Well, all good things must come to an end.
I'm afraid, due to a new job that will require much more of my time, I find that, to be fair to all of you, I need to step down as Division Director of the greatest Division in VATSIM. But the good news is that I'll certainly still be involved in VATSIM! I'm pleased to announce that Ross Carlson has hired me to work on his development team as his Director of Integrated Platforms. In this role, I'll work with Ross to tie together his new ATC clients (vSTARS and vDSR), and his new pilot client (vPilot) into one, simple, deployable, cross-platform, modularized package. This will be automatically downloaded to every new member along with all sector files and all model matching and aircraft rendering files as each new member joins VATSIM! We predict that this will reduce the number of forum posts and support tickets on all of VATSIM by at least 93%!!
The most exciting thing is the integrated deployment and development model we've been working on -- we're currently in talks with IVAO and PilotEdge to sell the complete package to each of them for deployment to their membership as well. This will enable cross-platform events that so many have been asking for over the years in the forums. The income from selling the packages to IVAO and PilotEdge members will not only serve to pay us back for some of our time, but will also provide VATSIM's first authorized revenue stream. We'll be donating one dollar from each download to fund VATSIM's expansion, which will come as a result of people leaving IVAO in droves when they figure out that IVAO's only authorized client, that must be used by pilots and controllers alike, is payware. Neat, huh? Note that the client will remain free for VATSIM members. We've also begun talks with Microsoft to gauge their interest in such a product offering, though they have advised us that they aren't interested in the very near term, as they're already working on something for the flight sim community that could be released as early as late this year.
In any case, I've consulted with quite a few people, including VATNA Region Director Nic Felini, and we are proud to make the following announcements:
Bob Carmona, my wonderful Deputy Director, has agreed to step up and assume the role of Division Director here at VATUSA. He has done a phenomenal job as our Deputy Dog, and I have no doubt that he will do a phenomenal job as Director. One word of caution, though -- he tends to candy coat things. So, unlike me, you can never really tell when he's pretty ticked off. So don't do anything to tick him off. You just don't want to be sitting there wondering if you did or didn't....
Moving up to the Deputy Director slot is our current Training Director, Kent Kasten. In this role, we'll all see a lot more of him.
In the interest of a speedy, painless transition, we have decided to directly appoint Mike Bertolini as VATUSA's newest Training Director. This came after much discussion with the VATUSA and VATNA staffs, but, the reality is, having been a member and/or visiting at every ARTCC in the USA, Mike has been through every ARTCC's training program and has seen the good and bad sides of each. More importantly, having exposed himself to every ARTCC, he is uniquely qualified to build a training program based on the best practices and lessons learned from each ARTCC. This is the kind of integration and step-function improvement we certainly need.
So, very exciting times for us are ahead in VATUSA. I am truly excited for our future, and ask that you join me in wishing our new leadership your very best, and giving them your full support.
All the best to you all -- have a great day!
