MAA Report - Be Learned
My first Master-at-Arms report in which I introduce myself, announce applications, and discuss future plans and intentions in the office. Standby for cool report graphics once completed.
Man...I really need to create a cool "Rolling News Banner" image.........
Introduction
Who’s On Second
I’m Aabsdu Dupar (5580) and am super excited about this opportunity. I joined the DJB in May 2005 during the hype of Revenge of the Sith. While I’ve never been able to locate the post, I’m pretty sure I saw the DJB linked on a StarWars.com blog. I’m a rather different person now and consider my stronger traits loyalty, the ability to take criticism, and not make things personal.
For those who do not know me, I have served most of my Brotherhood career in Clan Plagueis — my recent stint as Consul marked my third time in the position. I was PCON under Sarin back in the day and learned a lot about leadership from him. I was Headmaster for a bit over two years. I absolutely loved being Headmaster, love the Shadow Academy, and loved taking part in the Dark Council. I’m grateful to Muz for giving me a second opportunity.
I went Rogue in 2011 due to college and returned October 2013 because I felt a desire to start writing more. When I came back, I made a personal pledge to not take things too seriously and always remember that everyone here is volunteering their time to hang out with Star Wars fans on the internet and have fun. That’s the key philosophy for me — have fun. I intend to make sure the MAA Office upholds this ideal. If all of you aren’t having fun, if you’re getting upset because some policy is screwing over your next promotion, that’s a problem I want to solve.
Um…That Chair Looks New
First, I want to extend huge thanks to Kalen for his time as Master-at-Arms, especially the part where he hired Malik, Evant, and myself as Magistrates. Absolutely everyone in the DB relies on the MAA Office to be streamlined and efficient, so the job comes with a chunk of pressure. I’ve been interested in the MAA system for years, but without the past eight months of guidance I would not have been suited for the post.
Now, what do I intend to do differently? I’m going to discuss projects/policies in another section/future reports, but here’s a quick breakdown on some commitments I want to make.
- Monthly MAA Reports - Each of these will outline current projects as well as list what the office considers exceptional reccs from the past month. I want everyone, especially leaders, to study good reccs and learn what they look like. While you’re at it, take the new Leadership: Rewards Shadow Academy course.
- The MAA Saga - I enjoy writing and developing a fictional track. I’m not the Voice, but I’m still going to flex my fingers by putting together an MAA Fiction topic on Discourse where I will post fictional updates relating to my position. These will come at least once a month in my report, but I’ll only link the thread, not take up space with fiction on the news page. My hope is to use this to continue character development while also generating some MAA development.
- MAA Competitions - Did you know that I can both approve and create competitions? Mind blowing, but I want to run at least one a month to give everyone the chance to interact with the office in a way that isn’t so edge of your seat. Some will be simple stuff, some will coordinate with other Dark Council positions. Some will be individual, some will be unit based. Some might just tie in to the ongoing MAA fictional storyline. I don’t want the MAA to be a humdrum of approvals and denials.
Thus…I’m announcing the first MAA competition - Unit Rewards [August]. Starting today through the end of August, I want to encourage everyone to take the Leadership: Rewards Shadow Academy course. At the end of the month, the clouse with the best passing ratio (# of passed members against total members in the house) will win a special prize. Hint - the MAA, fictionally, is the commander of the Antei Fleet, so…the prize might be a small ship of some kind. People who have already passed the course count toward the ratio, but that’s only eleven people so far. Get on it!
Help Wanted
Kalen recently rewarded Malik and Evant with Sapphire Blades for eight stellar months as Magistrates, and they are well earned. The three of us worked hard and got along great, and they are both helping in this transition. I am instituting a new system of MAA staffing in which the assistants positions will rotate similar to the Chamber of Justice. The purpose is to give more members the opportunity to learn the inner workers of the office and gain higher level leadership experience.
I am opening applications for a single Praetor position and at least one Magistrate position. The Praetor will serve a one year term and hold power equal to the MAA when I am unavailable to give opinion (which shouldn’t happen anyways). The minimum rank here is Dark Jedi Knight/Jedi Knight with at least BTL experience.
Magistrates will hold a six month term, and I want to encourage younger members without as much leadership experience to apply. The minimum rank for Magistrate is Jedi Hunter/Padawan. This position is meant to be an educational one.
Applications should include a small amount of background on yourself as well as a few points of what you see as MAA strengths and weaknesses. Also, those applicants who have passed the Leadership: Rewards Shadow Academy course may or may not stand a better chance. Email applications to [Log in to view e-mail addresses] by 6 August 2014.
Forward Unto Dawn
Future reports will go into more detail about projects and policy updates. Right now my primary tasks are to smooth over the various transitions that come when a Consul moves to the Dark Council. I will, however, outline a few "things to consider" that I included in my application.
- Sacramental/EQ Promotion Turnarounds need to be faster - to this end, I want to encourage leaders who are putting together reccs for high end medals and promotions to do so in a Google doc that is shared with my staff. We love this because it allows us to give line item feedback in a more conducive environmental than a remand comment. Also remember, as always, that how a recc is written matters - fluff makes us think you’re hiding a lack of content, and lists make us think you’re exaggerating a lack of content. Be specific when discussing "this ongoing project Mancy has been giving advice on," and words like "yet to be released" and "still in the works" should be followed up with why the request is so important now.
- Journeyman Merit Medals - Dark Crosses are pretty easy to grab these days, yet our Double Dipping Policy makes a Dark Cross difficult to give that Protector who has been blasting through Shadow Academy courses like a boss. Trust me, I’ve heard plenty of complaints about this as a Magistrate and I remember those complaints moving into MAA.
- Vendetta Titles - Many of these still need to be researched and awarded, so I’m going to get this project wrapped up.
- Dossier Restoration - Has been going on for a while, but I’m going to wrap this project up for good and, per Muz’s words, once completed the MAA will not allow any old stuff to transfer.
- Vendetta Standards - Did you hear about that GJW coming up? When it arrives, the MAA Office will release standards on how many events warrant which medals. Obviously, additionally activity can be grouped on, but there will be a standard.
Reccs to Look At
This section will include a few requests from the past month that my staff considers exemplary examples (redundant?). Leaders should take note of what we consider satisfactory and learn from them. I also intend to start linking good request examples to the Wiki pages of medals and promotion requirements as permanent past precedent. Credit for the Wiki linking idea goes to Evant, by the way.
TL;DR
- Hi, I’m Aabs, and I’m a medal addict.
- MAA reports, MAA competitions, MAA fictions!
- Unit with best pass ratio on Leadership: Rewards SA course wins a prize
- Apply to be an MAA Praetor or Magistrate
- I’ve heard what you don’t like and intend to address the concerns
MAA Resources
- Promotion Guidelines
- Medal Statistics
- Rank Statistics
- Leadership: Rewards SA Course
- The MAA Saga
- My Email: [Log in to view e-mail addresses]
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Aabs, I can't express how much I love everything in this report.
Welcome aboard, we're glad to have you, and I am mega hype to see what you do with this position. Congratulations!
Great report! Love to see somebody bringing a eye to why the office does things to go along with the day to day nitty gritty. :)
Nice update...let the reign of aabzilla begin?
Damn! This is one of the best MAA reports that I have ever seen. I really like to see constructive comments from Dark Council staff on recommendations - it really does help those who wish to better their recommendation-writing skills.
1) Good. Report more. Harder. Faster.
2) A ship for a competition? Er, I think I missed something? Can you explain that?
3) "and lists make us think you’re exaggerating a lack of content" --- Can that be clarified as well?
Aabs,
Great report, brother. I don't think we're going to give away ships for a regular competition though. It's a bit unbalanced given how hard everyone's worked over the last couple years for what they have in their fleets. What we've been doing is awarding Fleet Points and those only for Vendetta-level events.
I am always up for trying new things though. Maybe we can work out another type of cool prize for your competition?
Nice stuff, partner.
Thanks for the update Aabs. I'll be... interested.. in seeing how some of these experiments play out. Either way, I'm super stoked that we'll be seeing a faster turnaround time from the MAA Office.
My only concern is the rotating staff idea. Master at Arms is an administrative position where experience with the job weighs heavily on your ability to properly approve and remand/deny requests. If new people are constantly being funneled in and trained from scratch, won't there be regular drops in quality and output whenever there is a switch? This would, most likely, be exacerbated by the new focus on running/judging competitions and trying to put out regular fictional updates, all of which take quite a bit of time and effort.
Haha, all da criticism! Welcome to MAA, Aabs :P
Raken: Didn't the DC give away actual ships in the past? I thought that's where Tarentum got that VSD that it stopped using.
Also, I suffered through that damn exam (the first SA exam I've bothered taking in ages), so that should say something about how enticing a ship or fleet points for HOU is. Moar please.
I can say, having worked with you in the SA, I'm excited for you in your new position Aabs. Kalen was a great MAA, but I think you're going to do as well if not better.
Pretty sure ships were only "given away" for placing or winning vendettas, or wagering them (in the very, very early years) in Clan Feuds :P And, of course, in one of the many "fleet resets"... though that was more of a trading thing.
What criticism? Aabs put out some good info. People expressed concerns with the way things will change. Understandable.
Once upon a time, ships were straight-up Vendetta rewards. The higher you placed, the better the ship your unit earned. We improved upon that by moving to points, earned by participation and not placement, so everyone eventually earns some nice things to play with. Far as I know, ships have never been given away for non-Vendetta events nor would we start now.
As Shad said, ships were given for placing in GJWs or could be wagered in Clan feuds.
Good help-out, Mal. Thank you.
Woo, I can win a ship! I'll name it the Water Beetle.
Everyone in the winning unit gets a GLS! Problem solved.
d9
!(http://cdn.meme.li/instances/500x/53037909.jpg)
Well that messed up. Damned Markdown. Let's try this again?
I suck at this.
For the reward thing: Could the MAA office just give away a squadron of fighters? They're not worth that many points, after all, and they won't make a massive difference in terms of naval strength - especially if it's a squadron of say TIE Advanced.
Does this mean he will take views seriously? So I can say that earning POB's is too heavily balanced on PC Users and not enough for Console users? Whoop!!
Getting back on topic from memes:
Lexiconus-- That's something that could be brought up with the Fist Staff, actually, as it relates to Gaming and their reward tables.
I'll be the one to say that a fleet award of any kind for ratio on a SA exam is not a good idea.
Firstly, we're only getting rolling AWOL checks going on now, and have not had a chance to clear dead weight from rosters in months. This means that units with bigger rosters are, as usual, fighting against a higher curb that is not actually representative of the active membership base.
I believe when Sarin ran the ACC Qualification competition, he offered a custom venue for the winning unit. This was a very nice incentive award, but it was not something that offered any real "power" change like awarding a ship would. Especially when it's simply for getting people to take a SA exam and then dividing that number arbitrarily by the units roster number. Winning a war is not the same as taking Shadow Academy exams. (no offense, SA team)
Secondly,
I actually think that rotating staff is a very good idea. However, If I could add a potential adjustment to Aabs' proposal: the Praetor to the MAA should be the a.) successor to the position and b.) something of a long-term position. By having this, you cover the realistic range of the MAA's life/DB balance. Meanwhile, you keep the magistrates on the 6th month rotation instead--with the magistrates focusing on the every-day medals and lower-tier promotions that are more tight to guidelines. The great part about rotating these positions would be that members or even new leaders could have chances to work directly with the MAA staff. In doing this, and through mentoring and training from (presumably) the MAA/Praetor, when a member left the Magistrate position, they would be bringing that first-hand knowledge BACK to their respective unit. Through educating first hand, we expand the awareness of how the Promotion/Medal system is run, and in the end it creates better synergy moving forward.
Wally's points are valid. I think if implemented correctly, they might help improve some of the discourse in the club about medals and promotions.
Especially if the rotating pile of magistrates are paired with larger discussions between all members of the club.
Awesome report! =)
Love the subtle Halo reference in the report and the meaning of it. Good luck with the new position.
Great report boss
Aabsdu 2016!
I'm so popular now! Thanks everyone for the kind words. I don't consider any of this harsh or critical.
The Special Prize I had intended was some sort of simple pleasure yacht or something, but lines of communications were crossed. That said, I promise the Dark Council is brainstorming an MAA special prize as cool as a custom ACC venue. I'm going to make sure it is cool and worth something to the unit that wins it.
Howie -- by "lists exaggerating" I'm partially being fancy with wording but also stressing our dislike of just giving a straight list of activity in reccs. It shows no personality, for start, and is sometimes used to create a fat paragraph of activity that actually equates to a just a bit of competition participation (still good activity but possibly over floated for the reward). More so I just took an opportunity for a rhyming sentence.
Shad -- The concern of consistency with rotating positions is known to us. My initial response is that the MAA is the one providing the constant through line. Additionally, I imagine having a short time where the current Magistrate helps the incoming.
Thirdly, I only imagine running one competition a month and maybe one or two small fiction updates. I don't expect either to take significant time away from current MAA duties. Also remember tasks are divided up amongst staff in ways to be determined.
Tarax -- I truly laughed at those memes lol
Lexi -- I hear the concern about console gaming and will add it to my list of things to email people about in the near future. That realm is ultimately the Fist's, but I'll keep it in mind.
Wally -- Right now, everyone should apply to Praetor as a one year term. One year is a long time, so maybe things are so fantabulous that I make it permanent. But apply with a one year intention.
That'll do, Aabs. That'll do. You may have a victory cherry.
Word.
Dru steals Aabs victory cherry
Aabs lost his cherry to Dru???? Don't think that is too victorious.