Table of Contents

• Flag Sends
• Comings & Goings
• April Reports
• Fleet Staff Needed
• Charity Tracking
• 1SL’s Youtube Channel
• Upcoming Events
• Marksmanship Update
• February Honors – Awards
• February Honors – Promotions
• Fleet Contacts
• Order of Battle
• Echelon Command Contacts

Flag Sends

Mountaintop moments are kind of a focus in a lot of church groups. For those unfamiliar, the mountaintop moment is the high you get after an event like a convention, retreat, conference, whatever it is that energizes you, gets you focused on doing all the things, and pumps up your interest in the group.

And they fade. This fade, and how to avoid it, is something books are written about endlessly. The thing is, you can’t avoid it – once the seclusion of the event is over, you have to think about work, bills, life, again. It’s normal.

In fandom, conventions provide those moments. I see it every con – ideas flow, plans (absent actual details) are made, and everyone is jazzed to do the thing. And then…well…it falls off. We don’t follow through, we don’t have the energy, or something else demands our focus, or it just isn’t as important. And that leads to missed opportunities and ‘oh, I meant to do that’ excuses.

So, how do we keep the momentum going? If we are so focused on avoiding the valley after the joy of the mountain, we miss the benefits of being off that mountaintop. I can’t say I know how – if I did, I’d have a book on it! But I have this thought…if we want to keep the momentum going, we need to level the mountaintop a bit, and use that to raise the valley.

Ok, maybe the analogy is breaking down some here. What I mean is transfer the energy from the high, to fill in the low. By not being as over-the-top about the convention, you carry over some energy to make plans and carry them through.

Ways I try to do this include taking notes all con. That way, I have something more tangible than just memory to work with. And I know for some people, notes are how they get everything done, so this can help them even more.

I try to have a postmortem session too. A chance to sit down with the team and discuss what went well, what went poorly, what needed improvement, etc. And take notes. That way, we don’t have the rose-colored glasses syndrome, and can level the high some. It also helps because now others know your wild plans, and might just make them happen – or hold you to them.

For TRMN, we do after action reports, which can also be a way to keep the con alive. If we use them to review, and see what we want to improve on, it gives us something to lock onto for the time until the next convention.

Keeping the momentum between events is the key here. It’s not easy (if it was, no one would write about it), but it is worth the effort.

Above all else, don’t get discouraged! We all deal with it, you are so very much not alone in that. Keep in touch on Facebook, Discord, even the Forum – we can all make the valley between our mountaintop moments better!

Comings & Goings

BuShips Directive 2002-05

Congratulations and welcome to ENS John Fairbairn on his appointment as XO, HMS Javelin, and brevet to Lieutenant, Senior Grade! Thank you to outgoing XO Thomas Erikson for his excellent service to the ship and DesRon as a whole.

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Task Force 22 Order 2002-01

Congratulations to CDRE Sherman Day on his appointment as Logistics Officer, TF22!