Welcome to the Of Sound Mind whitepaper. This document lays out what we're all about, and points you to other pages if you're interested in learning more.
Of Sound Mind was formed in mid-2011 out of dissatisfaction with what other alliances offer. Since then, we've lived in sov null as part of a couple of different coalitions, in NPC nullsec either as part of coalitions or on our own, in lowsec, in lowclass and highclass wormhole space, in faction warfare, in NPC nullsec, and most recently in faction warfare lowsec again. We tend to move around a lot and follow the fun.
These are what we expect of you, and in return, these are what you can expect from your alliance mates.
Members are expected to act maturely. That means we expect you to:
As a general rule our comms, both in voice and text, are clean enough that you could let a young child listen in.
Of Sound Mind tries very hard to foster an environment of inclusivity, which means that people of all ages, races, sexualities, gender identities, belief systems, and so on feel welcome and accepted in our community. As part of that, we have a code of conduct that we expect all members to follow.
We value both learning and teaching highly, and we expect members to put in work as needed to learn new things. Since we're small, we need to play well to win - and that means we need to do piloting, fleet command, logistics, scouting, campaign planning, and every other aspect of Eve well. Doing that requires constant learning and improvement.
We are not part of a large group - instead, we tend to go where the fun takes us. We have both friends and enemies in Eve but we generally tend to keep both somewhat at a distance. The sole exception is Deepwater Hooligans [BIGAB], who we've been working somewhat closely with for the past couple of years.
We believe that patience is often the key to victory. This means being willing to wait, sometimes for a long time, in order to get something important done. You should be willing to wait when needed without complaining. It is fine to leave a fleet that is taking too long for your liking, but it is not fine to complain about how long a fleet is taking.
There are some things we expect of you as a member that are not described above:
You are expected to be able to listen on voice comms when you are playing. Being able to talk on voice comms as well is very useful. Voice comms are generally quiet and calm, but sometimes urgent announcements (enemy gangs sighted and so on) will be delivered only on voice comms.
You are expected to join the "standing fleet" when you are in space in or near our home and not on another fleet. The standing fleet lets other members quickly warp to you if you get into trouble and has saved many ships.
You are expected to come on defensive PvP ops. If someone in standing fleet is in trouble, or a gang is in our home system, you should be willing to stop PvE-ing and help defend. If you are in trouble, your alliance mates are equally expected to come and help you. If our citadels or other assets in space are under attack, your directors will frown at you if you are doing PvE instead of helping defend them. That said, real life comes first in all cases, and nobody will ever be upset at you for not attending an op, scheduled or otherwise.
You are expected to integrate with the alliance. This means signing up for our forums, using Slack, and having your in-game "home" where we live. Your alliance mates should recognize your name and know roughly who you are and what you're up to. This means you need to be somewhat active, but a couple of hours of playtime a week is generally enough to meet this expectation.
If all of this sounds good, you can find more info about applying at our joining page.