Overview

Mission
It is the mission of the Galactic Senator to represent to the best of their ability the segment of community for which they been appointed. It is the responsibility of the Senator to take into account the interests and sentiments of those represented in an unbiased and objective capacity, serving as advocate, leader, and unified voice for the players.

Appointment
Candidates for the Galactic Senate may be nominated by any player in good standing, and self-nominations are also considered.

From the pool of nominees, a Senator is selected by the Star Wars Galaxies Community Relations team, based on the player's experience in game, understanding of the role (be it profession or general), leadership,communication skills and a fundamental drive to help other players.

Once appointed, a Senator will serve a six month term, at which point the position will be open to new candidates. If a Senator leaves the program, interim nominations and selection will take place.

Duties
Senators are required to represent the interests of their public accurately. For professions, this means a special attention to the details and nuances of balance, systems and functionality of their chosen profession in-game. As a community leader, the Senator is expected to be the definitive source for all things which he or she represents. A Senator should champion the interests and concerns of their community, and will be expected to speak with the voice of that community.

Example - A Senator representing the Smuggler profession is encouraged to write or compile from sources a guide to help newcomers to the Smuggler profession, and offer tips and hints from the community as a whole. A Senator representing the Imperial faction of the Galactic Civil War is encouraged to build a Top 5 list of the most prominent Imperial PvP strategies, etc.

Senators are tasked with a lot of different tasks. Primarily it is the job of a Senator to collect information and present bugs and issues for their appointed aspect or profession without bias.

The first thing that any Senator should do is to look at the primary task requested by the development team; compile their Top 5 issues. With every update or Hotfix, things can move up or down in priority so it is vital that the Senator has the ability and experience to quickly identify any problems within his or her appointed profession and shift around the priorities in the Top 5.

Senators also help identify and report on exploits, so if you see or hear about one, be sure to pass it on.

Is that all Senators do?
Compiling a list of bugs and issues and keeping it up to date sounds fairly trivial. Hit the edit button, type in a few words. Pretty easy you might think, right? Well ...

Once a bug is reported by a community member Senators need to be sure that the information is accurate, that the steps are well documented and easy to understand for a developer that may not be familiar that particular issue. For that to happen, Senators need to log on to a server (live or test) and try to reproduce the issue themselves or work with their community to inspire them to help them test the bug. Give it a run for the money, so to speak.

The process of working with the community is entierly voluntary. Senators inspire their community members to work with them in order to be really effective. That means creating an environment in which the players feel that their input is appreciated. Being kind, helpful and supportive are all very powerful tools to create such an environment. Having the right attitude and being courteous is definitely necessary. While everyone can have a bad day, the community members shouldn't suffer from it.

But that's just one part of the job. If the community is small, the Senators may have a harder time in gathering information, so getting their community members involved in their work becomes even more important. The process of gathering players to help can involve community building tools; one of those is the 'player of the month' forum titles. Players are rewarded for their work and given special titles. A popular Senator is more likely to be successful in rallying players in an effort to help them represent the issues and bugs of their appointed aspect or profession. Polling the community is another useful tool, as are in-game meetings, voice sessions and other communication tools used to solicit player feedback. Since the senators may have limitations in their choice of tools, it's up to them to use the tools they feel the most comfortable using. The objective is to get the feedback from the players.

What's all that I hear about the Secret Senate Forums?
The Private Senate Forums are primarily used for reporting exploits, coordinating meetings, discussing different community building tools and other things pertaining to all aspects of being an effective Senator. On occasion developers will ask for filtered information. That means the Senator will reach out to players who share their aspect or profession and ask questions. So keep tabs on what is being posted by your Senator in your forums and help them when they request feedback. It is a chance for your voice to be heard as well!

Senators can also use their forum to bounce ideas back and forth if they have a tricky issue they don't quite know how to handle and are looking for some advice and suggestions that they can take back to their community. Having a good relationship with your Senator in-between updates can help the community each of them represents.

What tools do Senators have?
Senators primarily use the forums for communication, but they also have access to a Senate IRC and a Ventrilo server. There are monthly in-game meetings where they use in-game voice. Much of the testing is done on TCP or TC where Red-Dwarf reigns. If a new Update is coming, he's one of the Senators that helped test it. On occasion a developer will pop into the IRC to get some direct feedback. Much of GU4 was handled directly on IRC; other issues and Updates have also been handled there but it all depends on which tools the developer is comfortable with.

What else is going on?
Senators have the option to access a more direct channel to QA (Quality Assurance). It does require them to be on TCP/TC more, but once the Senator has reproduced a bug with a QA it is then passed on pending a fix. Priorities in developer resources can mean that a long time passes before a bug is fixed. Exploits always get higher priority and often developer resources are dedicated to certain Top 5s which override backlogged bugs. With limited resources, it's important that the Senators help the team with correctly prioritizing in which order bugs and issues are handled.

Senators always post walls of text, give me a rundown of what to expect in the future!
Communicating effectively is one of the primary traits the team is looking for when assessing new candidates for a Senate position. Clear communication is important but sometimes that means going against player expectations and handling those player expectations correctly. Senators hate to disappoint players, its one of the most challenging aspects of the job because the desire to help is so deeply rooted.

The future for the Senate is promising. Now that the profession updates are no longer a focus, every one of the Senators has an equal chance of getting their bugs fixed or issues looked into. Every two weeks a new Top 5 for the game is submitted to the team and presented on their Tuesday meetings. The Senators are vigorously trying to get their top issues to that list and it's a fierce battle! But it also means that greater attention can be made to some of the longer standing bugs. The biweekly Top 5 is not listing the same heavy hitters every week, since that would mean taking up slots for bugs that could be minor and fixed within a day. The list is being balanced in coordination with all of the senators and presented by the Gameplay Senator to the Community Relations Team. Feedback is being given back to the Gameplay Senator that can then react to the feedback and shift bugs around as attention is being made to the items on the list.

Obviously new Senators get a lot of help to get set up and it does take a lot of time to get acquainted with all the different processes. No one is expected to know every intricate process from day one. Getting to the point where you are an effective senator can take months and continuing in the role still takes a lot of time invested by the Senator.

Structure:
There are 24 total Senators. The following is a breakdown of current positions within the Senate:

Privileges
Senators have access to The Galactic Senate forum, where debate, discussion and votes that help mould the future direction of Star Wars Galaxies take place. Senators are granted limited moderator abilities (Sticky and/or Announcement) in their respective forums and are flagged with the prestigious title of Senator.

A Senator is a player, first and foremost. No special perks are given at all. They are not given money, paid accounts, easy access to uber loot or anything like that. They do not have any other tools available that the players don't already have access to. If a player can get an item, so can a Senator - provided that they put in the effort to get that item.

Announcements

We are happy to announce the arrival of our three newest Senators! Please join me in welcoming:

Commando Senator: Warr'arri

Rebel Senator: Inat-Mivea

Medic Senator: JiveTalk