Thursday, June 27, 2013

A Vre'kasht anniversary

In 2007 my partner and I were unhappy with the situation we found ourselves in with our chapter in STARFLEET, The International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc. (SFI).   I was the Executive Officer to a Commanding Officer who seemed intent on ignoring everything I had to contribute to the chapter and openly hostile to my partner.  The CO ended up kicking my partner out of the chapter which left me in a difficult position: Do I continue on in the chapter and hope for the best for my partner or do I leave the chapter in support of him. We were discussing our options before he was kicked out because we saw it coming for a while prior to it happening. We knew we really only had two options if we wanted to remain in SFI, find a new existing chapter to join or start our own chapter.

I have been in STARFLEET since October of 2003. At the time I had been a member for 3 1/2 years. My chapter at the time was only my second chapter. I had some idea of the workings of a chapter in 'FLEET but not much about the rest of the organization. That chapter was a new chapter and I had been involved with getting it started and certified by STARFLEET. In fact my partner and I are both plank certificate owner of that chapter. I knew that I could handle starting a chapter. The hardest part would be recruiting new members. At our highest level we had twenty members. Right now we have nine members. We need to have ten to be considered up to strength.

On Friday, June 28, 2013 we will celebrate our five year anniversary as a commissioned chapter of STARFLEET. We have had our struggles along the way but it has mostly be a fun ride. Can't wait for the next five years!

Followers