AJ Chegwidden
From The Simming League
AJ Chegwidden has been a member of the Simming Community since March of 2000. During his career he has served as the head of various group academies, as the Chief Justice of the DSF Supreme Court, as an Ambassador to the Simming League, as a Senator to the Simming League from RPG New Worlds, and as President of the Simming League. Although he is currently retired, AJ has been known to make guest appearances on various games. He currently is the moderator of the Neutral Zone for the Federation Sim Fleet and their Battlestar Galactica forum.
The first group to recruit AJ was the United Star Fleet (USF), which had various clans that spanned across several online video games. The group had just started an RPG division and looked for individuals familiar with the genre. AJ assisted with recruiting from GameSpy and various online forums, but retired after a year. AJ maintained a presence and was eventually convinced to return full time by the group the Defenders of the Federation (DOF). While participating in the DOF, AJ was put in charge of the group’s academy where he helped new recruits get accustomed to simming. Part of his duties would be to make random visits to the different online games to see that new members were integrated appropriately. After another year, AJ retired due to personal reasons in real life that had to take precedence.
While being retired, AJ enjoyed participating in the holodeck chat on Startrek.com. This allowed him to sim occasionally but also stay active in the community. It was here that he was approached by Kevin Pyne to join his “established” group, the United Galactic Federation (UGF). Chegwidden was given a “commission” as an ensign only to be promoted to Vice Admiral two days later. This promote was due to Pyne’s misrepresentation of the group as being established. In reality, the only active member was an individual by the name of Josh Hrach who was developing a new sim called the USS Providence. Chegwidden was given the position of Judge Advocate General and quickly enlisted on the Providence as the Chief of Security.
As Judge Advocate General, Chegwidden helped Hrach and later Nick Sloat to develop UGF into an active and rapidly growing organization. Within 6 months the group grew from three people to a group that had four sims which contained at least 15 members each. The USS Providence was by far the most successful in the group, mainly due to the hard work of Josh Hrach. As Chief of Security on the Providence, AJ turned that into a role of his own. He established a rough character with a long history who loved not only his family, but the crew, and his collection of weapons.
While being a member of UGF, AJ joined the Federation Sim Fleet on board the USS Intrada. This helped AJ get involved in the FSF and establish a permanent presence in the more successful aspects of the Simming Community. While in the FSF, AJ had the opportunity to get to know various individuals including Jonathan Shuni, Seth Cotis, Ken Gillis, and Jay Truce.
In April of 2003 the UGF had joined the Simming League and had entered into early discussions with Justin Ashton (of USF) and Seth Transon (of OS) to merge the three fleets together. This was finalized in July and the Dynamic Simulation Federation (DSF) was formed. The group was at first a much more stable and efficient organization which was based on the mutual trust of all those involved. After the fall, various conflicts began to develop in the leadership ranks. It is important to note that at first Chegwidden was not given any position within the group at the demands of Justin Ashton due to Chegwidden’s objections over the merger at first. Yet by August, Chegwidden had cemented himself as the head of the group’s Supreme Court as Chief Justice. Although he did not have a vote in the group’s senate, he was able to argue for or against measures. When the conflicts began to arise within the leadership ranks, Chegwidden had begun drafting the official constitution of the group. In December, Rob Bennett called the question of the constitution, and the leadership of the group including Chegwidden, Seth Transon, Rob Bennett, and Josh Hrach all ratified the Constitution. Justin Ashton was not present at the ratification due to conflicts in his personal schedule. Although he was still allowed to ratify the Constitution, Ashton instead claimed that his hand was being forced. This caused a crisis within the group and the executive leadership voted to remove Ashton from his position within the leadership ranks.
At this point, Ashton left DSF with his Star Trek simulation and a Harry Potter simulation. This caused a crisis within the Simming League when Justin Ashton claimed to be the “legal” DSF and attempting to have the “Bennett DSF” expelled from the league. After about a week of arguments, the “Bennett DSF” was accepted as the official DSF and the “Ashton DSF” as a new group. Though this proved to be pointless since both groups merged into the Federation Sim Fleet ending the conflict between Ashton and Bennett. Chegwidden was then left without a position but enjoyed that. He instead put more effort into the Simming League, slowly rising to the position of Vice-President. But due to eligibility requirements, Vice President Chegwidden was forced to resign. He would then become the Senator for RPG New Worlds. During the Presidential crisis of 2004/2005, Lex Kempo became inactive putting the young and inexperienced Derek Graham as President of the Simming League. He also would become inactive and AJ Chegwidden became President of the Simming League on March 1st, 2005. While he would only serve for three weeks, he was able to push forward the reform process. He was also able to increase activity among Senators, a critical component to the success of the League.
Chegwidden oversaw the elections in March of 2005 ensuring that a spirited debate took place and that a peaceful transfer of power took place. After he had left the Presidency, Chegwidden remained in the league. During this time he would have several conflicts with Seth Cotis and eventually would have to announce the resignation of RPG New Worlds from the Simming League. Chegwidden would remain in the league as an observer, offering his point of view when he saw fit. Many people disagreed with his style of “telling it like it is” but it would prove helpful in numerous situations. At this point Chegwidden was retired and has been since. He has taken several leaves of absence from the League, but was known to be a public critic of League President Azanialix Ja'arda of the Starfleet Legacy Alliance (SLA). Chegwidden would also argue before the Court of Sim Justice and later the Magistrates of the League the issue of whether or not Ken Gillis was illegally banned from the league. Chegwidden would eventually remove himself form the case do to disagreements with his client, Ken Gillis, and in protest over the efforts of the Administration to shut down the case.
AJ Chegwidden remains an active member of the Federation Sim Fleet as moderator of various sections of the forum. He often stops by the Simming League but dedicates much of his time now to personal causes in real life.
AJ can be found often in the forums of the FSF, most notably the Debate Forum.
