(]c[) Zoners Trading Consortium

[werner]

[font=Palatino Linotype]Good evening,

Thank you for your interest and for your comments. On behalf of the Board of Directors I will have the pleasure to answer them now. I apologize for not being able to give binding answers to all of them, since we are yet before the board meeting where we have to discuss some issues more deeply. In such cases I promise to get back to the questions afterwards.

1. Have you paid the 500mil fee to an admin, or did I miss it?

[font=Palatino Linotype]Yes sir, it was our CFO, John Chrichton who issued the transfer. If needed we are able to provide copy of the receipt.

2. Not sure you need the military apparatus you propose. This is a consortium (really more like a corporation - a "consortium" is actually an association of otherwise independent organizations); it is not a nation, and as such does not need a "military," a "fleet," or "admirals." You are neither defending territory nor projecting power. What it does need is a security department with management, given the tasks you lay out for it. So a director over the department, with a wing or two (and these can have "commanders" or something a bit more modestly exciting). I know it's fun to play military, but for a trading faction, it seems rather over the top.

[font=Palatino Linotype]As to the consortium/corporation naming: in fact, in the initial stage of establishing our organization, it was formed as a consortium of several smaller trading companies (Mazursky Transports among them) and civil law partnerships, which initially were planned to act more independent. Then the bindings have been tightened, we decided to join our forces and act under a single brand. But the name remained. I understand that it would be appropriate to consider some adjustment of the naming to the facts of the case, it will be discussed on the board meeting.

As to the naming convention for our Security Department, I can say that after some quick consultations with my partners I may say that we will very seriously consider applying your suggestions to maintain some proportions between the rank names and the real purposes of them.

However, at this point I would like to defend to some extent the weight we put to the scale of the military equipment in our company. Please take into account that Zoners usually do their businesses in the dangerous systems, where they can count on themselves - their diplomatic skills and their guns. We do not intend to use the military fleet unless really forced to do it, and our plan (sofar realized with full success) is to solve the taxing/piracy problems with help of agreements and goods exchange.

But it may always happen that we will have to protect our convoys, even for some bigger threats than just small time ruffians where a wing or two would not be enough. Therefore we plan to invest some proportoin of our profits in the maintenance of a well equipped and efficiently functioning security fleet. "Trading faction" doesn't need to mean "defenceless faction".

We don't treat military ships as toys, we rather grew out of this stage. It is rather a sad necessity for us.

A very well produced proposal. I think it may be something that my Zoner captain Georg Thorfinnssen of the SS.'Miskatonic' would like to be a part of. I am in complete agreement with your economic aims.

[font=Palatino Linotype]Thank you for a good word sir, we do our best. We would be honoured if you would like to contact one of our chief officers regarding any kind of cooperation.

It is Gran Canaria though
It is your homebase, you should know what it's called:P

[font=Palatino Linotype]You got us sir, point taken. Let me just mention that as we re-base our company, our secretariat is completelly infunctional for the time being. Imagine I write this letter manually by myself, no dictating!

Proposal seems good enough.
However, I've seen you guys go OOC in system chat on several occasions, and I'd expect you not to if you want to be a proper registered PC faction.

[font=Palatino Linotype]As we have performed some internal investigation, I have been informed that this case has been clarified. In the future, please let us know if you observe any cases of the improper behaviour of any tagged Consortium pilot. We cannot accept such situations and will react accordingly.

Faction proposal? Where is it? I can't see anything.
*fumbles blindly in thread*
PDF file? Post it here please. I have personal issues with Adobe. Actually, it's one of the guys who works there. Well, okay, I don't like a photocopier that works there.
Order capital ships...for a trading wing of the Zoners...that has a Vindication policy - i.e. tax us and we get you. <strike>So Zoner traders will no longer be pirated...</strike>
I see.....the suns darkened by the Osiris fleet......angry zoners meting out justice for pirates attempting to make a living...... I see....(look of horror on face)....people becoming zoners to avoid getting taxed?!?!?!?!

[font=Palatino Linotype]Sir, let me just express my admiration to your ability of concluding from the posts. You have guessed almost everything! :-)

But seriously: we have to differentiate between what we call taxing and piracy. If we speak of the honest people really attempting to make living, there is a wide range of agreements we are open for. Beginning with the humanitarian missions in exchange for the neutrality guarantee, through framework agreements as to the escorting/supporting services, finishing with the more civilized non-agression contracts. To the honest people we present an offer much wider than just our guns.

The Security Department is dedicated mainly to handle the individuals whose diplomacy is reduced to the golden sentence "2mil or die sir". This is where we refuse to play a role of an easy victim, and this is where we say indeed: destroy one of our ships, terrorize our pilots, and we will get you.

Well I have to agree with this, a vindication policy isnt really how the Zoners operate.

[font=Palatino Linotype]As said in my previous answer, we very hope not to be forced to use this policy very much, and we are pretty certain this will not be necessary at all in most of the cases where we meet civilized pilots. But please, understand us - we do have to protect our profit for which we all work very hard, and we have to possess some instruments to discourage the ordinary bandits to treat us as a bunch of helpless cash cows. This is one of them.

Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but The Phantoms seem to take a more or less neutral stance towards the Zoners, so there shouldnt be any need to be hostile to them

[font=Palatino Linotype]If this is a mistake (or outdated information) of our intelligence team, it will be corrected immediatelly. This will be the subject of the nearest board meeting.

And one more thing, it would be nice if you introduced yourselves here

[font=Palatino Linotype]We will be honoured and will do it asap. This was actually the very next point of our plan, just after introducing ourselves to the wide community. We count very much on the information exchange and cooperation with the Council.

You mention Zoner since the beginning of Sirius, but aren't they a recent movement as per rumors and infocards? Along the same lines, if it's a group of people who are leaving the organized Houses, would they organize themselves into a company? Maybe it's just a minor point, but it seems more logical to think of them as trade unions or something of the sort, in my view.

[font=Palatino Linotype]I will try to justify our approach in twofold way. First, let me mention that all the commercial undertakings (wether house based or another), are subject to some universal economy laws, like the economy of scale. It means that in order to compete on the requiring market, you have to integrate in some bigger commercial organism in order to maintain a similar profit margin, and as a consequence - to survive as a company. This was our vision while forming the Consortium. Second, I would say that in the Zoners community, like in others, you may meet some proportion of people of the more "corporate" mentality. Agreed - you can expect less of us among the Zoners than e.g. in NewYork - but there are several of us and we don't necessary feel representants of the whole community.