Apr 25, 2015 Pride of the Core was 19,000 metres long. PRIDE Model of Practice. For over two decades the PRIDE Model of Practice has increased opportunities for child welfare agencies to provide a standardized, consistent, structured framework for the competency-based recruitment, preparation, assessment, selection, of foster and adoptive (resource) parents, and for foster parent in-service training and ongoing professional development.
Annual Gifts Program
A well organized annual giving program will increase public awareness about an organization and build a constituency of support from individuals who are committed financially. Annual gift donors often become involved in some volunteer capacity in the development organization. Those who make annual gifts to an organization build on a “habit of giving”, and most major gifts and planned gifts are from those who have been members of the Annual Gifts Club. Once someone contributes to a cause, they have identified themselves as one who believes in, and supports its work.
Business and Corporate Support
Visible organizational and financial support will be generated through a thoughtful, strategic process. An understanding of an organization’s issues, the charitable economy, and the importance of corporate citizenship will be woven into the fabric of the nonprofit’s position within its constituency.
Major Gifts
Short term result is raised expectations by the organization and donors on the significant impact of large gifts. The long term result of a well-organized, comprehensive major gifts effort is the broader view of philanthropy which matches an organization’s needs with the donors’ interests. There will be increased understanding that large gifts are generated when donors are allowed to participate in both the vision and funding of a particular need. For sizeable fundraising efforts, major gifts will be well over half of total dollars raised.
Planned Giving
This process is designed to increase the number of planned gift expectancies and level of cash received as those expectancies mature. Focusing on an actual process of asking for the planned gift will generate results. Qualifying the prospects with both the capacity and inclination to make this type of gift is the first step in a process that involves the organization, the prospective donor and his or her advisors. Pride Philanthropy has an experienced Planned Gifts Specialist to guide and support this important component of a comprehensive development program for its clients.
Special Events
Social interaction, excitement, organization, planning, visibility and financial success can all be achieved through a well-executed fundraising event. The image of the organization and involvement of new constituents are always balanced by profitability. An effectively conceived event will lead to new supporters, enhanced image, and staff and financial efficiency.
Employee Giving program
Implemented properly, success with this key constituency provides an outstanding initial base of support, communicates commitment and generates substantial levels of gift income to the organization. Additionally, the internal communication about a given campaign or project is directed toward those who are our most effective ambassadors in the community. This combination of communication, enthusiasm and dollars provide the platform of success for an overall campaign.
Three months later, 20 BBY; Jago's Diner, Hosnian Prime, 0530 hrs.
A sleepy-eyed Kyle Miran gazed through the order window into the kitchen. A female Selonian chef was hard at work. The otter-like creature gracefully transitioned back and forth between flipping blue milk pancakes, chopping up fruits, and stirring raw rikknit eggs to be make into omelettes. As he sat at the bar, the waitress, another Selonian, came over to take his order.
'I'll take the House Special and a Muja Fruit Juice. I need it quick.'
'We'll get right on it,' she replied, taking note of his Navy Olive uniform.
It's a nice place. Unlike the mess hall. He dreaded mess hall food, especially for breakfast. That slop always leaves a bad taste in your mouth, especially in the morning. Guess it's one of the downsides to leaving the Jedi Order for the Navy. What disturbed him the most about it, though, was the rumor that they served the same inedible garbage at Coruscanti prisons as well.
He took a glance at his watch. He had forty minutes. He looked around the diner. The first thing he noticed was a trio of loud, talkative spacers sitting in the corner.
'...Last month, I ran the Perlemian Route in less than two rotations! TWO rotations! That must've been a galactic record!'
'Oh please! I once made the Kessel Run in 16 parsecs! That was roughly about, uh, one hundred and fifty years ago.'
'Come on, man! I'll bet I can make that in 14!'
'It ain't a blue milk run, buddy. Any faster than twenty and you'll be blowin' yerself to kriffin' spacedust! It'll take a special ship with one helluva hyperdrive to beat that.'
Even without the spacers, the diner was still a noisy establishment. Dozens of beings were chatting with each other as they enjoyed their meals, as if there were no war. No one besides Kyle paid attention to the holoscreens broadcasting the galactic news. War is all that's on the Holonet these days.
'...Yesterday, the government of Umbara declared its allegiance to the Separatist Systems. Experts believe it is because of the death of Umbaran senator Mee Deechi near the end of last year. Chancellor Palpatine has condemned the action and threatened an immediate response if the Umbaran government didn't withdraw their act of secession.'
The BD-3000 droid news anchor paused and tilted her head, placing her finger on the side of it as if she wore an earpiece. Droids actually didn't need to do that, but they were programmed to do so to make them look more organic.
'I have just received word that a Separatist blockade has been established above the planet. It appears war has come to Umbara. This is Kay-Tee Three-Two-Seven, Channel 4 News, signing off.'
No one batted an eye after the report. Kyle's attention turned to the sky traffic outside. While the inside of the diner was practically indifferent of the war, the city skyline couldn't be more different. Due to fuel rationing, there were almost no personal airspeeders zipping amongst the buildings. Most beings these days opted to take the airbus service, which announced last week they would offer more frequent service to capitalize on their newfound ridership. Through the diner's massive skylight, Kyle could see Venator class star destroyers hover above, waiting to land at a gargantuan new naval yard on the outskirts of Hosnian City. Several Victory class missile destroyers hovered further up in low orbit, protecting the military space station that formed the core of the planet's orbital defenses.
The Victory class was the newest mass-produced capital ship model in the Republic Navy. Kyle admired its classic design, even many critics observed that it was a throwback to the Sith Navy a millennia before. Its diamond-boron missile batteries packed a devastating long ranged punch. At 900 meters long, it was strong enough engage other capital ships in broadside-to-broadside exchanges, yet small enough to perform lower atmosphere operations without issue. It was also relatively inexpensive to produce, and given Rendili StarDrive's vast network of Mid Rim shipyards, they could be quickly fielded, provided the Republic is still able to hold the line there. The model proved its mettle during the Second Battle of Dorin, softening up the orbital defenses before finishing them off with close-range turbolaser fire. There are even rumors that Rendili and Kuat are collaborating on a mile-long derivative of the design.
The waitress returned with the captain's breakfast: blue milk pancakes, scrambled rikknit egg, bantha sausages, sliced Jogan fruit, and a tall glass of pink Muja juice. Kyle quickly dug in. He probably will be eating army slop for a really long time. Might as well indulge himself.
Pride of the Core, 0600 hrs.
The Forward Observation Blister was completely deserted. Well, besides Admiral Lee herself.
The Mon Calamari officer was sitting on one of the couches on the side of the oval-shaped room, gazing at the endless blanket of stars outside the domed transparisteel roof. She watched as one of Hosnian Prime's moons floated slowly across the viewport. It was part of her daily routine, gazing meditatively at the stars. Jedi had their force meditation, clones had their reg manuals, and she found her inner peace through stargazing.
Something started beeping. It was her watch.
The admiral had a briefing in twenty minutes. She got up and began walking back towards the aft of the ship's superstructure.
Even though the ship has been thoroughly tested for three months, The hallways still shined like new, courtesy of the mouse droids swabbing the floors all day everyday. The vessel had literally dozens of kilometers of corridors, so the entire droid cleaning crew was programmed to run throughout the network for eternity, with periodic recharge breaks.
As she approached the upper decks atrium near the middle of the ship, the hallways became more crowded. Sometimes, the admiral had to push her way through the thick sea of beings clogging the halls like gooberfish in a river during fishing season. Clone deck crews were chatting and cracking jokes as they made their way towards the mess hall. Troopers did their morning jogs through the corridors clad in their new Phase II armor amongst courier droids making their deliveries. As Lee neared the bridge tower, she began to spot executive officers in their olive green uniforms wandering the halls.
The density of the crowds quickly thinned as she made her way, the noise dying down enough for her to hear second pair of footsteps walking in sync with hers. Through the back corner of the Mon Calamari's left eye, she saw a clone lieutenant directly behind her. Strange. The Officers' Mess was down the other corridor. She kept walking and made a left.
The clone followed. The admiral was getting nervous. Master Yoda specifically told her that no one, especially not a member of the GAR, should know about their briefing. Did High Command find him out? What is so secret that only the Jedi should know about? Wait, what am I doing?
The alien turned around to face the clone. He immediately snapped to attention.
'Yes Admiral?'
'What is your destination, Lieutenant?' Lee demanded in a calm, authoritative way.
'The CIC, Ma'am! I have orders from the Logistics Officer to inspect its armory before our departure, Ma'am!'
The Mon Calamari breathed a quick sigh of relief.
'Very well, Lieutenant. Carry on.'
'Yes Ma'am!'
The clone continued on his way. Lee turned around and made her way back the way she came. In trying to shake off the officer, she passed her destination.
She approached an unassuming door and buzzed the bell. An old, croaked voice responded.
'Enter, you may.'
The door automatically opened, and the admiral stepped into an ornate lounge styled like a room in the Jedi Temple. She was pleasantly surprised when her boots made contact with soft carpet when she was expecting metal flooring. Another door opened on the other side of the room, and sitting on a cushion was a small, green being in a coarse-looking robe. Master Yoda.
'Come come,' said the diminutive Jedi master, gesturing towards a chair, 'Sit, you must. Very critical intelligence to discuss with you, we do.'
'You're late!' a powerful voice snapped bluntly.
Star Wars Mandator Ii
The admiral turned to her right side and gave the Korun Jedi seated there a light bow.
'My apologies, Master Windu. I was held up.'
'Take a seat.'
She calmly obliged. She noticed Knight Brent Astar was sitting in a chair next to her. The door in which she came in automatically slid shut.
'Now seated, we are. Begin the meeting, we can.'
With a gentle motion of a tridactyl hand, Master Yoda produced a tiny ball from his robe and telekinetically placed it on a thin stand in the middle of the circle. Almost immediately, the lights in the room dimmed to almost complete darkness. A vast blue holographic map of the known planets in the galaxy filled the room. As Yoda spun the map towards the almost completely blank western region, Mace began to speak.
'Near the beginning of the war, we came across the remains of a transmitter tower on Muunilinst, during the closing stages of the invasion. It was torched by the retreating Separatists despite its strategic insignificance. What is even more intriguing about it is the hyper-encrypted messages being broadcast periodically to and from the tower that we picked up prior to the attack. Some were going to Kalee while others were being sent to Sernpidal and Dantooine. Our Jedi spies were then sent to each of these planets, and all found a transmitter tower of similar design and purpose on tower on Kalee was relaying encrypted signals between Muunilinst and the Unknown Regions. The other two were relaying to Serenno.'
'Dooku's castle,' blurted out Brent.
How To Build Pride Of The Core
Windu nodded, 'Indeed.'
Admiral Lee was confused. What did this have to do with us? 'With all due respect, Master Jedi. This sounds like a job for Republic Intelligence.'
'Resonated strongly with the Dark Side, the towers did,' Yoda interjected, 'Yet concealed from us, they were. Tools of the Sith, they may be.'
Pride Of The Core Republic At War
'Did we get intel from the relays?' asked Brent excitedly.
The Korun shook his head. 'Unfortunately no. The towers all collapsed on their own once they sensed the presence of Jedi. Considering how Jedi Shadows can mute their Force signature, that is quite an achievement. The only tower where the mainframe was breached successfully was on Kalee, but everything was encrypted an unknown number of times, so our Temple analysts are currently on it.'
'What's their progress?' asked the admiral.
'So far, we managed to decrypt a Separatist datafile, one that GAR intelligence received from a classified source a day before our spy returned. It proved critical to us in routing the Separatist fleet in the Expansion Region.'
Brent nodded in thought. 'So either this is a sheer coincidence, or the Seps are purposefully feeding us intel to throw the fight. That doesn't sound very reasonable for them.'
'To win a war, perhaps not,' Yoda interjected again, 'but to prolong one. Very likely, it is.'
Admiral Lee shuddered at the thought of another long slog like the great Sith wars of the past. she leaned forward in her chair. 'So what's our mission?'
Windu highlighted a position in the blank region on the holomap. 'We tracked the broadcasts from the Kalee transmitter to this point in the Unknown Regions. Your battlegroup must investigate this location as part of your voyage. The Pride's self-sustainability and firepower makes her the most qualified vessel to lead the mission.'
'I wish to brief my executive officers on this development.'
'Tell others, you may not. Know who is involved in this, we do not. If leaked, this operation is, in deep trouble, the Jedi Council will be, as would the fate of the Republic.'
'I understand, Master Yoda.'
'You too, Brent Astar. Not say a word to anyone, you will.'
'Yes Master.'
Yoda removed the holomap ball and tucked it into his robe.
Master Windu sat up from his chair. Everyone else followed suit.
'Dismissed.'
As the four beings in the room left one after another, a dark cloud of uncertainty hovered ever ominously over them all.
A.N. : Next up, an unexpected order may derail the entire mission!