Capt. Tierce is currently working hand in hand with Capt. KittyKat, Sr. Manager of Communications, on the "Vote for OTF" project that has been on hold for the past 9 months while we got all the v2 goodies up and running. Shortly, we will have a brand-spankin' new "Vote" apparatus that will get OTF back up there at the top of the Sci-fi/Star Trek/Star Wars site lists. So watch the boards - because once it's built - we expect all loyal members to use it!

The Suggestion Box has been given a makeover by Captain Tierce, comments are always welcome.

The Outpost Tribune seems to be a success with the members, and we are currently building a database with the information from many of our feature articles and information provided by our freelance writers. In addition, the Guilds are providing a wealth of years worth of contacts and opportunities. We would also like to thank the Awards and Links Team in COMM for their excellent work - the sites they research and bring to us will be our partners in the future success of OTF.

We anticipate, once we find a full time editor, that we will be able to focus on the development of the "Newsletter" concept so that we will be able to email the Tribune to our members that are not able to visit us on a regular basis but still want to know what we are up to and be part of the community.

Kudos to Lt. Cmdr. Dracmus, who writes for the Outpost Library and manages the Film Guild as Project Leader. She met author Alan Dean Foster (he wrote the very first Star Wars Novel Splinter of the Minds' Eye at a convention in Holland and sweet talked him into answering some questions for us! So watch for the Library article in December and get your questions ready, go back and read the book (it wasn't THAT bad). Heck, go read ANY book!

We are also exploring links from our Music Guild and soon to be unveiled Film Guild to our partners at amazon.com so that our members, no matter where they are worldwide, will have access to books, music and dvd's, videos, etc, and support the community too.

Now - A quick explaination so we are not confused:

Marketing
is what is called an "intangible". We talk alot, we sometimes don't seem to do a heck of alot that you can see - its a very much behind the scenes "meet, greet, sweet talk" the people we want to notice us, and there are no immediate results that you can count on your fingers and say "we got X number of new sites/members/hits over the past 30 days" as a result of our efforts. It is a very time consuming process and success is based on the relationships and trust built between the Marketing team and our on-line and real life contacts, which leads to overall success for the entire organisation.
In any modern ogranisation, marketing is a vital link not only to the external part of the organisation but also very much internally, providing an essential link between departments and the management. Where an accountant for example would analyse numbers only to reach his or her conclusions, a good marketer knows what sells and what doesn't. In a non-profit organisation its very much the same.

Advertising
This is something YOU can see, on the boards, Vic and Lobot and our presence in the chats. You see the Tribune, you see the Suggestion Box, you see the COMM teams working on their projects and reporting back to the membership. You read the boards, check the calendar and take note of the announcements on the OTF home page.

Public and Internal Relations
- thats the fun stuff - we get to talk to all of the members, we get to work with the Sr. Managers and the Departments, the project leaders and the teams. We love to write ad copy,we'd really like to help with posts to the boards, in getting your special sites out there on the net, we welcome your comments and suggestions, and we'd really love it if you'd use the Classified, Help Wanted and Personal sections of the Trib - FREE ADVERTISING! How cool is that! But you gotta tell us what you want/need/think you just have to have - if you don't ask, you don't get.

If any member ever has a questions about what the Marketing Team does, or how we do it - ASK US. If you want to suggest an idea, DO IT! If you want to help promote OTF within and outside our "virtual chat space" TELL US! Just because we are part of Admin doesn't mean you can't talk to us! We all have email addys, we are all registered members, we even have a home page! (thank you Capt. Tierce *bows and salutes*) so give us a shout - we are never too busy for our members.

Hugs and chocolates!