MSA/proposals 1
From Badlands
Proposals for modified Maquis Security Advisor / Special Operations Command Formation of Maquis Security Administration Branch
Submitted to the MFI Coordinator Council
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Introduction
- The intent of this document is to propose a reorganization of MSA into a branch. It has come to the attention of this office that SSD has or is preparing to fold as a branch. Furthermore, there is a movement to remove the MSA position from the Coordinator Council, and reorganize it as a branch command, and, further, to second one or more extant outside branch divisions under the reformatted MSA branch, in addition to SOC and possibly a rebuilt SSD. The outside branch divisions may include the newly designed SEALS, and the extant Tal Shiar, MFMC Marine Recon, and KTF Intelligence.
- SOC has been set up with a mind that organizations in fandom beget empty titles. The empty titles on the SOC website are written in such a way as to make a farce of this. In other branches, members hold title, but it has been seen through the level of activity in those branches that many of them are self-important sounding placeholders. Therefore, in addition to explaining a possible reorganization of the above, this proposal will outline the duties of the personnel required to make this idea work.
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Reassignment of Extant Divisions from Other Branches
- Other branches outside of SOC and SSD have created slots for intelligence or special operations services in-house. While this may appear to be a needless duplication of effort, in reality it has been seen that the majority if not all of these duplicate divisions are empty titles. Under this proposal, those other divisions would be reassigned to the MSA branch by COO-MFI, and will be reorganized so that actual activity can be done. If the original parent branches prefer, reports from their “abducted” divisions may be CC’d to them as well. Personnel may not necessarily be transferred as well, but the option is open for that. These members will have a chance to actually do something with their positions, and will earn the respect and recognition of the club by action.
- The reassignment of the other divisions will have benefits not only for the people involved there, but also will provide MSA with a needed public face to MFI and other clubs. This will be shown through the public activities and output generated by those divisions, such as RPGs, information gathered and collated publicly, &c.
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Reorganization of Resources
- In this proposal, the Divisions maintain their specific chains of command and expanded duties. This allows a certain Esprit de Corps to develop, which may allow for intramural competitions. The divisions may receive missions from the branch via the Chief of Operations, or may conduct in-house activities that must still be reported.
- The divisions will be lumped into two major types; however, these types will not be reflected in the chain of command. In the eyes of the branch, publicly all divisions are equal inasmuch as MFI resource focus is held (i.e. recruiting). The two major types are:
- 1. Working Divisions, with hidden Rosters – SOC, SSD
- 2. Playing Divisions, with public Rosters – Tal Shiar, SEALS, KTF Intelligence, Marine Recon
- The working divisions actually do work on behalf of MFI, but may take part in the “fun” aspects as well. The playing divisions are predominantly focused on RPG and perhaps convention gaming including LARP games. This not to say that the playing divisions could not do work as well, but necessarily this work should be of a type that can be publicly recognized – i.e. the listing of fan clubs being built for the Diplomatic Corps.
- The Rosters of the working divisions will be secret, as per current SOC practice, mainly because to be public might be detrimental to those divisions’ activities. The Rosters of the playing divisions will be public, and what members they have will be open to recognition in MFI or on their personal web pages.
- SOC, as the extant branch to be folded under this proposal, would streamline its membership, reassigning SOC members that are not active or are otherwise hesitant to take part in the new division’s activities. The members reassigned would go to the Public Roster branches to fill their ranks initially. The SOC Roster holds all former members as well, for reason that at some point they may wish to be active in MFI or SOC in the future. These former members would stay on the SOC Roster for that reason, but if they should become reactivated, they may be reassigned as deemed necessary.
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The specifics of each division are as follows:
- Special Operations Command: intelligence gathering on external subject matter. Standard SOC missions of infiltration (getting information on subjects from within), and provocation (ie, the Assassinate a FADM mission). SOC membership would probably drop, as members are reassigned to other units that they may fit better in. This division actually has a job in MFI, and so shouldn’t be focused on gathering warm bodies for its Roster. May contain members of other divisions – Roster remains secret. Anyone that is qualified and passes the interview process may be a member of this division, even members of other divisions. Expected membership at the time of initial reorganization: 7 – 10
- Special Security Division: intelligence gathering on subjects internal to MFI, may be involved in gaming. Would probably be the smallest division. This division actually has a job in MFI, and so shouldn’t be focused on gathering warm bodies for its Roster. May contain members of other divisions – Roster becomes secret. Anyone that is qualified and passes the interview process may be a member of this division, even members of other divisions. Expected membership at the time of initial reorganization: 3 – 5
- Marine Recon, Tal Shiar, KTF Intelligence, SEALS – largely involved in role-play gaming. May be called upon for combined ops at conventions and such, especially in conjunction LARP games. Conjoined reporting with other MFI branches, so no black ops missions. May have public Roster. Anyone from the originating branch may join the specific division designated for it – thus Romulans join the Tal Shiar, Naval members join the SEALS, &c. Expected membership of each at the time of initial reorganization: 3 – 5, but this can grow faster than the other two divisions.
- By default, SOC and SSD divisions should be assigned BlackOps and lower classification missions. The other divisions should be assigned GrayOps and higher level missions.
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Standardization of Units in new Branch
- Unit designations throughout the branch will be standardized to SGs (Security Groups), but specific designators based on unit missions will be allowed (and standardized), as well as nicknames based on the parent branch or division where applicable (i.e. SEALS Team 1 may be the nickname of 14SG). This allows for individuality, yet also for collectiveness in that all units fall under the Maquis Security Administration.
- The current sub units of SOC, the Offices of Management Analysis, Special Activities, Systems Analysis, as well as the MA/DLSOGs, will be reassigned to SOC and SSD, or else reorganized under the public Roster divisions. The Office of Management Analysis will become 1SG under SOC, and will be reorganized for an external focus. The Office of Special Activities will become 2SG under SSD, and will be reorganized for an internal focus. The Office of Systems Analysis will be broken up, and its members reassigned to SOC, SSD, or the public Roster divisions, depending on the individual member’s capabilities and activity level. The former SOC units, MA/DLSOGs, will be broken up and reassigned.
- SGs will be consecutively numbered by order of formation, thus, once all units have been assigned to the various divisions, any new SGs assigned to any division will be the next consecutive number from the last assigned. An example:
- 10SG is the last security group to be assigned under the initial formation of the branch, to KTF Intelligence. Should it be deemed necessary at some future point to create a new SG in a growing division, then that would be 11SG, in whichever division that holds it.
- The nicknames, as noted above, may reflect the original parent branch of the unit, as in SEALS Team 1 or some applicable rendition in Klingon or Romulan, or they may named according to the members of the units. Each division may choose guidelines for the naming of their SGs. The branch may choose at some point to standardize specific types of SGs, i.e. 12th Diplomatic Liaison Security Group, or 12DLSG. The type of SG does not change the numbering. Defunct SGs may be reassigned to another division and renamed.
- The Security Group is a unit of activity, not necessarily only for organization’s sake. An SG may be a group of individual members that is taking part in a divisional RPG, or an intelligence campaign, or whatever. Each division that has more than one person will be assigned an initial holding SG (QSG – Quarantine SG, lol). All members not doing anything else can be assigned there. Security Groups can only be assigned if there is more than one person doing an activity. There is no limit to how many people can be in an SG so long as the activity or mission parameter is shared. It should be avoided to assign individual people to multiple SGs, but this is a judgment call for the branch Chief of Staff.
- Public Roster divisions with SGs may list the members of those SGs. Secret Roster divisions may list SGs with callsigns or Roster numbers, never member names.
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Chain of Command
- The chain of command of the branch need not be large, since it is basically working as an administration of the various divisions. The divisions form a loose confederation with one another, although they are expected to operate in concert. Therefore, the chain of command of the branch will have the Maquis Security Advisor as branch head, plus a Chief of Staff that acts as deputy branch head. Each of these officers will also act as director of either SOC or SSD, to ensure that the working divisions retain focus within the branch. The final officer at branch level will be the Chief of Operations, who will coordinate the activities of the remaining public divisions, and may also command one of them. The specific duties are as follows:
- Maquis Security Advisor (Director) – Provides face of the branch to higher echelons, through regular reports, security advisements, interaction with other branches and MFI members. Monitors activities of the various divisions. Assigns missions to SOC and SSD. The buck stops here.
- Chief of Staff (Deputy Director) – Maintains the organizational set up of the branch, through the unit assignments and classification, divisional activities, and membership rolls. Reports to the MSA.
- Chief of Operations – Coordinates the activities, shared or individual, of the public Roster divisions. May act as gamemaster for RPGs, and may issue activities to the individual or collective divisions in his/her domain. Reports to the MSA.
- The three command staff officers should work as a team, using the ODT-SOC model. Officers below the branch level:
- Divisional Leaders – These officers are not branch-level officers, with the exception of SOC and SSD. They are responsible for the upkeep of their specific divisions, including recruitment, creation of activities, division officer responsibilities, and operating procedures (if used). Their specific titles go according to their division. They report to the Chief of Operations.
- Divisional Staffs – Such positions deemed necessary by the division for its operation. These positions must have duties that are explained and reported to the branch Chief of Staff before they may be listed. Reporting is dependent on the division procedures.
- Security Group OICs – Since the security group is an activity-based concept, the Officer-in-Charge of each must be an active participant in whatever the SG’s assignment is. The OIC leads the individual members taking part in the mission, operation, or campaign. He or she reports to the divisional leader or staff under which the unit resides; reporting chain is dependent on the division procedures.
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Appendix A – Example Campaigns for the Branch as Proposed
- The branch Chief of Operations will coordinate among the divisions such campaigns as are listed below, working with the Chief of Staff and the branch Director.
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Example campaign 1
- This campaign will be focused on the four “public roster” divisions of SFC, although SOC and SSD members may take part if they are also members of those four divisions. The venue is in the MFI role-playing system online. A gamemaster is required, but does not have to be aware of all aspects of game play. Furthermore, the GM may take the position of “unreliable narrator” as required by the campaign.
- The campaign plot is open if it is enacted. The action will be the various members of the RPG playing in stream of consciousness roles, that is, the characters drive the story rather than the GM. The objective is to role-play concurrent operations that may either be in concert with all divisions, or may be competitive in nature. The division teams will have role-play objectives and will play independent of the other division teams. The GM will have the main role-play objective in mind, and will keep the division players on task through direct intervention into the storylines – revealing clues, giving orders as from the chain of command above the division level, and giving false information as red herrings to draw people off of the main story (or to lead to traps).
- The campaign is in effect a puzzle game. The puzzle may take the form of a mystery, a single objective for a combined arms group to complete, or something similar. In cases where the campaign is competitive, the first team to finish the role-play objective wins. In cases where the teams are working in concert, while the individual teams may not be in the same storyline, events in each storyline will affect the others (good or bad).
- This campaign will be complex in operation, so the GM must be on the ball and have a good imagination – and must be fair, so that no team is dealt with better or worse than the others. Since it is a character driven campaign, the individual players will affect the effectiveness of their team, as well as the overall outcome of any combined arms games.
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Example campaign 2
- To be held at a convention with a strong MFI attendance, such as the proposed MaquisCon. Designate three targets. These targets, if they are living, should of course have made their requisite permissions. Other targets may include flags, items for collection, whatever. This description will proceed as if the targets are living. Divide the attending division members into teams, that will follow their particular division. One team will be bad guys, the other will be good guys. Good Guys’ objective is to defend the targets, Bad Guys’ objective is to “kill” or capture the targets. A suggestion is to use the hidden Roster members of SOC and SSD as judges, so that they may stay hidden in activity. Otherwise, it is suggested that they are the Bad Guys by default.
- Issues for the teams to overcome internally: chain of command… will the disparate divisions work well on the same team… strategy… tactics. These issues will lend themselves to the circumstances, and allow for an interesting outcome of the campaign. If they are not solved, they may prove a hindrance to effectively completing the missions – this is what is wanted, that the teams will have to figure out for themselves whether they can even be successful.
- Laser tag or some similar system would be best on deciding kills. Kills are kills… no regeneration. If SOC or SSD are the Bad Guys, then it is suggested that since there may be fewer of them available, the Good Guys must capture them rather than killing them or else allow the Bad Guys to hide their target badges.
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Appendix B – Example Security Group classifications
- There can be any classification, but it has to be standardized in nomenclature and mission parameters – no two separate SGs doing the same thing should have separate classifications. This task falls to the Chief of Staff.
- 1SG – 1st Security Group, just yer standard, run-of-the-mill activity group… could be doing anything
- 2QSG – 2nd Quarantine Group, a holding unit assigned to a specific division… not really doing anything in and of itself, but its members may be active at other things
- 3DLSG – 3rd Diplomatic Liaison Security Group, an SG with a specific mission, in this case maybe working with the Diplomatic Corps to get information on other clubs for the database, or could be a “diplomatic” mission (read coup d’etat) to another sovereign system in an RPG
- 4MASG – 4th Military Advisory Security Group, could be a group training someone else to fight the Cardassians, or maybe interacting with members from other clubs
- 5DCSG – 5th Deep Cover Security Group, probably infiltrated some other club… why? Why not? How do you think MFI grows, anyway?
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Appendix C – Glossary
- SEALS – SEa Air Land and Space
- MFMC – Maquis Forces Marine Corps
- KTF – Klingon Task Force
- SOC – Special Operations Command
- SFC – Special Forces Command
- MSA – Maquis Security Advisor or Maquis Security Administration (contextual)
- MA/DLSOG – Military Advisory / Diplomatic Liaison Special Operations Group
- LARP – Live Action Role Play
- Plus several hopefully self-explanatory acronyms
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Appendix D – Consent Decree (rewritten for MSA branch)
Please note that this consent decree does not stipulate certain officers within the MSA branch from accessing or disbursing this documentation. They have the “need to know” by dint of their duties.
- Level 1: IC level (Current & Acting).
- Includes being able to request from the MSA: Rosters, Callsigns, Mission Reports, Reports for Assigned Ops missions initiated from any Level, Reports for missions of a Non-Shadow-Ops status, Intelligence missions classed as GrayOp and below, Copy of SpecOps Manual. May request MSA compose Dossiers on individuals
- Level 2: The ENTIRE CC and specially designated others.
- Includes being able to request from the MSA: Mission Reports for Ops initiated by a Level 2 Member, Reports for Assigned Ops missions initiated from a lower Level, Reports for missions of a Non-Shadow-Ops status, Intelligence missions classed as GrayOp and below, Copy of SpecOps Manual. May request MSA compose Background Dossiers on individuals
- Level 3: CompOps Staff & Membership (Including Founders not on a higher level).
- Includes being able to request from the MSA: Mission Reports for Ops initiated by that Level 3 Member, Reports for Assigned Ops missions initiated from a lower Level, Reports for missions of a Non-Shadow-Ops status, Intelligence missions classed as GrayOp and below. May request that MSA compose Background Dossiers on individuals
- Level 4: The entire AC
- Includes being able to request from the MSA: Includes being able to request from the MSA: Mission Reports for Ops initiated by that Level 4 Member, Reports for Assigned Ops missions initiated from a lower Level, Reports for missions of a Non-Shadow-Ops status, Intelligence missions classed as GrayOp and below. May request that MSA compose Background Dossiers on individuals
- Level 5 through Level 10:
- Used for internal Branch/Department clearances when not otherwise included at a higher level.
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Proposal Credits
Submitted by:
- COMO David W. Ferber, Director of Special Operations Command
- VADM J. William Robertson, Maquis Security Advisor
With input from:
- FADM Robert “McCoy” Johnson, Director of SEALS
- COMO Gene “Yaz” Yazdir, Deputy Director of Special Operations Command
