Departmental Structure

Departments are logical groupings of personnel, Teams, Task Forces, Task Groups, and projects that focus in a general area.

The following areas are covered in this document:

• Personnel
• Groups
• Projects
• Example Structure

Personnel

A department is composed of three executives and a supporting body of officers with varying rank and affiliation (ST, SW or FY).

The executive is composed of one Senior Manager and two Assistant Managers:

• Senior Manager

  The Senior Manager is leader of the department. This person is responsible for addressing all top-level issues within the department. This includes:
  
  
  • solving personnel problems;
  • coordinating the overall efforts of all departmental groups;
  • providing positive reinforcement;
  • finding new project ideas;
  • having final say in all department related activities;
  • providing a source of leadership.



• Assistant Managers

  Each department has two Assistant Managers. The Assistant Managers aide the Senior Manager with any administrative duties/tasks the Senior Manager might delegate. It is common practice that when the Senior Manager retires or resigns, an Assistant Manager steps up as a replacement. Usually one Assistant Manager is more senior and holds slightly more authority.

Although our protocol states that one must be at least Lieutenant JG before one can apply for a department, Ensigns may be recruited if and only if the departmental Senior Manager explicitly approves of it.

Groups

A department is composed of a variety of logical groups. Groups contain personnel and projects that are specific to some common theme or topic. There are three group classifications:

• Team

  Teams tend to be the largest and most dynamic departmental groups. A team has the following characteristics:
  • Contains members from multiple site genres (such as ST, SW and FY);
  • Has at least five members.
  
  
  

• Task Force

  A Task Force has the following characteristics:
  • Contains members from only one site genre;
  • Has at least five members.
  
  
  

• Task Group

  A Task Group has the following characteristics:
  • Has less than five members;
  • Can contain members from both site genres.
  
  
  

The day-to-day management of a departmental group is handled by Group Leaders and Assistant Leaders.

• Team / Task Force / Task Group Leader

  The Group Leader is responsible for managing the projects and personnel within their respective group, and any other tasks delegated to them by the Senior Manager. Common responsibilities include:
  • solving personnel conflicts within their group;
  • providing positive reinforcement;
  • managing the personnel and projects within their group;
  • providing a sense of leadership;
  • recruiting new members for their group.
  
  
  

• Team / Task Force Assistant Leader

  With exception of Task Groups, because they are too small, each departmental group may have one Assistant Leader should the Senior Manager feel one is needed (they are optional). Only the Senior Manager can officially elect an Assistant Leader. Assistant Leaders aide the Group Leader with any tasks delegated to them.

Other points on groups:

• A group must be approved by the Commander-in-Chief before it can legally exist.
• A group can technically be segmented further into divisions or wings. In this case a group division would be comprised of officers from one site genre. Such a structure enables personnel from each site genre to work closely with each other, but at the same time work alongside members of other genres. This format is more commonplace in large teams.

Projects

A project is any goal that requires an organized work effort. Although a project can be developed individually, most usually it involves a team effort. For this reason projects are placed within departmental groups.

The projects in a department are placed within the groups that are most relevant to their theme. A departmental group can be responsible for managing one or many projects.

Cross-Departmental Projects

It is possible to have a project that is cross-departmental in nature. What this means is that personnel and/or resources from multiple departments work together to achieve the goal at hand.

Cross-departmental projects need to be officially placed within a single departmental group; for this reason one department will ultimately take the lead managing and coordinating the joint effort.

Example Structure

Here is an example of a department containing three departmental groups: a Team, Task Force, and Task Group. In this case the team is composed of two genre divisions. As mentioned above, this enables personnel within a genre to work with each other, but at the same time work alongside members of the other genre.



Should you have any further questions on departmental structure, please feel free to contact the Executive Council.

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