StarBase 118 Group History: Difference between revisions

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Our community began its existence in June of 1994 as a 'Live' Star Trek SIMulation, held in AOL chatrooms. Within the next six months, the crew of the two ships, the {{USS|Phoenix|B}} and the {{USS|Alliance}}, decided to move over to a '[[Play-by-Email]] SIMming' (PBEM) format. In this field, and with a new web presence, the group began to grow, slowly at first, and then more rapidly later. Today, [[UFOP: StarBase 118]] is one of the longest established Star Trek RPG groups on the internet.

Formerly, the group's administration was run by the '''UFOP High Council''', which consisted of all officers ranking Captain or higher. This system worked well for the first several years of the club's existence, until the fleet size swelled to 14 vessels and the High Council became ineffective at solving problems. The proverb ''too many cooks spoil the broth'' quickly comes to mind. To remedy the problems of the High Council, the group restructured its command in September 1999. The largest change was that the High Council was replaced by the '''UFOP Executive Command''' (UEC), and the UFOP fleet was divided into two sub-fleets. Rear Admiral {{n|Shaun|Marlin}} took command of one sub-fleet, while Rear Admiral Randor took command of the other. The goal of this change was to make administration of the fleet easier, by allowing smaller groups to work together.

After a few months of working in the new system several problems were highlighted. In an attempt to solve these problems, a few more administrative changes were introduced in late December 1999. These changes re-unified the UFOP fleet and created a single '''[[Captains Council]]'''. The Captains Council replaced the previous sub-fleet councils to serve as a single discussion forum for all command level officers ranking Commander or above. The UEC was still the decision making body of the group, but the Captains Council gave all command level officers the opportunity to discuss group matters and suggest policy to the UEC for consideration. The chair-person of the Captains Council was also a full member of the UEC and was elected by the UFOP captains every six months.

As with all forms of administration, the UFOP Command team needs to be flexible and respond to change (as well as recognizing when change is required). Late in 2000, it became clear that further reforms were required. The ideas behind the UEC and Captains Council were good but there was no definition. There were no clear rules about who made what decisions and how the UEC and Captains Council should operate. As such it was proposed to create a '''[[UFOP Constitution]]''' (CON).

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{{State of the Federation Address}}

The significance of the CON and the changes it produced are too much to consider here but it gave the UFOP councils new structure and definite operating rules. The UEC became known as the '''[[Executive Council]]''' (EC) and the Captains Council remained the same. Magistrates were appointed in each council to direct discussion and handle the issue of voting. Last and by no means least, the CON allowed for a set of related bylaws to be established. These bylaws were designed to pad out the CON, which was deliberately more of a framework for the group rather than a complete guide to everything UFOP.

More detailed recaps of each year in the group's modern era can be read in the annual [[State of the Federation Address]].

The '''[[Fleetbook]]''' project compiled biographies of participating ships as a time capsule to mark twenty years of simming.

If you're interested, this contains further links for more information

*[[Embassy/Thunder_Contests|Halloween Contest on the Thunder, 2013]]

[[Category:History]]