Reporter Issue 35

Reporter Issue 35
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Issue Number: 35 Issue Date: 237702.04 Editor: Captain Lang Vedoc
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A FEW CHANGES TO THE WAY UFOP IS RUN By RAdm Marlin

As many of you will be aware the UFOP fleet was sub-dividedinto two seperate sub-fleets, each based at a different Starbase. We created a smaller decision making body called UFOP Executive Command(UEC). Recently we have been reviewed these change seeing how well they worked. The fleet division was not really benefitting the group. It has been decided therefore to re-unify the fleets again, so that we all feel like one community: onegroup. We are all now one fleet again.

The UEC idea worked very well, but there were still a few problems. To that end, we have created a Captains Council, with all ship captains on it. The elected leader of the Captains Council is a full member of the UEC.

The UEC is body which decides group policy and discusses important group issues, such as launching new ships and promoting people Commander and above. The Captains Council is a place for captains to discuss issues and bring topics for the UEC to discuss.

How does this affect you, as a member? You won't directly notice much difference at all, but you can sim, safe in the knowledge that the UFOP group is run more efficiently than ever before, bringing you the best possible simming experience. A lot of people have said that they feel out of touch with the UEC. To remedy this, the UEC holds a meetings on the first Sunday of every month on IRC, 90 minutes after the Eurochat starts. All members are welcome to attend and meet with the UEC to bring up matters important to you. You can read more about the UEC and Captains Council, including the current membership, on the website at -

http://www.starbase118.net/council.htm

Turning briefly to the fleet as a whole, we are doing well. Our ship count has been inaccurate for some time, because some ships had very small crew sand were not simming regularly, and these ships have been deactivated and their crews re-distributed among the fleet. Although it may seem we suddenly seemed to lose a lot of ships, in reality there was no cause for panic, we had been expecting this for some time. We have eight fully staffed vessels now, and are turning over recruits at a steady pace once again, so much so that I would anticipate a new addition to our fleet over the coming months. The new year is one full of hope and promise as the world embraces the opportunities offered by a new century. Here in UFOP we too can look ahead to the promise offered by a new start.

NEW STARDATE SYSTEM

With the start of the New Year UFOP will be altering its Stardate system slightly. This change will make our stardates reflect the actual ST year we are in. The dates look better and yet are still very simple to figure out.

As you may or may not be aware UFOP is set just after the end of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. The current UFOP year is 2377 (The DS9 finale was set near the end of 2376), and so to make it more obvious which year we are simming in, instead of including the real year in our stardates (i.e. 2000) we will include the simming year (2377).

As with the old system you will still use the real month and date in the Stardate too, for example, if you are writing a sim on the 21st February 2000, and you want to write that days Stardate in your sim, it will be:

Stardate: 237702.21

Format: yyyymm.dd -

   *

     yyyy = year = 2377
   *

     mm = month = February = 02
   *

     dd = date = 21st = 21

As you can see the format is still very simple. There are several advantages to it over the old format. If you are unsure about anything regarding the new system, please contact your captain or a member of the UEC. There is a new page on the website about this new stardate system:

http://www.starbase118.net/stardate.htm

The current Stardate is shown on the main menu of the website all of the time.

SHIPS LOGS

The UFOP: Official Ship Logs message board compliments the Star Base 118 message board by providing space for In Character posting. The posting of monthly mission updates for each ship and installation, along with other In Character messages, shall contribute to the enjoyment and communication within the UFOP. Any OOC questions, suggestions, or ideas should still be directed to the UFOP: Star Base 118 Message Board.

http://www.insidetheweb.com/mbs.cgi/mb328008

NEW FLEET OOC MAILING LIST

A new mailing list has been created to offer all of UFOP's members the opportunity to chat, without the need to sign on at a specific time. This gives every member the opportunity to chat with each other no matter where you serve in the fleet. The list can be used for discussion about anything from simming in general, to Star Trek related topics or even to ask advice on what people thing is t he ideal time to boil an egg. There are no set topics, and you can discuss anything. As always, common sense rules apply, and we will not allow vulgarity, pornographic links, hate mail etc. to be sent. The list is based on voluntary membership, which means you will not be added unless you add yourself, and once added you will not be removed unless you remove yourself.

Thankfully joining and leaving the list is very simple, just send a blank email to: ufop-ooc-subscribe@egroups.com

To leave: ufop-ooc-unsubscribe@egroups.com

So what are you waiting for? Subscribe today and keep in touch with the entire fleet!

FOCUS ON THE FLEET

"He's Dead Jim" (excerpts and comments from Star Trek Magazine)

Most people think a crewman in the red shirt died in every episode of ST:TOS. A little research shows it is not quite so simple.

We haven't counted anybody who wasn't serving on the Enterprise, so, for example our survey doesn't cover engineer Vandenberg from "The Devil in the Dark." Nor are the countless kills before Kirk and Spock arrive counted. We should also mention that only those actually seen being killed are counted. The results show that being a member of Kirk's crew wasn't quite as dangerous as you might assume. In 79 episodes only 34 of the 400 (under 10%) crewmembers were killed. And sometimes no crewmembers died at all. The statistics are skewed from 17 shows which were virtual bloodbaths.

Not all of those killed were redshirts either. Of the 34 killed, 6 were science officers, and 4 were gold shirt wearing command personnel (although yellow shirts never die on the planet). Another fact is that there have never been any kills scored by Klingons or Romulans in the old series.

Serving on other ships was even more dangerous. In the shows three-year history, the entire crews of the Intrepid, and Excalibur were killed off, and serious damage to the Lexington and Potemkin. Look at it that way, it seems that working for Capt. Kirk wasn't that bad after all.

From the Admiral's Desk

It's been a long hard year for UFOP, but the "new millenium" (I know, I know...) looks to hold promise for a brighter time.

As most of you probably know the UFOP lost one of our most valuable staff members, Elinor, early in the year. Over the summer, Rear Admiral Marlin was on an internship in Siberia or something (Germany, really...) where he didn't have the chance to update the webpages. In the past month, the command staffs have been attempting to restructure UFOP for work to happen more efficiently. Now we enter the new year more productive, and more able to make UFOP a better community for the most important people: the members. (That is, all of you.)

Before I forget, there's a lot of people I want to thank for the success that UFOP's had up to this point. I don't know which one of them to thank first, so I'll go in alphabetical order.

Marlin: Rear Admiral Shaun Marlin has worked countless hours in attempt to keep fleet 118, and the web pages together. Along with his tireless devotion to keeping UFOP's web presence clean and spiffy, he's also put time aside to help with the flow of new cadets finding their way into our academy. Thank you for all of your work Shaun!!

Randor: Rear Admiral Ciara Randor may be what saved UFOP after Elinor left us. Whether you Elinor or not, her legacy lives on as a worker who was willing to do the drudgery that no one else wanted to do, for the sake of UFOP. Randor has lived up to this, and has found her own place in all of our hearts here at UFOP. Without her, things would have been a lot worse these last few months. For all of the things that you were willing to do when no one else was, thank you Randor! And enjoy your "vacation". (Randor's decided to take some time off from administration work to deal solely with her ship. She deserves it!)

The Captains of UFOP: For sticking it out through the rocky times, you all deserve the highest of praise!! That's right members, these guys (and gals, for that matter) actually DO work a lot. You just don't get to see it because they mess around so much in SIMs. :P But none-the-less, without the Captains, I'd have to SIM for 10 ships, which just wouldn't work. I have a hard enough time SIMming for one... but enough on me. Thank you so very much for your devotion to UFOP Captains!!

Other Staff Members: Just because someone's not actually captaining a ship, doesn't mean that they don't deserve some praise. I'm not going to mention names here because I know I'll forget people, but thank you to the staff members who have taken on the tough jobs like training and web tasks. You help support the base which UFOP is built on.

And finally, to all you members out there: Way to be. You've helped make UFOP what it is today, which is one of the best places to SIM in the universe. May the new year bring all of you hours of enjoyment with your fellow-crewmembers.

So there you have it: The people who make UFOP. In the next year, you can expect an award ceremony or two (finally, right?), better chats, an OOC e-mail list (totally voluntary, I assure you), and many more great projects. Hey, if you'd like to volunteer some time to make our group better, just e-mail me. I'll point you in the right direction. My address is <wolf530@bigfoot.com>

Welcome to the new year, the new century, and maybe even the new millenium depending on how you look at it!

Editor's Corner

I am sure that you can see a drastic difference in the look of the Reporter. It can look better. How? Well it all depends on YOU!

What we need is for you to submit your art, stories, ideas, comments, game and book reviews to Captain Lang Vedoc at vedoc@hotmail.com. Just put REPORTER in the subject line and see it in the next REPORTER.

I have also been working on designs. However, I need to know whether you would rather just view the reporter on the web (where I can make it look more like a magazine) or whether you want your reporter via email (where I will try to make it as small a file as possible). Give me your comments and suggestions.

Of course, we can't print everything -- questions to the UEC should be sent to the UEC first, so that they can resolve any problems you have; pornography is just a no-no; and no one should be writting anything you wouldn't want your mother to read.