Should We Have Callisto Elections?...

[Col. Charybdis]

Greetings fellow Warriors,

as the Callisto elections officer, I have seen elections come and go over the yahrens. We have had some close ones and some where only one person was nominated.

However, over the past few election cycles, one thing is very clear, with no new members coming in to our little ship and current member participation ebbing and flowing with the times, it appears that the need for elections is dwindling.

I want to propose that we basically do away with the squadron elections since no one is participating in them anyway and they have no real bearing on the club, for the most part.

Now, one thing that is sort of affected is our ranks within the RPG, perhaps we can come up with storyline specific reasons when a character needs to be promoted, etc.

Just a thought, let me know what you all think. If not, then we will continue to trudge on with empty elections and the same person getting elected every year whether they know it or not!

[bouriplwel]

I voted to have an election for Gold Squadron the last go around but for some reason we didn't have it.....I guess it really doesn't matter to me either way, but I see 1 of 2 things happening .....either nobody will ever get promoted now, or several will write in a promotion for themselves...soon we will have Captains all over the place.....probably extreme example, but you get my point.

[Brie]

I think we need to still have GS elections. When I asked the question because we missed it the last Nov I had a lot of response. The reason we didn't hold the election is because more people said we shouldn't than we should.

[Col. Charybdis]

Yeah, most of the people who are still here are Gold squadron. The reason I asked this is because Black squadron elections were supposed to have been in May but there are no Black squadron members in any number left to hold elections!

If the others want, we will still have Gold Squadron elections come this November...

[Skyler]

The dynamics of the group has changed so much since the "rules" were put into place. Things have changed so much over the years, and participation has come and gone for many reasons. I still think we need elections, if for no other reason it gives the members that are still active and care a way to be active in the club that is not fictional.

I would like to see the promotion system altered to better express participation of the members. A complete revamp. Your first promotion is almost automatic. Then you have only two more chances for promotion before you top out. I haven't really thought of a system, but if anyone is interested, I will be more than glad to talk it over with them and see if we can come up with one. Because the way it is now, if I pick worthy Warriors every election, we will have a squadron of Captains before too long. We just do not have the activity levels we once had...

[bouriplwel]

Maybe some of us should switch over to Black Squadron so we have active people in both

[Reaper]

I know i originally started in Black Squadron, and the Problem there was, I was basically in the Squadron alone when I started posting in the Game.

Some of us switchign does work, for as long as we all can post. Plwel, it's good to have you back, and I look forward to you posting more, but You are deploying overseas, and I don't know how much posting you can do uring your tour. (my best wishes go with you my friend!!!)

And the large group of posters we've had in the Current story has tapered off drastically. I don't think we have the numbers to support 2 squadrons. Not at the current moment.

And honestly, as far as promotions go, let's look at the series. Once you got to Lt. You were topped off. There was one Strike Leader, a Captain, and Colonel and Commander. Ranks such as Major only came in with the Novels.

I can see having Squadron Leaders as Majors. It makes sense, since we have Other characters in the Hatch Novels holding the rank, but you still didn't see many Captains.

My suggestion would be to cap at Lt. But add service stripes. Remove Major as an option for anyone but the old timers (not age, experience with the Callisto lol) Don't promote anyone else to that rank. If Say, for example, I am elected to Squadron Com,mander, I get promoted to Captain. I loose the next election, I go back to Lt. (it's possible to be demoted )

But I'd get a Service stripe for that service to the board.

To summerize

You join, you are a Ensign.

You reach a posting level within the RP, you are promoted to Lt (JG)

You reach a second posting level within the RP, the JG is removed. All other "promotions" would be stipes.

So, After serving as Squadron Leader, I'd be Lt. /// = 3 stripe Lt. (I've been promoted 5 times)

how's that sound?

[Amy81]

I'm always too late into these conversations...! But here are my views.....

Sadly at this time I think elections aren't necessary. There is barely anything going on. Easy to say but our energies should be spent on finding a storyline that can get us all excited again.

To me promotions and rank really don't mean much. I suppose there should be a structure, and Reaper's ideas are really well thought out. But back at the beginning I was Ensign Amy, and I was just having so much fun that being promoted didn't matter to me at all. It really didn't matter, it was the story and the creative outlet it gave me and the really cool people I was writing with that mattered to me.

So it goes back to the story and how to get that excitement back. There's still a core here, and the response to this thread shows that we are here, and we can do elections and promotions but really it's like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. (I always loved that phrase!) What we really need is to fix the hole? ha!

And Al, it's really great to see you!

[Skyler]

Ed, good ideas on the promotion system. I know ranks in our group here, are not the same as ranks in other fictional sci-fi based fan groups such as STARFLEET, the CDF, KAG etc. We do still use it in limited fashion to show dedication and hard work in the story. Maybe a new promotion system is not what I am thinking, but something to celebrate milestones members reach in the story.

Which brings up a good point that Amy made, the story... The current story lost its steam around the holidays when everyone got busy, and if others were like me, when they found a few minutes, were unsure of where to go with the story with out messing up what others had started. I played around with the Galactica side of things... Any ideas for a new story line? Ed has set up the ending for us to wrap the mission up, Paula has given us multiple altered story archs in her posts. Where do we go from here? Lets get the fire back into us and see what it brings...

[Col. Charybdis]

Good ideas everyone. Let's keep this up...