Conducting Meetings

In one respect or another, it's possible that you'll be a part of a meeting; maybe it'll be a private meeting between commanders or, most likely, the VE-wide one, which takes place every Sunday afternoon. Our goal is to prepare you for 1) Giving a report during a meeting, and 2) Conducting your own meeting. These two aspects should give you a fairly good idea of how to handle yourself in just about any IRC meeting, though customs can vary (some are far less formal, and that's just fine).

Giving a Report

A VE Meeting (and other formal meetings)

1. The Grand Moff (or another higher-up) starts the meeting. Other High Army Staff and Naval Commanders have been known to do so as well.
2. The Grand Moff covers topics that effect the VE as a whole (like website updates).
3. Division Reports: Each division gives a brief (if possible) report on the overall status of their group; they also update the VE on currunt projects and important events. Furthermore, this is usually when promotions occur in the form of a public ceremony.
4. Special Reports: The Grand Moff will open up the floor to anyone else who has a report (with prior approval). Many times these will be from other division heads or commanders on special events like competitions, or the VE Store might announce some new items, etc. Anyone can give a special report as long as they consult with the person running the meeting.
5. Lottery and Conclusion: the Grand Moff asks for volunteers for the lottery and then, once the numbers have been picked and whatnot, he may have some additional comments before he closes the meeting.

Voice

Before we cover anything else, it's important that you know about the script known as voice. During a meeting, whomever is running it, will activate the voice script which effectively silences the room. Essentially, it allows only people enabled with "voice" to speak in the IRC channel; since no one but the person who enabled it will have voice, no one can speak unless he or she is granted it. And I mention this for the simple reason that: if you're supposed to give a report and the man in charge hasn't given you voice- you'll type things out, but no one will read what you're typing. That's why you need to wait until the message comes up saying you've been given voice; you can double check by glancing at your name in the scroll on the right- if you've got a +v then you're good to go. If not and it doesn't seem like Grand Moff has remembered: throw 'em a PM and problem solved. Either way- you don't wanna give your report twice, capeash?

Division Reports

Who Gives the Report? Usually someone in the high command of their divsion; however, members of slightly lower rank and position (WCs/SCs, etc) have been known to give them.
How long should they be? If they can be: brief. The VE Meeting is the main-event of the week, so people want to hear what you have to say, but try to be concise. This can change if you're doing promotions or announcing a special event though.

A report during a meeting is fairly simple to understand and perform if you recall how we write weekly reports; the same basic principles apply: they need to be straight, simple and to the point. Just as you don't want your commander to fall asleep reading your report, you don't want people to lose interest because you're taking too long. Our members are always a great crowd, mind you, but we don't want to be discourteous by turning a twenty minute meeting into a forty-minute production. For this very reason it's a good idea to write out your report in a word processor; by doing so we can cut out the time it takes you to type, ensure you've remembered everything and that you look good saying it. Some people (myself included) tend to give reports on the fly, and you probably will as well, but only do so after you've run the gauntlet enough times to feel confident. Even if you're a commander with experience, though, writing these out will always improve your presentation. You can be more articulate and concise than you otherwise would be. Furthermore- there's always the danger that the division report ahead of you won't be ready! Traditionally, the Army gives their report before the Navy, and some might fall into the habit of using that time to prep their report, but! If a representative isn't available for the Army, or they're not ready: you should have your report prepared. Lastly: if you get kind of nervous (which is strange to think because people can't actually see you, but it was definitely true for me), than it can eliminate a lot of the unease you might feel in those first meetings.

A final note on how you actually present your report during an IRC meeting. If you intend on copying and pasting a report into chat applet, you should be aware that IRC has some funky tendancies. For instance: some characters, when typed into a word processor, like quotation marks or the apostrophe, can become scrambled when entered into the channel. What results are replacement characters, like the "and" sign. So- you might enter: "And that's how we're going to save the Navy!" but you and everyone else will see- "And that&s how we&re going to save the Navy!" For that reason, I'd suggest you test it out a little before-hand; jump onto IRC and copy some of your meeting notes into the channel and see what happens.

Also, when copying and pasting: be sure to put them in blocks that aren't too horribly big. You don't want to enter one sentence at a time, mind you, but try to keep the blocks to about two-three sentences at the most. And, when entering them, don't space them, time-wise, too closely together. In ten seconds time, we shouldn't see something like this:

Try to enter a new block at the same interval that you think people will be reading them. This is all for the sake of looking clean, obviously, but it does reflect well on how you, and the Navy for that matter, presents itself. You can add your own twist or style to it, but that's the basic form. And like I said- don't be too nervous: no-one is going to be overly critical of your meeting notes, and little mistakes like spelling or punctuation marks aren't going to mean much, so don't sweat it. If you just stick to what we have above, I think you can just about guarantee your success, so just sit back and enjoy the spotlight!

Promotions in Meetings

When should they be performed? Entirely up to your discretion. Some folks are a little daunted if the member has already been promoted during the week, but you can still make a public ceremony out of it. The best way, obviously, is to surprise the member during the meeting.

How should it be done? Promotions are a mix between the /me commands and basic text. It should look something like this:

<COM_Navy Guy> For the last couple of months, this member has been showing outstanding work ethic both in and out of his squadron and, at this time, we would like to recognize PO2 YoungGuy. Would YoungGuy please step down?
*PO2_YoungGuy steps down
<COM_Navy Guy> For your exemplary service to the Navy, you've been promoted to the rank of Chief Petty Officer; with this we hope that you'll continue doing all of your fine work.
*PO2_YoungGuy is now known as CPO_YoungGuy
<CPO_YoungGuy> Thank you, sir!
*COM_NavyGuy salutes
*CPO_YoungGuy returns salute
<COM_Navy Guy> Thank you, YoungGuy, you may be seated.
*CPO_YoungGuy climbs aisle and slides back into his seat

So- dress it up a bit if you can and enjoy!

Putting Your Own Meeting Together

Whether hype over squadron meetings is true of your time or not, I'm here to tell you that I wouldn't actually put too much stake in what we conceive to be the "classical" or "formal" squadron meeting. After entertaining the idea of such meetings in my own squadron and observing those of others, I've really grown to find that trying to give reports on such a small basis, really, is kind of insignificant since the changes are no so universal or dynamic as they are at club meetings. Even if you have something special to report, it's usually best to post an event of such importance on your squadron topic versus posting it in a meeting room where some of the members may be absent (timezones make it difficult to get everyone in one place at one time). If you'd like to put on a special ceremony, however, for a retiring member or in celebration of some squadron-wide success (ESC triumph?) then a meeting might very well be in order; members enjoy attending these, after all. As I've said though, the "formal meeting," for a squadron isn't really a necessary part of your command ability; great for special occasion, but not necessary on a weekly basis.

However, there is definitely room for meetings of another kind, but I'd really almost prefer to call them sessions. These are the meetings where, depending on who you think needs to be there (could be only your squadron high command or it could very well be all squadron members), they're designed to discuss certain topics at length. If you're story-planning and you need to brainstorm, for instance, you can ask to convene a brainstorming session: just set up an appropriate time and get to work. Special meetings between you and your XO or any other particular member can be called, of course; this type of one-on-one can be extremely beneficial because problems can be solved in a matter of minutes versus a matter of days (which would likely occur over ComNet or message center). Though I've outlined two specific forms of the meeting, I encourage you to develop your own hybrid if you find it effective and beneficial. Otherwise, I submit that special, specific sessions are going to do your group more good than a planned, weekly meeting of formalities. Unless your meetings are very open, which can be quite fun, you'll probably best to ask that your members simply pop into the squadron channel whenever they're online to interact with other members. Obviously, this portion of the page is quite opinionated, so do as you deem proper. My own experiences, however, suggest that the best type of squadron get-togethers are those that are unplanned and focus on the entertainment of members as opposed to a steady procession of reports that aim to inform them.