The Fifth Fleet is a unique fan
association. While the
administration of the organization is based in Rowley, Massachusetts,
the membership of the fleet is spread across the American continent and
around the world. The Fifth Fleet
was officially launched in October 2008.
Before that the fan association was simply the USS Dauntless, a fan chapter with roots going back to 1995 in
Groton, Connecticut and an ancestry leading all the way back to other fan
organizations in New York City back in 1990.
Membership in the Fifth Fleet is free,
opening the organization to anyone who wishes to join, no matter where they
are located.
Because our members are spread out so
widely, the organization has a much looser structure than most sci-fi fan
chapters. The possibility of a
regularly scheduled meeting, with the exception of on-line chat-rooms, is
non-existent. The likelihood of our
entire crew meeting face to face at the same time is improbable, though
small groups of two or three associated members may get together for
activities from time to time anywhere in the world they happen to be. But what the Fifth Fleet is missing in
face to face interaction it makes up for by allowing people who share a
common interest, science-fiction with an emphasis on the universe created
by Gene Roddenberry, to join together in friendship and correspondence when
they may not normally have the time or ability to travel to regularly
scheduled monthly meetings or events.
We are here for people who do not have the time to spare to ‘run’ a
starship.
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The main emphasis of the association is
the science-fiction we write and publish in the organization newsletter,
Subspace Chatter. The newsletter
also covers current popular sci-fi media and events, including conventions,
movies and TV announcements and other news of interest to science-fiction
fans and the members-at-large through articles written by the members or
located through various news outlets.
Subspace Chatter is published electronically (as a PDF file) each
month and delivered through e-mail by Gem
Productions, the publishing division of the Fifth Fleet fan
organization.
There are several levels of membership
within the Fifth Fleet. The first is
Associate Member, which describes members who choose to receive the organization
materials (Handbook, Profiles, monthly Newsletter) and participate through
the organization forum at the Fifth
Fleet Yahoo Group. The second
level is Crew Member. These members,
besides receiving everything the Associate Members do, also chooses to
create a fictional counterpart to inhabit our ‘fleet of starships,’ using
the basic character generating worksheet in the chapter handbook, and using
these characters participate in the plotting and writing of the adventure
stories that appear in each monthly newsletter issue. The third level of membership, Honorary
Member, is bestowed by the organization chairman on select people
recognized by the organization or acts as a temporary status when a new
member joins but has not yet made it known at what level of membership they
choose to participate. These members
will not receive the handbook materials and may or may not, by their own
choice, receive the monthly newsletter.
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About the UFPSF FIFTH FLEET
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