Crewman Ivan Podwys just announced that he has found the woman of his dreams and they are now married. They wanted to extend an invitation to Crewmembers of the USS Ticonderoga and the Seventh Fleet. Here are the details:
The reception will be on July 16, 2011 from 11:00am to 2:00pm. The Staff and Crew of the USS Ticonderoga want to extend a congratulations to Crewman Ivan Podwys and new bride Sarah Podwys.
The Star Trek fan club, the USS Ticonderoga, has been a group for fifteen years now. We started in March 1996 as the Runabout (Chapter-in-Training) USS Euphrates. Our launching ceremony was in Clearfield, Utah. In 1997 we graduated to starship status and became the USS Ticonderoga. We’ve helped launch Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet, several new chapter-in-trainings and the imagination of a lot of Star Trek fans. We’ve had our ups and downs. Our triumphs and our defeats. We have our friends to thank for a lot of these fond memories.
So what we would like to ask everyone, member or friend, is to click on comment and share any memory of the USS Ticonderoga over the past fifteen years. Our eventual goal is to publish some of these in an upcoming issue of the Ticonderoga Transmissions newsletter.
Thank you for being our comrades, we look forward to another fifteen years of Trekkin’.
Here is a group shot of the USS Ticonderoga crewmembers who had fun at the Laser Tag event last Saturday.
We really liked this arena as they had several styles of games that we could play and kids of all ages could participate. It was discovered that they have unlimited laser tag games for $10/person from 6:00-10:00pm on Sunday. Would you be willing to participate in a Sunday event?
The USS Ticonderoga will be returning to Boondocks on Saturday, June 18th to participate in their outdoor events (batting cages, miniature golf, go-kart racing, bumper boats w/water cannons, etc.)
Wednesday, February 9th at 7:00pm is the date and time for the next USS Ticonderoga monthly meeting. The meeting will be held at the Weber County Library-Main Branch located at 25th and Jefferson in Ogden. We will be in the basement meeting rooms. This will be the first meeting that is conducted by newly minted Captain Erica Stark. At the time she will be making some announcements on the open Department Chief positions.
Don’t forget that you can still apply to be a Department Chief by submitting this Application to Captain Stark. This is the time for anyone who wishes to shape the future of our Star Trek club to step forward and live up to the fleet motto “We Do Not Stand Alone!”
Job Posting listed: Wanted new department chiefs. The USS Ticonderoga will soon be under a new Command Staff. The new Captain has decided to release all department chiefs as of January 29th (at the Admiral’s Banquet) and to set up an application for those wishing to be a department chief.
Download the application here and email your answers directly to the new Captain, Erica Stark at ExecOfficerStark@gmail.com
The departments that we are looking to fill are:
Communications – responsible for: weekly briefings and club newsletter
Conn (flight control) – coordinate the exchange of ship’s newsletters with other special-interest groups and keep them in a scrapbook format for use in research.
Engineering – coordinate production of club paraphernalia and other items – T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, badges, etc.
Medical – keep track of crew birthdays and anniversaries, and provide cards for senior staff to sign at staff meetings.
Operations – oversee the computer operations of the club, including email lists, Twitter, and Facebook, Wiki page. (Due to the new Tico website being more of a blog-type site, as opposed to a traditional web page, updating of the Tico site will stay in the hands of the command staff – C.O., X.O., S.O.O. Please note, this is different than the description on the website, because this decision was only recently arrived at, after much discussion.)
Science – coordinate Ticonderoga scrapbook of past events.
Security – coordinate Ticonderoga photo archive.
Tactical – keep crew informed of Star Trek gaming and coordinate any inter-ship/club competitions. Organizing teams of Tico crewmembers, etc.
Counselor/Civilian department – Civilians are the club members who just want to come and play, they don’t want to worry about gaining rank advancements. As such, this department doesn’t really have a specific duty, beyond ‘having fun’. However, the chief of this department is still expected to be at all meetings and activities that their schedule permits, and keep the members of this department informed.
The January USS Ticonderoga meeting is a special thing. Especially this one. First this will be the last meeting under command of Captain Carl Stark. At the end of the month he will be promoted to Rear Admiral and be moving to his new duties as a member of Admiral Hollinger’s staff.
The second reason is that this is the time that we ask the crew to help fill in our activity calendar for 2011. We already know that January’s activity will be the Admiral’s Banquet. The August activity is the Seventh Fleet Olympics and December’s activity will be our New Years Eve party. However the rest of the time we want to know what the crew wants to do for fun.
So come for one more attempt at giving Captain Stark a hard time and let’s hear your ideas for what you would like to do for the upcoming year.
Additional Note: Lt. Commander Rhonda Hollinger has informed me that she can still take money for the Admiral’s Banquet if you still would like to go. It is $13/person for a Chicken BBQ Buffet at Joe Morley’s BBQ in Midvale. The banquet is on Saturday, January 29th.
At the monthly USS Ticonderoga meeting on Wednesday, November 10th, Admiral Dennis Hollinger made an announcement regarding the Seventh Fleet. With the growth of our Star Trek family, with more and more chapters, there has become a need for additional assistance in fleet operations. Admiral Hollinger has named Captain Carl Stark as his new assistant and will be promoting him to the rank of Rear Admiral at the January 29th Admiral’s Banquet.
To fill the position of USS Ticonderoga Commanding Officer, Lt. Erica Stark will be given a field promotion to Captain. This promotion and change of command will also happen at the Admiral’s Banquet. A field promotion means that Lt. Stark will continue with her rank advancement program set down by the fleet and also report her progress at regular intervals to the Seventh Fleet Council.
With the change of command will also come a change of command styles. Some things will remain the same. The USS Ticonderoga will still be focused on serving our Star Trek family, on completing our community service projects and our goal of having fun with our fandom. But there will be some changes that come with a new commanding officer. Soon to be Captain Erica Stark has asked Lt. Dave Stock to be her Executive Officer when the change of command happens in January. She has also asked Lt. Kevin Hancock to remain on the Command Staff as the Second Officer/Strategic Operations Officer, continuing his position that he has fulfilled for the past several years.
After the change of command ceremony, all current Department Chiefs will be released from their positions, with our thanks. Starting now, anyone may apply for any department chief position. An application and list of department chief duties will be available at the December 8th USS Ticonderoga monthly meeting. The new department chief’s will officially be introduced at the Ticonderoga’s February meeting. There will also be an opportunity for crewmembers to transfer between any department with one exception. Due to the massive size of the Tactical Department, a transfer into that department will only be allowed if someone leaves that department.
If you have any questions regarding the changes or transfers, feel free to contact your Department Chief or a member of the Command Staff.
Tally ho,
Captain Carl Stark, Commanding Officer
USS Ticonderoga, NCC-74676
http://www.USSTiconderoga.org
Personal Note from Captain Carl Stark: I’ve had the opportunity to serve as your commanding officer since 1996. This has been a wonderful opportunity to make new friends, support you as members of my Star Trek family and learn from each and every one of you. I will still be coming to future meetings and activities, I just get to enjoy the seats as a member of the audience. I ask that you support soon to be Captain Erica Stark as much as you have supported me. I know she has a lot of wonderful ideas on where she wants to take the club in our travels through the undiscovered country. I also ask that you don’t make the assumption that if a piece of information was given to one of us, that it was automatically passed on to the other. Both of our positions will require us to do a lot of talking and traveling and things may slip through the cracks. Lets make sure we are using the proper lines of communication that we have set up within our organization. This has been one of our strengths in the past, lets continue to use that strength now in our time of change. I thank you all for being members of my Star Trek family and I look forward to serving all of you in a larger capacity.
Wow, where did September go? The Wings and Wheels was great. Quite a few crewmembers came down and donated canned goods. The Ticonderoga Staff held their monthly staff meeting and planned out the next several months. Contact your Department Chief for details. Don’t forget that we also had our monthly meeting and we started the month with the USS Ticonderoga RPG. Since it is the end of the month, now would be the time to fill out your Monthly Duty Report. You can find it online here: http://DutyReport.USSTiconderoga.org
See you all in October. Halloween party coming up.
As you all know, the crew of the USS Retributor has been putting together the Seventh Fleet RPG using the Decipher Star Trek RPG rules. For the past several months we have been putting together characters and Captain Stark has been getting fleet updates of adventures that our fellow chapters have been going through. On Friday we finally had a chance to sit down and game an adventure set up for the USS Ticonderoga. Several crew members were in attendance with their own characters and Captain Rouviere (who was our game master) was prepared with several pre-generated characters for those who showed up. We had a mixture of RPG veterans and those just getting a taste of Role Playing. The crew had a blast.
Currently we are headed at top speed to the Romulan Neutral Zone in response to a possible Romulan incursion. There is a lot more happening on the ship as well.
If you participated in the game on Friday, please post a report from your character in the comments section. If you are working on a character or if you would like to make a character, please post in the comments what you would like that character to be (name, race, special features, etc.) We are looking to hold another game soon and we have several volunteers who can help you put your character together.
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.