Tossing in my hat
From the “put up or shut up” department:
I have announced my intention to run for Regional Coordinator of Region Two this fall. I will not be campaigning on this site. But I wanted folks to know.
(5 votes, average: 3.8 out of 5)
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September 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 am
Good for you! And when you become a thorn in Sal’s side from inside the AB he’ll have nobody to blame but himself and the elves.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
good luck!
September 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I wish you good luck, Dave. I have looked over your platform, and feel that you can do a good job. If I lived in Region 2, I’d vote for you.
Unlike Tony, I don’t feel like it’s a “Be a thorn in Sal’s side,” idea. I think that if you get the job, you should show them how well you can work as a part of the team, while at the same time, bringing a new light to Region 2.
Next Saturday is the day for my ship elections, and hopefully enough people decide they liked my platform, and will vote for me as XO.
I’ll keep everyone up to date on what happens.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Good Luck Dave
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Joseph,
I’m not saying that Dave would go into the AB with the agenda of creating mayhem for Sal and his pals. On the contrary, I think Dave has a certain personal integrity that will rise above being a part of a farcical puppet show.
It is this personal integrity that will be a thorn in Sal’s side. Dave is nobody’s ditto-head. He would make his decisions based on logic and the best interests of the organization, even if it meant being branded public enemy #1 by this administration for not towing the “party line.” I wish him nothing but the best. Same goes for Jack Eaton.
Best of luck to you on the impending XO election!
September 4th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I appreciate the well wishes. Will likely get spanked. But I had to try….
September 4th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I still think its cute that you think Sal is going to let you run.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
honestly if sal were to stop it in anyway. wouldnt that just bring down more onto sal himself?
September 4th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Scott: Anyone can run! Why shouldn’t he meaning “SAL” let Dave run or even “me” to run.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:12 am
I think it’s cute that Scott thinks that Sal is remotely engaged in managing STARFLEET.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Hahahaha… Good one, Emm
September 5th, 2008 at 1:20 am
To answer Oliver, Jessica, and Toto it is actually simple
Bob Westfall the IG who conducts the RC elections, and quite fairly at that is missing, probably with important real life work, he does work for Homeland Security.
Last time some holdover from Les’s admin let real life interfere, Sal replaced her.
So Bob stays in, no election
Bob gets replaced, he’ll get replaced by a sal toady, and that person will conveniantly never get any nominations for Dave.
Sal doesn’t even have to pay attention, he just conducts business as usual.
Hugs and kisses to all
and remember to hold any position in Starfleet you have to complete FOS 101, Carol said so.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:27 am
Naw, Scott. It’s pretty unlikely.
Check out the plans they’ve put together for the upcoming Trek film in terms of recruitment, retention and chapter support. They’ve also been really kicking ass in the ops department, too! Between those and the new programs they’ve offered to bring the ‘fleet together (and, surprisingly, taking advantage of a lot of online tools), they wouldn’t have time to dick around with an election. Even if you forgot all of that stuff and just looked at the updates in August to sfi.org alone, it’s an handful — Not to mention the tremendous amount of stuff coming from the official mailing list.
Hey… wait a minute…
September 5th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Oh Emmett
You have opened my eyes unto the wonderful universe of goodness and competance that is Team Lizard, His EC, His allies on the AB are bring so much good ness to fleet, I feel chagrined that I ever doubted them, I revel in the increased value that Sal and Garrick have brought us. To think I joined an incorporated Social Organization and am now an employee of the profit making Business that is the Pyramid known as Starfleet.
Hey… wait a micron
September 5th, 2008 at 1:31 am
STARFLEET: The ENRON of Organized Fandom!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:35 am
That’s not fair; Enron simply stole from the shareholders, they didn’t threaten to sue them, as well. We could only hope for such bold leadership.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:49 am
But Emmett
I was told this weekend, that we aren’t shareholders of Starfleet, but employees. RCs work for their BOSS the CS, the CO’s work for their Directors, the RC’s, the members work for their Managers the COs. We’re all just employees who must never speak out against the glorious leadership of Sal and Garrick, because they are our Bosses. They are at the top of the chain of command, if misbehave, they may fire us, or throw us in the Brig.
Hey .. Wait a Microt
Or threaten to sue us for $150,000 for theft of intellectual property, or back up the crazy alien abduction guy when he threatens to have Starfleet sue people becuase they are non-christians.
Nahhhhhhh that would never happen in the real world, because this is just a hobby.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Wow… and I thought I was guilty of the “tinfoil hat” paranoia!
Yes, it is true it all could happen. But I am more concerned that I will get my ass handed to me because I have proven time and again I do not work and play well with others. It has been, in the few short days since I announce my intentions, a bit of a circus already.
I have been accused of being a liar. I said in my platform statement that I did not want to run a negative campaign. But, because I asked publicly on the STARFLEET-L if anyone had a tally of Jack Eaton’s voting record as the R2RC, I must want that information for a nefarious purpose.
I have been told by one Region 2 CO that my goal is simply to “ruin Jack” and nothing more. I still have not drawn the same conclusion, that defeating an opponent in a fair election is “destroying” someone.
Add to that another Region 2 CO declaring I cannot be trusted because I have changed chapters frequently in the past year.
Another Region 2 CO is still convinced I am not legally a member of a Region 2 chapter at all, and should not be allowed to run if I “just switched over” and I am a mere carpetbagger. Forget the facts, like that I have lived in Florida for 14 years straight, not to mention I was born here.
So if they want to find a way to keep me from being elected, the Sal Pals needn’t worry. I’m sure I’ll shoot myself in the foot at some point.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:36 am
If you shoot yourself in the foot, just make sure that it happened because you were in a hurry to reload.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:00 am
yep cause their sure are a lot of zombies lately so you must be fast on the reload!
September 5th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Slow down, I am not getting all of this…
September 5th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I’ll t y p e s l o w e r.
September 5th, 2008 at 11:50 am
ROTFLMAO - That was gr8 Gumby!
September 5th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I have moments.
September 6th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
My Ship elections were today, roughly 30 minutes ago. The good news, it was a clean election, everything was done above board, and there were no complaints. The bad news, is that my crew decided to re-elect a previous XO back to his place, rather than give someone new a chance.
I will admit to being a bit disappointed, since I did have really good ideas on ways to get activity up for everyone. I guess everyone, save the six people who voted for me, wanted the same old same old. In many ways, it’s a bit like my region used to be, and the way parts of Fleet are today. After the CO/XO elections, the CO said that the Senior Staff jobs were open for reapplication. Since I’ve served as Chief of Communications, Spec-Ops Officer, and Marine OIC for my chapter, there aren’t any other positions I am interested in. I have every faith in the bright young officer who applied to be the Marine OIC, and since I live 300 to 400 miles from my chapter, I knew I could do the XO’s job remotely, but don’t think I can do the others.
I did write a really nicely phrased letter to the ship, congratulating the winner, and wishing him well.
What does my future hold? I don’t know. I might look into a closer chapter, although I don’t think any of them actually have officer’s elections, since I haven’t seen any new officers for these ships in the 8 years I’ve been in Fleet.
I guess I’ll just sit back and skype into meetings, and work the occassional cons here with the other ships.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Well, Joe, I am not sure who or where you are, but if I decide to start a chapter in the San Diego area, would you be interested?
San Diego is so huge the chapter would probably only meet once a year and then be online the rest of the year.
It is just in the thought process as I am happy on the O’Darby, but I would not mind creating something more local as well.
September 7th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Joe,
Sorry to hear about the outcome of the election.
300-400 miles from your Chapter? Have you considered a correspondence Chapter? There are some great ones out there, and you can still be involved on a “local” level while interacting from afar.
Take it from the CO of a correy Chapter who has members in 5 states, you can do a lot in SFI as a “distance member.”
September 7th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Tony–
Where are you from?
I am from a meeting chapter but I still have members in NC and GA and
members several hours away. We still have locally enough members to have a
meeting. Today will our meeting
>300-400 miles from your Chapter? Have you considered a correspondence
>Chapter? There are some great ones out there, and you can still >be
>involved on a “local” level while interacting from afar.
Colonel Oliver Savander SR
CO USS Tiberius R2
VRDC MEDICAL
September 7th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Wow, Ollie is on it this morning! Officer thinking, Skipper!
Joe, I was going to suggest that you look into being a distance member of a different chapter. Our chapter, USS Tiberius is the best of both worlds. We are technically a meeting chapter, but we have several members, including the XO and OIC, who are “satellite” members and correspond via email and phone and we see them at conventions.
In addition, the chapter is Marine heavy. All but a handful are active SFMC including the CO and XO.
OK, that being said, here’s my take on “democracy” at the chapter level. Unless that chapter has 50+ members, democratic election of officers simply is ineffective, in my opinion.
There is something about being the Commanding Officer of a Star Trek fan club. It’s akin to being the lead dog in a pack. The Captain is, by all definition, “king of the fleas.” He is the top nerd, the number one geek, and the alpha dog. You do not elect an Alpha, he is forged. That person just becomes the leader by natural selection. People just follow him, period.
I do believe there should be a way to replace a CO at the pleasure of the members, so long as that process is not abuse. But a good leader knows when his time is up, and when to pass the torch to a younger Alpha.
Now if only I had learned that pearl of wisdom when my chapter was still solid. I tried to pass on the Alpha role and kept getting it back in my lap. The chapter was not ready for my “retirement” and we hemorrhaged members because of weak leadership.
As I stated elsewhere, we learn and grow from our mistakes. By that theory, by all rights I should hold a pHD in “Stupid.”
September 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Oliver,
Our Chapter, the USS Odin, is based in Louisville, KY. We are a correspondence chapter that has a large local contingent. The majority of our members live within a 2 hour drive of Louisville, so if we wanted to get together for a “meeting” (code for party) or some group outing or event, it is doable.
While the bulk of our members are from Kentucky and Ohio (Cincinnati is 90 minutes away at “Warp 6″) we have members in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and as far away as California. And while SFI membership is not mandatory to be a member of the Chapter, 23 out of the 24 members have valid SCC#s. (We’re still working on getting the last guy to join, but these days it is a bit of a hard sell.) We’re also very SFMC friendly and about half of our membership is either an active or reserve member.
Once we get a serious web presence, I think we could possibly add another 25-50% to our membership numbers. For now, as a Chapter-in-training no less, we are better off in the membership numbers department than nearly 28% of the entire Fleet, so our focus has shifted from what we need to do to commission to what we need to do to grow and flourish as a Chapter. So far, so good.
As Dave says, you could call me an Alpha. And as the Chapter Alpha, it is my job to ensure that the lumps of coal hurled our way from the current administration are deflected from our members. (Our Chapter nearly folded before it started thanks to Sal’s doom and gloom letter to the membership arriving in the mailboxes of members with membership cards that were still wet from the printing.) I take the heat so the members don’t have to. I also maintain our very active e-mail list and keep the troops motivated. Again, so far, so good.
If you or anyone else wishes to give us a look, head over to our MySpace page for the time being. http://www.myspace.com/ussodin
I really need to get the web page going…
COL Antonio J. Lopes III
CO, USS Odin NX-1875 (R1)
DOIC, 1st BDE SFMC
Yadda yadda yadda…
September 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am
There are two local chapters, but I am sort of hesitant to join them. One if heavy into Conventions (and I’m not much of a convention person,) and the other has only met like 2 times in the last year, despite it being a meeting chapter. Once again, I think the Lack of communication thing has struck. The one that’s closest to me, has a one page web-page, and their CO has never returned any emails that I’ve sent him.
It may be that I will start my own chapter, and see what happens. At the very least, I’ll know what not to do when and if I start one up.