Introduction

Report time! You can tell because there's a header. :P

I've almost wrapped up my first month as Headmaster. A lot has happened so far, and we have quite a bit coming in the next few weeks. Before I get into any of that, though, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone's favorite codemonkey, James, for all he's done for the SA. He's fast, reliable, supremely talented, and has a great attitude to boot! James takes all of the problems and requests Ood and I send him and makes them all better :P As a token of my gratitude for his time and effort, I am awarding James the Dark Savant - Service degree. Thank you, James.

News Recap

Over the past month, Ood and I implemented several changes to SA degrees. First, the old Dark Maven - Programming was retired and replaced by two new coding-related degrees that can be earned by completing courses at codecademy. Second, Val and I agreed that the old Test of Power served no purpose in the modern Brotherhood and sentenced it to death. In its place, Dark Savant - Tactics and Combat now requires 1 Pendant of Blood. Some members (yes, you, Brimstone :P) expressed concern that the degree can only be earned by gaming. I have plans to remedy that problem in the near future. Stay tuned.

This past week also saw General Gaming (see the next section for an explanation :p), TOR Basics, and GMRG History updated. Course notes were combed through by Val and myself, and Ood was a huge help getting everything working on the site. Let us know if you spot any errors!

Also, the ancient IRC Operator course was replaced by a revamped IRC 301: Operator Studies course, which is much more robust. It's the first step down two different paths: a new batch of communications-related courses and a clean sweep of the leadership courses. The changes to the leadership courses will start rolling out soon, so expect more information on that in the next week or two.

Department Musical Chairs

As of this morning, the old Department of Combat has been split in twain. The gaming-specific courses have been shifted to the new Department of Gaming Studies (and "General Warfare" has been renamed "General Gaming"), while the Combat Tactics, Lightsaber, and Hand-to-Hand courses remain in the reduced Department of Combat. The FIST will serve as Professor of the Department of Gaming Studies (we briefly considered calling it the "Department of Hitting Stuff" or the "Department of Fisting"). New gaming courses are being planned and will help fill-out the new Department.

Currently, grading superstar Arch is holding down the Professorship for the Departments of Combat Studies and Flight Studies. He's done a fantastic job of overseeing more than a dozen courses for some time now, but we're going to let him off the hook now. It's up to him which Department he will lead, but we now find ourselves in need of a new Professor! So...

Applications for Professor of [insert Department here]!

The general requirements for the job are listed on the Wiki, but I'm going to modify them some for this spot:

Rank of Jedi Hunter

24 hour grading turnaround This is a big deal! Our average turnaround is now well below 24 hours and we're going to keep it that way.

Have passed all courses in the department with at least a 90%

Have ideas as to how to improve the courses within the Department and must be willing to regularly reevaluate your courses for substance and readability This is critical. Professors are responsible for more than mere grading -- they bear primary responsibility for keeping their courses up-to-date and error free.



Because Arch hasn't picked which Department he wants to stick to yet, go ahead and submit an application for either Combat Studies or Flight Studies. Feel free to express a preference. Applications are due to me and Ood no later than 11:59pm EDT Saturday, May 31.

Update: Arch is remaining as Professor of Flight Studies. Please submit applications only for Professor of Combat Studies!

Magistrates!

I've selected two Magistrates to help with on-going audit, proofreading of new courses, and solicitation / writing of new courses. One, DJK Meleu Karthdo has been announced already. Today, I am announcing the second: DJK Farrin Xies. I had planned to take applications for this spot, but Farrin has been so impressive in his work on the upcoming Department of History revamp that I decided to snap him up before someone else does. :P I don't know this for sure, but I bet dollars to pandas that Farrin is setting some kind of course-writing speed record. You'll all be seeing his great work much sooner than anticipated. :P Congratulations, Farrin!

The Audit! (dun dun dun)

Meleu has been hard at work helping Teu audit the Department of CORE Studies. Most of the lightie COREs are nearing completion; the Krath CORE is being fully rewritten, as are Sith and Obbie. Basics is going to be getting a new paint job as well. Quite a bit of progress has been made, but there is a lot of reading and editing to do -- thank you to Jonuss Rai and Turel Sorenn for their help on the lightie COREs!

I hope to report next month that we've moved on to our next victim. :p

Top Exam Takers!

So far for May, the top five exam takers at the SA are:

Name # of Exams DJK Farrin Xies 66 GRD Nestor Drake 57 DJK Kenath Zoron 47 GRD Marduss 42 JK Edgar Drachen 38

Great work, everyone!

Conclusion

I've mentioned several coming changes. There are more entirely new courses and even a completely new, unprecedented Department in the works -- but those are longer-term projects. For now, I'd like to close this report by asking for your help. The SA is a massive wall of text that covers ever-shifting topics and is prone to typos and run-on sentences. If you spot substantive or grammatical problems, please let me, Ood, and the course PROF know so that we can fix them ASAP. As we work through the Departments during the audit, we're also going to be asking for help reading and editing -- if you have any particular expertise, let us know when we announce the next Department being audited. There are shiny things available. :P

That's it for my first actual report. If I forgot something, it's because there's a lot happening. Good times. :P

Bubba

SWL Dacien Victae di Plagia (Sith) / HM / Dark Council Main Body [GMRG: II] [SA: IV] [ACC: Q]

AK / SBx2 / SC-SoA / AC-ToDS / DC-BP / GN / SN / Cr:1S-2E-1Q / PoB-BL / CF-GF / SI-BL / SoL-BE / S:1D-3Dk-3P-1B

{SA: MVL - MVS - DPE - DPV - SGS - SVLC - SVS}