dedicated people with the help of 21 Senior Members to manage the Stonewall Fleets, Stonewall Vanguard (GW2), Knights of Stonewall (SW:ToR) and their 3625 members, the issues that arise, the Resources such as the Fleet/Guild Holdings in the games, Voice over IP, the Website and Social Media, the Member Rosters, Endgame Content (PvP and PvE) and all of the Social Events.
