Hailing frequencies open!

Greetings from Communications Central, and welcome to the new age of STARFLEET Communications. I'm Commodore Gordon Lloyd Goldberg, new Chief of Communications for STARFLEET. My staff and I are very excited about the future and the job ahead of us. As you can hopefully tell just from the fact that you are holding this copy of the Communiqué, we are dedicated to keeping you informed on a timely basis. Yet you will find that the Communiqué is only part of our new approach to 'fleet communications. As you will see for yourselves in the coming months, our Communications team will be making good use of both postal and internet services in our efforts to make sure that STARFLEET Headquarters and the membership stay in close touch.

Before I get to the business of introducing the rest of the team, I'd like to let you know a little about myself. In addition to serving as STARFLEET's Chief of Communications, I'm currently based on board the USS Northstar in New York City. Prior to joining the Northstar, I was a Communications Specialist on the New Jersey-based USS Avenger, to which I had transferred after the decommissioning of the USS Tai Shan, where I had served variously as Chief of Communications and Operations, as well as Executive Officer. I was also the founder of the STARFLEET Internet Mailing List, which I continue to assist in administering. In real life, I'm a former special-education teacher with degrees in computer science, business administration, and psychology, now serving as Labor Relations Director for the New York City Department of Transportation. I'm also an active community volunteer and political activist, fantasy and science-fiction fan (duh!) and computer enthusiast. Somewhere in and among all that, I manage to find time to spend with my boyfriend, Sven, who has finally gotten hooked on Star Trek.

I can be reached on the Internet at Comm@sfi.org, or by postal mail at the following address:

Gordon L. Goldberg
Chief of Communications
330 Haven Avenue, 3C
New York, NY 10033-5333 USA

Remember those addresses -- later in this column, I'll be discussing some openings that are available in the Communications Division, and I'll be accepting applications via e-mail or postal mail. In fact, any communication with this Division can be sent using either medium. For the most urgent, time-sensitive issues, I can also be reached by phone at 212-781-5745.

Now to the real business.

The Communications Division is now divided into four departments: Communiqué, Fanzine, NetServices, and Support Services. The first three report to their respective Vice Chiefs (who report to me, of course), while the directors of the Support Service Offices (who have yet to be appointed) will report directly to me.

The Communiqué you are holding is the first of many that will be brought to you through the efforts of Commander Greg Trotter, who heads up the Communiqué team along with Tonea Morrow, Brittany Sloan, Kris Harah, and their staffs. In addition to getting new Communiqués out to you every other month, Greg and company hope to be able to deliver the back-issues none of us received during the previous administration, so that the hard work our predecessors put into producing those issues will not have been wasted. I ask you to join me in applauding their efforts thus far.

Communiqué submissions can be sent to CQ@sfi.org or:

STARFLEET Communiqué
PO Box 722038
Norman, OK 73070-8546 USA

Captain Wendy Fillmore and her Fanzine team will be calling upon STARFLEET's writers and artists to provide material for our yet-to-be-named literary/art publication, which will be printed twice a year. Look for Wendy's article elsewhere in this Communiqué for submission guidelines and how to subscribe to the 'zine. The Fanzine staff can be reached reached by e-mail at Fanzine@sfi.org, or:

Capt. Wendy Fillmore
Vice Chief of Communications - Fanzine
72 Dickens Road
North Brunswick, NJ 08902-3448 USA

Rounding out the existing staff is Commodore Allyson M.W. Dyar, whose NetServices staff has done a phenomenal job in setting up the STARFLEET web site at http://www.sfi.org, and responding to the e-mail which the site has brought in. In the near future, NetServices will be setting up various informational e-mail auto-responders, as well as an announcements-only mailing list server for those of you on the net who want all the facts without any of the chatter found on the general mailing list. NetServices will also be moderating the Commander, STARFLEET's monthly "fireside chats" on the Internet Relay Chat server at irc.lips.net. Questions, comments, and suggestions may be sent to NetServices@sfi.org or:

Comm. Allyson M.W. Dyar
PO Box 941
Kirkland, WA 98083-0941 USA

And now for the "Help Wanted" section.

Three offices are being created as part of the Communications Division's Support Services Department: the Office of Subspace Communications; the STARFLEET Diplomatic Corps; and the STARFLEET Language Bank. Applications for the leadership positions for all three offices are currently being accepted, and may be sent to my e-mail or postal addresses.

The Office of Subspace Communications will be responsible for promoting open communications between STARFLEET chapters within their regions and world-wide. This includes not only an on-line pen-pal program, but a "SubSpace Relays" program for those chapters without e-mail. These chapters will have the opportunity to be partnered with a neighboring e-mail-enabled chapter or other liaison in order to keep them informed on up-to-the-minute fleet news. In addition, this office will be responsible for coordinating STARFLEET's participation in OPERATION:EAGLE, a pen-pal project which promotes communication between STARFLEET members and real-life members of the armed services overseas. Fleet Captain Bill Herrmann will be serving as acting Director of Subspace Communications. Anyone who is willing to be a volunteer "Subspace Relay" liaison should contact Bill at Subspace@sfi.org. Ships who need a liaison can write to Bill at:

FCPT Bill Herrmann
9908 Berrywood Drive
Ladson, SC 29456 USA

The Diplomatic Corps will be responsible for opening and maintaining communications between STARFLEET and other fan organizations, initiating inter-fandom activities and newsletter exchanges. The Director of the Diplomatic Corps will also serve ex officio as STARFLEET's ambassador to the International Fan Council.

The Language Bank will consist of volunteers who may be called upon to provide translation services (spoken/written Terrestrial languages, sign languages, Vulcan, Klingon, Romulan, Dwarvish, Elven, et cetera) in their Regions or over the Internet, as needed. The Language Bank Coordinator will be responsible for recruiting and organizing the volunteer translators.

Anyone who is interested in any of these positions, please get in touch with me as quickly as you can. I would like to fill these positions as rapidly as possible in order to get these programs underway. I plan to announce the appointments in my next column.

In closing, I'd like to ask your assistance in a communications project I've just started up -- STARFLEET In The News. We'll be putting together an online "scrapbook" of STARFLEET-related news stories, starting with the January 22nd article in the New York Post, at http://www.sfi.org/comm/inthenews.html. If you see any articles about STARFLEET, its chapters, or members in the news, please, let me know! Until then, I'll be keeping all channels open...

In service to the fleet,

Gordon L. Goldberg, Commodore
Chief of Communications, STARFLEET