Hello all!
As some of you have most definitely noticed, Division has been awfully quiet for awhile. For that I wholeheartedly apologize. Personally, my job went in to crazy busy time since sometime in October with all kinds of overtime and stupid stress. For those that don't know, I'm a Paralegal with the Crown Prosecutors' Office - for some of you that would be like the District Attorney's Office. Anyway, it just worked out that three of the massive project I'm on were all scheduled for long Trials in the first 5 months of this year, with the first of them set for 12 weeks to start this past Monday. I have a second one starting February 5 and running for 4 weeks during the first Trial and then another 8 week Trial starting April 23rd. Once the Trial actually starts, my stress and work levels are greatly reduced. It's getting to that point to make sure the Crown are 100% ready to go that is enough to suck the life right out of you. Anyway, I wasn't expecting it to be that bad but dang!
Sierra 107 also experienced some real life challenges for a good chunk of the last 6 months but he's back and ready to go. CommanderPalmer has been super busy as well and has decided that she just doesn't have the time to commit to working on Division and has stepped down. We of course thank her for her time and know that she'll still be super busy with the 405th and the Halo community as always.
With challenges like this, we've discovered our system wasn't so hot and it left us in a position of not doing well with deployments. Cadet has been working very hard on putting together guidelines that will help all of us know what is being looked for with each costume and keep everything consistent. We've also developed a process of Cadet, Sierra 107 and myself working together on deployments so that regardless of who's available, those applications continue to move forward and the others always know at what stage that application is at. We'll continue to work on getting these guidelines out to all of you so that everyone is on the same page.
This is a new year and new beginning and we're dedicated to being better for all of you. With that said, elections are need to be had. Technically they should have started the first Wednesday of the year. We on Division have decided that's sort of silly. I know it clearly seemed like a good idea at the time we set this up but the reality is, that first week in January is a tough one for most people to get out of holiday mode and back in to a normal routine. Some may still be on holidays. When the goal is to get the most people possible involved, it just seems like poor timing.
Another decision about elections is that we're moving to a 1 year term. Originally, we wanted the 2 year term because the whole election process can be disruptive. However, we've run in to a very real problem of folks being elected and then disappearing after a time leaving the Regiment with no one. We can always change it back to 2 years later once we get ourselves in to a solid place with Regiment staff, but until that time, we're moving to 1 year terms.
Elections will be starting next Wednesday, January 17th. Here's what you need to do:
If you have over 50 posts and 90 days and are NOT part of Regiment, please make sure you request entry asap. It will be the only way that you can vote.
If you have any questions about running for the position of Regiment Commanding Officer, please make sure you ask here or message one of us as soon as possible. We have several members of Division who are RCO's as well and would be more than happy to answer questions you have. In short though, you are basically the voice of your Regiment and the person in charge of passing along information to and from Division to make sure your Regiment is looked after. You are the main point of contact for events in your Regiment (until you assign a member specifically if necessary to that event). You can have staff members with you which I highly encourage. A Regiment Executive Officer who can back you up and cover you when you need to step away for real life stuff, and a Regiment Membership Officer who is the person that handles adding people to your Regiment and assisting those members in getting deployed. The RCO is the only position elected. The RCO then picks their RXO and RMO.
Any of the positions do take time, but the bare minimum to keep your regiment running well isn't excessive. How much time you spend after that is completely up to you, however, the membership are encouraged to talk to you when not enough is being done. The membership is electing you to take care of them, so please, if you find yourself unable to continue, do the right thing and step down. Don't leave your Regiment in limbo land. Having said all of that, the membership have a duty to interact with the staff. Don't leave your staff talking to themselves. Communicate with them. Let them know they are doing a good job. Make suggestion for things you'd like to see. Keep those lines of communication open and flowing. Otherwise, it's really very easy for staff to just stop doing things if they think no one cares.
Elections have 3 phases. Not every Regiment is going to have all 3. The first 5 days is nominations. If there is only one nomination after the 5 days - that person becomes the new RCO. Remember - each nomination needs a nomination, a second and acceptance to be complete. Missing one of those and it isn't an official nomination. You can self nomination OR self-second, but you cannot do both. You also cannot nominate or second someone if you've already nominated or seconded someone unless that person does not accept.
The next phase should there be more than one completed nomination is question and answer. This is were the candidates get to say what they would like to do during their term and the members of the Regiment get to ask questions. I highly recommend that this still happen even if only one person is nominated just to get that communication flowing.
The last 5 day phase is voting.
Get the word out folks, ask questions about being a member of Regiment staff and decide whether or not you want to be a part of that!
As some of you have most definitely noticed, Division has been awfully quiet for awhile. For that I wholeheartedly apologize. Personally, my job went in to crazy busy time since sometime in October with all kinds of overtime and stupid stress. For those that don't know, I'm a Paralegal with the Crown Prosecutors' Office - for some of you that would be like the District Attorney's Office. Anyway, it just worked out that three of the massive project I'm on were all scheduled for long Trials in the first 5 months of this year, with the first of them set for 12 weeks to start this past Monday. I have a second one starting February 5 and running for 4 weeks during the first Trial and then another 8 week Trial starting April 23rd. Once the Trial actually starts, my stress and work levels are greatly reduced. It's getting to that point to make sure the Crown are 100% ready to go that is enough to suck the life right out of you. Anyway, I wasn't expecting it to be that bad but dang!
Sierra 107 also experienced some real life challenges for a good chunk of the last 6 months but he's back and ready to go. CommanderPalmer has been super busy as well and has decided that she just doesn't have the time to commit to working on Division and has stepped down. We of course thank her for her time and know that she'll still be super busy with the 405th and the Halo community as always.
With challenges like this, we've discovered our system wasn't so hot and it left us in a position of not doing well with deployments. Cadet has been working very hard on putting together guidelines that will help all of us know what is being looked for with each costume and keep everything consistent. We've also developed a process of Cadet, Sierra 107 and myself working together on deployments so that regardless of who's available, those applications continue to move forward and the others always know at what stage that application is at. We'll continue to work on getting these guidelines out to all of you so that everyone is on the same page.
This is a new year and new beginning and we're dedicated to being better for all of you. With that said, elections are need to be had. Technically they should have started the first Wednesday of the year. We on Division have decided that's sort of silly. I know it clearly seemed like a good idea at the time we set this up but the reality is, that first week in January is a tough one for most people to get out of holiday mode and back in to a normal routine. Some may still be on holidays. When the goal is to get the most people possible involved, it just seems like poor timing.
Another decision about elections is that we're moving to a 1 year term. Originally, we wanted the 2 year term because the whole election process can be disruptive. However, we've run in to a very real problem of folks being elected and then disappearing after a time leaving the Regiment with no one. We can always change it back to 2 years later once we get ourselves in to a solid place with Regiment staff, but until that time, we're moving to 1 year terms.
Elections will be starting next Wednesday, January 17th. Here's what you need to do:
If you have over 50 posts and 90 days and are NOT part of Regiment, please make sure you request entry asap. It will be the only way that you can vote.
If you have any questions about running for the position of Regiment Commanding Officer, please make sure you ask here or message one of us as soon as possible. We have several members of Division who are RCO's as well and would be more than happy to answer questions you have. In short though, you are basically the voice of your Regiment and the person in charge of passing along information to and from Division to make sure your Regiment is looked after. You are the main point of contact for events in your Regiment (until you assign a member specifically if necessary to that event). You can have staff members with you which I highly encourage. A Regiment Executive Officer who can back you up and cover you when you need to step away for real life stuff, and a Regiment Membership Officer who is the person that handles adding people to your Regiment and assisting those members in getting deployed. The RCO is the only position elected. The RCO then picks their RXO and RMO.
Any of the positions do take time, but the bare minimum to keep your regiment running well isn't excessive. How much time you spend after that is completely up to you, however, the membership are encouraged to talk to you when not enough is being done. The membership is electing you to take care of them, so please, if you find yourself unable to continue, do the right thing and step down. Don't leave your Regiment in limbo land. Having said all of that, the membership have a duty to interact with the staff. Don't leave your staff talking to themselves. Communicate with them. Let them know they are doing a good job. Make suggestion for things you'd like to see. Keep those lines of communication open and flowing. Otherwise, it's really very easy for staff to just stop doing things if they think no one cares.
Elections have 3 phases. Not every Regiment is going to have all 3. The first 5 days is nominations. If there is only one nomination after the 5 days - that person becomes the new RCO. Remember - each nomination needs a nomination, a second and acceptance to be complete. Missing one of those and it isn't an official nomination. You can self nomination OR self-second, but you cannot do both. You also cannot nominate or second someone if you've already nominated or seconded someone unless that person does not accept.
The next phase should there be more than one completed nomination is question and answer. This is were the candidates get to say what they would like to do during their term and the members of the Regiment get to ask questions. I highly recommend that this still happen even if only one person is nominated just to get that communication flowing.
The last 5 day phase is voting.
Get the word out folks, ask questions about being a member of Regiment staff and decide whether or not you want to be a part of that!
