30JULY11 - Ordo Weekly Meeting

[Vesper Akiri]

[17:58] Aryte Vesperia shouts: Meeting start. As a reminder: all questions, comments (etc) are to be held until given the opportunity to speak. When that opportunity is provided, be sure to raise your hands. Failure to do so may result in dismissal from the meeting.

[17:59] Aryte Vesperia: Statistics

Members: 314

Cadets: 7

Applications

New: 10

Accepted: 1

Denied:7

Review: 2

Combat

Defensive: 101

Offensive: 20

Allied Assist: 0

[17:59] Aryte Vesperia: Diplomatic notes for this week: overall, a fair increase in activity across the grid. There have been multiple, sizeable combat interactions—as it stands, it is looking like AN has won the award for being the most entertaining to assault. Their “no holds bar” attitude and use of nuclear weapons always makes me giggle in mirth when we’re bombing them from orbit.

[18:00] Aryte Vesperia: Erebus and Ordo are going to attempt to have a skirmishes—as their region is a homestead, we will focus on doing organized combat events, where half their force assaults here and half assaults there. Otherwise, it simply won’t be feasible: their region can only house 20 people. Erebus stands to be a fun combat zone, but their activity times are varied—we’ll do what we can.

[18:00] Aryte Vesperia: Unit reports this evening?

[18:00] Hollowmengitus Yifu raises FIST.

[18:00] Jeffery Worbridge: unf.

[18:01] Aryte Vesperia: Mr. Yifu?

[18:01] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: /b/: Nothing special this week minus the sit down and Aryte interrogates you for asking him questions evening yesterday. Raid attendance is pretty sturdy with small trainings here and there. As always I just want to say if you have any questions just feel free to poke me (unless you are mark) about any concerns or more insight for some of you about alpha centuries. Final note here make sure you are asking for prfs from your COs especially if you are new, noticing some of you guys haven’t had a single one filed which means no qp :<.

[18:02] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: Praescius: Been quite interesting week, Praescius started to join training with A-5 thanks to stirn letting us part take on his session. Also lauched our first official A-4 raid as a group to Raven raiders. Armor concept is coming along thanks to Tiridates Mikadze. We still have more room within A-4 contact Ookamiwulf Lemton, Kyra Vixen or Keller Teichmann.

<((_((crayola((_(()

[18:02] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: Saevitas: Another great week for A-5. Trainings have kicked off again and are better than ever, almost always including a mix match of the other Centuries and Cohors. Raids have also begun to pick up once more, overall it's been an active week for Saevitas.

[18:04] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: That Gay Invictus Squad: This week in Invictus our members noticed a 99.9% decrease of being syrupt from kiwi since his advancement! Overall it was a slow but definitely steady week with our raid counts but this coming week there will be an increased amount of opportunities to participate if feel the urge to kill more things so keep an eye out for notices, group chat or just be in the general vicinity of the station for announcements. Finally I have this funny feeling that Aryte may talk about a yearly group picture being taken on Sunday, I know this sounds farfetched, so make sure you get your formals fitted proper (in other words I will be checking Sunday prior to make sure your formals are correctly fitted) in the event for some reason we do have a photo taken.

Hollow: This is the gayest report I have ever read, due to the first sentence.

[18:05] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: Evalidus: Squad activity has been a little bit low this week. Usually we would offer cookies but in this case we offer broccoli and peanuts until we rise again. Also, Evalidus would like to welcome our newest member Frisk Yifu to our squad and hope everything good for him ! Keep your eyes open for notices and possible snatchs since we still have undefined squad meeting coming up. We are never gonna give you up and never gonna let you down !

[18:06] Hollowmengitus Yifu shouts: Insidiae: Lanny Ansar has joined the squad. He came over from Astra specifically to be a cool kid with us. Also, Bracket Crowley is the squad's Standard Bearer. This role holds great honor, and he'll take Insidiae's colors into battle whenever he's present. When we have a banner. :l Still working on it, but the role is created.

We're still looking for more fresh blood, so talk to either Krow Ames or Afevis Sodertelge to join. :D

[18:07] Hollowmengitus Yifu: Also, Terra Staff: Meeting tomorrow. Check Terra notices. Notify me if you cannot make it, please.

[18:07] Hollowmengitus Yifu: that's all for terra.

[18:07] Aryte Vesperia: Next?

[18:08] Ethan Schuman raises his hand for Astra.

[18:08] Aryte Vesperia: Mr. Schuman.

[18:08] Ethan Schuman shouts: I'm going to start off our weekly report with... fleet ships! Our beloved Imperator here has expressed a desire for us to field a navy again, so we'll proceeding with the design and production of them in the near future. There are currently three proposed classes of ships: frigates, cruisers, and battleships. Aryte has a plan (he's a cylon!) on how he wants to name them, but as that may change, I'll stay quiet about it for now. I will, however, say that each ship will be unique and commissioned with its own name. We (probably) won't be doing general issue ships. They'll be a big deal, so that translates to lots of QP/participation to get. I advise anyone interested to start saving now, and remember... they're only available to Astra (so get your transfer forms in now. ;) ).

[18:08] Ethan Schuman shouts: In other news, we've had some pretty decent news on the foreign front. Talks with AN happened. In addition to his general badassery at running Palaestra, Sebris has been in contact with 2142 and some other people. When Ratchet gets his internet fixed, we'll be hosting that event we had to reschedule when his internet went down. In the meantime, flights will continue their standard exercises and such. Things seem good for both Aquila and Reapers, with decent activity. As always, event hosting isn't limited to flight leaders. If you have something you want to know, just tell someone and we'll be happy to help.

[18:08] Ethan Schuman shouts: Lastly, welcome back, Nrom. It's good to see you again.

[18:08] Ethan Schuman shouts: ...woah, hey. I remembered to shout this week. That's all from us.

[18:09] Aryte Vesperia: Additional reports?

[18:09] Drasamax Python raises hand for IEA.

[18:09] Aryte Vesperia: Ms. Python.

[18:09] Drasamax Python shouts: From myself for The Imperial Education Administration: Not too many Schola classes this week again but there was a lot of Armatura classes almost if not all of them were held by Mikeo Amiot once again, so kudos to him for doing that. Reports turned in too.

[18:10] Drasamax Python shouts: We got some Schola/Armatura Magister applications recently so if we have not gotten back to those of you who submitted them we are probably still working on processing them or trying to find open spaces.

[18:10] Drasamax Python shouts: The NCO-A Academy Magister Application is still up under the "IEA Staff" section of the forums for current Magisters intrested in teaching the NCO-A. Not many applied so far so I'm hoping to see some more faces before we move on to the next step with it which is probably soon.

http://forums.ordoimperialis.com/index.php/topic/14184-iea-nco-a-academy-application/

[18:10] Drasamax Python shouts: And finally Schola/Armatura Magister Application found here:

http://forums.ordoimperialis.com/index.php?/topic/13701-iea-scholaarmatura-recruitment-application/

That is all from the Imperial Education Administration.

[18:12] Aryte Vesperia: Thank you. Any final reports?

[18:12] Acheron Gloom raises his huttser paw.

[18:12] Aryte Vesperia: Mr. Gloom.

[18:12] Acheron Gloom shouts: Tactica did great this week, excelling in multiple areas. Reports were filed, rules were updated - everything in order down at the raid board.

[18:13] Acheron Gloom shouts: Currently efforts are being directed toward multiple projects intended to improve how useful Tactica reports are to both raid leaders and raiders. Restructuring of the report system, possibly a few tools to aid in leading raids, and a new raid board are in the works.

[18:13] Acheron Gloom shouts: Additionaly Tactica continues to accept applications, so if you are interested check out this thread:
/>http://forums.ordoimperialis.com/index.php/topic/8814-applying-look-here/

[18:14] Aryte Vesperia: Thank you. Final call for reports.

[18:14] Aryte Vesperia: Moving right along.

[18:15] Aryte Vesperia: First up:

[18:15] Aryte Vesperia: > Thanks. :]

[18:15] Aryte Vesperia: Thank you to everyone who participated in the meet/greet yesterday. I had a lot of fun. It was amusing to see the questions that came and the answers that folks gave. We will definitely do that again!

[18:15] Aryte Vesperia: > Development

[18:16] Aryte Vesperia: Development, development. Always happy news in this department! First off: the Autocrat (Tyrant variant) has received strong reports in the beta stage and will be pending release. The weapon has performed excellent in both defense and offensive roles. The flak is extremely potent: we swatted AN’s air force out of the sky during an assault on Cabaret. To avoid abuse, the flak rounds have a distinctive color and are not to be deployed against ground targets.

[18:16] Aryte Vesperia: Titan Industries has a new item pending release: the C-14 Gauss Rifle. The C-14 is a cousin to the C-20—not as many bells and whistles, but it’s a workhorse. It is essentially our take on the basic Terran assault rifle, including a stimpack option. Haha. It will be available in the near future.

[18:18] Aryte Vesperia: Our new gunship is coming along nicely. It has been formally dubbed the “Malice class.” We are looking to see a completed model by the month’s end, if all continues on schedule. After the Malice is complete, Disembodied will be hammering out a couple quick projects (armor add ons, etc), before moving on to armor variants and meshing out the first of our new fleet vessels.

[18:19] Aryte Vesperia: If and when mesh goes live, we will be pursuing a two to three class of fleet grade vessels: frigates, cruisers, and dreadnaughts. Each fleet ship will be individually named, with proper christening and designation. They will serve as unique elements of the Ordo’s arsenal.

[18:20] Aryte Vesperia: HUD: all pieces complete. Anlysia is compiling it. It will be in release stages in the near future. Yay.

[18:20] Aryte Vesperia: > Forums

[18:20] Aryte Vesperia: The forums underwent a security and software update this week. The overall speed and functionality has increased significantly. Intus is hard at work installing the new skins and displays for folks. Please bear with us and deal with the white background (if it isn’t your usual, hah) for the time being..

[18:22] Aryte Vesperia: As a side note: please do make it a habit to check the forums semi-routinely. There is always a lot of important information placed there. We use the forums over group notices. So our day to day announcements, sign ups, etc are all typically on the forums. Group notices are reserved for special matters.

[18:22] Aryte Vesperia: The best way to keep on top of the forums is simply click “view new content,” browse through the topics you want, then “mark all read.” Even if you miss a hot topic, it’ll pop back up the next day from replies.

[18:23] Aryte Vesperia: Use and abuse the forums: there is a section for everyone and everything. Especially the policy area! The Ordo is a living group—our handbook is our foundation. Superseding or new policy always go into the “policy” area.

[18:24] Aryte Vesperia: TO ADD: [2011/07/30 18:22] DaveyDarkStrider Oh: Could you mention that with Kyra being out of action, any tactica/sim rule updates are usually best found on the forums :o

[18:24] Aryte Vesperia: > Recruitment

[18:25] Aryte Vesperia: IEA is hard at work processing cadets. For the first time in a long while, the queue is relatively clear. Now is a great time to tug any friends or acquaintances who have been pondering the Ordo—the turn around on their Schola and Armatura should be rather short.

[18:26] Aryte Vesperia: If anyone you know does apply be sure they add your name to their application as a voucher: it dramatically increases their chance of acceptance. Our recruitment standards put a lot of investment upon resources and testimony from existing members on their conduct.

[18:27] Aryte Vesperia: As a side note: if you /have/ recruited someone and they have passed Schola, be sure I am aware. You are eligible for the Recruitment merit and some QP.

[18:27] Aryte Vesperia: > Group Photo / Day Off

[18:28] Aryte Vesperia: Tomorrow is our monthly day off. We will use it as an opportunity to relax and have some light hearted fun. The scheduled matters that /are/ occurring are as follows:

[18:29] Aryte Vesperia: 1:00 PM: Group Photo – Formal Dress Expected

2:00 PM: Officer Meeting

[18:30] Aryte Vesperia: The rest of the day is open. We will likely host a few random trainings—I personally will be doing a musket/melee battle for giggles. You are all more than welcome to participate. Otherwise, we will likely have some board games out and random events throughout the day. Casual dress, aside from the group photo, is quite OK.

[18:30] Aryte Vesperia: The group photo will begin promptly at 1:00—we will have the stands set up this evening and the area outlined. We typically pull up to 70 people for each photo: expect it to be pretty laggy. I recommend you turn your graphics and such down ahead of time. I will be taking high-res photographs on my other desktop, as will other folks.

[18:32] Aryte Vesperia: > Keynote

[18:33] Aryte Vesperia: Tonight I would like to speak in regard the Ordo, our structure, and the growing pool of experienced personnel—specifically, the increasing number of OCA applicants and officer qualified individuals.

[18:35] Aryte Vesperia: To our credit: the Ordo has the luxury of having a strong supply of qualified individuals to perform the role of officer. This is, for the most part, only a benefit. The down side to it comes in the way of perceived stagnation and the time by which it takes to appoint an officer. Officer roles are exclusive to the availability of positions—they are regulated specifically to a ratio, with the intent not to exceed more than 15% of the group ranking in the administratio.

[18:36] Aryte Vesperia: As such, officer roles only open when our numbers increase, an officer retires, or an officer steps down. As most officers have tenure over a year, the latter two options are a rarity. Certainly, the benefit of having an old, experienced officer staff far outweighs the negative aspects of potential perceived stagnation for senior NCOS—but negativity itself should be avoided. Thus, we have several elements to explore.

[18:37] Aryte Vesperia: Foremost: stagnation at the upper NCO ranks can occur at times, especially in the event that an [E-7] opts to explore the [O-1] route, rather than seeking [E-8]. The current metric of rating for promotion, the OCA packet and interviews, has helped significantly, but over time the pool of “OCA qualified” individuals has built up. As of current, we are sitting at about a dozen qualified applicants looking to move out of NCO and into officer staff roles. This creates a bit of a waiting game, in which an [E-7] either waits for a spot to open, or pursues increasing involvement through separate divisions (IEA, Curia, etc). Greater involvement tends to give the candidate a more competitive edge when a spot arises, as such; those who make use of their “wait time” fair dramatically better in the overall system.

[18:40] Aryte Vesperia: The dangerous part of the wait is the exhaustion element that may follow: either the candidate could decide it’s taking too long and give up hope, or after obtaining the position, realize they’ve exhausted themselves and no longer have the drive to maintain the position. Although this occurrence is relatively rare, it is notable enough to speak of for the sake of awareness. As such, it is suggested to candidates that they dig in for the long haul, but be careful about overburdening themselves—demonstrate prowess, but avoid over extension. Members who can weather the wait are nearly guaranteed a position in the long run, provided they do not allow the wait to become a hindrance to their goals.

[18:41] Aryte Vesperia: Structurally, the group could potentially be served with a re-invent of a warrant-officer, or “officer trainee” position—a quasi NCO with some officer like powers, without full investment into the officer staff. Something that could, in essence, house OCA qualified individuals as they wait, while continuously grooming them for the eventual appointment. The idea looks and sounds good on paper, but in practice it will be necessary to determine what the difference between an NCO/Officer and a warrant is, otherwise it’d simply be a glorified NCO rank in which the individual will continue their wait.

[18:42] Aryte Vesperia: Time will tell whether or not a warrant role will be once again devised. However, any NCO or officer aspirant should take heed: be certain you are ready to dig in, stay positive, and keep at it. You will accomplish your goal if you put your mind to it and are willing to demonstrate commitment of time to reach it. :]

[18:44] Aryte Vesperia: Meet you all there! Dismissed.