New Hires

I received fifteen applications for Praetor and/or Magistrate in response to my last report. It took me quite a while to carefully read all of the applications and make my selections. In the end, I don't think my Praetor pick will shock anyone: Farrin Xies will be picking up where legendary man-tree Ood Bnar left off. Farrin has been a constant presence in the core Shadow Academy staff since my first month on the job, and he is one of the most competent and hard working people I've had the pleasure to know in this club. He's done alright for himself outside the Shadow Academy, too, I guess. And don't worry, Tarentum, I'm not stealing your CONman away from you; he will continue to serve as Consul, at least until Beef arranges an "accident."

Next up, my new Magistrate! The first of my six month term-limited M:HMs is Rhace Tarrin, better known as Mirus. He has jumped right into the job, fixing up a course he originally wrote: Graphics in the Brotherhood. His next task is to work on finalizing(ish) revisions to the Lightsaber courses. He'll also be grading as needed, and participating in discussions of other SA projects that I will mention below.

One down, one to go

Last month, I stated that I'd be opening Farrin's Magistrate spot up for applications in February. The time has now come! Here are the basics, lifted from my last report:

This will be a six-month term starting as soon as I hire someone and ending mathemagically six months later (roughly). The duties will include:

• Grading late exams (sitting in queue past 24 hours)
  
• Writing and editing course notes and exams, including both new courses and course revisions
  
• Auditing old courses! With so many structural and canon changes, many of our current courses are at least slightly inaccurate or out-of-date, and I'm reviving the lovely audit to fix it.
  

This is a test run and we'll see how it goes. If you're interested, send me and Farrin an application no later than 11:59pm EST, February 20. If you already applied for P or M:HM last month and still want to be considered for this new opening, please resend your application (and feel free to update it).

Projects

There's a lot to do. Farrin is going to take the lead on revamping (again) the Department of History courses to make them conform to new canon, though changes to the two DJB History courses will be minimal until we have guidance on the future of the DJB's history (right?) from Darth Loremaster and the other guy.

Along with the Voice staff and Samael, my staff will begin the hard work of revising the whole Department of Writing Studies to fit a single "curriculum" aimed at teaching new members (or old members who care to learn) how to approach writing in the DJB. The Dark Sage - Writing might be revived as a sort of capstone course for this new program. I hope to have some good progress to report next month.

Finally, we're at the very early stages of redesigning the structure of the SA. It's too early to give any real specifics, but my two goals are: 1) make the SA easier for new members to navigate; and, 2) make more efficient use of the whole SA staff. This is likely to be a phased project, with some ideas seeing quick implementation while others are cast aside. Any changes will be announced in advance.

Top Exam Takers!

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

Name	# of Exams	# of Academic Credits
Hunter Blade Ta'var	38	71
Hunter Quo-Wing-Tzun	37	87
Hunter Alara Deathbane	36	83
Acolyte Janos Stormwind	35	37
Acolyte Lilith Stormwind	30	27

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, Farrin, and the course PROF know so that we can fix them ASAP. We always appreciate help reading and editing -- if you have any particular expertise or spot problems, please reach out. There are shiny things available. :P

Bubba

Adept Dacien Victae di Plagia
Headmaster of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood