Thanks James.
I haven't got the same mastery of lol-gifs as N'maro, but consider this an update on his original post.
Focus:In terms of ingame activity in the leadup to Odyssey we are currently focusing on exploration with a particular interest in running w-space operations, initially on a 'daytrip' basis. We will aim to use these activities as the foundation for RP and miniplots as the opportunity arises. We're encouraging a pro-active approach to this from all of our members.
We have also made a decision to involve ourselves with the incursion mechanic again as directed by the interests of our members.
Live Events? Yes, although recently it's been difficult for a corp touting itself as 'neutral' to really become integrated in any way that FCORD (who we fly with anyway) hasn't already covered. Our policy on Live Events is that if pilots want to participate we leave it to them to do so. We also observe and report on intel related to the events and fallout afterwards, although much of this is kept either internal or between our allies.
Finally, we are using these activities and other training ops as a means to increase our PvP ability - not a simple task for a small corp that's been primarily focused on other interests within the game for a number of years now. We expect many hilarious fails on the road to becoming "Masters of the PewPew Universe™", some of which may become apparent IC but all of which will amuse us OOCly.
It's all good. We've also got a ship replacement program to cover our members in the event of the previously mentioned hilarious fails.
Recruiting:We've had a number of rules and restrictions on recruiting in the past. We called it 'selective', others called it 'picky' but the end result was that it was hamstringing us.
We've removed all the artificial hoops and hurdles we asked new applicants to negotiate. We still don't accept red-listed toons, we don't accept those with a history of Nation or Blooder sympathies or direct involvement and we don't accept those who we feel would cause unnecessary OOC drama within the corp. We have a good idea of the player personality we're looking for and while we sometimes project a serious/stern image ICly our player-base is actually quite casual, friendly and tend to roll with things rather than snark out.
To apply now, all you need to do is contact one of our recruiters, provide a full API key and if it checks out we'll approve on an initial probationary term. Most of the time we'll aim for this to be on the spot or shortly thereafter. We'd also suggest that you consider joining any fleets we're running or talking with us in SYNE OOC channel prior to applying so that you're fully informed of what you might be getting yourself into.
If you have a corp that you don't want to leave but that you think might work alongside SYNE, we're open to that too - either in an informal sense or as formal members of the Celestial Imperative alliance. Your CEO should contact either Ninavask or N'maro to discuss the proposal.
Lastly, we aim to soon open a new corp (SN-PF) within the alliance intended to function in a dual capacity as operations group and academy/recruiting unit. More on this as the idea develops.
And yes ... SCIENCESEYCON looms once again but as in previous years we need the interest of the community to reach something of a critical mass. If you are interested, contact us OOCly (initially) and we can at the very least register your topic of interest and see if there's anything we can assist with in getting it to a point where you want to talk about it.
In addition to SEYCON however, we have a few other ideas including an umbrella project conceived along the lines of Arek'Jalaan but with on a far smaller scale and without the over-riding necessity of GM involvement.
It should be noted that we try to base as much of our 'science' research around game mechanics as we possibly can in order to avoid the twin curses of herpderp and godmoding. We're still only human of course.
Recruiters (in-game names): Ninavask, N'maro Makari, Ollie Rundle, wurblewind, Derek Draconis
Channels: SYNEPublic, SYNE OOC, The SYNE Lounge (not open to those on red-list); N'maro, myself, Rin Kaelestria and Ninavask are also usually on OOC channel when online.