Federation Command

Officers and honored guests,

Effective immediately, by order of the Executive Committee, Federation Command is hereby brought back to operational status. All officers are recalled.

These hallowed grounds have been dormant for eleven years. Very little remains of this community, but distant friendships and fond memories of our formative years. Gaming and online interactions have continued to evolve over the last decade. This evolution has mirrored our individual use of social media and how we use the internet in general. It has never been so easy to communicate, yet social exchanges in our societies are at an all-time low, in form and substance, while depression and anxiety have skyrocketed. FC gave people friendship, responsibility, a sense of belonging, and a shared purpose. We served an ideal and contributed to something bigger than the sum of our efforts.

There is still a need for this, perhaps more than ever. The problem set we faced eleven years ago may no longer be relevant. As such, we appear duty-bound to attempt to offer the new generation a meaningful chance at what we experienced. I call upon you all to support the new leadership achieve their ambitious goals.

Without any further ado, I hereby grant a field promotion to The Pirate of AE to the rank of Admiral and assign him first chair of the Admiral's Council. The Admiral will in the following days issue orders, set priorities, and reconstitute the Admiral's Council to effectively take charge of the day-to-day operations of the fleet and its reconstruction efforts.

As of my person, my rank is hereby reduced to Vice-Admiral. My role will be that of an advisor in the Privy Council. I will also use my limited technical skills and time to update our forums and website to meet modern requirements. I shall also seek to leverage the power of AI to fill roles and administrative responsibilities within the fleet. Yes, AI officers might roam our forums soon and fulfill key duties while our ranks are grown to operational strength.

It is our shared opinion that FC still has much to offer the world of online gaming. And we still have much to offer to each other. Star Trek has certainly captured the attention of a whole new generation of fans. Let's fire up the old lady like one would the engines of an old decommissioned battleship.

Make it so.

Officers, and honoured guests,

Thank you, Picard,

I accept the field promotion to Admiral, and first chair of the Admiral's Council, and I don't take that lightly. Eleven years dark is a long time, and this isn't going to be an overnight revival, or picking up where we left off. It's going to be a proper attempt to reforge FC for the modern era, and to rebuild what it actually gave people, friendship, responsibility, a sense of belonging, and a shared purpose.

Thank you to Picard for staying on as Vice-Admiral and advisor, and for taking on the forum and website updates. That continuity matters, and I'm grateful for it.

My general objectives, and first steps, are these:

1. Reconstitute the Admiral's Council, and set our priorities in the following days.
2. Start with Alpha and STO as the core. Our in-game fleet, Federation Command, is already moving, and we'll build from there, friendly and relaxed, active or semi-active welcome.
3. Get the forums and Discord properly usable again
4. Recruit old and new crew, and grow from there, with room for other games, even non trek games, once groups are standing on their own feet.

People and activity first, that's what rebuilds a fleet. Tools can help in the background while we grow, but they don't replace crew.

So, old and new, report in. Tell me what you play, and what you can help with, and let's get this old lady moving again.

Admiral The Pirate of AE