Yearly Archives: 2010

Meetings

Upcoming USS Ticonderoga meeting on August 11th

The second Wednesday is coming up on the 11th.  That means it is time once again for the monthly USS Ticonderoga crew meeting.  This will be held at the Weber County Library (25th and Jefferson) at 7:00pm in the basement auditorium.  This meeting is open to anyone who wishes to find out more about the club and what we do.  We will be discussing some of the upcoming events including the Seventh Fleet Olympics hosted by the USS Retributor this month in Layton.  There will also be several awards and other commendations.  Several crewmembers have attended some summer conventions and we will be hearing from them as well.

Just a side note, we still need an activity for September as some of our other options have fallen through.  If you have any idea, bring it to the meeting and the crew can discuss it.

Crewmembers

August Farewells

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One of the great things about joining a Star Trek fan club is the many friends that you will make.  We all have a common interest in Star Trek and that thread binds us together.  In various activities, meetings and events we get to know more about our Star Trek family.  However one of the bad things is that real life may cause us to loose friends to different circumstances. 

In August three of our crewmembers are moving to other states.  Ensign Lori Adams just received her CNA certificate and has a wonderful opportunity to continue her nursing education in California.  This month she will be moving her family to the bay area.  Chief Petty Officer Doug Pratt is moving to the Denver area to take care of his parents.  He will be returning to Utah to help take care of a few community projects but plans to stay in Denver for the next little while.  And last (but not least) Lt. (j.g.) Tim Madden’s wife received a great job offer from a hospital in Nebraska.  They have already started moving the family over before the start of the new school year. 

All three crewmembers have expressed an interest in remaining correspondence members.  In the case of Doug and Tim, we may have opportunities to meet up with them at Starfest (see the last blog entry regarding a charting bus idea).  With the wonders of technology and the internet, we should stay in regular contact (and I’m certain that they would love to hear from you as well).  Good luck in your endeavours and may you Live Long and Prosper.

Poll

Poll: Charter bus to Starfest in 2011?

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So one of our other goals with the Ticonderoga website is to help with the interaction and feedback from our crew and friends.  To accomplish this, we will have a poll every once in a while on our blog section.  Our first poll deals with some long term planning that the Seventh Fleet is looking into. 

We have a proposal to charter a bus to Denver for Starfest on April 15-17, 2011.  The question for everyone is, if the cost was $80-100/person, would you be interested in chartering a bus to go to Denver?  Early proposals have the bus leaving from Salt Lake City late on Thursday the 14th and arriving on Friday morning.  We could check into the hotel early to relax and get some of the better rooms.  When the convention is over, we could leave on Sunday and arrive home early Monday morning.  In the past we have stayed over night on Sunday to avoid driving through Wyoming in the middle of the night.  With this proposal we could save a day on the hotel costs.  This would also be a bus with a bunch of your Star Trek friends on it and it will have DVD/TVs on it so we can geek our way to the con.

Starfest is a huge Star Trek/SF convention that has been held in Denver for over 35 years.  It is put together by Starland, an SF mail-order company that also runs several Denver area haunted houses.  There are several Star Trek actors and authors in attendance.  Studios will send an actor to promote an upcoming movie or TV series.  There are a ton of room parties, panels, movies, model show, art show, horror, anime, gaming, comics and more.  Saturday night is capped by a massive costume contest and parody play by the convention volunteers.  They recently had to expand the convention into two hotels because of how large it had become.  There is usually an attendance of 1,500-2,000 over the weekend.

Our friends from the USS Pioneer help us out by getting discounted general admission tickets for the weekend.  These usually run in the $45 range (these are usually over $55 at the door).  There are also several packages for reserved seats and shorter autograph lines.  There is a sit down restaurant across the street and a Wendy’s nearby.  Refrigerators are provided in the hotel rooms as well and there are two hotels to choose from.

Since the early 90’s, members of the Seventh Fleet have been driving and flying to Denver to attend this convention.  It has almost become an annual mecca.  In 2010 practically no one made it to the convention.  A goal for 2011 from several Seventh Fleet CO’s is to have as many crewmembers as possible attend the convention in uniform.  If you are interested in going or if you would like to provide any feedback on conventions or bus trips, just leave a comment below.  Thank you in advance.

Meetings, Seventh Fleet

News from Seventh Fleet Council meeting

Over the weekend the USS Ticonderoga hosted the quarterly Seventh Fleet Council Meeting.  Representatives from the USS Atlantis, USS Kelly, USS Rendezvous, USS Retributor and USS Ursa Major were also in attendance.  Captain Marla Trowbridge from the USS Rendezvous conducted the meeting. 

Some of the highlights from the agenda include the new meeting protocol (that we were currently experimenting with), the role of Admiral Hollinger and the format of the new Commanding Officer Exams (Admiral Hollinger had samples of the new test).  The new exams will make it easier for potential command grade officers to prepare for the upcoming test.  We have at least 6-7 upcoming officers who are ready to take the exam now. 

Captain Rouviere from the USS Retributor discussed the upcoming Seventh Fleet Olympics (which they are hosting) on Saturday, August 21 in Layton, Utah.  If you wish to partake of the catered lunch the money ($5/adults $2/kids)  is due by August 7th.  This is not a requirement to participate and you can bring your own lunch if you would like, but just remember that with no garbage service in the park you will need to haul out your own trash.   There is also a special T-Shirt that can be printed up for the Olympics.  The costs and samples are posted on the Seventh Fleet website under the quartermaster section.  The due date for these are also on August 7th.  Captain Rouviere also discussed the upcoming Seventh Fleet/Star Trek RPG campaigns that they are willing to run for the various chapters.  He then provided some of the Seventh Fleet RPG manuals to the commanding officers.  The last item covered by Captain Rouviere was the upcoming list of Seventh Fleet protocols.

Captain Stark from the USS Ticonderoga discussed the new Captain’s Mailing list.  It was decided to allow the Executive Officers/Second Officers access to the mailing list as well.  An update on the Seventh Fleet website was provided (and updates are still ongoing).  There is also a proposal currently being investigated by the Ticonderoga to see if 50-56 Seventh Fleet members and friends would be willing to charter a bus to Starfest in Denver next April.  The estimated cost on this would be between $80-100 per person.

Captain Corr from the USS Atlantis had reported their fundraising efforts at the recent Relay for Life in Idaho.  They were excited to have their first rank advancement in the Seventh Fleet system.  They also extended several invitations to Utah members to attend some of their upcoming events including the club’s 13th Anniversary and the Atlantian Race.

Captain Trowbridge of the USS Rendezvous brought up ideas with quarterly minutes and fleet information.  She also discussed sharing the cost of lunches provided by the hosting chapter.

The next quarterly meeting will be in October and will be hosted by the USS Atlantis.  The USS Ticonderoga will be the conducting party.

Uncategorized

Farewell USS Omega Glory

Farewell to the Star Trek club, the USS Omega Glory.  On their website they have posted that the ship was scuttled on July 4, 2010.  For more than ten years members of the USS Omega Glory have greeted members of the USS  Ticonderoga and the Seventh Fleet with open arms when we traveled to Denver.  In 2009 members of the Omega Glory were keeping an eye out for crewmembers from the Ticonderoga when we were stuck in a freak snowstorm while trying to travel to Starfest.  There have been many late night dinners at Village Inn or Garcia’s across the street from the convention hotel.  It appears that the community service projects for the group will continue.  Many of the OG members were also participating as local volunteers for Search and Rescue.  Tally Ho.

Caption Contest, Fun

Caption Contest #1

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This is the first of many caption contests we will post on the USS Ticonderoga website.  We will post an unusual image and invite anyone to post a comment with what you think the funniest caption should be.  Winners will be announced in a future post.

Here is the first photo for captioning.

Good luck to all of the entries.  We are looking forward to seeing them.

Star Trek News

Hallmark 2011 Christmas Ornaments

Various companies use the San Diego Comic Con to announce upcoming items that may interest fans.  According to TrekMovie, in 2011 Hallmark will be releasing three new Christmas ornaments.  They include the Romulan Bird-of-Prey (pictured), Mr. Spock from the Legends series and a scene from the Original Star Trek episode Mirror, Mirror (with dialog clip).  These should be released in July 2011 with the prices to be announced later.

Currently available at Hallmark stores are the entries into the 2010 Star Trek series.  These include Captain Kirk from the Legends series, a scene ornament from the Original Star Trek episode Amok Time and the USS Enterprise from the 2009 Star Trek movie.   Who has picked up these ornaments and what do you think of them?

Uncategorized

What address to use to reach the Ticonderoga site

OK this post is going to sound weird, but it is a basic request.  If you are trying to reach this site or if you have a link to this site, please use http://www.USSTiconderoga.org. 

Back when we first started the USS Ticonderoga website in the late 90’s it had a very long website address.  It was originally hosted on a crew member’s private AOL homepage.  Later it had moved to other free spaces that comes with different ISPs.  This made it difficult to post it on flyers and other advertising in an attempt to promote the group.  We eventually discovered a free service that shortened the address from http://userpages.isp.com/~username/ussticonderoga.html to http://beam.to/ussticonderoga.  It was shorter, it was trekkie, it was free (something very good for a fan club that didn’t charge dues to join).  When the beam.to service was started, it didn’t have ads.  Later we found a service that allowed us to register the domain name that we have today for a reasonable cost.  We have been using this domain name for 6+ years. 

Setting up our new site we wanted to know more about our visitors.  How did they find us, what did they look at, how long were they on the site, etc.  Google Analytics is one of the tools we use to track this information.  It has helped us check to see what areas need to be improved and what areas visitors like to see.  It also brought up an interesting result.  Someone using and ISP based in Utah has visited our site from the old beam.to address.  (when we first set up the domain, we forwarded the beam.to address to the domain name)  This isn’t a once or twice thing, over 30 hits to the site from this one visitor come from the beam.to address.  Google Analytics will tell us some things about our visitors, but it won’t tell us specifically who the visitor is.  So to our beam.to visitor, 1- Thank you for coming by on a regular basis.  We hope that you are finding the information on this site informative and entertaining.  2- Can you update the bookmark to the proper www domain name?  If this is from a site that has a link, let us know which site it is and we will contact them to get it updated.  I’m not certain if beam.to still has pop up ads, but if we can make your visit more enjoyable by avoiding them, that would be a plus as well.  To all of our other loyal visitors, I hope you enjoyed this brief history into the Ticonderoga website.

Site Updates

USS Ticonderoga site is now live

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We are now declaring that the new USS Ticonderoga site is live and officially launched.  This site has two purposes.  1- To introduce the USS Ticonderoga to potential new friends and members.  2- Information warehouse for Ticonderoga crewmembers looking for information on ADVOTs, club history, submitting reports, club flyers, rank advancements, etc.  This site was made for you.

At our July 14th  meeting we had a chance to present the site to the crew.  The Weber County Library has a computer cart with a projector screen so we were able to display the site on the movie screen.  We went over the different sections including the Online Application for new members and the Online Duty Report form for existing members (now both active).  We also showed off the Crew section with all of the individual Departments (with the photos and details of the crew.  We still need your info and photos for this section.  We also need crew submissions for the Spirit Guide section of the website.

This blog will be used as a source of information and entertainment for the Ticonderoga crew.  We will post news about the club, the Seventh Fleet and Star Trek/SF.  There will be crew highlights, trivia questions and caption contests.  PMPs will be awarded to members who post comments on the blog.

We are still working on the Photo Album and a few other sections.  And we will always be making improvements.  It was also suggested that we have a Shuttles section (crewmembers who have named their own vehicles as shuttles).  Several sections on the USS Ticonderoga site were suggested by different crewmembers. 

So what is your favorite section of the new site?  Post a comment here and let us know.

Meetings

USS Ticonderoga meeting on July 14

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The second Wednesday is approaching on July 14 and it is time once again for the USS Ticonderoga meeting.  We will be meeting at the Weber County Library on 25th and Jefferson.  Head to the basement meeting rooms by 7:00pm.  Our socialization time will take place in the classroom.  Then we will be moving over to the main auditorium for a special presentation on the movie screen.  Acting Captain Dave Stock will be presiding the meeting and we have some new orders and rank advancements to present.  We have our largest attendance at these meetings so this would be the best time to bring in a friend as a possible recruit.