Drafters: Problem: Currently, on several ships, there are individuals in Assistant positions, whose performance is better than their counterparts in the full position on those ships. Also, there is little to no communication between vessels, thus hindering the migration of assistants to full positions on other vessels. We currently do not have any procedures to deal with these types of issues or anything regarding assistant verses full positions. Solution: 1) Procedures should be drafted for these problems and others which COs see potential for regarding the issue of assistant positions. 2) The Assistant Positions should be done away with on a fleet wide level, allowing each new candidate to be judged based on their own skills rather than those who are above or below them in their respective departments. Pros: 1) Procedures will give the COs something to use, a tangible set of rules, when making decisions on the assistant and/or full positions. 2) Would allow each individual to be judged on their own skills without having to 'compete' for the full position. Cons: 1) Adding bureaucracy will not necessarily solve the problems, should a CO decide to evade or ignore such procedures. An over abundance of procedures can weigh down a CO on the administrative side, as they would have to watch what rules they needed to fool with, and therefore could hinder them from writing, which is, after all the reason they are here. 2) There may be too many officers and not enough ships/COs. This was the original purpose of opening the positions in the first place. NOTES: This is a very serious matter, at least in my opinion. Since we have instigated these positions, I have seen several situations which have frustrated the CO, and caused them to make drastic movements which might not have been to the best interest of the ship. For example; an Operation Officer might be posting within the limits of the game (1 post a week), but the rest of their ship could be posting far more often and with greater caliber. When would we make the decision to remove them, or to demote them? That is an issue which causes a great deal of heartache on the CO. Other instances, for example, might be that your assistant engineer is out posting your full engineer, yet they both meet the criteria for posting, how can you as a CO make the call to swap them, and what RP ramifications does this cause for the ship, and the crew? Votes: Outcome: Failed, Closed. |