EVE:State of the Corporation Notes - September 2013

The Meeting Recording

• https://soundcloud.com/aie_hoots/state-of-the-corp-09262013

Departure of Rahst

• On September 21st, Rahst dropped corp, taking our jump freighter, our rorqual, all of the corporate BPOs, and 10B ISK.  While he had made some cryptic statements prior to this that raised a few eyebrows, it came as a surprise to just about everyone.
• We have spoken with him since then.  He has returned the ships and the blueprints.
• His actions had little to do with the corporation, they were the result of issues between him and other officers in the AIE community. 
• We do not believe there is any additional risk to the corporation or allliance and the net result is a corporate wallet that is 10B ISK lighter.
• Appropriate bans/blocks/passive-aggressive post-its are in place at the AIE community and TEST levels.  We now consider this closed.
• Many thanks to Martyr's Vengeance for their elaborate diversion, which kept the alliance trolls occupied.

Why Rahst's Departure is OK

• The First Changing of the Guard
  • Rahst was chosen to lead AIEU when Stigg went on walkabout because he put a tremendous amount of effort into ensuring the success of the corp and had an excellent rapport with the TEST leadership at the time.
  • Stigg also brought Lanctharus, Hoots, and Louis into the leadership before he left to fill the gaps left by the dwindling presence of the old guard directors and officers.  They later brought in StupidGenius.
• The Sylvanesti Era
  • Rahst's leadership style was characterized by a focus on integration with TEST and and maintenance of corporate revenue, but was extremely hands-off with respect to the activites at the corporate level.
  • Lanctharus, Hoots, and Louis (the Young Turks) were insulated from the alliance politics and kept themselves busy with some wonderful things.
    • They revived Cap Stable, which had faded into near oblivion, and turned it into a damn fine podcast that began to draw more applicants from outside of the AIE sphere of influence.
    • Hoots' Rainbow of Ops gave them fun things to do with few requirements, free ships, and tangible objectives.
• Shortly before Rahst's departure, Stigg returned from winning at EVE with a personal goal of actually learning how to play the game.  So far, he is failing miserably.  But Stigg has stepped in to fill the gap permanently.
• Stigg has pared down the directorships and other roles to leave Lanctharus, Hoots, and StupidGenius as directors (Louis has had to leave EVE recently).  Tuku has returned and has been given management roles because he is interested in resuming some of the cool stuff he was doing before he left.

A Plan for AIEU

Our Place in TEST

• We are currently the 4th largest and 5th oldest non-PAC corporation in TEST.  But we still have little visibility in the alliance. 
• Visibility is a symptom of a problem, but it should not be a driver for our actions.  We need to do more of the sorts of things we like, as aggressively as possible, simply because it's what we like to do.  Visibility is a benchmark; but even if we're still obscure, we had fun doing the sorts of things we like to do.
• With Cap Stable ascendant, we expect to have further increase in our numbers.  Given the target audience, a large portion will be relatively new to EVE.
• We want to be a gateway corporation for TEST for players not entering along the Reddit path.  Some will stay with us because of the community, some will move on to other corps in TEST and keep social connections with AIEU, and some will do both.
• We will focus on three goals.
  • We will get new players on the field and active in fleets as quickly as possible.
  • We will provide opportunities for new players to try a wide variety of combat and support roles before committing to a longer career path/training plan.
  • We will foster more fleet commanders within our ranks by providing an environment that minimizes fear of failure and encourages initiative.

Defense: The Basecamp Model

• New members want to participate.  Providing them TEST skill plans which take a minimum of 30 days to complete puts a damper on this.  The skill plans which AIEU has offered are, in many cases, worse. New players generally do not know what they want to do in game.  Those who do often do not understand the differences between different fleet roles.
• To allow members to participate as soon as possible, to try different fleet roles, and to make more informed decisions when they decide upon a long-term training plan to commit to; we will introduce a series of basecamp skillplans. If we view the path to advanced ships as a mountain to be scaled, we will develop skill plans that serve as a basecamp from which your ascent can be planned and different alternatives can be probed.
  • Basecamp plans will be designed with a goal of training times less than 1 week.
  • Basecamp plans will prepare members for a wide variety of roles within a month: Bombers, Brawlers, Tackle, Long Range, Logistics, Covert Ops/Scout, and EWAR.
  • This deviates from the TEST 3.0 Training Guide, but we feel it is more important to allow more flexibility in the first few tiers of training even if the time to reach end goals is extended.
• While we will develop more advanced skill plans, we will focus on training plans for subcaps.
• We will be placing an emphasis on frequent fleets with tangible goals and opportunities for members to try their hand at different roles and get used to fleet protocols.
• With the reduction of the corporate coffers, we may be adjusting the AIEU_FREE and Lend/Lease programs.  But our intent is still to pump as much corporate ISK as we can into providing subsidized ships.  Members should be checking the intel channel before they undock, not their wallet.  Expect to see a number of 50/50 tax weekends to raise funds for socialized materiel.

MIRC: The Great Unknown

• MIRC = Mining, Industry, Research, and Commerce.
• These areas have been generally overlooked by the leadership, we would like to change that as much as the conditions of null-sec life will allow.
• We do not have a good understanding of what production-related areas in which our members are participating or have an interest.  Within the month, we survey the membership to get a picture of what our members are doing in these areas and what we should be developing as a corporation.

Skylift: Preparing for Deployment

• Since the Great War, we have had two redeployments: the TESTagon and Hale.  The effectiveness of our transport logistics for each were drastically different.  The only difference between the two was organization.
• We will be looking for carrier, rorqual, and jump freighter pilots as well as cyno alts to assist during redeployments.
• We will develop a procedure for preparing cyno chains earlier in the redeployment process to allow public coordination of jump convoys while still maintaining a degree of OpSec.

Conclusion

• Despite what might be said in the EVE community about TEST and how the plots of sov, corps, and members look on Dotlan; this could be one of the best times to be a member corp.
• We have entertained the possibility of leaving TEST in the past, but decided to stick it out.  The leadership situation and culture of TEST has greatly improved since those days.  It's still a very different culture than most AIE members are used to in other games, but it has matured to some extent.
• None of what we've laid out here is set in stone.  If you have suggestions or requests, please let us know at officers@aie-universal.com.