RT0710- CINCSF Report

The Chair now submits the CINCSF report...
 
Over the last six months, time has been the key problem faced by the organization.  Many of our most senior staff, including much of the Flag Council has been tight on time, which has limited our input into the organization.  As a result, I'll admit that there are projects that I was wanting to get accomplished that simply had to be put on the back burner.  Major life changes, medical problems, and simply being over worked has caused a general decrease in the involvement of our senior staff on many units.
 
Time constraints will always be a problem for our organization.  Each of us are vital to the health of our units and through us, the health of the entire organization.  I mirror the CINCGOLD's statements when he says that nothing advertises us better than a healthy and active posting rate.  Unfortunately as an organization, our posting rates have been on the general decline for quite some time.  Although our rosters may be filling up, the number of posts continues to decline.
 
The only way to combat this decline is through us, the command players for the organization.  Understandably, time is an issue, even for us, but we must strive to fight against this problem if our organization is to remain healthy.  Our greatest weapon is good old fashioned communication between each other at the command level and between our players.  This is the time that we should be encouraging our new players to step up and help us fill the gap.  Simple quick emails, encouraging our new players to take a more active role, can help to stem our posting decline and help relieve some of the work from our primary writers.  It isn't hard to identify the key writers on each unit, they are the ones that pick up the plot hooks and move the stories forward; but when they are too busy with real life, the story falters and the unit slows to a crawl.  This is the time that we as command players need to encourage our newer players to step forward and help fill the gaps.  I have to remind myself of this, we all started new at some point, including our key writers.  Our new writers can be made into active writers with a little help and encouragement from us.
 
Lastly I want to remind us all that ASR is about having fun and meeting new friends online.  Sometimes we get tired or perhaps burned out with our units, writing the same old rehashed stories over and over; this is normal.  I encourage each of you to move beyond your own unit and start building ties to other units as well.  It's very easy to concentrate on our own unit and forget or ignore that we are part of a larger group.  I encourage you start working on group projects with other units.  Multi-unit missions lets our players meet new people and can put some of the old excitement back into the game.  Our Fleet Commanders have fleet wide story arcs laid out.  I suggest teaming up with other units and your Fleet Commander from time to time to work on group story lines.  Not only can this stimulate posting but your helping to contribute to the ASR universe on an even larger scale than before.
 
I thank you all for you time and efforts as command players.  There is a lot of work that goes into playing at the command level sometimes.  It's more than just coming up with story lines and moving the plot forward, its also dealing with difficult players and administrative problems, like coming to the Round Table meetings.  I appreciate the hard work and effort that each of you give to the organization.  Command level work can be a thankless job but it doesn't have to be, so thank you to each of you.
 
Submitted
Bruce Summa
CINCSF
Round Table Chair