State of the Fleet Address Quarter 4
As Lotus Fleet quickly approaches its 1 year anniversary, looking back and seeing the great strides that this Fleet of Starfleet Officers has accomplished brings me great pride and appreciation to you all. Without each of you we would have not been able to succeed in being one of the greatest fleets in the Star Trek Online Community. Many Fleets around the community may have a larger member base, they may even have more experience, only because they have been around longer, however what Lotus Fleet brings to this community of next generation Star Trek fans that will extend the mythos of Star Trek into its MMO form is the power that is wielded from the undying dedication not to me as your leader but to the ideal that Lotus Fleet is truly something greater…something different… something better then what each of you have experienced from other MMO guilds. For those of you who will make STO your first MMO, I can promise you one thing that this experience will be unlike any other that you will have from any other game.
Among some of our fleets great accomplishments this year we have had the honor of having some very talented individuals like Captain Pimm, and Rear Admiral Raven who spent many long hours developing, refining and setting the standard for what will eventually become this fleets primary form of communication. Following this and under the command of Captain Pimm, Lt Commanders Westin, Future, and Rock proceeded to redevelop the new image of Lotus Fleet, it was again here with many long hours that by using as an example Lt. Commander Westin was able to take our previous set of forums and reshape our image by utilizing the forum engine known as vbulletin, an engine that no other fleet in our community is using. During this time Future with input of various great minds in the fleet was able to develop the new look of Lotus Fleet in the form of a incredibly functional website that utilizes the LCARS/TCARS theme in such away that truly sets us apart from any other Fleet. I have stated on numerous occasions that LCARS really was not an artistic direction that I wanted to go towards because I have never seen it implemented in a way that was functional and appealing to the sites visitors. However after much discussion and putting faith in the web development team as well as Rear Admiral Raven, we have been given a website that not only sets the standard in which I hope other fleets can look to us upon, but also redefines an era in which LCARS is used and shows the community that it really can be utilized in a manner that is not damaging to the quality of its design.
As a follow on to the great strides given By Lotus Fleet Operations, Lotus Fleet Academy has spent much of this year working diligently and effectively to bring information not only to the individual Lotus Fleet Member, but also offer a service to the Star Trek community that no other Fleet has ever done… In the coming days Lotus Fleet Academy will be opening its doors to the Star Trek Community, whereby Cadets will have the privilege of attending Star Fleet Academy: Lotus Fleet Division, where they will take any number of courses across 4 different disciplines, upon which after graduation individuals will be given a very unique Diploma, something of which they can take with them to frame, or present in whatever manner they feel is appropriate. As part of this long development and again something that sets us apart from many of the Fleets out there is the shear existence of our Academy. Its true that many Fleets claim to have their own Academy for which there members can attend however I know of only one other Fleet that has an academy that is extensive as ours, and they deserve as much credit for their efforts, however what they do not have is the Cadet User Interface, which presents in a professional manner an Online Schooling environment that allows cadets the immersive feeling of really attending Starfleet Academy. The conceptual design of the Cadet User Interface has become a corner stone of what the Academy is built on and represents the attention to detail that this fleet has. Having coined the term Cadet User Interface, this object much like our use of LCARS in a website, again not only sets the Standard but it is our hope that it redefines that standard to create a community that is well informed, and immersed in humanities aspirations for the future.
As a final note in this address to the Fleet, I would like to look towards my Fleet Officer who of which I am both humbled, and yet honored to have you all as this Fleets leadership. A couple quotes that I am reminded of in honor of these great individuals and your leadership.
From Everett Dirksen
“I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times”
This quote very nicely sums up the flexiable nature in which each of us has had to endure this year as this fleet has grown, changed and succeeded in its endeavors, the flexibility in communication as well as decisions that at first glance may not make a lot of sense but as a result upon which where made clear after all events played out has cause many to learn the meaning of flexibility including myself.
And finally I leave you with this quote from Isaac Newton:
“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.”
As Lotus Fleet stands a giant in the Star Trek Online Community I can only see a future in which our succees will only be met with our continued dedication to duty, adherence to chain of command, and respect for decisions that may not always be clear but knowing that it is for the betterment of the Fleet and not the individual that the choices we make dictate the future of the fleet.
Thank you again and I am forever humbled by what you all have made of Lotus Fleet.
So heres to another great year for Lotus Fleet and I look forward to addressing this fleet again in Quarter 1 of 2009
Fleet Admiral Nova
Commanding Officer
Lotus Fleet
www.lotusfleet.com