Positions Guide

Chief Operations Officer

General

This guide will teach you how to successfully sim the position of operations officer on board a Federation starship.

Operations officers are often, but not always, the second officer after the CO and FO. The primary task of a COO is to see to it that the resources of the starship are properly distributed and used. This means that you will have to oversee the day to day operation of the starship, it's systems, it's personnel etc. You will be in charge of which science team gets which time on a specific sensor array for instance.

This is not the easiest position to sim but a few guidelines can make it much easier.

Your station as COO is on the bridge and you will recieve status reports and all kinds of information from all parts of the ship and from external sources. You will often be the first one who gets information from the sensors or incomming transmissions and it is your job to direct the appropriate information to the appropriate officers and departments on the ship.

A COO can also act as a backup to some extent for the Science officer and the CEO and a COO will have some expertise in both these areas of ship operations. Be carefull though not to interfere dramatically with the Science officer and CEO during the sim and completely take over their roles. It is an option though in case either of these officers are on leave or otherwise inactive.

A COO will often accompany an away team and during those times you will find yourself in command if there is no CO or FO present. Alternatively, if the CO and FO are both away from the bridge, it is possible that the COO will be left in command.

Apart from your normal duties a COO is also a regular person so if the mission is going slow or you are on off-duty time that does not mean you can sit back and enjoy the view. You can always sim about things your character does in i=his off-duty time.

For instance, you can post about your character's hobbies or recreational activities. Holodeck programs you like to run, excersises, socializing with the rest of the crew and things like that. You can create NPC's for this. These Non Player characters are crewmembers that are not controlled by anyone player in particular but you can create at will. You can use these characters in your post and you can even have things happening to them that you can't do to a player's character like having him wounded or killed or situated in a particular place that a player's character can not be during that particular time.

Have fun with your character and be creative. Many opportunities will present themselves during a mission for your character to develop. Make use of those opportunities.

Responsibilities

Opps will control the resources used in each area. The main job of the COO will be control the resources of the ship to enable each department to do what it needs to do its jobs and, in case of a shortage of resources, prioritise between departments, based on immediate, short-term, and long-term priorities. The main things that are needed by other departments will be:

Tactical will usually require a sizable chunk of long range sensors that you can increase or decrease as the mission develops. Anything involving combat is its information to report.
Science is similar to Tactical position in that they will be a major user of the sensors. The ship will nearly always be studying something, unless the ship was launched on a purely military mission.
Medical will need to know when they will need to respond to a medical emergency. They might sometimes need planetary sensors routed through to medlab so they can assess a medical needs on a planet.
Navigation will need the relevant navigational data to set courses and to fly the ship with. This will require some navigation sensors. They will also be in contact with engineering, being the official liaison between the bridge and Eng on the propulsion systems with regard to propulsion.
Engineering is a special case with Operations. It is the job of both departments to keep everything running smoothly. Onboard data will be shared with them. Even though you report to the CO/XO the status, they are the ones who run around fixing things/coming up with complex solutions.

COOs are not able to interfere with departments in the following ways.

Tactical have full control over specialised tactical systems such as phasers, torpedoes, cannons, cloaks, and shields.
Navigation will contol thrusters, impulse and propulsion systems. Opps has no control over these.
Opps will not interfere with engineering tasks that need manual operation such as replacing/realigning crystals.
Medical Quarantine systems are off-limits and have their own short term emergency power systems. They can be deactivated from opps but you will make your CO and CMO extremely unhappy (don't ever go for a check-up again on that ship!).

This leaves the COO in direct control of transporter, replicators and holodeck systems, main deflector and sensor arrays, Starbase gangways/loading connections and computer's umbilicals, Emergency evacuation systems (lifeboats, Captains Yacht), Shuttlebays, bay doors and shuttlecraft Medical facilities, Using spare cargo bays (mainly done for Medical emergencies/drills). If you require something else and you think it might fall under the responcibility of another department it is best to check with that department head first.