RT0710- CSFO Report

Assembled Delegates,

I have been asked to submit the CSFO's report on behalf of the current CSFO,
as he is still recovering from recent surgery.

Since May 1, we have received a total of 46 bio submissions through the
asr-join portal at yahoogroups, individual recruiting by unit CO's, or
returning veterans. Of those 46, 28 have reported to their respective units
and have begun posting on some sort of regular basis. That is a 61%
retention rate; this retention rate is substantially higher than our recent
retention rates during ALB's operation (retention rates when ALB was in
operation fluctuated anywhere between 25-35% normally). So, while we have
only seen a nominal jump in bio submissions (we received 10 more than we
received the previous 6 months, largely due to the efforts of Bryan
Bartlett), we have retained nearly 3 times as many players.

As a result of this, our vacancy situation has become far less critical; at
present, only one unit has more than 2 posted vacancies, and 6 units
currently are not posting any vacancies. In fact, the vacancy situation has
abated enough to allow GOLD Fleet to open a new unit, ORESTES STATION, a
couple of months ago. The fact that a new unit was opened such a short time
after VALHALLA opened in BLUE is a direct result of our higher retention
rate for applicants.

At this moment, SILVER Fleet has the most posted vacancies with 7 (most from
a single unit), followed by GOLD with 5, BLUE with 4 and finally GREEN with
3.

As for activity, activity has slowed; 5 of the last 6 months (the exception
being May) has seen a decrease in posting rate from the like month a year
before, and some of those decreases have been quite dramatic. Normally,
this is cause for concern; however, I believe that a large part of this
reduction in activity is due to the extended absences of some of the club's
more active players for various medical and real-life reasons. Several key
veteran players have taken substantial time off in recent weeks and months:
Sean Murphy, myself, Reggie McKamie, Lena Rose to name a few. Simply put, a
greater number of veteran players have found their posting time
substantially reduced for a variety of medical and personal reasons over the
past 6 months. This situation bears close scrutiny, as this is often one of
the tell-tale signs of impending departures. However, there has been no
contact to suggest an exodus of veteran players is about to happen, so panic
is not in order.

My feeling is that those of us veterans who have been relatively silent as
of late need to make a concerted effort to get back into the swing of things
so as to spark posting on our units; such an increase in activity usually
has a ripple effect within the unit, which in turn shows up as an overall
increase in club activity. Activity is very important, as it is how we
reinforce our advertising: nothing advertises like an ACTIVE, VIBRANT
COMMUNITY. A stagnated one attracts no players...and this is bourn out by
the slowing of bio submissions over the past month or two. So, if we wish
to continue to build on the growth we've managed to scrape together over the
past 6 months, us veterans (myself definitely included) need to be the ones
at the forefront of this and start influencing activity once again.

I humbly thank you for your attention.


Respectfully Submitted,

Scott Lusby
Delegate from GOLD Fleet
Reporting on behalf of BUPERS and the CSFO