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Introduction by the PDF Editor
Like the great civilizations of old, STARFLEET has seen many great rises and falls. What began in May of 1975 as a way for a group of Texas Star Trek fans to come together and share their common diversion is now, twenty-six years later, the largest Star Trek fan club on the planet with thousands of members and hundreds of chapters spreading from Australia to Alaska, Japan to Belgium, and many points in-between.
But it has not all been rocketing growth and happy times. We are a different fan club now then we were five years ago, much less twenty-five. The "glory days" of the late 1980’s, when Star Trek: The Next Generation returned Star Trek to the television and was met with acclaim, it re-awakened the spirit of old fans and brought legions of new ones into Trek fandom. With the evolution of TNG in the post-Roddenberry years, as well as the darker and grittier Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, expanding the fan base beyond those who wished to serve on starships, STARFLEET also grew and expanded with the addition of Space Stations chapter designations and non-Fleet forces such as the STARFLEET Marine Corps.
Unfortunately, as first TNG and then DS9 ended, Star Trek fandom began to wane. The next television series, Star Trek: Voyager, has been met with criticism from fans, as have two of the three TNG motion pictures. Perhaps the fan base is becoming saturated with Star Trek, as all four series are shown on television, often on the same day, and the second through sixth movies also make the circuits of cable television stations such as the Sci-Fi Channel and USA Networks. Bookstore shelves are overflowing with all manner of fiction, reference books, and items such as calendars and art books. Models and figures of all types can be found at one’s local toy and hobby shops and Paramount continues to license new products all the time.
As Star Trek fandom in general has waned, so has STARFLEET. Though still vibrant and strong, successive Administrations have had to consider new ways to encourage people to pay their fifteen-dollar annual membership dues. STARFLEET has always been about the "camaraderie of one’s fellow fan" and many a friendship has been made due to STARFLEET.
And, alas, many a friendship has been lost due to STARFLEET. It is often said that put two or more people into a room, and soon you will have conflict based on each person’s differing ideals and views. When you have thousands of people "in a room", the chance, and magnitude, of conflict rises exponentially. Polarization has been a dark cloud that has often arrived with the cold wind of intolerance and rained on our little party. The result is a lot of screaming and yelling, with the fracturing of friendships, memberships, and even chapters. While it is easy, and common, to yell "Get a Life!" at the people and groups who engage in this sort of behavior, the fact is that it is a part of human nature and as much as we wish to strive for the "utopian" ideals of life in the 23rd century as presented in much of Star Trek, we must note that even our heroes have conflict and strife at times. Three million years of evolution are not undone with the saying of a slogan.
While we like to think of ourselves as "just a fan club", the reality is that, with thousands of members and hundreds of organizational sub-units, we are much more like a mid-sized corporation. We have a Board of Directors (the Admiralty Board) to approve policy drafted by the corporate officers (the Executive Committee) and we have "stockholders" – the members themselves. And like many corporations, our stockholders are also our clients. They give us money in exchange for products – such as the Membership Handbook and Communiqué — as well as rights and privileges — such as attending STARFLEET Academy. Like any corporation, sometimes our reach extends our grasp and we fall short in meeting the requirements our stockholders expect. And they sometimes "sell" their stock by leaving STARFLEET — for either other clubs or fandom altogether.
It is unknown if STARFLEET will be around to celebrate a 50th Anniversary, but I think that the message of Star Trek is compelling enough that, in some form, STARFLEET will survive. Even in our darkest hours, there was always a core group of people who believed in the organization enough to step-up and save it — either by volunteering or continuing to send in their membership renewals, even when all they received for their money was a "sense of community". What you hold in your hands (or are viewing on your screen) is a labor of love by two men — Lieutenant General Scott A. Akers, STARFLEET Historian, and Fleet Captain Jeff Higdon, Commanding USS Black Hawk. While the layout and much of the text was written by myself, have no doubt that General Akers and Captain Higdon are responsible for making this project possible. When named STARFLEET Historian in April of 1998 by Fleet Admiral Michael D. Smith, General Akers proceeded to gather all of the information he could on where STARFLEET had come from. This included each issue of the Communiqué published, chapter newsletters, interviews with members, records at the chapter, regional, and headquarters levels, as well as a myriad of other sources. Over time, these archives grew as more and more information flowed into the Office of the STARFLEET Historian.
General Akers first gift to STARFLEET was unveiled at the 1999 International Conference when he pinned-up posters depicting the genealogy of each individual Region of STARFLEET, going back to the USS Enterprise. All known chapters and shuttles, with distinct lines of parentage, were included. At the end of the Conference, each Regional Coordinator was given their respective Region’s poster to take home with them. After IC99, General Akers next started work on "A Short History of STARFLEET", which gave a quick overview of the major events and players in STARFLEET since 1974. Fleet Captain Higdon took this information and put it together in HTML to display on this website. This document formed the backbone of the work you are reading now. I went through every issue of the Communiqué ever published by STARFLEET – from #1 to #100 – to look for more information to add to the original work. Folks, I cannot tell you what a treasure STARFLEET has in these newsletters. I hope someday they are all available on the web so that everyone can virtually "thumb through them".
I have been a member of STARFLEET for almost twenty years now, and have served at every level. This document will be one of my last "gifts" to STARFLEET and her members. Eighteen years is a long time to be in the trenches and it is time to stand-up and walk amongst the flowers and feel the cool grass under my feet. However, this will not be the only edition of this document. As General Akers noted, as long as there is a STARFLEET, there will be history made that needs to be recorded and chronicled. This document and all it’s files will be handed over to the Office of the STARFLEET Historian for the next generation of Editors and Researchers to append and publish, ensuring that this document is as much a living and breathing entity as STARFLEET is.
Though I am now in the twilight hours of my career and admit I look forward to retiring to my private Command, I have never regretted the time, effort, and money I have given STARFLEET. I feel that the return on my investment has been better than anything Wall Street could ever offer.
On our way to a great adventure...
But it has not all been rocketing growth and happy times. We are a different fan club now then we were five years ago, much less twenty-five. The "glory days" of the late 1980’s, when Star Trek: The Next Generation returned Star Trek to the television and was met with acclaim, it re-awakened the spirit of old fans and brought legions of new ones into Trek fandom. With the evolution of TNG in the post-Roddenberry years, as well as the darker and grittier Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, expanding the fan base beyond those who wished to serve on starships, STARFLEET also grew and expanded with the addition of Space Stations chapter designations and non-Fleet forces such as the STARFLEET Marine Corps.
Unfortunately, as first TNG and then DS9 ended, Star Trek fandom began to wane. The next television series, Star Trek: Voyager, has been met with criticism from fans, as have two of the three TNG motion pictures. Perhaps the fan base is becoming saturated with Star Trek, as all four series are shown on television, often on the same day, and the second through sixth movies also make the circuits of cable television stations such as the Sci-Fi Channel and USA Networks. Bookstore shelves are overflowing with all manner of fiction, reference books, and items such as calendars and art books. Models and figures of all types can be found at one’s local toy and hobby shops and Paramount continues to license new products all the time.
As Star Trek fandom in general has waned, so has STARFLEET. Though still vibrant and strong, successive Administrations have had to consider new ways to encourage people to pay their fifteen-dollar annual membership dues. STARFLEET has always been about the "camaraderie of one’s fellow fan" and many a friendship has been made due to STARFLEET.
And, alas, many a friendship has been lost due to STARFLEET. It is often said that put two or more people into a room, and soon you will have conflict based on each person’s differing ideals and views. When you have thousands of people "in a room", the chance, and magnitude, of conflict rises exponentially. Polarization has been a dark cloud that has often arrived with the cold wind of intolerance and rained on our little party. The result is a lot of screaming and yelling, with the fracturing of friendships, memberships, and even chapters. While it is easy, and common, to yell "Get a Life!" at the people and groups who engage in this sort of behavior, the fact is that it is a part of human nature and as much as we wish to strive for the "utopian" ideals of life in the 23rd century as presented in much of Star Trek, we must note that even our heroes have conflict and strife at times. Three million years of evolution are not undone with the saying of a slogan.
While we like to think of ourselves as "just a fan club", the reality is that, with thousands of members and hundreds of organizational sub-units, we are much more like a mid-sized corporation. We have a Board of Directors (the Admiralty Board) to approve policy drafted by the corporate officers (the Executive Committee) and we have "stockholders" – the members themselves. And like many corporations, our stockholders are also our clients. They give us money in exchange for products – such as the Membership Handbook and Communiqué — as well as rights and privileges — such as attending STARFLEET Academy. Like any corporation, sometimes our reach extends our grasp and we fall short in meeting the requirements our stockholders expect. And they sometimes "sell" their stock by leaving STARFLEET — for either other clubs or fandom altogether.
It is unknown if STARFLEET will be around to celebrate a 50th Anniversary, but I think that the message of Star Trek is compelling enough that, in some form, STARFLEET will survive. Even in our darkest hours, there was always a core group of people who believed in the organization enough to step-up and save it — either by volunteering or continuing to send in their membership renewals, even when all they received for their money was a "sense of community". What you hold in your hands (or are viewing on your screen) is a labor of love by two men — Lieutenant General Scott A. Akers, STARFLEET Historian, and Fleet Captain Jeff Higdon, Commanding USS Black Hawk. While the layout and much of the text was written by myself, have no doubt that General Akers and Captain Higdon are responsible for making this project possible. When named STARFLEET Historian in April of 1998 by Fleet Admiral Michael D. Smith, General Akers proceeded to gather all of the information he could on where STARFLEET had come from. This included each issue of the Communiqué published, chapter newsletters, interviews with members, records at the chapter, regional, and headquarters levels, as well as a myriad of other sources. Over time, these archives grew as more and more information flowed into the Office of the STARFLEET Historian.
General Akers first gift to STARFLEET was unveiled at the 1999 International Conference when he pinned-up posters depicting the genealogy of each individual Region of STARFLEET, going back to the USS Enterprise. All known chapters and shuttles, with distinct lines of parentage, were included. At the end of the Conference, each Regional Coordinator was given their respective Region’s poster to take home with them. After IC99, General Akers next started work on "A Short History of STARFLEET", which gave a quick overview of the major events and players in STARFLEET since 1974. Fleet Captain Higdon took this information and put it together in HTML to display on this website. This document formed the backbone of the work you are reading now. I went through every issue of the Communiqué ever published by STARFLEET – from #1 to #100 – to look for more information to add to the original work. Folks, I cannot tell you what a treasure STARFLEET has in these newsletters. I hope someday they are all available on the web so that everyone can virtually "thumb through them".
I have been a member of STARFLEET for almost twenty years now, and have served at every level. This document will be one of my last "gifts" to STARFLEET and her members. Eighteen years is a long time to be in the trenches and it is time to stand-up and walk amongst the flowers and feel the cool grass under my feet. However, this will not be the only edition of this document. As General Akers noted, as long as there is a STARFLEET, there will be history made that needs to be recorded and chronicled. This document and all it’s files will be handed over to the Office of the STARFLEET Historian for the next generation of Editors and Researchers to append and publish, ensuring that this document is as much a living and breathing entity as STARFLEET is.
Though I am now in the twilight hours of my career and admit I look forward to retiring to my private Command, I have never regretted the time, effort, and money I have given STARFLEET. I feel that the return on my investment has been better than anything Wall Street could ever offer.
On our way to a great adventure...
Admiral Chris 'Tigger' Wallace
Overseer of the Secrets of Memory Alpha
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