Introduction

After a bit of a literal (damn you, New Year’s Eve!) and metaphorical (thank God we’re done with the audit) hangover, my staff and I have begun one of the projects I’ve been most excited about ever since taking over as Headmaster: the reorganization of the Shadow Academy. Initial feedback from my staff has been positive and we’re busily working away at getting everything together. At the end, we’ll have a streamlined SA where courses are easier to find, similar courses are more intelligently linked together, and prerequisites will guide members along correct paths to maximize their understanding and success. I’m looking forward to seeing this project come to fruition, and I’m excited to get to show it off to you all.

It’s Scroll Time!

Every six months - in July and then again in February - we award our hard-working Professors and Docents for their efforts with Scrolls of Foundation. Each PROF/DOC gets a set number of Scrolls for grading their courses (the more courses graded, the higher the number) with a bonus for keeping under a 24 hour grading window. Earlier today, I’m pleased to say we awarded 141 SoFs. Our graders took care of 975 exams over that six month window with an average grading time of 11.8 hours - well within our required grading window of 24 hours and even within our optimum grading window of 12. Congratulations especially to Sang for grading 175 exams with a grading time of 4 hours - incredible!

Projects

Current

Shadow Academy Staff are currently engaged in the following projects:

• SW History Department Rewrite - Lexic: Because of the evil Darth Mickey, my beloved Galactic History courses aren't fully canon anymore. The courses are being pared down (almost in half) and will be added to the Legends Department. This is being wrapped up after a delay (we were celebrating the end of the audit, leave us alone). Estimated completion: Soon (tm)

• DJB History I & II Update/Rewrite - Alishu: Alishu has completed first drafts of both courses and they've been sent to the DC for approval. The DC has a lot on its plate right now, but I think we'll see some movement on this soon to get these courses released for all to enjoy. Estimated completion: TBD

• Operation Remodel - SA Staff: In an effort to streamline the organization of the Shadow Academy and make it easier to initially get to information and then to find similar information, the SA will see a fairly extensive reorganization. An initial proposal has been sent out to my staff and some of the DC to be worked up before presenting it to GM/DGM for approval. I’m hoping that we can get this done by the end of the month. Estimated completion: 2/2017

• Operation Prereq - SA Staff: In order to make a more focused new member experience, different options are going to be explored to create prerequisite courses before other courses open up to a member. My staff and I are currently putting together this list and will begin rolling it out by the end of the month (or whenever James can accomplish it). Estimated completion: 2/2017.

Upcoming

• There are a couple of things in the earliest planning stages, but aren’t quite ready for prime time. Stay tuned for more.

Top Exam Takers

Name	# of Exams	# of ACs
Acolyte Ashael Blackstar	50	68
Acolyte Elania Li	26	33
Neophyte Lucine Vasano	18	2
Trainee Graesa Churrigh	16	15
Proselyte Zaine Halcyon-Ordo	14	2

Note: these numbers cover the period from 12/30/16 to 2/1/17.

Conclusion

The Shadow Academy covers tens if not hundreds of thousands of words, and those words were written by imperfect humans (GASP!). We try our best to catch and fix any and all errors before we release courses, but we're not always successful. Because of that, we will always need your help. If you spot an error, please report it to the SA Staff using this simple form; if it's a major enough error, or you spot enough, you'll be rewarded. At the very least, you'll get the thanks of a grateful HM... that's got to count for something, right?

In Darkness -
Farrin Xies,
Headmaster of the Shadow Academy