As you all should know, the officer structure of Team Valkyrie has been set up quite differently to that of the old MVRT, though they’re currently pursuing reforms along a similar line to that which we have already executed. We’ve put these reforms in place to reduce congestion in officer meetings, expedite important decisions, improve collaboration, reduce confusion, order the chain of command, and incentivize continued dedication to the team. The complete argument and reasoning for these specific changes is a little too much to put into a blog post; however, we can at least summarize the results.
In contrast with the old structure, which had a sort of singular, homogenous command structure, the new setup has three ‘layers’ of command.
The topmost layer is known as the ‘Executive Committee’, responsible for the overal strategic direction of the team. They, along with the Director of Finance, meet semi-regularly in an Executive Committee meeting, where important decisions of relative urgency are decided. They also attend the regular officer meetings as normal. The Executive Committee is composed of five members; two of these are mentors, while three are students. The student bloc is composed of the Chairman of the team, the President of Engineering, and the President of Operations. Unlike in MVRT, where the President (now Chairman) served mainly to work with Operations, the Chairman on Valkyrie takes a strong hand in overall strategic direction, working closely with the Presidents to ensure the success of their parts of the team. Again unlike MVRT, there is no ‘highest rank’; while the Chairman does guide students on trips and take the role of the ‘face’ of the team, they do not have direct command over the Presidents; rather, the Executive Council, by a simple majority vote, has the ultimate decision.
Below the Committee is the regular team of Directors, each managing a division; they each have responsibility for defining goals for their division and ensuring that the students under their command are secure and happy. The Divisions in Valkyrie are as follows: Electrical, Mechanical, ‘Engineering Documentation’ (name currently not fully decided), Finance, Business Media, Outreach, and at least for this year, Web. They’ll be meeting in the regular officer meetings along with the Executives to synchronize their efforts and work together to advance specific team goals.
And lastly, though certainly not least, are the Department Heads or Managers. These are more in the line of ‘technical managers’, commanding smaller groups of people along one subset of a division. In Electrical we’ll have Wiring, Coding, and Vision/Sensors, while in Media we might eventually have Graphics and Web, for example. These guys wouldn’t come to officer meetings, but instead divisional meetings with their Director. They’re not elected as much as appointed by the Director and approved by the Executive Council.