Relations

In Commander-Talk

Relations, in commander-talk, refers to the interactions between parties, (which can be pilots of any rank or position, flights, squadrons, wings or even divisions.) Now, just like real-life relations, the day-to-day interactions of the Navy and its members can be bullied, bruised or otherwise beaten to smithereens. A more misanthropic person might say, "Let them sort themselves out," but we are neither misanthropic nor foolish: the Navy, and all of the VE for that matter, hinge on the relations between our people, and when put together, our groups: we are a community. One group can not be the soul interest; we must be generous with one another and constantly looking for opportunities to interact. Furthermore, we must not only tolerate other groups, but reach out to them. This is the nature of relations. Thus, our relations must be supported by an interwoven network of strong people, and, especially, strong minds. While everyone is asked to help keep the peace, it is often an implied duty that our leaders, primarilly our squadron commanders, be the knowledgeable and wise folks mentioned above.

For our purposes today, relations will be broken into two main fixtures: the level of cooperation and good will from one party to another, and the activities that go on to strengthen those relationships. Directly below you'll find a list of activities that are run between various parties, while a little farther down you'll find the real body of the beast.

Activities

The activities mentioned below are only what so few can remember off the top of their heads. The real meaning of activities is simply that people are interacting, building friendships or closer alliances: trust. Thus, if you or anyone else can come up with an activity between groups, you're only helping things. The one thing you can do to hurt another party, or even yourself, is to stop interacting: never stop interacting. As a commander, you must encourage activities always. The activities below can refer to people or groups anywhere in the VE, not just the VEN; relations are cross-divisional.

Between Pilots

• Personal Stories
• Gaming (any gaming for that matter)
• Projects of any kind (wiki, websites, images, etc)
• Conversations (IRC, ComNet)
• Contests (any contest where a person plays for himself as an individual against others)

Between Flights

• Competitions (story, gaming, etc)
• Co-Op stories
• Assisting in day-to-day operations/offering advice/suggestions (any benevolent act)

Inter-Squadron

• Competition (This is really a biggy because of the ESC - things can get pretty competitive because it's the honor of the squadron at stake.)
• Co-Op Stories
• Wing Stories
• Any Gaming
• Projects
• Last Man Standing/Reply-Wars
• RPG
• Meetings (Exchaning information, updating eachother)
• Reporting/Viewing Reports on the Report Thread of the Commander's ComNet

• Chat (in either IRC or between ComNet topics) is helpful between any group of parties. You'll want to be careful about posting too often on another squadron's topic of course- it's still their center for discussion among themselves.

Co-Op and Good Will

Cooperation is very simple: people are either cooperating well, or they are not. This is good Co-Op vs Bad Co-Op. Regardless of the size or importance of the parties involved, when co-op goes bad, just wait ten minutes and it can get a lot worse. Thus, bad co-op is something that has to be fixed pretty darned quickly. For a more detailed explanation as to how bad co-op can occur and be fixed, see Settling Disputes. Either way, bad co-op must be taken care of as quickly as possible, because it can turn ugly in a hurry.

It's my opinion that the best way to get rid of bad co-op is to make sure that it never happens: thus the idea of "Good Will." By keeping the activities going that have been mentioned above, you're going to be in pretty good shape, because people won't want to be interrupted for some petty argument. However, people tend to respect and appreciate one another a great deal more when one person is there in a tight spot. Something goes wrong and a squadron doesn't have the man-power to fix it? One squadron needs an extra hand or certain specialty? Lend 'em one of your guys if you can- that's good will. That way, an argument never becomes an argument: it becomes a discourse, a general disagreement. Much less yelling, and more disagreeing. This is good! You've turned and argument into a discussion. So- as a commander, keep your folks interacting not only with eachother (it's just as important between flight members or flights), but with other squadrons; not only will you enjoy the relationships you can build with these folks, but you'll learn plenty about the people you work with and get more out of the process in general. The friends are good too...