Vapen Van’an stepped up to the podium, took a sip of water, and began…

Fortunately for you, GN Frown has some pressing obligations, so he has asked me to give this lecture. The behind-the-scenes paperwork can be intimidating, but it is a critical and necessary part of your new role as a CMDR. Plus, it is very likely the paperwork that helped get you to this new CMDR role in the first place. So strap in, drink your [insert favored caffeinated beverage of choice], and let's get down to brass tacks.

Monthly Squadron Evaluations (MSE)

The most common of all the documents a CMDR will use is the Monthly Squadron Evaluation, or MSE for short, a spreadsheet document shared with every Squadron CMDR along with their current Battlegroup Commander (BGCOM), the Strategic Operations Officer (SOO), and theTIE Corps Commander (TCCOM). Each squadron has its own version, so while there are similarities, no one will be the exact same as another. This document is the backbone of how pilots get their promotions, determine what course of action is needed to improve growth, and overall track record keeping for every pilot. The MSE consists of the Medal/Promotion Tracker, Pilot Sheets, and optionally the Dashboard.

Medal/Promotion Tracker

The Medal/Promotion Tracker is the at-a-glance administrative summary for the month. Below is an example of how to fill out the sheet: Include the pilot’s rank and name in column A, the award they receive in B, and the month it is being awarded for. Column D is the only one that will change as the MSE process moves forward; after the medal is approved and recommended on the website, the recommender should input R/Recc’d/Rec/etc. After the SOO has approved the medal, they will change it to a “Y”.

For squadrons using Major Andr3’sDashboard MSE tool, Columns A-C are auto-generated after the information was input on the Pilot Sheet. Therefore all that must be done is change Column D. In the current version, when a new month comes, D does not follow the data from the other columns as they automatically move down. So you must adjust D after filling out a new month.

Getting Squadron Data

There are a couple of ways to get the data you need to properly fill out the Squadron Evaluation. Primarily, nested underneath “Leadership Functions” is a tab entitled “View MSE Statistics.”

This page is very helpful in displaying the data for most of the columns. The only data it lacks is competitions not tracked on the website and Imperial University courses.

Secondarily, you can use the web-based application Gonk. By inputting your Squadron ID # (found at the end of the link on your squadron’s roster page) and the desired date range, it displays all the information found on the website tool, plus IU courses, Flight Wings and Combat Rating changes, uniform uploads, and more. Only IU courses count toward the MISC category, but Flight Wings and Combat Ratings can go in your Squadron Reports. An important note about Gonk: You must input the date for the start and end of your range and then press the “Go Forth” button.

Pilot Sheets

The core of the MSE is the pilot sheet; this is where you will input all of the pilots’ data for the month and fill out medal recommendations and promotion requests. To begin, input your Pilot’s name only where it says “Template,” labeled X. To ensure the spreadsheet can properly read the pilot’s data, the dates in Column A must be formatted YYYY-MM. Input the proper date on A3, and it is encouraged to use the EDATE formula for the following months. The formula to do this is =EDATE(A3,1) indicated by Y and can simply be copied and pasted down for each month.

Next, each month, you, as CMDR, must fill in the pilots’ Rank, Position, and Squadron in Columns B, C, and D, respectively. The next column is the Medal of Communication; this is determined by you: has the pilot “contributed to Fleet communications?” I usually encourage a pretty low bar for this: has the pilot engaged with you, the squadron or ship chat, or other channels in Discord? If so, put 'Y' in the box. This is followed by all activity that applies (such as LoCs/LoSs/competitions/etc). Input the data you got from the website or Gonk into the corresponding columns. Column S, “Misc”, is a unique case that covers a variety of activities such as IU courses, Uniform updates, INPR updates, fiction or graphics, and a few others that can be found in The Monthly Evaluation Process in the Open Access folder in your Squadron’s folder on Google Drive. Each point you enter in this cell must have a description of what activity earned it. I like to right-click and add a note, having a line for each activity and the points earned for it.

The point value columns are auto-calculated and consist of the following:

• Total, Column T (from the current month)
• Budget, Column U (carryover points from the previous month plus the current month),
• Carryover, Column W (points earned this month not being used toward medals),
• Balance, Column X (carryover plus any previous carryover points).

These will also automatically change when you recommend a medal in the Merit Medal column (column V). This is done using the abbreviations ISM, PC, BS, and SS. Carryover points have certain limitations to them. For example:

1. For a pilot to earn a merit medal for the MSE process, they need to earn 11 points for the month. Even if the pilot has enough points in Carryover for any medal, they still need to achieve 11 points worth to be awarded for the month.
2. If the pilot is utilizing carryover points it is important to mention that in the award recommendations. Something like “...including Legions of Skirmish earned in previous months” is generally sufficient or a more roleplay oriented version such as “...also counting meritorious action from previous months.”
3. Please also note that for the highest merit medal that can be awarded, the Silver Star of the Empire, ALL carryover points will be reset to 0 to ensure fairness in earning merit medals.

An important note is highlighted by Z in Y3: this cell must be maintained with the pilot’s most recent promotion date. This ensures the column works (and other features if you are using the Dashboard version).

From this point, all that remains is the CMDR’s Comment. In this section, if you didn’t list the details for the MISC column in a note, do so here. In addition, include any relevant updates you received from the pilot or their FL. I like to include any life updates I am made aware of (e.g., having a baby) and any notes for the future. This could include positives like promotion requests or negatives like how to move forward with a voluntary transfer to the Reserves (pilot’s request), involuntary transfer to the Reserves (2 months of no MSE or NGE activity), or AWOL (30 days of no contact or activity).

After you have finished all of the pilot sheets and made your recommendations on the medal and promotion tab, you need to notify your Chain of Command via the Discord DM group (or email group if you are not on Discord) so your BGCOM and the SOO can do their review and make their recommendations.

Medals and Promotions

The final step, after your Chain of Command has made their comments and approved or modified your recommendation, the medals need to be recommended in the database. You will need to go to the website and Recommend an Award for all of your pilots that earned a medal. The medal recommendation text must mention three things:

1. The month the activity is being awarded for
2. The highlights of the activity that earned it
3. Any points from previous months being used for the medal

This can be done in a straightforward manner, but I personally like to roleplay the recommendation text a little bit. For example, you could say,

“For the fifth month of the Imperial Year, Pilot X flew a commendable 102 missions for the Empire and increased their knowledge through 3 of the Imperial University’s courses. For these reasons and meritorious action from previous months, I am proud to recommend Pilot X for a Bronze Star.”

This recommendation text mentions all the pilot’s activities, the highlights of the pilot’s engagement with the group, and the budget used to earn the medal. There are other examples listed in The Monthly Evaluation Process document in the Open Access folder.

Non-General Activity (NGE)

Non-General Activity (NGE) is the category of activity that is not recognized by the MSE process. This could include a number of things such as running competitions, art and fiction that goes beyond the normal MSE recognition, and other activities listed in the Non-General Evaluation Guidance document found in the Open Access folder. NGEs cover a four-month period, so you will need to note activity from all the months. After the trimester is over, you will then evaluate the pilot's non-general activity over that period and recommend a medal based on that. More details for this process can be found in the Non-General Evaluation Guidance document in the Open Access folder.

It is highly recommended that you keep track of this progress as you work through the four month period. Waiting until the last minute to get your NGE’s filled out will only lead to heartache and the possibility of leaving medals behind that should be going to your pilots! Take the time each month as you do your MSE’s to jot down a few notes about your pilots’ contributions during the previous month. This makes it infinitely easier to tell the story and justify that medal for their efforts.

Squadron Reports

Legion walks back to the podium and sighs deeply.

Alright, so we covered a lot of ground right now in terms of paperwork. Sadly, we aren’t done just yet. Last bit of paperwork we need to discuss now are your Squadron Reports, a summary of what your pilots have achieved over a course of time / information relevant to the squadron / areas for fiction / etc. These reports are essential to keeping your squadmates up to date and are used as a means of communicating to them in a broader scope.

Now I know most folks are going to ask this first: Is there a format on how these reports are made? The answer is no, Each and every CMDR has their own way of handling how exactly they are written and designed. What is usually noticed in the majority of reports is information regarding your squad member’s progress. For example, how many Legions of Skirmish awards did they achieve over a month or week? How many completed Imperial University courses? Did they earn a new Flight Certification Wings echelon? How it is presented will be entirely up to you, but a good recommendation is that the information is accurate and present in the report.

Another thing to keep in mind is how frequent should you be writing these reports? Do they need to be every week? Do they need to land exactly 30 days after the last report? Time can also be decided entirely up to you, however it is generally expected that reports take no longer than a month to be sent out, but you can also be as frequent as weekly as some CMDR’s do.

Lastly, how do you send your reports? Who do you send them to? To start, Should you become a Squadron CMDR, you will have access to your squadron’s mailing list, which is located on the squadron page on the main website here. You can send out your reports individually, making sure that you copy the mailing list onto the BCC field of the email (or the To or CC if BCC is unavailable, however be advised that pilots could still “reply all” to the emails sent this way). Another method of sending out the reports is through the Google Group email (which should you become a CMDR, the TCCOM can help set up your access in sending out emails there). Finally, be sure to also upload your squadron report to the main website as well, as it has a section dedicated to storing all squadron reports.

Be sure to take the time and look over past reports from several squadrons to get a feel on how squadron reports are made.