RO:Reconnaissance Manual

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Reconnaissance Officer From the Office of the Reconnaissance Officer Last update: TheBlackxRanger (12/15/2023)
Emperor's Hammer Training Manual


Recon Office Patch

Introduction

“The Reconnaissance Officer serves as the focal point for the Emperor's Hammer external-facing operations and leads the Emperor's Hammer outreach activities in order to promote and advance the club. This includes overseeing the Emperor's Hammer official social media accounts, developing ways to recruit new members, forming relations with other groups, and keeping the membership of the Emperor's Hammer informed of upcoming Star Wars books, games, and events that members may want to take part in. The Reconnaissance Officer coordinates closely with other Command Staff officers and Group Commanders in order to synchronize efforts with internal club activities.”
 – Reconnaissance Officer Position Description

The Emperor’s Hammer’s breath and blood is in its pilots, its troopers, its Sith – without active and ardent members, the group has no future. But where do all of these recruits come from? How do people find the Emperor’s Hammer and its subgroups? How is a social media presence organized, relationships with other groups cultivated, and current news both internal and external compiled and presented?

The Reconnaissance Office, led by the Reconnaissance Officer (Recon Officer, or RO), takes point on all of these ideas, and more. Supported by dedicated assisting staff, the office works to attract interested recruits, cultivate an online presence, and much more.

The Recon Office takes on many projects, not only always trying to increase recruitment, but to better the organization with feedback from its newly-admitted members. At any given time, the queue of ideas for the countless platforms and media types the Recon Office works with is full of excellent projects and goals.

This manual document is a guide to the Recon Office, both for incoming staff and the general public. It also provides an insight into the Office’s principles of recruitment, advertising, and conduct, useful for any pilot interested in recruiting themselves. Any questions about the material in this manual can be answered by the RO and the office staff.

Office Staff

Reconnaissance Officer

The RO is the head of the Recon Office. They have final say and control within the department and answer directly to the Fleet Commander. They coordinate projects, working with their subordinates and other offices in the Emperor’s Hammer Command Staff alike, and hold disciplinary authority over the rest of the office.

Command Attaché to the Recon Office

The CA:RO is the primary supporting staff of the Recon Office, the second-in-command of the office. Answering and reporting directly to the RO, the CA:RO takes the helm of many projects and social management, in addition to supporting and cooperating with the rest of the Office on their own projects and goals.

Recon Office Assistants

Recon Office Assistants, or ROAs, are members of the Emperor’s Hammer who have shown proficiency and dedication to themes, ideas, and projects relevant to the interests of the Recon Office. These individuals desire to advance the purpose of the Recon Office, contributing to social media presences, recruitment, and other projects of the Office.

Social Media

One of the central focuses of the Recon Office is the presentation and outward-facing identity of the Emperor’s Hammer, and one of the most important methods of how this is done is the Recon Office’s social media presence. Coordinating efforts spanning multiple platforms and media types, the Recon Office focuses on cultivating presences that displays the organization and its happenings to the outside world, as well as interacting with other organizations and accounts. The Recon Office uses many different spaces to accomplish this, including Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, and even other Discord servers.

Twitter (X)

Twitter is a short form social media site, ideal for an image and a short advertising blurb. “Tweets” are limited to 280 characters, with URL links using up a non–variable 23 characters. Images are most fit in a 16:9 aspect ratio, most commonly 1920x1080px, but do not take up any of the allotted characters. Thus, pictures and graphics are essential on this platform, allowing for more information to be communicated than in the few sentences of text allowed. The Emperor’s Hammer and the EH Recon Office both have official Twitter accounts, found at https://twitter.com/emperorshammer and https://twitter.com/EHReconOffice, respectively.

The Recon Office will tweet and share content posted to Emperor’s Hammer groups such as recruitment posters, member’s artwork, and club highlights to attract potential new members. The Recon Office also shares news relating to Star Wars such as upcoming games, movies/TV shows, and other media. A great method of utilizing Twitter is engaging with online users via comment replies to discuss Star Wars related topics and gaining followers, leading to interest and recruitment of new members.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media site that focuses on photo and video sharing where users can like, comment, and share posts across the platform. The Emperor’s Hammer utilizes Instagram to share artwork, graphics, and other imagery created by our members, as well as promotional material such as competitions and events ongoing within the club. With a relatively massive character limit of 2,200, this platform is fit for slightly longer–form written advertisements than Twitter is allowing the ability to post longer replies in comment sections and post replies. The Emperor’s Hammer Instagram page can be found at https://www.instagram.com/emperorshammer.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site created in 2004 that was originally designed for college students to share updates, collaborate on projects, and share upcoming events. Nowadays, Facebook has over one billion users with the ability to create groups, pages, and messaging across the platform. The Emperor’s Hammer has an active group that is used as an additional resource to keep the membership updated on club activities and news, as well as giving members a space to share memes, cool images, and other Star Wars content, effectively unbounded by character limits – you can write a maximum of 63,206 characters when drafting a post. This group, because of the Facebook user demographic, often sees activity from members from the past, in a reserve group or inactive. In this space, the Recon Office focuses on always being ready to help a member reconnect and reactivate their profile to re–engage in the Emperor’s Hammer. The EH Facebook group can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204060617.

YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing social media platform that the Emperor’s Hammer uses to post member–created videos and shorts. With videos posted ranging from hour–long podcasts to twenty–second clips, YouTube is a versatile platform to display its members’ work and creativity in video format, a different way to recruit and advertise than text with a graphic. This markets to a different audience than the traditional static social media, and allows videos to be collated in their own area, not interspersed between static image posts like on Instagram and other platforms. The Emperor’s Hammer YouTube channel is found at https://www.youtube.com/@emperorshammer.

Reddit

Reddit is a social media site that functions as an aggregation of communities, called subreddits, centralized around specific topics. This predilection for already liking a certain topic can help inform advertising and recruitment tactics, specifying the graphics and text to cater towards the common denominator of the recipients. The Emperor’s Hammer also has its own subreddit, found at https://www.reddit.com/r/tiecorps where members can subscribe to the subreddit and receive updates to their personal newsfeed. The subreddit acts as a space where reddit users can post images and create discussion threads to talk about topics related to Star Wars, Emperor’s Hammer, and everything in between.

An important consideration is that most subreddits have rules for their specific communities. It is important that, while advertising and recruiting – if allowed – that all the rules of the community are adhered to. As a representative of our organization, it is important to maintain the images and reputations of yourself, the Recon Office, and the Emperor’s Hammer, as well as maintaining the amicable relationships with these communities.

Discord

Discord is an instant messaging and VoIP social platform, similar to the eons of past programs such as mIRC, Teamspeak, and Ventrilo. Users have the ability to communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers".

One of the largest ways to recruit new members is providing discord invite links for our official servers so that potential members can join and interact with the membership at large. Each sub-group has an approved discord invite link that varies between temporary, permanent, and vanity invite links. Vanity links, or custom invite links, are available to servers that have reached a threshold of “boosts” which are provided to discord users who are subscribed to the premium version of discord called “discord nitro”.

For example, the TIE Corps server has a vanity link which is https://discord.gg/TIECorps as the server maintains a number of server boosts to retain the perk of having a vanity invite link.

Other Discord Servers

Other Discord servers are, similarly to subreddits, opportunities to advertise and cater to an already narrowed–down audience, which allows your pitch and advertisement to be equally narrowed–down. For example, if you’re advertising on an EA Battlefront II server, the graphic and text associated with it would be different than an advertisement on the X-Wing Series Discord, each specific Discord space warranting different specific pitches. The more specific and personal an advertisement can be to the audience, the more effective – thus, the more potential advertising in these Discords has.

One important note for other Discord servers, similar to the Reddit section, is that some servers have specific rules about advertisement. As a representative of the Emperor’s Hammer, following these rules fully is of the highest importance so you reflect positively on yourself, the Recon Office, and the Emperor’s Hammer. In addition, following these rules ensures our continued allowance to participate in advertisement in that space, reaching as many people as possible.

Recruitment Methods

It may feel that all of the Recon Office’s recruitment work takes place online, on websites, social media, and text boxes. This is not true, though, as there are plenty of in-person and real life opportunities to attract interest and potential recruits to the Emperor’s Hammer.

Conventions, Events, and Every–day Life

At conventions and other in-person events you can always be on the lookout for opportunities to recruit new members. Star Wars fans come from all walks of life and talking up the club in conversation is a great way to spread the word. There are a few key things to remember when striking up a conversation when trying to convince someone to join the Emperor’s Hammer, even when it’s in an impromptu conversation in every–day life.

Be Polite - The most important factor is to come across as polite as possible to a potential recruit. This will help them respect you and hear out what you have to say, feeling comfortable, as well as setting an example of behavior typical of the expected conduct in the Emperor’s Hammer.

Be Convincing - Make the conversation seem as if the person can do nothing else but join the Emperor’s Hammer, but without badgering or condescension. Highlight the parts of club participation and membership that you think the person might be inclined to participate in in order to help create interest.

Be Patient - The person you are advertising to will have no idea what the Emperor’s Hammer is or what it entails. Having patience and thoroughly explaining key factors of the club will help them understand what the club is about. Avoiding abbreviations and acronyms is the best practice here.

Be Persuasive - When it comes to recruiting, there are a multitude of ways to entice someone with what we have to offer. Explaining the benefits of the club is a great way to recruit someone, such as making new friends, playing games together, and the rest of the diverse activities the Emperor’s Hammer has to offer. Finding out that person’s niche interest will also help draw interest out – if they really like single player custom missions, you can tailor your recruitment approach to highlight our extensive library of missions.

Be Helpful - Once you have someone interested in the club, the best practice is to provide the person with connections to our Discord server and website. Guide them through the process of joining and explain what they should expect once they join. Never assume that once they have joined Discord that the process has ended – often new pilots find themselves inundated with material to learn and can always use a helping hand.

You may run into instances that a person may not immediately be interested and that's okay. Keep in mind that the best practice is to avoid being overly pushy and don’t be discouraged. Giving someone all the necessary knowledge about the Emperor’s Hammer can go a long way – they may even remember you in the future, or know someone else who would have interest in our club and pass the news to them!

Physical Materials

Physical materials that display and advertise the Emperor’s Hammer are less common in the modern digital world, but that doesn’t mean that they are less effective when implemented correctly. Stickers, posters, key chains, magnets, and other materials can be distributed or put in visible places to spread the Emperor’s Hammer’s presence in person.

As mentioned in the section above, these materials can also be distributed at conventions or events to attract people, spread visibility, familiarity, and much more.

Digital Recruitment Methods

While social media is the most commonly used vessel for online recruitment and advertisement, exactly what you post on the platforms is the important content that has the potential to convince. Recruiting digitally can happen on social media to a broad audience, or in a one on one direct message, or anything in between. From clean and informative graphics to well–crafted advertising sentences, the content of the post or conversation is the biggest contributing factor.

Graphics and other Visual Aids

The Recon Office has a bank of standing recruitment graphics, generalized for many scenarios and conversations. These usually contain a few common denominators:

Much like posters, these are important assets – a wall of text that would convey the same amount of information is not as efficient as a flashy, attention grabbing graphic. The phrase “a picture is worth 1,000 words” is often used to draw comparison. These can be posted to social media outlets and more often used to introduce a new member or new community to the broader sense of the group. The content of the advertising graphic should speak for itself without needing to overly explain minute details of the advertisement. A successful graphic should convey all the necessary information such as who, what, where, and why.

Therefore, social media posts are often accompanied by different types of graphics: these are built to advertise a very specific part of the club, recent club news, or something else that isn’t a broad generalization. These are composed very similarly to the previous type, but with one difference, already explained – the text of the graphic (if any) is centralized around one specific thing, and is designed to be a supplement to the text in the social media post. Therefore, the words often tend to be more of a title or caption of a design than the entire advertisement itself.

The Text of Recruiting

Writing text for an advertising social media posts is like walking a very thin tightrope, with brevity on one side and specificity on the other. Lean too far either way and one risks either under–explaining or over–explaining, both harmful to any advertising efforts.

Different social media platforms have different ‘sweet spots’ of text length, usually influenced by their character limits – for example, the amount of text that would accompany an image on Twitter is obviously lower than what would be appropriate on Instagram, if only because of the word limitations. Always be cognizant of the system restraints when designing a post.

The text of a social post should accurately reflect the design of the graphic accompanying it if there is one, conveying the same type of information and telling the complete story that the graphic teases. Although the text is not an essay, the entirety of the immediately relevant information should be conveyed in it. Traditionally, however, the text is ended by referring the reader to a link that leads to either the Discord or the website, whatever is needed – this allows the reader to find out more information and delve deeper into the advertisement’s content, without bombarding the reader with a wall of text in the post.

The same principles found above about in-person conversation apply to conversations online while recruiting and advertising. Often, one’s demonstrable virtues and politeness demonstrate more about the quality of the organization than the hard facts about it. If the recruiter is rude and unhelpful, then the potential member will be turned off from joining.

EH Member Contributions

The Reconnaissance Office may have its own artists and content creators however contributions from members are highly welcomed and encouraged. Individual members of Emperor’s Hammer can submit art, graphics, videos, and anything else that might be of use to aid in recruitment and advertising efforts. The preferred method to submit content to the Recon Office is by emailing ro@emperorshammer.org with your material, your ID line, and a brief summary of what your content entails. All materials should follow the Code of Conduct and PG-13 guidelines including the exclusion of any profanity, vulgarity, or any other content that would not be deemed fit for the organization.

How-To: New Pilot Orientation

The Recon Office’s job does not end once a member presses ‘submit’ on an entry form – throughout the process of onboarding a member and accustoming them to the subgroup, the member may have questions, comments, or feedback. The Recon Office can either help answer these questions or take these things under advisement to further improve the Office’s function, advise on the subgroup’s onboarding process, or obtain any other information that can be useful.

Frequent Questions

Most people have no clue what the Emperor’s Hammer is or what we do. The job of the Recon Office, or that of any individual member in a recruiting scenario, is to explain all the facets and unique opportunities we have available for our members. Even after entry into the organization, pilots may have continued questions about the Emperor’s Hammer. Below are some generalized and specific questions that an incoming member may ask.

What do we have to offer?

One of the largest components of what we have to offer is our compendium of battles for the X-Wing series, including X-wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance. With over 4,000 member designed custom missions available for our members to play, it is by-far the most effective recruiting tool that no other club has to offer.

We have scheduled multiplayer events and 24/7 informal grouping in both modern and classic game platforms. For those looking for more events to test their mettle against other members, we offer competitions focusing on gaming, fan fiction, trivia, and graphics creation.

What makes us different?

Since 1995, we have provided a stable and mature environment with over 25 years experience in recreating the excitement and adventure of the Star Wars saga online. Above all else, we have a unique website, uniform creation system, and fleet structure where members can earn and display their promotions, awards, achievements, and other recognition earned in the fight for the Empire.

How active do I have to be?

The Emperor’s Hammer isn’t meant to be a second job – each member participates how they want, when they want. Some units have members that trend towards the more highly active and competitive, and some are more laid back, though, so finding a home to match your wants is important.

Strict requirements for activity vary from subgroup to subgroup, but the common denominator is simply maintaining communication and an eligible piece of activity, both measured on the scale of months. This allows for a laid–back atmosphere that is a home for all types of members, activity levels, and participation methods.

Do I have to read all of the documents and manuals?

None of the documents are mandatory reading, but they all provide critical knowledge for the full enjoyment of the Emperor’s Hammer and its subgroups. They are organized and concise providers of answers to questions that a new member might not even know to ask, helping them get a feel for the community, the processes, and how they fit in. Rank gateway tests reference these materials also, so that is another reason to be familiar with them.

Necessary Documents

The knowledge that a new member needs is, more often than not, written down in several different documents and websites. Familiarity with the information and location of documents is important when assisting a new member and their on-boarding process.

It is always better to share the information personally, instead of linking a directionless member with the manual or guide – this builds more of a rapport than coldly saying “read this.” However, the member should always be made familiar with these manuals and guides and their locations, in case they want to go and find the information themselves before asking. Below are a couple of the most frequently needed and referenced-to documents.

On-boarding Member Processes

The process of a member joining a subgroup is specific to each type, varying slightly in the details. Being familiar with each is crucial to guiding new recruits through the steps and answering any questions they encounter at each step. Below are the pathways through joining the currently active subgroups.

TIE Corps

First, the incoming pilot submits their join form found at https://tc.emperorshammer.org/join.php. The questions on this page consist of identification and preference questions:

  • Imperial Citizen Name
  • Email Address
  • Discord Username
  • Recruiter
  • Unit Assignment Preference
  • How Did You Find the EH?
  • Star Wars Gaming Preferences
  • Are You 13+?

After submitting this form, a confirmation page shows that informs the newly minted cadet that they have been successfully assigned to the Imperial Weapons and Tactics School (IWATS) and that a confirmation email has been sent, containing your Personal Identification Number (PIN) and other account information.

The TIE Corps Commander will then contact the cadet, traditionally through Discord direct message, asking a few basic questions to indicate competency and readiness to be assigned. Following the correct answering of those questions, the pilot is assigned and on active duty.

Dark Brotherhood

Entry into the Dark Brotherhood begins the same way, with an identical join form found at https://db.emperorshammer.org/join.php/db.

After submitting this form, a confirmation page shows that informs the newly minted Initiate that they have been successfully assigned to the Initiates and that a confirmation email has been sent, containing your Personal Identification Number (PIN) and other account information.

The Grand Master will then contact the Initiate through email (or Discord if provided), asking a few basic questions to indicate competency and readiness to be assigned. Following the correct answering of those questions, the Initiate is assigned to an open Battleteam.

Medals Awarded

Medal of Instruction

Moi.png

The Medal of Instruction is awarded for the recruitment of a newly assigned member into the TIE Corps, upon that new member’s entry into an active-duty squadron. This award may only be given for recruiting someone new to the TIE Corps, and not recruiting a current TIE Corps member. The Medal of Instruction may be upgraded with a Blue, Gold, Platinum, Emerald or Diamond Cross and cannot be earned by multiple members for the same recruit.


Scroll of Indoctrination

ScrollIndoctrination.jpg

The Scroll of Indoctrination is awarded for the recruitment of a newly assigned member into the Dark Brotherhood. This award may only be given for recruiting someone new to the Dark Brotherhood and not recruiting a current Dark Brotherhood member. The Scroll of Indoctrination may be upgraded with a Wax, Lead, Gold, or Blood Seal and cannot be earned by multiple members for the same recruit.


Policies of Conduct

Emperor’s Hammer Rules and Regulations

All members of the Emperor’s Hammer are expected to adhere to the governing policies of the Emperor’s Hammer, as outlined in the following documents, including the members of the Recon Office. Displaying proper conduct and disposition is important as the outward–facing department of the Emperor’s Hammer, setting the example for the rest of the members and to display our exemplary behavior and professionalism.

Failure to meet and comply with these rules and regulations will result in disciplinary consequences (including those from the RO, at their discretion, in addition to those set by the rest of EHCS).

External Area Rules

As representatives of the Emperor’s Hammer, any engagement and actions could be considered exemplifying of the group by an external person or group. Thus, not only still adhering to the EH’s own policies when in external areas, but also that particular space’s rules and regulations, is critical to the success and maintenance of the relationship and cooperation. Without proper conduct, opportunities and relationships with other organizations and spaces are hard to be maintained.

As the Code of Conduct (linked above) says, “where EH members are representing the organization in an external event or have a 'EH' tag/nick they should act in the spirit of this CoC and seek to maintain the organization’s image.”

Failure to meet these standards as Recon Office staff may also result in disciplinary action from the RO, at their discretion.

Closing Statement

This manual provides valuable information, instruction, tactics for recruiting, for both members of the Recon Office and for every single member – everyone has the potential and ability to recruit, from the newest Flight Member to the most seasoned Squadron Commander, from the greenest Apprentice to a Battleteam Leader. The Emperor’s Hammer thrives and depends on new members, and if we all play our part in recruitment, our club will continue to be a fun and exciting place for our members, both current and future.

For the Empire! Long may it reign.

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