I am involved in starting a new "ship" of Starfleet International. I'm not gonna be the captain, but I am one of the instigators of getting it going. Anybody been involved in SFI? Any words of wisdom?
Re: Starting a Starfleet International chapter (ship). Any tips/though Well, it helps to have some idea of what your priorities are. Do you mainly want to share Star Trek experiences, e.g., go to conventions? Do you want to do public service? Do you want to create new Star Trek in some medium? You need to find out, within your priorities, what is going to draw people in. Folks don't want to come to a meeting just to come to a meeting. Fewer still want to work on stuff like bylaws or be on committees. Having a program for each meeting is one way. Our club has a business meeting for 30 minutes at most, then we watch an episode or have somebody present or we go out to a movie, some kind of activity that we can all share. Get at least twice as many people as you think you want. SFI requires 10 members to launch. It takes 20 to get ANYTHING done, since most members, in spite of your wishes and their promises, don't do anything. If there are other chapters near you, go to their events. You can share some of the work on those events with them, bringing more folks to bear on the project. SFI should assign you a mothership that should help you with the bureaucratic details of getting launched.
Re: Starting a Starfleet International chapter (ship). Any tips/though Thanks. In my mind it is for like minded people to get together, watch an ep, talk trek, do something fun. Maybe share/advance some Trek karma if y know what I mean. (idic, not fighting lizard men with bamboo cannons) Peace.