Officer updates:
Coop83 has accepted the position of Second Lieutenant CBO, meaning that the role of Emergency Command Officer is vacant. While the ECO slot is very unlikely to be needed (even third-in-command only came into play rarely), it still needs to be held by an experienced member of the Barracks, with high stats, good posts, and the wisdom needed to run the thread. All command positions must be filled by those I could envision leading the Barracks should the higher-ups get hit by cars or something.
While I could have brought this to a vote, I decided that I need to be kind of monarch-ish about command positions, so I looked through the roster to try and find the perfect candidate. I succeeded. Since RohantheBarbarian has accepted the offer, he's now the Emergency Command Officer. Congratulations. :-D
As for the other positions:
1. Recruitment Officer
The position will not be dispelled, but rather folded in to the position of Chief Barracks Officer, since I've been the Recruitment Officer even longer than I've led the Barracks and I have no problem or difficulty in doing the job. Should I ever step down/disappear, the next commanding officer who takes my place can do it themselves as I did, or assign the position to someone else.
2. Advancement Officer
The original purpose of the position was to help on-the-cusp recruits become outstanding Barracks members, though the mechanics of the role were rather unclear. How we deal with this position depends on a few variables. First, some things to consider.
A. Lotus is inactive in the EGB, though he'd likely get active again if the position was clarified.
B. With the increased scrutiny in recruitment procedures, most people who would need a "boot camp" wouldn't be accepted in the first place.
C. With the increased whistle requirements, otherwise acceptable potential recruits may need help bringing their whistle to Bronze.
Possible solutions include ditching the position altogether and just being more strict, or heavily modifying it. However, I had an idea that might work out even better.
We get rid of the boot camp concept and instead have the role deal with improving the whistle levels of normal-whistled and otherwise acceptable recruits; however, since that role is rather small and specific, it might be better to go the whole nine yards and make the position deal with helping ALL Barracks members, new or old, improve their whistles. The role would change from Advancement Officer to, perhaps, Review Violations Officer; a counterpart for the Portal Violations Officer. While the Portal Violations Officer helps Barracks members find whistle-worthy flash, most of us know that when you're working on your whistle, you focus on reviews, as that's a much faster way to power up.
This officer would control the abusive review thread in the EGB forums: deleting spent links, explaining when a review is not truly abusive (or borderline enough that it should be left alone), and posting their own findings. They would also be in charge of reporting extreme cases of abuse (death threats, link spammers, etc) to a review mod, so that only one Barracks member is pestering them with it instead of half of us.
If this idea is acceptable to most Barracks members, we can move on to selecting a candidate for the position. There's an obvious choice for the role, but since he's got other duties and it might be a sort of conflict of interest, I'll wait and see if he volunteers (he damn well knows who he is, the shiny blam-surpassing bastard). If not, we can do application/nomination/voting.
3. Portal Violations Officer
This role is current held by phantomlassuk, who is active in the EGB and continues to report stolen/unsuitable flash on a regular basis, and thus there's no need to consider anyone else for it. However, we should consider an initial idea for the Violations Officer that never really took off; a list of those reported findings, which is periodically checked for deletions and survivors. Deleted flashes are removed from the list, keeping it accurate, and surviving flashes are re-examined. Examination would include PM'ing the submitter (and the suspected original source submitter, if found, whether on NG or through any other form of contact) and checking out the submitter's other activities. Cases of reasonable doubt are removed from the list, and those cases that we still highly believe to be stolen can be re-reported. The investigation process wouldn't be solely on the shoulders of the Portal Violations Officer; the entire Barracks can lend a hand, though only the officer follows up on the findings (to prevent multiple PM's to Wade).
Assuming phantomlassuk is willing to take on this duty, and other Barracks members approve, I'll set up the list in the EGB forums and give her mod access to that section of the forums.
4. NGPD Liaison
RohantheBarbarian wishes to continue in this position, so there's no need to change anything. I'd like to recommend that Barracks members make an effort to involve themselves in the NGPD, much as we encourage NGPD members to involve themselves here. Lurk, at the very least, and post if the fancy (or need) strikes you. Just remember that you're only visiting.
The idea of Guardsmen---NGPD members who intend to join the Barracks upon rank-up being quasi-members of the EGB---is something we should also encourage. It helps both to prepare the future recruit in EGB ways and helps us learn about them at the same time. Guardsman also have limited EGB forums access.
5. NGDD Liaison
While we have NGDD members in our ranks, we've never really had a lot of cross-contact between our two groups. Volunteers for this position would have to be active in both groups and encourage cross-membership and collaboration (such as sharing suspected whistle-worthy stuff in both threads). If you feel up for this, speak up and be heard.
6. Wartime Positions
Not needed at this time. If the award stealing continues, however, this may have to change.
