Reset Phase One

Hello all,

I am writing today to inform you of the upcoming changes that we have been working on for the past months and are planned to be rolling out the week of November 1^st.

The most immediately obvious change will be the switch to the revamped website. It is currently available for preview at https://future.unitedtaskforce.net/ if you want to have a look around at what is coming. Please note that some things like the Troops are still placeholders.

Along with a new look, the new website provides us with various new capabilities:

• Most importantly, permissions are website-based now. What this means is that teams and roles can be made and assigned permissions via the website without needing to edit the database. This ties into the reset goal of pushing authority downwards to the contributors doing the work and allows for more flexibility in the structure.

  • Each team or group can make the roles it needs, rather than an all-size-fits-all “contributor”. For example, J1 can make “Intake Instructor”, “Social Media Manager”, and “Applicant Liason” roles that its members can hold one or multiple of, according to their needs and interests.

  • With the current system, teams feel set in stone. With the new website, teams can be made and disbanded as needed. This allows for dynamic groups such as campaign teams and Task Groups to be employed regularly.

• The deployments page has been upgraded to allow the scheduling of events on Arma 3, Reforger, Arma 4, and Discord. The latter means that community events such as unit meetings, movie nights, or game nights can be scheduled in advance and allow for RSVP.

  • Additionally, there are now different slotting presets which can be used such as open (no slots, just show up); RSVP (no slots, must confirm attendance); or regular slotting.

• The ORBAT page has been fully revamped to facilitate various new features:

  • ORBAT Guidelines can be set by the relevant training teams to give mission makers an advisory if an ORBAT violates a guideline. Certain guidelines can be ‘promoted’ to restrictions which will block submission of an ORBAT unless corrected. This will reduce the dependency on J3 to manually verify each mission aligns with the guidelines and therefore streamline operation approval

  • ORBATs now have vehicle crews displayed in their vehicle separate from the infantry. This means that when an ORBAT releases, potential crew can see what vehicle they would be assigned to on the ORBAT page. Additionally, mission makers can see passenger slots for the vehicles when planning an ORBAT.

    • This also lays the groundwork for a future system with campaign-level persistent vehicles.

• There are many other new pages and revamps such as unit statistics, a new mod manager, and more!

You may have heard that Troops are coming back. These are similar to the prior iteration which old members may remember, but not quite the same. UNITAF is a large community, which has its benefits of course, but it also means that it is harder to foster a sense of close-knit community. That’s where Troops come in:

• Members will be assigned to one of three Troops of around 40 members each which will act as a sort of community within the community. The idea is that Troops can form their own identity and bond members together, give new members a home, and provide more opportunities for community events (such as UNIlympics) organized by and between the troops.

• Each Troop will be better suited to handle any personnel issues that arise: By providing a team that is closer-knit than the larger unit, the Troop leadership will be able to stay more in touch with issues that may be arising in the group.

  • Specifically, the Troop Commander should be a point of contact for any issues or questions from members. That can range from “how can I get more experience in x” to “I’m having issues with x member doing y”.

  • However, if there is something that a member does not feel comfortable going through the Commander, there will be two J2 personnel embedded in each Troop which can handle observations as they do currently – but again, with an ear closer to the ground.

    • J2 members report directly to Unit Command, so any issues that need to escalate will not be lost in bureaucratic layers.

  • Troop leadership will also handle positive personnel actions. Things like commendations, medals, and promotions should be celebrated within the Troop. However, unlike the previous system, promotions and medals will not rely on the Troop leadership. These will be automated and standardized as much as possible to ensure fair application of protocol for all members and relieve Troop Commanders of that busywork.

• The new statistics page will tie in to the Troop system: Each month, the best performing Troop will receive “Troop of the Month” which will award members both a medal on the website with increasing tiers for repeated wins and a Discord flair.

  • The specific metric is still TBD but could be something like most deployments.

• We are working with the Troop Commanders to determine how existing and new members get assigned to Troops.

The last major change is very important but will not happen immediately. That is the first major restructure of the unit. As stated in the intentions for the reset, we want to flatten the organization, get rid of bureaucracy and bloat where possible, and give power to those who contribute. Alongside the website improvements, the first step in that direction is as follows:

• “Approval by Default”: This is a philosophy that we have already started rolling out with Op approval. Essentially, it means that where a team or contributor has a mandate to operate, provided they keep supervisors informed, they do not need to seek explicit approval – the lack of a negation is sufficient. In practice, this has been used with J3: operations are now submitted for approval and if J3 members don’t raise any objections within 48hrs, the operation is approved.

• Authority in Domain: As we move authority downwards, we want to give teams clear indications of what the bounds of that authority is and the goal they will work towards. This will be done via “Warrants”. These will include a mission statement, the team’s “domain”, and any specific limits or abilities.

  • For example, a training team’s could look like:
    Mission Statement: To ensure appropriate role access by providing training and resources. Role access should be maximized while ensuring access correlates with competence.
    Authority: Absolute within the team’s area, provided changes do not affect other areas, including editing the FM, ORBAT guidelines, and Roles. Where changes would affect another area, coordination with the relevant area is required and J7 Lead must be informed.

• Granular roles: As mentioned earlier, Teams can make custom roles to fit their needs. Not every member of J1 needs to lead Intakes and not every member of a Training Team needs to write SOP. Teams are able and encouraged to make the roles they need and members can hold as many as they are interested in and able to execute.

• Restructuring: We are restructuring the current J-Groups. In order to reduce bloat, some groups are being merged, with their tasks merged with or absorbed by another group. Other teams may be reduced in size and extent to match their Warrants.

  • A diagram of the proposed unit structure will be posted along with this announcement to show a general idea. Roles shown within teams are examples to demonstrate the types of roles we assume each team will designate.

  • You will notice most teams do not have a designated Lead position. In the current system, teams like J8 operate well under self-regulation, so we are extending this system to other teams with mostly homogeneous responsibilities. 

  • The graph does not show any temporary groups like Task Groups which would exist outside of the J-Group system

• No more “Commands”: Consequently, Operations, Training, and Personnel Command are disbanded. J-Groups now communicate directly with Unit Command where necessary.

  We'd like to take a moment to especially thank Mr.47 for his contributions to the unit as Personnel Command and the NCOICs of J-groups whose positions are being phased out: Kerry, Jenkins, Applechaser, Melon, Ross, and Argo. We appreciate all they've done and hope they will continue to contribute under a new title going forward.

This structure is finalized, but will take some time to roll out as we update the website and current contributors are assigned to their new positions.

We are excited to implement this first major change of the Reset. These are all major changes and Unit Command is aware that there may be issues that arise. As such, we will be open to feedback throughout but we have also set a date of December 1^st as a “checkpoint” where we will assess how the changes have worked and whether they need to be rolled back or reworked. Minor changes can be effected throughout the process.

Please let us know if you have any questions in the lead up to the roll-out.