[VATME] Town Hall: How Can VATME Become More Active?

[Syam Haque 1161585]

Ok. Here it goes.

I am an American, and fly pretty much only in America because of a couple reasons. These reason also you should note, are the reasons I keep flying there....

 

Thank you very much William for your feedback and suggestions. I completely agree with your suggestions that you have mentioned and know that if those were done in the VATME division, there would be much more activity here.

 

What you have mentioned are some of the things that we as a division have been attempting to do for years now. I will be completely honest with you here, and I speak for the division (having been both a member and ranking up to Deputy Director of the division): the majority of VATME members are not active/motivated/enthusiastic. We have over 1000 members in our division from OBS to SUP, more than 100 of them are controllers rated S1 or higher, 13 of those 100 controllers are instructors rated I1 or I3. If a fraction of those 100 controllers were online each day, trust me you would see a huge ATC lit area on this part of the globe

 

Of course now you're asking "well, why don't they go online?" After asking a lot of controllers and pilots throughout my time here at VATME, the controllers tend to say "because there's not much traffic, so it's not fun for me"...and I'm sure you know what the pilots say: "because there's not much ATC, its not fun for me" We can't really 'force' members to go online as pilots or ATC, short of say paying them..

 

Most of the vACCs (virtual Area Control Centers, which each of the countries are divided into) are inactive, they don't have anyone on VATSIM or VATME who is willing to take that area and be a director and get together a nice team of 4-5 members who are staff and start up that country. VATME has 12 vACCs. Only 5 of those are active and have staff managing them. The other 7 are inactive and do not have any staff managing them. This explains why you also don't see many events here...no staff = no one to organize an event.

 

We've gone through great lengths to loosen strict rules of other divisions to give these inactive vACCs some coverage. One of the things during my time as staff I did was open up those inactive vACCs to the division and VATSIM as a whole, creating an "Open Airspace" scheme, where any member (rated S1 or higher) in the division can control any position in the inactive vACCs up to their rating level. And expanded this to all of VATSIM, to allow any controller on VATSIM rated S3 or higher to control a position in those inactive vACCs. It has slightly brought in more coverage, but traffic levels have been steady. I'm guessing its because of no events, and again that won't happen unless someone takes the vACC, puts some work into it, and pushes it out. But regardless, as much as I love events (and we've had plenty over the years in the division) they have only generated traffic for that day and maybe the day after and that was that.

 

We've went to make a weekly Saturday event, that has been ongoing for the past several months, called VATME Rush Hours, which is a division wide event set up by the division staff and the 4 active vACCs. It brings ATC coverage every Saturday through most of the division airspace, including: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Iran, and Lebanon amongst the other vACCs. It goes on from 1600z until 1800z (look forward to seeing you or one of your friends there )

 

As for friendliness and helpfulness, I have not seen any point in time here at VATME where an ATC person has refused to help a fellow pilot out under any circomestances. If you do encounter an issue, please let me know and I'll personally look into it for you.

 

We do have a division specific forum at http://forums.vatme.net where some of our members use to post. Other times, many of the members are on our Teamspeak servers. Some do come around the VATSIM forums but I do agree, they have to be more active here as well.

 

Besides the issues I have noted above, we are still looking for vACC directors and staff throughout the division and that is a priority that must be done before you actually see any significant change here. Without manpower, it won't go far.

 

I thank you again for your feedback and ideas, I'll be sure to p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] it to the other vACCs and members and I look forward to seeing you in the skies here

 

Disclosure: I too am an American but have set my division to VATME in an effort to see if I can help out this area to the best of my abilities.

[Bahaeddine El-Zarif]

Ok. Here it goes.

I am an American, and fly pretty much only in America because of a couple reasons. These reason also you should note, are the reasons I keep flying there....

 

Thank you very much William for your feedback and suggestions. I completely agree with your suggestions that you have mentioned and know that if those were done in the VATME division, there would be much more activity here.

 

What you have mentioned are some of the things that we as a division have been attempting to do for years now. I will be completely honest with you here, and I speak for the division (having been both a member and ranking up to Deputy Director of the division): the majority of VATME members are not active/motivated/enthusiastic. We have over 1000 members in our division from OBS to SUP, more than 100 of them are controllers rated S1 or higher, 13 of those 100 controllers are instructors rated I1 or I3. If a fraction of those 100 controllers were online each day, trust me you would see a huge ATC lit area on this part of the globe

 

Of course now you're asking "well, why don't they go online?" After asking a lot of controllers and pilots throughout my time here at VATME, the controllers tend to say "because there's not much traffic, so it's not fun for me"...and I'm sure you know what the pilots say: "because there's not much ATC, its not fun for me" We can't really 'force' members to go online as pilots or ATC, short of say paying them..

 

Most of the vACCs (virtual Area Control Centers, which each of the countries are divided into) are inactive, they don't have anyone on VATSIM or VATME who is willing to take that area and be a director and get together a nice team of 4-5 members who are staff and start up that country. VATME has 12 vACCs. Only 5 of those are active and have staff managing them. The other 7 are inactive and do not have any staff managing them. This explains why you also don't see many events here...no staff = no one to organize an event.

 

We've gone through great lengths to loosen strict rules of other divisions to give these inactive vACCs some coverage. One of the things during my time as staff I did was open up those inactive vACCs to the division and VATSIM as a whole, creating an "Open Airspace" scheme, where any member (rated S1 or higher) in the division can control any position in the inactive vACCs up to their rating level. And expanded this to all of VATSIM, to allow any controller on VATSIM rated S3 or higher to control a position in those inactive vACCs. It has slightly brought in more coverage, but traffic levels have been steady. I'm guessing its because of no events, and again that won't happen unless someone takes the vACC, puts some work into it, and pushes it out. But regardless, as much as I love events (and we've had plenty over the years in the division) they have only generated traffic for that day and maybe the day after and that was that.

 

We've went to make a weekly Saturday event, that has been ongoing for the past several months, called VATME Rush Hours, which is a division wide event set up by the division staff and the 4 active vACCs. It brings ATC coverage every Saturday through most of the division airspace, including: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Iran, and Lebanon amongst the other vACCs. It goes on from 1600z until 1800z (look forward to seeing you or one of your friends there )

 

As for friendliness and helpfulness, I have not seen any point in time here at VATME where an ATC person has refused to help a fellow pilot out under any circomestances. If you do encounter an issue, please let me know and I'll personally look into it for you.

 

We do have a division specific forum at http://forums.vatme.net where some of our members use to post. Other times, many of the members are on our Teamspeak servers. Some do come around the VATSIM forums but I do agree, they have to be more active here as well.

 

Besides the issues I have noted above, we are still looking for vACC directors and staff throughout the division and that is a priority that must be done before you actually see any significant change here. Without manpower, it won't go far.

 

I thank you again for your feedback and ideas, I'll be sure to p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] it to the other vACCs and members and I look forward to seeing you in the skies here

 

Disclosure: I too am an American but have set my division to VATME in an effort to see if I can help out this area to the best of my abilities.

 

Syam and everyone,

 

I have pretty much a story of how I became active in VATME while being a vatsim member since late of august 2009 as you can see under my name. I am originally from Lebanon, yet I have lived in Canada since 2002, then I believe I found out about VATSIM through google search engine (I honestly don't recall what I typed exactly), then I looked at VATSIM's site for few days, I was like this is something interesting, and as a matter of a fact, it is, and my biggest thanks goes out to everyone who had taken a lot of their time, just to setup a network or a community I shall say, like VATSIM, whether it was directly and indirectly. I admit that I got busy enough that I didnt even make the first flight until the middle of may 2013. Then I was like, when I knew, that VATME specifically the vACC I am running now, which I ranked up from Events Manager to Deputy Director to the Director now. I thought why not help them out and give it a shot, if it works it works, if not, then havent lost anything. And as you can see on personal level, it was pretty successful enough to become one of the VATME Instructor team members which added to my excitement that I had in the first place. Now, again, I will never and havent denied any kind of service to anyone, as a matter of a fact, when I receive lost inquiries, I usually help them get it to the right person.

 

Now, I personally, have tried to motivate my controllers enough, yet 90% of time, came back as no hope, well at least I usually go online, since most of us here as syam suggested, do give priority to their real life commitments which I totally understand and respect, and hence the reason why you don't see much of an activity, would be VATSIM being perceived as volunteering work, which it is, yet without the added controller or pilot traffic flying out of and into the middle east or any area, would defy the greater image of the network, and puts the time and effort of the VATSIM Board of Governors into a void state.

 

Another idea I might suggest is every vACC, start and regulate Virtual airlines, it may look lame or has no effect, yet you might use it as a group flight encouragement which you can use a fictional airline if you wish. Also, VA activity enhances the look of the region.

 

Thanks for your time,

 

Bahaeddine

[Kirk Christie]

There have been plenty of offers from people to step in and run your vACCs, it was division level staff that forced these people out the door again.

 

My suggestion would be to s[Mod - lovely stuff] the individual vACCs and just run VATME as a single division where members of Iran can control UAE ect

[Bahaeddine El-Zarif]

There have been plenty of offers from people to step in and run your vACCs, it was division level staff that forced these people out the door again.

 

My suggestion would be to s[Mod - lovely stuff] the individual vACCs and just run VATME as a single division where members of Iran can control UAE ect

 

So basically, just have every staff member maintain the whole region Kirk?

[Kirk Christie]

Not region, Division.

 

With a division with as little activity and members such as VATME, there isn't enough staff to go around and create 7 separate vACCs each with several of their own staff members, VATNZ used to be apart of VATPAC until it grew big enough to maintain it's self.

 

Similarly VATSIM South East Asia is doing the same thing, this allows controllers to train at a division level and control various vACCs, it also frees up your staff.

 

Most of the VATME division staff when I was there held multiple vACC staff positions any way.

[Bahaeddine El-Zarif]

Not region, Division.

 

With a division with as little activity and members such as VATME, there isn't enough staff to go around and create 7 separate vACCs each with several of their own staff members, VATNZ used to be apart of VATPAC until it grew big enough to maintain it's self.

 

Similarly VATSIM South East Asia is doing the same thing, this allows controllers to train at a division level and control various vACCs, it also frees up your staff.

 

Most of the VATME division staff when I was there held multiple vACC staff positions any way.

 

To be honest, Kirk, this is a great start yes. I do agree.