Opportunities

I've been lucky to have a relatively stable staff since I assumed the role of Headmaster. A few docents and professors have retired in that time, but my core staff -- Ood, Meleu, Farrin -- hasn't changed until now. As Mav noted in his most recent report, Meleu has moved on to bigger and better things. I wish him the best of luck as M:DGM. So now I find myself down a magistrate. It's not the most glamorous work, but it's important, it can be very rewarding, and I'm a great boss (unlike that Mav guy, I hear he's mean).

But also! After nine solid months as Professor of Combat Studies, Turel has decided to step aside and focus on his duties as a Quaestor. This is another very important job, overseeing a full slate of courses already available and two (maybe three?!) new courses in the pipeline.

I'm opening both positions for applications, due by 11:59pm EDT on Saturday, March 28. You can apply for both positions in a single application, but I will be appointing two different people to these spots. Send your applications to me and Ood.

Requirements

Magistrate to the Headmaster
I don't have any hard requirements for the magistrate spot, but I'd prefer to hire someone in the range of GRD - EQ2. Whoever gets this job will need to be good at communicating with me, Ood, Farrin, professors, docents, and whoever else may be working on courses, in a coherent and timely manner. The job involves a lot of writing and editing, and may be asked to grade exams from time to time. If you have any great ideas for the Shadow Academy -- courses, competitions, whatever -- put it in your application!

Professor of Combat Studies

• Rank of Jedi Hunter.
  
• 24 hour grading turnaround.
  
  • This is a big deal! Our average turnaround is now well below 24 hours and we're going to keep it that way.
    
• Have passed all courses in the department with at least a 90%.
  
• Have ideas as to how to improve the courses within the Department and must be willing to regularly reevaluate your courses for substance and readability.
  • This is critical. Professors are responsible for more than mere grading -- they bear primary responsibility for keeping their courses up-to-date and error free.
• Be prepared to work on two or three courses-in-progress immediately upon appointment.
  

Overhaul

As I mentioned in my last report, there are some big changes coming for the gaming degrees. After reviewing options and tweaking numbers with the Fist and Voice, we have decided to split the current Combat and Tactics Savant and Gaming Sage degrees into two separate tracks, one for writing and one for gaming. Both will share the Combat Maven as a pre-requisite and roughly mirror each other in requirements. These changes will be implemented as soon as James has time to make the changes to the database:

Maven - Combat (MVC):

• Lightsaber Studies
  
• Combat Tactics I
• Combat Tactics II
• Advanced Lightsaber Studies
• Hand to Hand Combat

Savant - Warfare (SVW):

• Dark Maven: Flight
• Dark Maven: Combat
• General Warfare
• GMRG History
• GMRG Rank V (400 CFs, 1 PoB)

Sage - Warfare (SGW):

• Dark Savant: Warfare
• TOR Basics
• GMRG Rank X (2220 CFs, 10 PoBs)
• Practical:
  • Serve as M:FIST or higher for 6+ Months, or
  • Have the Following:
    • A total of 3500 Clusters of Fire
    • One of GN/SN/BN/CR-D/CR-R in a Gaming Competition (a comp requiring Fist approval)

Savant - Tactics (SVT):

• Dark Maven: Writing
• Dark Maven: Combat
• ACC Fundamentals
• ACC Qualification
• Complete 5 ACC matches
• Earn 30 CIs

Sage - Tactics (SGT):

• Dark Savant: Tactics
• Complete 25 ACC matches
• Earn 150 CIs
• Practical:
  • Serve as M:Voice, ACC Judge, or higher for 6+ Months, or
  • Have the following:
    • A total of 250 Clusters of Ice
    • One of GN/SN/BN/CR-D/CR-R in a Fiction Competition (a comp requiring Voice approval)

As you can probably tell, the primary goal here is to make fiction/ACC a viable alternative to gaming. It now has its own degree chain.

These changes are not final. The new combat studies courses in the works will be incorporated into these requirements when launched, possibly as part of a new Maven. Likewise, as the Fiction Society takes shape I will work with Shad to incorporate it into the Tactics line of degrees as the GMRG is incorporated into the Warfare line. If the CF/PoB/CI/ACC match numbers need to be tweaked further, they'll be adjusted. As always, feedback is appreciated.

The New Courses

First up, the rewritten Grammar Studies is live. Everyone loves grammar! Second, the total rewrite of Alchemy Studies based on the amazing new guide is complete! We're in the process of coding it to markdown and uploading it to the website. It should be available this week.

The Audit!

Audit work is progressing on both the Department of Writing Studies and the Department of Lore Studies.

Top Exam Takers!

Since my last report, the top five exam takers at the SA are:

Name	# of Exams
PRT Torin Ardell	41
PRT Vyrim	24
PRT Rhan Ocheron	23
PRT Vexander Graves	20
GRD Marcus Kiriyu	19

Great work, everyone!

Conclusion

As always, I'd like to close this report by asking for your help. The SA is a massive wall of text that covers ever-shifting topics and is prone to typos and run-on sentences. If you spot substantive or grammatical problems, please let me, Ood, and the course PROF know so that we can fix them ASAP. As we work through the Departments during the audit, we're also going to be asking for help reading and editing -- if you have any particular expertise, let us know when we announce the next Department being audited. There are shiny things available. :P

Bubba

Dark Side Adept Dacien Victae di Plagia
Headmaster of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood