Thank you very much Nick and fellow fleeties! I'm beyond excited to rejoin the Admiralty. :)
As many of you know, I left STO to move home closer to family -- it was the hardest decision I've ever had to make because I loved working with the community so much and I knew I would be leaving my dream job. Since moving home, I've felt like there was a hole in my life, and that void was formed because I was no longer working on something Star Trek related. I always thought about seeking out a more active role in the fleet after the move, but family issues and my new job (which I absolutely love) prevented me from even looking to turn that into a reality. It also prevented me from being able to play STO as much as I wanted to.
I recently attended the STRenegades movie premiere, and seeing Trek up on the screen really made me realize how much I missed being in the ST universe. That lighted a spark, and I started playing STO again that weekend (I hadn't previously played since March or so due to the move and new job), and then went to STLV which turned the spark into a bright flame. To my luck and surprise, I was browsing these forums and saw that there was an opening for an officer role that lined up with much of my professional experience since I resigned in late 2011 (I had to when I joined Cryptic, as it was a conflict of interest). I applied and here I am :) I really couldn't be more excited. I'm sure there are others that expressed interest in the position, and I'd love to chat with you all if you're willing and would love to be a mentor to you and anyone else looking to move into leadership or PR roles, whether that's here or IRL.
In terms of what you can expect, well, there's a lot. Maybe I could do a deep-dive for an upcoming issue of the Times? For now, I'll be fleshing out on plans to: 1) Ensure that the various social media accounts remain active, are fun to engage with, and stay up-to-date, 2) ensure that fleet members are aware of upcoming events and that officers who are running the event have proper, high-quality promotional plans, 3) ensure that there are proper recruiting plans in place so that the Stonewall Gaming Network is visible, desirable to be a part of, has a good reputation, and is accepting, and 4) other miscellaneous officer duties (hehe, "duty").
Last but not least, I really want to thank Nick for the support he's given me throughout the last almost 6 years. If you didn't create this fleet, I would have never become an officer, which means I wouldn't have had the visibility to have been asked to do the first podcast that I was on, which means I wouldn't have been asked by Mark to do Priority One, which means I wouldn't have got the job at Massively, which means I would have never worked on STO, which means I would never have made it to Riot (which is also going to enable Pat and I to be able to adopt our first child)... so basically, I owe you my first child :P Really though, Nick, I love you like a brother. I honestly do
