The July meeting was attended by 6 members. At the meeting the crew agreed completely to elect a new captain to replace Captain Jennefer Ernst who decided to step down and take the position as Morale Officer and Chief Security Officer.

The club elected Captain Brian Swift as the new C.O. and Captain Swift accepted the nomination. Now all that needs to be done is the paper work.

p.n. ("Good luck, Captain Swift.")

August was a rather busy month for the club with the meeting and the ship’s birthday. Happy 23rd birthday U.S.S. Sol!  Several Officers and crew received Service Awards and promotions.  (see Special Topics)

At the September meeting Carol said she was relocating to Anchorage to help one of the ships to go online to get rid of the commuting problem for some of the their members. Pn ("Good luck and safe travel.")  Because of Carol’s moving a new XO had to be elected. Michael Wyant was elected to the post. More paper work and it becomes official.

"Attention all hands, this is your Captain speaking:

Star Trek has lasted 40 years and the club has lasted 23 years. Both have faced many changes, ebbs, and surges.

When I first joined under Captain Donna Namet the club seemed to my young eyes to be about reveling in obscure sci-fi trivia and throwing lots of BBQs. Then The Next Generation arrived (both literally and figuratively) and the Club turned into a massively popular entity with a more formalized structure. We made movies instead of watched them and lived the adventure through RPGs rather then simply analyzing and dissecting them.

All good things come to an end, and as popularity in Star Trek waned so did the numbers of members in our club. Now (just like when I joined the club 18 years ago) the remaining membership is a small group of close friends who have grown up together and held together despite whatever life throws at us. As with 18 years ago the club is more diversified in interests, and devoted to a wider range of science fiction. With a lack of Quantity of Trek comes a deeper appreciation for the Quality of Trek. An so as Viacom turns towards the Original Series as the best way to continue Star Trek so too does our club return to its roots. And in both cases we find ourselves saying – My god!...It’s Full of Stars!

-Captain Swift 
Stardate 10609.10

On the personal front, things have changed since the September meeting. My relocation has been called off due to financial obstacles on all sides of the equation. This means, I will continue to warm the recliner at the Swift’s house during our meetings.

Between now and October, I hope to finish the paperwork for the change of XO to Mike Whyant. However, if the CO and XO agree, I will be willing to serve the USS Sol as Chief of Communications and handle the board, website, and finances as I did before.

Now, on to the recap of the last three months.

JUNE 2006

 6 members and 2 visitors attended the June meeting.

 Brian said he expected to move into their new house around the first of July.

 Carol thought it would be a good idea to have a moving party for the Swifts, perhaps going out for pizza afterwards.

 Carol announced the changes in Starfleet and academy leadership. She also announced the opening of the Intelligence Institute with four schools and many courses in both fictional and real-life intelligence and espionage.

 Brian caught us up on the latest Sci-Fi on TV and the rumors of movies on the horizon.

 Brian suggested the Sol; try a radio play divided up into episodes that could be aired as parts of a serial. The radio play hearkens back to a simpler age, when budgets were tight and TV was a new invention.

 After the meeting we watched Logan’s Run.

Later this month, Brian and I changed signatories on the ship’s account.

I set up a bulletin board so that remote members could interact with local members. We are still trying to train our members to USE the board!

JULY 2006

 6 members attended the July meeting.  We planned the Swift moving party for Saturday, with a trip to Pizza Hut afterwards.

 The crew discussed the future of the USS Sol and what we wanted from it. Faced with decreased membership and attendance, Carol put up a bulletin board so all members could participate from their homes.

 The members decided on a change of command and Brian was the most likely candidate for CO, no others having the qualifications or the time. Carol was put in as XO due to her internet experience, which balances out the command team’s functions.

 Brian planned a season premier party for SG and Atlantis, to be held at whichever house had the big-screen TV by the 14th.

 Brian asked for ideas as for the radio play by the August meeting so he could begin writing the script.

 Brian announced new Voyages and the animated series going to DVD.

 After the meeting we watched Westworld.

We had a healthy turnout for the Swift’s moving party and we hauled 12 carloads of STUFF to the new house, catching up to Holly’s packing. Afterwards, we raided the local Pizza Hut, discussed chapter business, and ate till we couldn’t see.

AUGUST 2006

 6 members attended the August meeting.

 We planned the ship’s Birthday party for Saturday...We also talked about the September meeting being a reason to celebrate Star Trek’s 40th anniversary with food and the showing of the first and last ST episodes.

 Carol Suggested the radio play discussion be held off till the September meeting due to the amount of activity going on a the August meeting.

 After the meeting we watched the Sci-Fi Friday lineup.

Ship’s Birthday was held on Saturday August 5th started around 5:30. Planned along with a pot-luck and BBQ were promotions, awards, watching Nemesis, door prize, role-play game for those who are up to it and board games available.

There was a change of command ceremony in which Brain accepted the Center Seat from Jennifer.  Holly volunteered to be Ship'as Counselor.  We all know who Holly’s most important "patient" will be. 

And Jennefer, took the position of Chief of Secuity, also serving as morale officer.  She’ll throw you in the brig if you don’t cheer up!

Again, we did the things we love the most, watch a movie (Nemesis) and eat!

Admiral Carol Thompson, out.

p.n. ("Thank you, Commander -Communication Officer. The ship will benefit from your continued service and support.")

Clayton Hobbs, Officer in Charge of the 10th Brigade (Region 10) of Starfleet Marines, is taking time off to pursue an education. A new Officer in charge is being selected from interested candidates.

They will be developing an online presence to bring in members from around the fleet.

Starfleet International has abandoned the shuttle designation for new chapters. New Chapters now come in with the USS designation and are referred to as Ships-in- training. The process of paperwork and probationary period remains the same "however". The advantage is that ships can create their logos, websites, and chapter manuals without having to make changes later.

Region 11, which contains Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, has come active with not one, but TWO ships in training. The USS Mawson is a meeting chapter based in Adelaide. The USS Southern Cross is a correspondence chapter based in New Zealand.

Starfleet Academy boasts over 500 courses ranging from real-life survival in extreme circumstances to Sci-FI movie trivia. Twelve new schools are on the table also ranging from real-life to fictional subjects.

Any member of Starfleet International may take these courses free of charge over the internet or a modest fee by mail. Check out http://www.academy.sfi.org/ for details. 

Two new Colleges were written by me: Cardassian Orientation College and  Romulan Orientation College. Both Colleges are in-depth studies of those cultures with three levels of exams to challenge and inform you about two of the Federation’s adversaries

Promoted were Holly to Ensign (being the CO’s wife, it only seemed right, seeing as we use her house for meetings) and Mike Wyant to Lt. Commander. During the get-together, Holly moved to the position of Ship’s counselor and Jennifer took Chief of Security

Longevity awards were given to Jennifer Ernst (5), Don Carlson (10), Mike Thomas (10), Ben Thompson (10) and Michael Wheat (10). A Regional Award for extraordinary service was awarded to Brian. Lastly we celebrated  the Sol’s birthday, she 23 years old and counting. Since I’ve been a member of the ship it has gone though four captains, three commanders and many passengers (visitors).

Did you there’s more Caribou than people in the state of Alaska? About a 3 to1 ratio.

Have you ever wondered what N.C.C. stands for? I mean really stands for ?

Well as for the fans it stands for Naval Contractors Construction. The truth of the matter as far the show go, it stands for "Nothing"

When N.C.C. was created by Matt Jefferies back during the Original Series it was used to identify prototypes or experimental type spacecraft. As N.X. is used now . If you read some of the books will find out that the Enterprise and her 11 Constitution glass sister ships were all part of the Starship Project which was to find out how dangerous space exploration was. They found out it was more dangerous than originally believed.

The way Matt came up with this was that he was a pilot and he thought the Enterprise should have a registry number. So Matt decided to use the U.S. registry system. This is how it works:  an N stand for any aircraft registered in the U.S. Then C stands for civilian or non-combative. Matt just added the second C because he thought it looked better, like the beginning of a car’s licenses plate. So it stuck as the Enterprise’s registry number.