It's that time yet again, as the current term for the Board of Directors draws to an end and the election process starts up again.

On Monday (30th Dec), the one-week nomination period for the electing of a new Director, for all nine Sections, will begin.
If you would like to declare your interest in becoming the Leader for your Section and a member of the Board of Directors for the next three months, then watch out for the details of the election in your "Section Archive", from Monday onwards.

The current term for the Board of Directors will end on Sunday 12th of January, as the new team of Directors take their places on Monday the 13th. Once in place, the new Directors will select their Deputies and a new Chairman of the Board.

Once the Section Elections are complete, the election process for the six-month term of the Presidential Office will begin on the 27th of the month.

At last the developers have announced an official Release date:

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LUCASARTS CONFIRMS APRIL 15, 2003 RELEASE FOR
STAR WARS TM GALAXIES TM: AN EMPIRE DIVIDED TM

Star Wars Galaxies Internet Community Has Swelled to Nearly 400,000 Registered Members in Anticipation of Massively Multiplayer Online Game’s Release

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. and SAN DIEGO -- December 20, 2002 -- LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC and Sony Online Entertainment Inc. today announced April 15, 2003 as the confirmed release date for the massively multiplayer online game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. This highly awaited first installment, which combines Star WarsÒ, one of the world’s most popular brands, with the proven game development expertise of Sony Online Entertainment, is expected to revolutionize online gaming by broadening its appeal to a mass audience...

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You can get the entire press release straight from LucasArts [url=http://www.lucasarts.com/press/presscount.jsp?num=1] here[/url].

Due to the recent announcement by Rich "Bo’Phantom Menace’Shek" Vogel, that Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided will only initially support one character per galaxy (and 10 per account), we've decided to start a new poll to gauge your reaction to this hot topic.

Now that you’ve had a chance to think it over, how do you feel about the SCS decision?
Love it? Hate it? Couldn’t care less? Submit your answer in the Poll window to the left.

It's Friday, so that means another FAQ update over on the Official SWG forums.

Today Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara fills us in on his pots and pans.

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5.28 Do I need a structure to craft?

We have reworked our system so that crafters do not need crafting stations to work their trade. Many items can be created “in the field” using basic crafting tools. After you master basic artisan skills, you can learn to use specialized crafting tools that are specific to particular sorts of crafting. Crafting tools will provide more choices and flexibility when the user is near the appropriate crafting station. For example, you can make a basic sandwich with the generic tools. You can probably make a nicer meal with pots and pans. You can make something much more impressive with pots and pans while near a campfire or kitchen. Advanced items will require using a structure. The most advanced items will require a privately owned crafting station.

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You can thank the maker [url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/083326.html]here[/url], and discuss whether to use a pot or a pan in our member's forums [url=http://www.swg-avian.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4110]here[/url].

Chairman:

The Board of Directors for this term is now settled in, and they have selected Romsuiag as their Chairman of the Board. This is Romsuiag’s second term in the big chair so this time around there is no learning curve. Expect him to dive right in and put the BoD to work.



DoR Secretary:

With the promotion of Angus MacGregor to his seat as Director of Section 4, the Department of Resources has an opening for its Secretary position. All DoR members interested in filling this vacant position should state their intentions in [url=http://www.swg-avian.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4019]this thread[/url]. The nomination period ends November 14th, the voting period will follow directly afterwards and end on November 21st.



October Members:

Avian accepted several outstanding new members during the month of October. They have jumped in adding a new perspective to our discussions and have each been a great addition to our team!



Those members are:

[list]Mineralextractor

Barcalla

Feracitus

Phil Grimm

Lyonesse

Idazen

Aranoc Tanuna

dbakke[/list]

Welcome to the team everybody! Be proud Avians!

The voting for section representatives is over. Congratulations to Angus, Cetera, and Drax for being elected directors to Sections 4, 5, and 8 respectively. Make us all proud!



The following Deputy Directors have been chosen to assist in representing their section:

Killgorian, galaxiesgirl, Cyrus, tango209, X2-PB, Mantison, Rocklar, Wuyavae. Congratulations to each of you. Directors that have yet to choose a Deputy, please do so in this thread.



Finally Avian would like to congratulate all of our members that have made it into the first phase of Beta 2. The developers say it is all work, but I know you guys will have a great time.

It is election time again and A2-V2 has begun tallying up the results!



Most of the final results are in for Avian’s current Section Election. Congratulations to all, especially our newest Board members. This term looks to be an exciting one. The remaining Beta tests will happen within this term, which means more information from the developers and eventually the lifting of the NDA, which means more work for the BoD.



It truly is a great time to be an Avian!



So far the lineup for the fourth BoD generation looks like this:

[list] [*]Section 1: Romsuiag

[*]Section 2: Obo al'Can

[*]Section 3: Raptore

[*]Section 4:

[*]Section 5: Tie between X2-PB and Cetera

[*]Section 6: Dragon Fire

[*]Section 7: Marrok

[*]Section 8:

[*]Section 9: Armin Talmari[/list]

Tasks remaining for this election period:

[list]- Section 5 will undergo a tie breaker, while sections 4 & 8 will have their final results following soon after.



- The Directors will select their deputies to assist them.



- Once all the seats in the Board of Directors are filled, the Board will select its Chairman for this term.[/list]

With the Dev Board “big names” off taking their first steps in a galaxy far, far away, in [url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/069614.html]Day One of Beta 1[/url], the void they left behind is being filled with some great new “crafting” topics.

After the Developers call for input on mining and crafting, due to strike teams being assigned to implement those features, the number of “crafting” topics has exploded, with PyRathedan, SpiffAntilles and Reng Kole leading the charge.



Just a few of the noteworthy topics include...



[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/069578.html](Q) The Economics of Crafting- Is rarity worth implementing?[/url] by PyRathedan

[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/070124.html](Q) Corporations - Thier implementation into SWG[/url] by PyRathedan

[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/070502.html]The Science of Crafting (The crafting sub-game) Part 1[/url] by Reng Kole

[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/066557.html]How fast and how slow? Manufacturing vs Decay[/url] by Reng Kole (as featured in the SWG newsletter)

[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/069477.html]The Complete Art of Crafting (Expanded and Updated) Version 2.0[/url] by Reng Kole

[url=http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars/Forum3/HTML/070328.html]Reply to Holocron's new comments on Crafting, and some replies[/url] by SpiffAntilles

The recent round of elections, which have been taking place over the last month or so, are almost finally coming to an end.

Last week Reng Kole became the first elected President of Avian Technology and Trade. Along with his vice-presidential running mate Gui-Jan Itor, Reng will be ensuring that Avian stays true to it founding ideals during his six month term of office, and will be leading the way to ensure Avian gets off to the best possible start once the Galaxy goes live.

With an elected President, the next step in forming the Departments of Avian has taken place. As announced yesterday in the forums by Reng Kole, the positions of Department Heads for the four department have been selected. They are…

• Dept. of Resources: Just
  
• Dept. of Interior: Lendo Horran
  
• Dept. of Economic & Foreign Affairs: Deak Almar
  
• Dept. of Security: Siygess

With the Dept. Heads now in place the departments can fill their remaining few positions, which will bring this extended round of elections to an end.

The next election is provisionally scheduled for the beginning of October, when the Board of Director positions are to be decided again.

Well, we have a few things to catch up on news wise, so I’ll start with the list of our latest members who joined over the last few weeks.

• ConnorOhara
  
  
• Dayeth
  
  
• Liandros
  
  
• Raptore
  
  
• Acknos
  
  
• XeroAscaris
  
  
• Brax
  
  
• Bubba
  
  
• Sergey

Welcome to the team everybody.