Last time I checked SSO and GRU numbers were doing just fine, but then again I haven't been active on the server much so maybe not. Honestly I think this idea is better than just doing tryouts, because you weed out the people who aren't going to be dedicated to said SOC faction. A SOC faction is supposed to be an elite force compared to its based faction counter parts correct? So it makes more sense that you would try to do this to get more "dedicated" members than just some dude that tryouts and passes just to never get back on the server or the faction again.
I see where you are coming from bishop, and you're right that people should be concerned about the faction, I agree with that now. but this really isn't the thread to do it in, why don't you contact Savitr in DM's if you have concerns instead of people doing it in public like this where it's spamming up the thread? I feel like people need to give this way of bringing people into the faction again. Also, the only reason why VEGA isn't "dead" (Although not many are on at the same time from what I know) is because they were for the most part hand picked dedicated players by Garnet and Phantom themselves, kind of like what GRU is trying to accomplish here. Vega at a time did applications for bringing people into the faction so why can't GRU?