Newsletter1 by USS Columbia

USS COLUMBIA NEWSLETTER Volume 1, Issue 1

SHAKEDOWN CREW REPORTING Quote of the month “All I need is a tall ship and a star to steer by”

SHAKEDOWN BEINGS SOON!

Letter from the CO

Lt. Commander Randy Davis

Commodore Jason Schreck

The STARFLEET Shakedown Program was developed as a “training course” for individuals and chapters that aspire to become official chapters of STARFLEET and receive a chapter charter. Typically, new chapters of STARFLEET form for a variety of reasons: distance from a currently active chapter, specific needs of a group of members, cultural or philosophical differences, etc. When a group of members comes together and decides to form a chapter, the STARFLEET Shakedown Program is designed to help those members become an active, growing, and prosperous chapter of STARFLEET. TAKEN FROM THE MEMBERS HANDBOOK

INS IDE THIS ISSUE 1

Letters from the CO

The Executive Office

Chief of Engineering Office

Role-Playing section

Web Site Information

What to expect...

January 2010

Well here it is my first report as the CO of the Columbia. I want to start by saying I am proud of the crew we have already assembled and the amount of work we have already accomplished. I decided to start this group after searching without much luck for a new STARFLEET chapter that was a good fit. As most of you know I sent out an email to new members to see if their was any interest and you have seen the result. I want to reemphasize this club is what we make it I don't want to be a dictator and want all of the crew to have a say in ships decisions. I will only serve as CO as long as the crew wants me to do so and if someone wishes to run for the position and wins in the future I will gladly step down if its the crew's wish. I only took the position initially because of the relative newness of the crew to fleet verses my experience. If there is anything I can do to make your time as a member of the crew more enjoyable please let me know my ready room door is always open. I'm open to suggestions and criticism as well as long as its constructive. Our shakedown paperwork is on its way and soon we should get our orders from fleet. I look forward to a long successful voyage. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Newsletter 1

continued from page 1

LETTER FROM THE CO (CONTINUED) I also thought I'd take this time to introduce myself a little more. Well as most of you know me by now from the message boards and getting things organized, I will try to keep my intro brief. My name is Jason Schreck I was born in Mississippi, grew up in Virginia met a girl from Kentucky got married and moved to Kentucky about a year ago. I am a teacher by profession and have worked in education in several museums in Virginia, Alabama, and now Kentucky. I'm an avid space buff and follow the space program extensively this the name of the ship. I first joined STARFLEET in 1994 as a member of the USS Jamestown. Was a member off and on till 1998 and have been a member consistently since. In my time in STARFLEET, I have risen to the rank of commodore, and held several ship and regional positions over the years. I have been the OIC of the marine strike group on the Jamestown and its founder. I also served as the Jamestown's chief of operations, and a stint as Executive officer. Regionally I was OIC of the 7th Battalion 1st Brigade for the STARFLEET Marines, DOIC First Brigade, and OIC of the first Brigade at different times in my service. I also served briefly with the USS Tang first as chief engineer then as XO. My current position with fleet is that of Orientation officer. I am a long time Star Trek fan and star Wars fan as well as science fiction in general.

What is SETI@home? SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

EXECUTIVE OFFICER Lt. Commander Randy Davis

Hello, my name is Randy Davis. I was born and still live in Bowling Green, Kentucky, I currently work at the GM Corvette Assemble Plant. I served 10 years in the US ARMY as a Combat Engineer and was deployed to Operation Desert Storm. I have been a Star Trek fan since the 1970‟s. My favorite series is TOS with as sprinkling of DS9. This is my first chapter assignment and first position of XO. I have a sense of pride going into this and will serve in the capacity of XO for as long as the CO and Crew are pleased with my performance. I am also serving as acting communications officer until someone else steps up to take over. Please contact me at any time, I welcome new ideas, comments and even criticism. CHIEF ON ENGINEERING Lt. Al Davies

I am an engineer in the real world, I guess from that it‟s kind of obvious why I‟d love Star Trek and could see myself as a Starfleet Engineer. At the moment, I‟m also studying parttime for my master‟s degree. I enjoy running and cycling in my spare time, I also often find myself tinkering with things (in a non-weird way) whether it‟s D.I.Y or messing with websites – although hopefully none of you guys are real website designers otherwise you‟ll be able to spot the gaping holes in the Columbia website. Okay, see you onboard guys. Newsletter 2

Roleplaying section Chief Engineer‟s Personal Log, Stardate 1100.2 I will be glad when we finally haul this young lady out of space dock. Having spent the last few weeks up to my knees in plasma coolant, hoping it‟s not going to eat through my coveralls; I‟m eagerly awaiting the rest of the engineering crew coming aboard. Delegation is a wonderful invention. On the bright side the “Wide-Enablement BaseSystem for Integration and Terran Entertainment”, or website as I like to call it, seems to be coming along slowly. We had a few minor (and major) hiccups at the start but it should be more reliable from now on, I am confident that it should be ready for the crew to begin migration to the website imminently. However, I look forward to our maiden voyage happening soon, but now back to calibrating manifolds. I feel like a cadet again.

Learn the Klingon Language http://www.kli.org/

STARFLEET PERSONEL DATABASE: RESTRICTED ACCESS: Name: Randy Davis Race: ½ Klingon ½ Human Birth Place: Bowling Green, KY Birth Date: July 18, 2248 Age: 45 Height: 6'0" (without shoes) Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown Marital Status: Married Children: 2 Current Rank: Lt. Commander Current Assignment: U.S.S. Columbia Position: Executive Officer, Parents: K'Ragh Veska & Malika Davis (Deceased) Siblings: None Mr. Davis suffers from Klingon Augment Virus inherited from his father. There are no Klingon Physical attributes due to the virus. A cure exists for the virus but Mr. Davis fears the resulting Klingon attributes could adversely affect his STARFLEET career and the way the crew views him due to the fragile Klingon/ Federation treaty.

Supplemental report fictional profile this is a work in progress. Commodore Jason Schreck began his Starfleet career as an engineer aboard the USS Jamestown NCC-1843B. Jason had graduated with a degree in engineering as well as a reserve commission in the Starfleet Marine Corps. With escalating tensions with the Klingons and Romulans Jason activated his marine commission and became commander of the 108th MSG aboard the Jamestown. After many skirmishes with Klingon forces, he quickly rose through the ranks. Jason was injured in combat requiring him to use a special wheel chair to continue to serve. Eventually reaching command rank and being assigned as the XO of the Jamestown under Commodore Richard Hewett. After several years in this position then Fleet Captain Schreck accepted promotion to Commodore and was assigned as the XO of the USS Tang a ship assigned to deep space patrol. After one year of service aboard the Tang Commodore Schreck was offered command of the newly launched USS Columbia NCC-2049 part of the new upgraded excelsior class. This mission is just beginning.

Newsletter 3

An Introduction to the USS Columbia Website By Al Davies

CALL FOR WEBSITE CONTENT AND IDEAS: ADMIN@USSCOLUMBIA.FLEETCOMMS.COM As I appear to have bulldozered-in and tied together a website before anyone could barely get a word in edge-ways, I want to take this opportunity to ask my new fellow crewmembers for input for the website:

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There are many sections that need to be populated and many areas we could create for content, here are just a few ideas: o Pages that have already been created but need content:  Front Page News – Anyone can suggest a news item to appear in our front page blog, just click your profile link and then go ahead and create a new post.  „About‟ Page – To tell the world what we are, what we do, what Star Trek is, what STARFLEET is Etc. Etc. (email admin@usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com)  „Ship‟s History‟ – The Commodore want to do this one, so I shall move on...  „Downloads‟ Page – Ideas on what needs to be included here, probably self-explanatory. (email admin@usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com)  „Gallery‟ – Upload your photos to the gallery, you can add pretty much anything – so I guess some discretion is advised. (go to the gallery page on the site)  „Ship‟s Roster‟ – This is kind of an important one. I‟d like everyone to write to paragraphs to be added here about themselves (one real world, one role-playing style). Of course comments, objections, ideas and input to this are always welcome. (email admin@usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com) o So as if that wasn‟t enough work for us all, anything else anything people can think of can go on there.  For example; would you like to publish some stories on the website or anything else??

I‟m sure we can all come up with things to add. So when you do, just drop a message to admin@usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com (watch out for that double „m‟ in fleetcomms). And I‟m sure we will have the best chapter website in all the fleet in no time. Please everyone, lets get writing on the website content!!

CHAPTER LOGO/PATCH This is another thing I want to broadcast about... Below is my suggestion for our ship‟s patch. I‟m sure the motto can be integrated as soon as it is decided upon. If you‟ve got any comments/ideas there is a post on the forum at www.usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com you can post on. I looked through a few other Starfleet logos and this takes inspiration from the 22nd Century United Earth Starfleet Command Logo, the shuttle shape comes from the STS-107 patch and the Excelsior Class Starship comes from Star Trek (joke!). I‟m reasonably proud of it. I was trying to create a patch with enough detail to look good large but also distinguishable enough to be able to recognise when it‟s small. I also chose to use the a line-art drawing of the USS Columbia because of my general dislike of pour quality ship screen-shots; this logo can literally be scaled to any size you like without loss of detail. Okay that‟s enough trumpet blowing, I just want to also say; I welcome other ideas for the patch, for the only way we can ensure we have achieved the best possible is through rigorous competition. And also, if you do have an idea but don‟t have the time to digitise it, I‟d be quite happy to try and create a concept from sketches or descriptions so don‟t hold back. Now, back to the website... CURRENT FEATURES AND ONGOING WORK So, there are a few main features of the website at the moment, the main focus – I think – being the forum. I‟m working on a nice theme to actually fit it in to the site nicely (coming soon); and a few bugs but it‟s mostly working smoothly now, as far as I can tell. There is a nice little gadget on there for online chats which I‟m hoping will work quite well – for that our first ship meeting will be a test. But I‟ve had a bit of fun putting it together. Below I‟ve included a few helpful (in my opinion) tips for using the site.

1. How to change your name to include your rank. Or for any other reason a. After logging in, click „profile‟ in the right hand menu bar b. Change your „nickname‟ to whatever you like c. Now use the dropdown menu below to select the name you‟d like and hit „save‟ d. Click „USS Columbia‟ at the top of the page to return to the front-end site and presto everything should have changed 2. How to change your Avatar (the image that appears next to your name) a. The avatars on our site use www.gravatar.com b. Go to www.gravatar.com and open an account by clicking „Get your Gravatar today‟ c. Use the same email address as is set-up with the USS Columbia website and create your account d. Follow the steps to upload and create your avatar e. Then 5 – 10 min later you should see that the avatar on the USS Columbia website has changed, as if like magic So I guess that‟s about it for now. As always, any problems – drop me a line and once again, we are desperate for your website input so any ideas, content or anything else just email admin@usscolumbia.fleetcomms.com. See you onboard.

THINGS TO EXPECT DURING SHAKEDOWN MONTH ONE There is so much to do and only nine short months to get it all done. So let us just jump right in and go for it! Let us start with the basics. Send off for OCC. This has to be done; you might as well do it now and get it out of the way. Set up your by-laws and your Divisions/Departments. It helps when you recruit members to have something to do with them and they‟ll want to know the “rules”. When Division Chiefs are chosen, encourage them to take OTS and OCC if they have not already. Make it a group thing. You can study together, discuss your answers, and get various points of view. Another priority is more members. Work on a recruiting flyer. If you do not have the means to print them in color, use bright colored paper to get people‟s attention. Another inexpensive, easy thing to make is a bookmark business card. Take them to your local bookstores and libraries and put them in Star Trek books. (Ask the librarian or store manager‟s permission to avoid conflicts, and so they won‟t throw your librarian or store manager‟s permission to avoid conflicts, and so they won‟t throw your bookmarks out.) If someone is reading a Star Trek book, this person could be a potential member. If it is possible, before you hold a meeting of your own, you might want to attend your Support Ship‟s monthly meeting (if they hold one). It might help you decide how you want to run yours. You may like the way your Support Ship does it, so you can mirror their structure. You may dislike the way they do it, so you will know what to avoid. Or you may like some things and not others. One thing you learn quickly in „FLEET: If you see an idea you like…use it! Just remember to give credit where credit is due. Two things to always remember: You must report monthly and if you need help, all you have to do is shout! 6

MONTH ONE CHECKLIST Taken from the ShOC manual • CO and XO apply for Officer Command College (OCC) • Start on your chapter constitution/bylaws • Organize divisions/departments • Elect/appoint Division Chiefs • Encourage your Division Chiefs to take OTS and OCC • Create a recruitment flyer for the Chapter • Attend a meeting of your Support Ship to see a more experienced chapter in action • Prepare and hold your first monthly meeting • Fill out and mail your Monthly Status Report (MSR) Copy to your Support Ship Copy to the RC (Optional Regional ShOO) Copy to STARFLEET ShOC

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