[Mikester92]

In an effort to support greater transparency and efficiency, the current proposal forums and form have been scrapped and replaced with a public in-house proposal system which emphasizes command level discussion for proposals that receive public support from at least 20 members within the span of two weeks.

Starfleet Command is the governing body of the {UFP} that is responsible for maintaining the standards and principles in which the fleet is based. It is also the primary source of administration and planning of new projects that can later become an integral part of the {UFP}. Those in Starfleet Command ensure the overall smooth running of the fleet and determine the future direction of the community.

Believe it or not, it’s already been a little over a year since our initial proposal system was changed to a more closed system. The change made it so that all submitted proposals were posted in a private command forum for a more focused discussion among COs, XOs, and Starfleet Command members.

The system was made more private for one primary reason - our public system, before April of 2012, created an environment where proposals could and would take months, and in some cases even over a year to finally reach a compromise. Public discussions and debates, while nice to see, never really lead anywhere.

Moving submitted proposals to SFHQ was meant to focus the discussion for more immediate results. The unfortunate trade off in this, however, was the lack of transparency.

Furthermore, all submitted proposals under this closed system were required to undergo the same set routine in SFHQ, regardless of its content. So, for example, if someone submitted a proposal to rename the UFP to “The Kitty Cats Guild” it’d have to stay open for a week’s worth of discussion in SFHQ, and upon rejection a response would then have to be written by the most relevant person. Should the member who proposed the name change wish it, the proposal would then go to a public discussion for another week along with a poll and separate report from SFHQ on why it was rejected.

As SFHQ sometimes gets multiple proposals per week, this “one size fits all” process became a major resource drain. As a result, proposals started to get backed up and delayed.

On that note, I’d like to apologise on behalf of SFHQ and SFC for this back up should it have effected your proposal. At this time, it is my recommendation that those who have pending proposals submit their proposal under the new system. I still have all submitted proposals on record so if you need a copy of your proposal please feel free to PM me.

To address this broken system, I reevaluated it and proposed to SFC a change to a more public system inspired by the UK’s e-petitions and White House’s “We the People.” sites.

The idea for this change focuses around the concept that we should center our attention on proposals which you, the membership, feel warrant further SFC and SFHQ discussion. As i’m fairly confident most of you don’t want to be renamed to “The Kitty Cats Guild”, this would eliminate the need for discussion on such proposals which, believe it or not, do come in.

Instead, proposals which receive 20 or more signatures within the timeframe of two weeks will automatically be brought up at an SFHQ or SFC meeting, depending on its content. It goes without saying, however, that should a proposal catch the eye of an SFC or SFHQ member it can still be brought up for further discussion. This makes the system more flexible within reason.

This change also brings us back to a more transparent and interactive system where all members can view and contribute, in their own way, to a submitted proposal.

Created by our graphics and engineering team, our new 2013 UFP Proposal System is a homemade and completely unique system to UFPlanets.com Ltd. It can be viewed here and accessed at any time at the top of our site under the proposals tab.

I’d like to personally thank LynxMukka, Sharpkiller, and Jordan for their graphic work and coding to make this concept a reality!

I hope you are all as excited as I am in trialing this new system out. That said, if you have further questions or comments feel free to comment below or private message me on the forums. I’m also free for a chat on TeamSpeak should that avenue of communication be preferred.

[Jackie Weaver]

Excellent! Hopefully this will break down some more of the barriers between the Command and the membership. Transparency in some ways can only be good right? It also give us some perspective on what the membership as a whole really want with the 20 member requirement :mrgreen:

[Cehus]

Looks great Mike, I look forward to seeing some more proposals!

[Seldon]

I love this new system and the transparency you have created for both the persons creating the proposal, and the system you put in place to ensure each proposal has a chance for discussion.

Great job from our engineers

[Morris]

Great work! I'm very excited to see this much improved system in action! Thanks to everyone involved.

[Noram]

Been looking forward to this!

[Fisher]

This is an extremely positive step forward for ensuring the propsal system works as part of an effective, efficient and accountable fleet. Keep up the good work and continue the progress forwards.

Just wanted to check: in the line where you mention "an idea SFC notices" means that if a a member of the fleet has a good proposal but is a lone voice or under the threshold that SFHQ will still look at it? IE it's not wholly dependent on the fleet constantly watching the proposals system.

[Noram]

It goes without saying, however, that should a proposal catch the eye of an SFC or SFHQ member it can still be brought up for further discussion. This makes the system more flexible within reason.

That's the impression he seems to be giving.

[Wixiban]

Just wanted to check: in the line where you mention "an idea SFC notices" means that if a a member of the fleet has a good proposal but is a lone voice or under the threshold that SFHQ will still look at it? IE it's not wholly dependent on the fleet constantly watching the proposals system.

I'm sure Mike means that if a member of SFC or SFHQ fine a submitted proposal is worth discussing and it doesn't have the 20 signatures needed then the SFHQ member can bring it up for discussion if they feel it could be of interest/use to the fleet.

Congrats to all those involved in this project.

Wixi

[Hermanator]

Fantastic Idea, something that I think would be so beneficial to the community for multiple reasons. The first reason is that of Ben’s comment – giving transparency to SFC/SFHQ. The second reason If I were so bold could suggest that these could be the founding footsteps to a more populist philosophy within {UFP}, an idea gets approved by at least 20 members it gets brought to a direct SFHQ meeting which ensures that SFHQ do not get overworked, yet are focusing on the changes which perhaps most of the community would like to see.

I also like to see that it is a realistic number of approval, unlike that of e-petitions which I believe has to get 100,000 signatures, which is almost as if its set-up to provide the status quo. Still no repeal for the Fox Hunting ban.

[Fisher]

Its the best of both worlds, its a great system that allows for good ideas from individuals and ideas from groups and also for the fleet to support individuals and a more free flow of ideas. This is a great first step to really getting the 'brain juices' of the fleet going.

PS: New system tested by yours truly!

[McClintock]

“The Kitty Cats Guild”

This gives me a great idea! I should submit a proposal..

What? I shall not pass? Bah, Gandalf said that, and look what happened to him!

[Mazoue]

Very neat system. I welcome the transparency and I think this is a good setup. I've already read the first proposal and signed on it. Everyone should check it out.

Thank you Mikester and LynxMukka, Sharpkiller, and Jordan for your hard work to make this a reality.

[Solace]

This system is easy to use and I can see the hard work that has gone into it's creation. Many Thanks!

[Caymen Greener]

Glad to see this in place. I look forward to processing a couple proposals and seeing how it all works out. Having been the IA XO for almost a year and working closely with the older system, this excites me!

Caymen