During standard operation, it may be necessary for a member of Command, a Consular, or a Corporate Liaison to contact an external entity. These outside contacts are typically Central Command or various national governments. This guide details how, when, and where to send a fax.
It should be noted that despite the weight a response from Central Command or other external entities may hold, it is expected of the Command team to handle situations based on their best judgement. The shift (and by extension, the round) should never be halted in order to wait for a response from Central Command.
NOTE: Any fax that attempts to directly confirm, deny, or question an antagonist gimmick (also known as a "confirmation fax") is an OOC offense and will be handled by staff.
Routing
There are 2 types of routing for a fax: Internal and External. Internal faxes remain within the UNIP system, such as faxes sent to member corporations or Central Command. External faxes are any fax sent to an entity outside of the UNIP system, such as a government or an independent organization.
Internal Faxing
All faxes sent internally must utilize one of the fax forms provided in the Requests Console. All fields must be filled out in Basic, where applicable, with the exception of Index, and a stamp must be provided where requested. To repeat, internal faxes CANNOT be freeformed. It is also recommended to NOT rename the paper or to write in cursive (signatures not included).
- General Fax: The day-to-day, or non-urgent fax sent to Central Command. This may include general communications such as minor and non-critical updates, generally informative communications that do not require a response (such as suspensions, promotions, or utilizing the department budget as a head of staff).
- Situation Report: The high-urgency, immediate-attention report sent to Central Command. This should be utilized for explaining situations when requested by Central Command, or if the situation should reasonably require a response with urgency. Examples of situations that may warrant a Situation Report are when the ship is raised to Red Alert, if the ship is otherwise attacked by an external party, mutinies, and other very high profile events that your bosses probably want to know about.
- Injunctions: Injunction forms, when filed, should be sent to Central Command for recordkeeping on CCIA's end. It's very unlikely these forms will get a response unless clarification is requested.
- Incident Reports: For filing a report of any incident to CCIA that could not be handled during the shift by the relevant personnel. This is not a replacement for filing one through proper channels, but is a good way to let CCIA know during the round that one may be filed.
- Secondary Forms: Secondary forms (such as security reports, forensics reports, medical reports, or any other document) that are to be sent to Central Command should be attached to any of the above as required, and not sent on their own.
External Faxes
External faxes can be free-formed as desired as they are not bound to the same rules and regulations that internal faxes are. However, certain items are heavily recommended for external faxes:
- To:
- Subject:
- Body:
- Name/Rank:
- Signature:
The Guide to Paperwork is a good resource for writing documents. While there are no restrictions on the language which an externally routed fax must be in, it is recommended that the fax remains in Basic and is not written in cursive (signatures not included).
Example Form
This is an example format for an external routing general fax. Just replace FLAG and NATION/ORGANIZATION with the appropriate option for the fax, and fill in the fields.[table][cell][hr][small][center]FLAG[br][b]NATION/ORGANIZATION[/b][hr][b] [large]General Correspondence[/large][/b][/center][hr][b]Date:[/b] [date] [b]Index:[/b] [field] [b]To: [/b][field] [b]Subject: [/b][field] [hr][b]Body:[/b][list][field][/list][hr][b]From: [/b][field] [b]Signature:[/b] [field][/small][hr][/table]